Reveal Concepts & Creative Development

Sometimes the product simply needs to be presented clearly.

Sometimes it needs a reveal.

Comtec can help develop the creative approach to the launch, considering the venue, audience, product, content and practical limitations of the environment.

That might involve lighting, sound, video, screens, scenic elements, movement or special effects.

Or it might involve something considerably more unusual.

The purpose isn’t to create spectacle for its own sake.

The reveal should say something about the product and make the moment more memorable.

Stage & Set Production

The stage and presentation environment create the setting in which the product will be experienced.

Comtec can provide staging, scenic production, screen structures, branding and presentation environments designed around the product and the audience.

Where the product itself needs to move, enter the space or become part of the reveal, practical considerations such as access, weight, sightlines, safety and movement need to be considered alongside the creative idea.

That is where creative thinking and technical production have to work together.

Lighting & Special Effects

Lighting can completely change the way a product is revealed.

It can hide as well as illuminate.

It can focus attention, build anticipation, transform an environment or create the visual punctuation around the reveal itself.

Where appropriate, lighting can be combined with effects, sound, video and physical movement to create a coordinated launch sequence.

But the effect has to earn its place.

We don’t add technology simply because it is available.

We use it when it makes the audience experience better.

LED Screens, Projection & Displays

Screens can support a product launch in many different ways.

They can introduce the product story, show technical information, provide detailed images, carry presentations, display video and animation or become part of the reveal itself.

Comtec can provide LED displays, projection and other presentation systems designed around the venue, audience and content.

As with every part of the production, the screen technology should support the story rather than become the story.

Sound & Music

Sound can have an enormous influence on anticipation and impact.

Presenters need to be heard clearly, but a launch may also involve music, video soundtracks, stings, effects and carefully timed playback.

Used properly, sound can help control the pace of the launch and reinforce the reveal without overwhelming it.

Video, Animation & Presentation Content

Sometimes the audience needs to understand the product before they see it.

Sometimes the reveal comes first and the explanation follows.

Video, animation, graphics and presentation content can help explain the development story, demonstrate features, communicate technical information or create anticipation around the launch.

Because Comtec’s creative and technical production teams understand the same environment, content can be developed around the screens, stage and audience that will actually experience it.

Explore Creative Media & Event Content.

Camera Production

Cameras can make the launch visible to everyone in the room and extend it to audiences beyond the venue.

Multi-camera production and IMAG can capture presenters, product details, demonstrations and audience reactions.

The camera production can also support live streaming, recording and content for use after the event.

For larger or technically detailed products, careful camera planning can allow every member of the audience to see things that would otherwise only be visible from the front row.

Live Streaming & Remote Audiences

The audience for a product launch does not necessarily have to be in one location.

Customers, employees, distributors, media and stakeholders can join remotely through professional live streaming.

Remote presenters and additional locations can also become part of the production.

For launches requiring a significant online or multi-location element, explore Hybrid Events & Live Streaming.

Technical Direction & Production Management

A product launch can bring together presenters, product specialists, engineers, marketing teams, senior executives, agencies, venues and numerous technical disciplines.

The reveal itself may last only seconds.

The planning behind those seconds can take considerably longer.

Comtec can support technical planning, production schedules, site visits, supplier coordination, rehearsals, show calling and onsite production management to bring the different elements together.

The audience should see the moment. They shouldn’t see the work required to make the moment happen.

When the Venue Isn’t a Venue

Not every product can be taken into a ballroom.

And sometimes the environment is an important part of the story.

Comtec’s product launch experience includes test tracks, industrial locations and highly controlled aerospace and defence environments as well as conventional event venues.

Those locations can introduce very different production challenges  access, power, weather, safety, security, movement, rigging, communications and sometimes simply finding a practical way of getting the production where it needs to be.

Working successfully in those environments requires more than event equipment.

It requires planning, discipline and the ability to adapt.

The Vehicle That Came Out of the Ground

Sometimes the brief demands something nobody in the audience is expecting.

For one major vehicle launch, Comtec helped create a reveal in which a heavy truck appeared to emerge from beneath the ground.

This wasn’t a video effect.

The concept required an engineered excavation and concealed route beneath the presentation area, allowing the vehicle to drive upwards through the landscape as part of the reveal.

Lighting, sound, atmosphere and the physical movement of the vehicle combined to create the launch moment.

Behind the few seconds the audience experienced were engineering, safety planning, construction, technical production and a great deal of preparation.

That’s a useful illustration of how we approach unusual production problems:

Start with the idea. Then work out how to make it happen safely.

Read the full Comtec Experience: The Vehicle That Came Out of the Ground.

Launching Major Programmes in Controlled Environments

At the other end of the spectrum, some launches are not about theatrical spectacle.

Comtec’s experience includes major aerospace, maritime and defence projects delivered within highly controlled environments.

In those situations, security, access, documentation, procedures, safety and technical discipline can be every bit as important as staging, lighting and screens.

The production still needs to create the right moment.

But it has to do so within the operational requirements of the site and organisation.

Our long experience in demanding environments means we’re comfortable working where the production has to fit around considerably more than an event schedule.

Complete Production or Specialist Support

You don’t have to give Comtec the entire launch.

We can manage complete product launch production or work alongside your agency, internal marketing team, venue, engineering team or existing suppliers.

You may need a reveal concept.

• Stage and set.
• Lighting.
• LED screens.
• Sound.
• Video and animation.
• Cameras.
• Streaming.
• Technical direction.
• Simply experienced production people capable of solving an unusual problem.

We work both ways.

More Than Four Decades of Launch Experience

Comtec has been producing live events since 1982.

During that time the technology available to create product launches has changed beyond recognition.

But technology alone doesn’t create the moment.

The best solution might involve LED, video, animation, intelligent lighting and sophisticated show control.

Or it might involve one deceptively simple idea executed extremely well.

Technology gives us possibilities. Experience helps us decide which possibilities are worth using.

Product Launch Production in Manchester, Across the UK and Internationally

Comtec is based in Manchester and provides product launch and technical production throughout the North West, across the UK and internationally.

We can work in traditional event venues or more specialist environments where the product, location or organisation creates unusual technical and logistical requirements.

Whether the launch is for a commercial product, vehicle, technology or major industrial programme, the process starts in the same place:

Understand what is being launched, who needs to experience it and why the moment matters.