Hybrid Events & Live Streaming
Connect Your Live Audience With People Anywhere in the World
A hybrid event brings together the impact of a physical live event with the reach of an online audience.
But successful hybrid production involves much more than pointing a camera at a stage and streaming it to the internet.
The people watching remotely need to be treated as part of the event.
That means designing the production around two audiences at the same time — the people in the room and the people joining from elsewhere.
Comtec provides the technical production, live video, audio, presentation and streaming expertise required to bring those audiences together into one professionally produced event.
What Is a Hybrid Event?
A hybrid event combines a physical venue and live audience with delegates, presenters or contributors joining remotely.
That might mean streaming a conference to employees around the UK, bringing an international speaker onto a stage from another country, allowing remote delegates to participate in presentations and Q&A sessions, or creating an online audience alongside a live awards ceremony or product launch.
The technology makes that possible.
The production makes it work.
One Event. Two Audiences.
The biggest mistake in hybrid production is concentrating entirely on the people inside the venue.
A remote delegate has a very different experience.
They see what the cameras show them.
They hear what the audio system sends them.
They rely on graphics and presentation content to understand what is happening.
And if they are expected to participate, they need a reliable way to interact with the event.
That is why Comtec treats the online audience as an audience in its own right, rather than simply providing a video feed from the room.
Complete Hybrid Event Production
Depending on the event, Comtec can bring together:
- Live streaming
- Multi-camera production
- Professional broadcast-quality audio
- Remote presenters and contributors
- Presentation and video playback
- Live screen graphics
- IMAG – live camera images for venue screens
- Audience interaction and Q&A
- Recording and content capture
- Lighting for camera and live audiences
- Technical production and engineering
- On-site and remote production support
The exact solution depends on the event.
A board presentation streamed to employees requires a very different production from an international conference with multiple remote speakers.
We design the technology around the communication requirement rather than forcing every event into the same technical package.
Bringing Remote Presenters Into the Room
Hybrid production also allows geography to become less of a restriction.
Speakers, executives, specialists and panellists can contribute without necessarily travelling to the venue.
But putting a remote presenter onto a screen is the easy part.
For the experience to work professionally, the production needs to consider audio, return feeds, presentation content, communication with the presenter, latency, monitoring and how that person interacts with speakers physically present in the room.
When those elements are properly planned, the technology begins to disappear and the remote contributor simply becomes another part of the programme.
Extending the Reach of an Event
Not everyone who matters can always be in the room.
Hybrid production can allow an organisation to reach employees, customers, members, partners or delegates across different offices, countries and time zones.
It can also extend the useful life of an event.
Presentations, interviews and discussions can be recorded and repurposed as internal communications, social content, training material or on-demand video after the live event has finished.
That turns event production into something more valuable than a single moment in a room.
Audience Interaction
Remote doesn’t have to mean passive.
Depending on the platform and event format, online delegates can participate through:
- Live Q&A
- Polling
- Questions and comments
- Breakout sessions
- Remote panellists
- Audience feedback
- Interactive presentations
The objective isn’t to add technology simply because it exists.
It is to decide how the audience should participate and then choose the appropriate tools to make that happen.
Recording & Content Capture
One of the advantages of modern live production is that the same infrastructure used to deliver an event can also create valuable content.
Comtec can capture presentations, interviews, panel discussions and event highlights for later use.
A conference can therefore generate material for:
- Internal communications
- Training
- Marketing
- Social media
- Websites
- On-demand viewing
- Future presentations
The investment in a live event can continue producing value long after the audience has gone home.
Experience Before Hybrid Had a Name
Connecting audiences in different locations isn’t actually new to Comtec.
Long before today’s streaming platforms existed, Comtec was producing events that connected presenters and audiences across multiple locations using satellite technology.
The tools have changed enormously.
The production principle hasn’t.
Get the right people, content and audience connected and make the technology feel effortless.
Today, broadband, cloud platforms, digital video and interactive technology give us considerably more ways of achieving it.
When Does Hybrid Make Sense?
Not every event needs to be hybrid.
Sometimes the best event is simply everybody together in one room.
We would rather recommend the right production than add technology unnecessarily.
Hybrid becomes particularly valuable when:
- Important delegates cannot travel
- Teams are spread across multiple locations
- International presenters need to contribute
- The organisation wants to increase event reach
- Content needs to be captured for future use
- An online audience is commercially valuable
- Travel, time or sustainability considerations matter
The question shouldn’t be:
“Can we make this event hybrid?”
It should be:
“Would a hybrid audience make this event more effective?”
Hybrid Production From Comtec
Whether you’re producing a corporate conference, awards ceremony, product launch, AGM or internal communications event, Comtec can integrate live and remote audiences into one production.
From cameras, audio and lighting through to graphics, streaming, remote presenters and audience interaction, our team manages the technical production from planning through to live delivery.
Talk to Comtec about your next hybrid or live-streamed event.