By Alex Kazarian, Senior Account Executive, Accelevents
If you are new to the virtual and or hybrid event video world, you might be confused and apprehensive about the many different types of event video options you can choose from. Should you shoot video ahead of time or let speakers potentially go off-script with live video? Would you manage your speakers yourself or hire a professional video production company? Knowing which option to choose can be scary and intimidating if you’ve never done this before. Video delivery is obviously the core part of anything you’re doing for your virtual event. Because of this, you will want to understand your options so that your video needs fit the type of event you’re planning. I’ve compiled an event video 101 to give you a primer on what your choices are, the ups and downs of each, other little tidbits of advice along the way. And at the end of the article, I’ve referenced four other helpful articles to shore up your knowledge and get you on your way.
First, the good news for event planners: if you’re using Accelevents for your virtual or hybrid event management, there is a built-in video studio. There’s no need for third-party video sources like Zoom or Vimeo. So hopefully, this takes the weight off of you just a little bit. Next, some background on video delivery. There are three main types:
Now that you know the different types of video options available to you at your virtual or hybrid event, let’s talk about how you make them “go. ”With the Accelevents event management platform, we mentioned earlier that we have a built-in video studio. When using the streaming option, it’s pretty simple for you and your speakers. When it comes time for them to speak and present, your speakers simply use their unique login, they start the presentation, and then they share their screen – it’s that easy. When using a pre-recorded video upload, the video actually sits on our own servers, so you don’t have to worry about things like your local video cutting out. It’s reliable and easy to upload and deploy. Many times, if you’ve used an A/V company to produce your pre-recorded video, they’ll use RTMP (real-time messaging protocol) to push the video up to our servers.
While some other event management platforms allow you to deploy video, there are a few ways that Accelevents’ built-in video studio beats out the competition in terms of making the video portion of your event foolproof.
Depending on the section of the event you are working with, there are different recommendations we would make on the type of video you would use for those areas. For example:
So whether you need your virtual event to scale to large audiences or you need an intimate group of people in a “room” to discuss the latest topic in your industry, the main goal for video delivery is to meet the need of the attendees for that particular goal. Hopefully, this 101 tutorial has given you a better idea of when to use each form of video delivery, and you are off to the races in terms of locking down the strategy that works best for you.Now that you’ve finished our initial tutorial, you might want to go on further and review some of our other helpful blog posts on video, including:
Live Streaming Basics For Virtual Events
How To Set Up An Event Live Stream