Virtual Meetings - Audio Visual Studio Services for Streaming Meetings
What is a streaming, remote broadcast or virtual meeting?
At Ampa, streaming and virtual meetings are captivating, entertaining, planned, organized, rehearsed, easy and fun! If you cannot physically gather, then broadcasting is the answer
Clients call in with their “heads spinning” as they consider all the details of hosting a remotely streamed meeting. Ampa Events has a commanding understanding of all the possibilities, and will remove the veil of uncertainty for our clients.
Our first step is always to listen. Then, we ask a lot of questions. This discovery tells us the amount of time involved and complexity of content and sources of material giving us the needed information for budget development. Providing both In Studio and On Location services, Ampa supports clients with a multitude of products and services for small meetings and meetings with over 500 attendees for multiple days with many discussion panels and speakers.
Options are plentiful. We will walk you through the process.
What services are available for Virtual Meetings?
What options are available for Virtual Meetings?
- We Come to You – On Site Meetings
- You Come to Us – Studio Broadcast Meetings
- Everyone Stays Home – Remote Pajama Meetings
Virtual and hybrid meetings are the new norm. Yet the infrastructure has been in place at Ampa Events for years. Most client meetings held at hotels or conference centers have historically included broadcast to the home office and archive work. Content development and graphics design are ongoing services for 20+ years. Years of experience – technical and design expertise – is just a call away.
TriCaster Video Mixer
Special Features
The heart of a News Room Type Studio. Allows for interface of all media, graphics, effects, delays, cues, live or pre-recorded, lower thirds, split screens, timing clocks and more. The most common element for mixing video is a standard AV Switcher. The TriCaster outshines a switcher by leaps and bounds!
What is the difference between a Streaming, Remote, Broadcast or Virtual Meeting?
Content Development & Management
Add music. Add a graphic. Add an animation. Call Ampa.
Branding & Scenic Services
How can you brand a virtual meeting? For live events, corporate clients order stage sets built to support the brand, a message or the meeting in general. What do you do when everyone is at home? Ampa ships easy solutions such as simple to install branded banners.
Branding through digital solutions offers many options. Ampa graphic artists can insert branding on screen in fixed locations, move them around, animate them and more. Being creative with solutions – call Ampa.
Hybrid meetings are combinations of in-person meetings at a venue and other attendees joining the meeting through streaming. A stage set can be designed and built for the location portion of the meeting while similar style banners are shipped to speakers for use in their home, offering a uniform approach.
Sponsorship –
How do I raise money in a virtual world?
My sponsors use to pay for most everything? No worries. Through the magic of the studio, poof a mini commercial can be developed for all important sponsors and broadcast to the captive audience. Throughout the presentation, sponsor logos or messages can appear in the broadcast. Give the sponsor a live minute or two to address the attendees. With Ampa, the opportunities are only limited by our creativity. We will take care of your sponsors and thus help preserve historic sources of revenues.
Device Management
Everyone has a home computer and connectivity, but is technical support available prior to meeting day just in case? Yes. Advance evaluations of hardware and connectivity is available. Then, during rehearsals technicians evaluate sound and video for each presentation. Adjusting and equalizing is naturally a part of technical services.
Rental equipment such as iPads and camera lights that can be easily set up by participants in their home are available through Ampa Events.
AV Technical Services
A studio full of audio visual gear, computerized control systems, computers, televisions, cameras, projectors and specialty equipment to manage multiple sources of input from various video and sound sources. General graphics work, such as lower thirds, and more advanced graphics in combination result in professional and captivating output. Whether the location is in a hotel ballroom, a client’s conference room or an out-of-the-way venue, Ampa Events is effective in both a traditional meeting and/or streaming to attendees.
Web Connectivity
- Streaming to all platforms: FB, YouTube, Zoom, Teams, TeamUp, etc
- Professional studio applications with more robust platforms
- More robust Security
- Streaming monitoring for quality of sound and video
Professional Staff
Highly experienced technical directors and designers manage the program. All personnel are cross trained in audiovisual, technical lighting in general production skills. Our cameramen are great and in most cases are very capable carpenters to install stage sets since most of our personnel have technical degrees in theater. Cross training helps each person understand all aspects of programs which results in better customer service and overall outcomes. Clients speak directly with technical personnel, tapping their vast knowledge.
- Sr Directors
- Audio Techs
- Video Techs
- Camera Persons
- Graphics Artists
- Web Developers
- Script Writers/Editors
- Event Planners
Planning & Rehearsal
The first step in planning a great event is to listen. Ampa listens, asks questions and seeks a full understanding of the goals first. With a solid understanding, we then help navigate preliminary work and provide production solutions to achieve goals.
Rehearsals are important for every meeting whether live or streaming. All content should be transmitted at least 1 week to 10 days in advance. We review content for glitches and software incompatibility from one computer to the next. During this preliminary review we may pick up on minor or major items that need to be addressed. Advance planning gives our clients time to fix the media. In the morning of or the day before the meeting, planned rehearsals help pick up on any last-minute details, calm the nerves of presenters, check remote equipment and confirm all participants have proper sound and lighting levels.
Controlled Q&A
For live events, public decorum controls Q&A sessions. To ensure the virtual meeting is orderly, Ampa provides secure conduits into the meeting for questions and answers that are monitored by a technician and client representatives. The TriCaster which is the heart of our Newsroom studio, manages delays programmed into the broadcast that allow us to evaluate Q&A and edit as needed.
Live Chat
A live interface for audience members. Text appears in a stream. The internet in general is informal and empowers the users. The “informal” nature of Live Chat can be managed by Ampa technicians monitoring all chat and screening published messages per client’s rules for chat. We can quickly delete inappropriate content and bar the individual from the meeting. This service includes a monitoring technician and we invite a client monitor to work side by side with us.
Web Portals & Registration Services
Ampa’s web designers, AV technicians and conference planners work together building solutions for clients. Register with an optional custom web page designed specifically for the meeting and client.
VIP Panelist Quality Control Services & Equipment Rentals
The goal is a high quality engaging meeting but how can you present a uniform look with VIP speakers presenting from their home? Lighting, background and sound uniformity can be controlled by shipping branded backdrops, iPads and camera lighting to VIP panelists. These are “out-of-the-box” easy to use systems that will provide consistency for each VIP and recommended for panelists, moderators, CEOs and other VIPs that are crucial participants. Ampa techs will coordinate with each panelist to review their remote location, train them on the equipment being shipped and best practices for their broadcast. Technical support will be available for VIPs to call in advance in preparation for the meeting.
Scenic Services
Branded backdrops, designed and manufactured by Ampa create a unique and professional live streaming experience with a uniform look for all speakers. A stage set or panel discussion set can be installed in the studio for panelists. Logos, messages, color changes and events digitally incorporated add flare and finishing touches.
Content Development - Site Work
2020 political conventions of both parties provide good examples. A branded stage set may be installed on the grounds of your corporate complex or in a historic building as the backdrop for key presenters. Ampa dispatches camera crews and lighting along with scenic production services to record content that will be used later in the meeting.
We come to you and get creative. Our camera crews can run around with you, shooting raw footage that can be spliced together in the studio as a montage to be included in the main meeting. Try our drone cameras for intriguing content. Be creative. Think out-of-the-box. At Ampa Events, we’ll be your partner and bring to life all the fun ideas you have and come up with some fun ideas of our own.
RSVP
RSVP & pre-show communications management are also available and can take the form of more formal communications, such as hand written invitations for VIPs, or managed digitally. Numerous services for information management can be arranged.
Fillers
No meeting runs perfectly on schedule. Provide us with fillers such as funny pictures, historic logos, or clips from past meetings. If somebody loses their connection, or the dog runs into their space, the director will smoothly cut to a “filler” while the participant reconnects.
Sponsorship Recognition
Most annual meetings and galas include important recognition of valued sponsors. Through graphics artistry, fun animation and tricks of the trade, sponsorship recognition is easily managed. Inserting logos. Having a logo dance across the screen. Showing an infomercial. Sponsors seek captive audiences. Whether we gather in person or online, Ampa Events will develop strategies to recognize sponsors in a tasteful manner throughout the meeting.
Fundraising - Live & Silent Auctions
Nonprofit organizations and schools rely heavily on yearly on live and silent auctions for funding. Of course we may prefer to meet in person and members look forward to these festive annual events. Hire the Ampa team and allow us to inject fun into the stream! Ask us about entertaining segments such as a disco dance party or a silly costume contest. Fine ideas from our creative team will liven up an online fundraiser.
Interactivity
Let’s have some fun! Interactivity while online is all the rage. First and foremost a captivating meeting is a must with proper management of content and broadcasting the meeting with smooth transitions. What about transitioning into a disco dance party? Let’s play extreme bingo! Would you like to vote somebody on or off the stage? The creative minds at Ampa Events have theater, creative arts and entertainment backgrounds. Even the most business oriented business meeting can be entertaining and fun!
Gift Boxes - Treats - Meeting Kits
Gift boxes, advertising specialties, gourmet treats, balloons, clickers, surprise messages, confetti and more. Have we stimulated creative ideas? There is always a party favor or a takeaway at annual events and meetings. Simple treats like a chocolate truffle break. How many laughs will you get when you discover who ate it before the meeting? Noisemakers can always get a few laughs. Ship a secret message or gimmick and through graphic artistry, Ampa will broadcast a “reveal” into the flow of the meeting agenda. Yes, we cannot all be together but with Ampa’s help, we can create memories and show our teams we care.
How do you bill for your services?
The studio is packed with high-tech equipment. Every business has rental and operating expenses. Our personnel are highly trained – most with creative university degrees; others with technical degrees and all with years of experience. A portion of the bill includes consideration for the above. However most of the bill is time and talent. Companies located in large metropolitan areas with high rent will most likely have higher prices. Ampa Events is located in Central Virginia with reasonable rent and cost of living. To further illustrate how we determine a final cost, it is best to define a “standard” meeting as a point of reference.
Example Virtual Meeting
To help understand how we develop a price for a meeting and what factors affect cost, please consider the following example virtual meeting. This example shares the most common characteristics of meetings Ampa has produced in 2020 and provides a point of reference for discussion.
Service
- Content Review and Management: 3-5 Hours
- Lower thirds graphics: 2-3 speakers
- Rehearsals: 1-2 Hours
- One hour meeting: Streamed to multiple channels
Time Table
- Two to three weeks in advance.
- Two to three weeks in advance
- The morning of meeting Day
- The afternoon of meeting day
What will Increase the Price of a Standard Meeting?
Live meetings and streaming broadcast meetings both share similar elements that will increase or decrease the overall cost of the meeting. Here are some examples:
General Meeting Attributes
- Longer meetings – more content results in more broadcast time
- Complexity – more complex topics tend to need more planning
- Larger number of speaker require more lower thirds graphics
- More rehearsal time
- More lower third graphics
- Speakers & VIPs – higher numbers require more lower thirds graphics
- Larger audiences requires more robust data management
- 250-500
- 500-1000
- 1000+. Audience size at points of increased cost
Add additional A La Carte Services
- Custom web entry portal
- RSVP Services
- Live Chat – Monitor
- Graphics Services
- Animation Services
- Content Development
- Interactive Games and Meeting Breaks
- Gifts and Marketing Specialties
- Scenic Services & Backdrops
- Remote camera crews
F.A.Q
The key to this answer is the word professional. Yes, anybody can stream with their cell phone. The Internet has enabled everyone with this ability but the consumer level of service may not be the quality you seek. Professional cameras, audiovisual equipment, Computer processors and experienced technicians make a world of difference.
Ampa Events is happy to help you manage the presenters and treat them equally. Some may need coaching others may need support equipment and lighting shipped to their house and for very strong personalities, often scheduling will help. Executing preliminary rehearsals a week or two in advance gives us an opportunity to speak with presenters and prep them for the meeting day giving them the support they need.
Uniform output from each presenter, both audio and visual, can be achieved through the renting and shipping of devices and camera lights. All will be easy-to-use and we connect with the VIP presenters at least a week in advance for a technical rehearsal.
Yes, the Number of attendees matters greatly especially when exceeding 250 audience members. At 250 and above attendees much more robust systems, which we have in place, are required.
Yes. Registration services can be provided buy a number of software plug-ins. Additionally, creating a private web portal to access registration can’t be developed and utilized by the organization. Additionally, for more in-depth RSVP services, one of our conference planners can be of assistance.
A custom web portal helps control access and provides attendee list.
Yes, we are delighted to stream your wedding service and reception for family members who may not be able to travel to share in your celebration. Programs are fortified with professional quality cameras and robust Bandwidth for data management resulting in a quality program. As part of our service, we are happy to press record and provide a digital recording as a keepsake. Programs can be executed by a single technician with the quality equipment kit at a surprisingly reasonable price.
We recommend a ethernet connection which provides great stability. (You should also test your connection speed at a site like Speedtest.net.). However, we more robust, professional hotspots for remote locations without a land line.
Ampa Events proudly serves the following areas, including but not limited to:
Virginia: Richmond, Charlottesville, Williamsburg, Newport News, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Reston, Chantilly, Rosslyn, Falls Church, Vienna, Manassas, Prince William County, Dumfries, Middleburg
Washington D.C.
Maryland: Baltimore, Annapolis, Silver Springs, Bethesda, Rockville, Chevy Chase, Kensington, Gaithersburg, Fredrick
Philadelphia
New Jersey: Cherry Hill, SONJ, Southern New Jersey
North Carolina: Charlottesville, Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Outer Banks
Touring: As a touring production service company, Ampa Events will travel to you: Coast to Coast in the 48 continental states of the USA.