Event Production – What’s Involved?

Event production is one of the most challenging aspects of an event.

Once an event design and brief has been created, it’s up to the production company to figure out how they are going to make it happen.

I guess one way you could look at it is that “it’s taking the photos from a mood board and figuring out what you need to load into the truck to make that happen.”

Now sometimes that is pretty straightforward, but for many of the events we support clients with that’s not always the case. We were asked to create some clouds for an event recently for example. Now, surprisingly we don’t have clouds “in-stock” and so had to figure out how to make them as well as transport them safely to site.

What are the key elements?

When you brief an event production company about your upcoming event you are more than likely going to get back a quote which covers the following areas:

Sound / Audio

A key ingredient to making an event, this section of the quote will typically include the following:

• Speakers
• Amplifiers
• Mixing desks
• Cabling
• Laptops for playback
• Microphones

Video

Another key element needed to make an event is video. We have certainly found that video has become more prominent in recent years, it’s now much easier to create video content and its more engaging for your audience.

This is a wide-ranging category that typically includes:

• Video Wall
• Projectors and Screens
• Comfort Monitors (for presenters)
• LCD Screens (Plasma’s)
• Switchers
• Laptops
• Cameras
• Clickers

Lighting

Another key element, the lighting used at a live event can play a huge role in the success of an event. When used correctly, lighting is used to set the scene at events as well as to create an atmosphere.

You will more than likely see the following in the lighting section of a quote:

• Lighting Desks (for programming the lights)
• Dimmers
• Generic Lighting
• Intelligent Lighting (moving heads etc)
• Decorative Lighting

Sound, Lighting and Video are the elements that you would expect to see on the vast majority of event production proposals. However you may also require the following.

Sound, Lighting and Video are the elements that you would expect to see on the vast majority of event production proposals. However you may also require the following:

Power / Distro

On larger event productions (anything more than 1 van is a good guide), we can’t simply use the 13amp sockets at the venue as we need more power to make everything work.

In this case, we will use the 16a, 32a, 63a or 125amp sockets at the venue. We will bring with us the correct cabling as well as distribution units that allow us to break this larger power supply down into a more manageable supply for our equipment.

Stage / Set

Stage is pretty self-explanatory, we provide this typically in 2m x 1m sections and carpet it on site to ensure that it looks flawless for the live show. We also stock a number of triangular and guardant sections for more interesting designs.

If your event is utilising a projector and screen then you will more than likely see ‘set’ on your quote. These are the wooden panels that we cover in either felt or a leathergrain material. They sit at the back of the stage and support the projection screen. They are able to be fully customised for each event.

At Premier, we appreciate that as a client you may not understand the purpose of all of the items in the quotation. Our team are always happy to go through a quote line by line and explain what everything does and why we believe that you need It for your event.

If we can be of any help with your upcoming event we would love to hear from you. We are trusted by a number of global brands to deliver their event production, could we help with yours?