The Importance of Pre-Production Planning in Audio-Visual Events

End-to-end audiovisual (AV) production budgeting, quoting, scoping, staffing, equipment selection

This lecture from the Men in Black show covers end-to-end audiovisual (AV) production budgeting, quoting, scoping, staffing, equipment selection, and risk management for live events and streams. Drawing on ~90 years of combined experience, Brad, Josh, and Jared explain how to compare gear “Apple vs Apple,” interpret transparent line-item quotes, plan crew roles and times, and make explicit cost-versus-risk trade-offs. They detail why premium microphones, speakers, projectors, and encoders often deliver superior reliability, range, interference resistance, and quality; how rental pricing relates to purchase cost and asset lifecycle; and why cables, logistics, and venue policies (e.g., Technician on Duty/TOD) materially impact budgets. The session emphasizes that quotes are working documents shaped by event complexity, venue constraints, and client priorities, and that strong pre-production (site visits, schematics, and frequency planning) prevents failures and under-specification.

How to properly scope events beyond basic AV.

Brad, Josh, and Jared explain how to properly scope events beyond basic AV. They emphasise prioritizing audio and lighting over decor, matching vendor strengths to needs, and treating hybrid/live streaming as a distinct TV-style discipline with thorough testing, redundancy, adaptive bitrate/resolution choices, and strong presenter preparation. They highlight on-site variability, contingency planning, and monetisation opportunities for hybrid content.

The Importance of Pre-Production Planning in Audio-Visual Events

The Importance of Pre-Production Planning in Audio-Visual Events In the inaugural episode of the Men in Black show, hosts Brad, Josh, and Jared leverage their combined ninety years of experience to unpack the bedrock elements of pre-production in audio-visual event management. They present a clear, experience-driven roadmap for planners: conduct rigorous site inspections, ground all design in precise floor plans, schedule with uncompromising realism, enforce on-site safety compliance, and scrutinise venue fees and in-house AV arrangements. Throughout, they emphasise meticulous preparation as the discipline that prevents showstoppers, accelerates setup, safeguards crews and attendees, and ultimately delivers a smoother, more cost-effective event.

Making AV Simple to understand

The hosts of the "Men in Black show"—Brad (Live Streaming Services), Josh (Present Live Productions), and Jared (Unify Productions)—open the episode by positioning their podcast as a practical guide to demystifying audio-visual across corporate and festival events. Drawing on a combined 90 years of frontline technical experience, they commit to sharing best practices and how to extract maximum value from events, supplemented by weekly industry guests. They explain that the current series intends to make AV simple and easy to understand for clients, building from previous episodes on budget, site inspections, and pre-production planning. With this episode, they shift into the technical “nuts and bolts,” beginning with Vision: LED walls, projectors, LCD displays, fallback vision, content strategy, expo displays and digital signage, remote callers, vision mixers (software versus hardware), and cameras.