How to Add a Remote-Attendance Option to Your Events

One thing we’ve learned during Covid is how easy it is to attend events from the comfort of our own home – as an attendee OR as a presenter.

On the other side of this pandemic, your audience and presenters may still want a remote attendance option for all your live-events.

Even if the Covid regulations lift completely and your audience shows up in-person and not remote, your video production won’t be wasted – you’ll still have a beautiful recording of your event that you can send to your guests as a replay, archive on your website, or distribute portions of it accordingly.

If you’re planning on doing this yourself, I put together this 7 minute tutorial:

The Technology of Virtual Events,

Understanding the basics of audio and video for live streaming

Building A Network
If you’re planning on holding regular events of any kind, consider creating a YouTube channel or Facebook presence in which your community can rely on you for content they care about. When you produce regular events and have a remote attendance option at your events, you are expanding your reach beyond your immediate network. After all, you could have more people attend remotely than could ever fit inside the walls of your venue.

When you market your events beyond the people that could travel to your physical location, your event marketing could position you as an industry leader in your sector. Each event will build upon the previous one and your attendance will grow.

Are your people out there?

How can you position yourself and your event to be a destination for folks beyond your region?

So how does it work?
Live streaming your events doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s easy to accomplish with the tools you already own. However, to do it well, with proper audio and video that is on-point and a presentation that is on-brand, you should consider some extra training in this field or contract with a professional who can match the creative standards of your company.

Work Flow
Adding a remote attendance option is as easy as adding on documentary footage to an event you already have in the works. Simply book a producer to attend your event on-site, and make sure your venue can accommodate their technical integration with audio and live-streaming. Often times, the video streaming registration can double as your event registration. Your producer can provide you with a virtual and in-person ticketing solution – killing two birds with one stone.

Audio
If your venue is providing an audio technician because you have amplified sound (microphones + speakers), then simply connect your producer to the technician so they can arrange an audio-out from the audio mixer. The venue you’re using should provide a master mix-down; a simple audio cable from the mixer to the producer’s video streaming hardware.

Projections and A/V Upselling
If your presenters have slides, you should also order screens or a projector from your A/V company. For large rooms, you may also want additional TVs to ensure everyone in the room can see the action. The A/V company may want to upsell you live streaming services but don’t fall for it. Often times their staff is not qualified. Typically they use static cameras that don’t follow the action, they don’t do video editing, and essentially will provide you with just basic coverage that you won’t be proud to share or even want to watch again. What you want is to capture something that can be repurposed and shared; your footage should be captured by highly-trained cinematographers – not A/V technicians. Event video is a specialized form of filmmaking and requires a niche producer. Instead, get your audio/projections equipment/staff from an A/V company and your video equipment/staff from a production company.

Internet Connectivity
It’s not enough to test the wifi signal for strength and hope for the best. Your venue must provide a hard-wired ethernet cable for a reliable live broadcast. Make sure there is either an ethernet cable available or a network router that is within 300ft of where the Producer is going to set up in the back of the room so they can lay their own CAT-6 cable. If not, ask your Producer if they provide an on-location wifi rental package such as a Cradlepoint IBR 900 Router typically used in police cars and emergency vehicles across the country (House of 8 Media has one of these.)

Distribution
Depending on the platform of your choice where you’ve built your community, i.e. Facebook, YouTube, etc., providing the proper digital permissions for your producer is an important step to do before the event day for testing and to ensure there are no last minute permission errors to deal with.

For Facebook, rather than sharing your log-in credentials for your personal account, just friend-request your producer and then make them an admin role for your business page (temporarily). They will be able to stream to the page and then once the stream is going, someone on your staff can share the post to the Facebook Event or a Private Facebook Group.

For YouTube, you will have to provide them with your google log-in information and be available to share a verification code from google. This can be troublesome, but can easily be done in real time when you meet over the phone or in-person at the location scout.

If your producer has a Vimeo premium account, you’ll be able to live-stream to multiple destinations at the same time, as well as integrate high-end graphics for what we call a “main stage presentation”.

Main Stage Productions
Matching something you might see on network television or broadcast is as easy as thinking through the show moment by moment.

How do you want the show to begin?

What is the name and title of each person presenting?

Are there going to be commercial breaks?

What music will be played and when?

Unlike TV,  there are so many added benefits for your audience to connect with people in real time through chat, polls, and even clickable graphics.

If you contract with the right producer, they can walk you through the run of your show in as little as a couple of meetings so you can pick and choose these live features. You’ll be happy you did.

Get Started
There’s no time to waste when scheduling your events. Even if you’re planning on an in-person event but you’re not sure what the Covid regulations will be, it’s safe to proceed. If people are not allowed to attend your venue in person, or they don’t feel comfortable, or if you have a limited capacity, well, because you’ve thought through your event and you have a producer who’s going to be on-site, your people can still watch your show, and the show can still go on! Even if on site it’s just the VIP, your staff, and the producer, your event will still happen; you won’t have to re-schedule or cancel. So, schedule your event and get started!

OFFER
House of 8 Media has over 20 x 5-Star reviews on Google and Yelp. Every one of our clients become raving fans probably because it’s so comforting to have a professional holding their hand every step of the way. We provide the technical foundation for your creative expression to confidently take the spotlight. Just listen to our latest review by the Executive Director of the Carmel Public Library Foundation after we produced their annual benefit – this time virtually:

“Mike Buffo’s turnkey production studio was central to the success of our annual event’s pivot to a virtual online fundraiser. He was able to help create an exciting hybrid program that involved multiple elements including; live videos, pre and post production, video trailers, registration, and a live in-studio experience. In addition to his production capabilities, Mr. Buffo is a dedicated professional willing to go the extra mile with edits, rehearsals and whatever else is needed. He takes and provides direction, and infuses his own creativity, adding to the overall positive outcome. Lastly, Mike’s enthusiasm makes working with him enjoyable.”

If you’re in the Monterey Peninsula area and you have an event that you’d like to develop, please reach out to me. I’d love to offer anybody reading this a FREE 30-minute development meeting. Mention this blog post and *get 10% off your first event! (*first-time clients only)

Click here to book your FREE Virtual Event Development Session. When you fill out the form, you’ll instantly receive my free eBook, “Don’t Plan Another Virtual Event Without These 5 Hacks.pdf”

CONTACT

Thank you!

Your local remote producer,

Mike Buffo,
For all of us at House of 8 Media