Reimagine your future events: How venues in England have adapted with hybrid technology solutions

The historic Tobacco Dock in London’s thriving east-end launched its ‘Live from Tobacco Dock’ hybrid event offer in June 2020. 

The ‘plug and play’ package features a 16-metre LED screen and studio quality AV. 

With multiple studio spaces, green rooms and catering areas, as well as an experienced broadcast crew to harness the energy and content, planners can build an event to their own specifications.

The venue’s layout further lends itself to socially distanced live elements of hybrid events. 

“As well as having 57 event spaces to choose from, we’ve five separate entrances, meaning visitors can safely enter and exit the venue with no need to congregate,” explains Jonathan Read, Tobacco Dock’s Commercial Director.

Warwickshire-based venue, the British Motor Museum teamed up with audio-visual specialist, Showman Event Support to launch its hybrid offer. 

The venue has opened a dedicated filming studio and offers 1GB WiFi, including a 100Mb hard-wired connection, to allow for seamless virtual video conferencing. 

“Whilst we identified a growing trend in hybrid events pre-COVID, we anticipate the importance for venues to have the right technology and infrastructure in place to deliver these types of events moving forward. It will become a key requisite for organisers,” says Charlotte Dawes, Senior Sales Manager at the British Motor Museum.

ExCeL London launched a virtual event studio, in partnership with production company Anna Valley, in the autumn of 2020.

The studio, located above the venue’s main event halls, features an adaptable digital backdrop and stage floor, multi-camera and full sound system and lighting rig, as well as space for up to 30 delegates. 

Remote presenters with broadcast quality feeds can be included in studio activity, while content can be streamed to many leading platforms such as Zoom, YouTube and Facebook.

The ICC Birmingham enhanced its virtual event offering by adding a studio in 2020 that enables speakers to engage with online audiences in an environment that reflects their brand and brings their presentations to life. 

Other hybrid and virtual formats offered by the Midlands-based venue include web streaming, managed webinars, or a full-service virtual event featuring live or pre-recorded presentations, polling and chat functions, plus virtual exhibition stands.

In October 2020, Manchester Central and Sterling Event Group announced the launch of ‘Live from the Auditorium’, a virtual event solution that provides an interactive live streaming experience from a studio setting. Housed within Manchester Central’s purpose-built auditorium, the solution is designed to facilitate an online or hybrid event.

Manchester Central’s CEO, Shaun Hinds says: “The studio package includes sound, lighting, screens and live camera systems, all operated by a dedicated events and production team, providing clients with the reassurance that their live broadcast will be of the highest quality, will be engaging and will run smoothly from start to finish – eliminating the risk of technical difficulties that are, more often than not, experienced during video calls.”

As the home of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the AV capabilities at IET Birmingham Austin Court are first-class. The venue’s hybrid event package provides exclusive use of the venue, allowing up to 69 delegates to split up into different rooms, all equipped with large screens to be able to stream content from the Kingston Theatre. 

Planners can also make use of the venue’s smaller flat-floor spaces to carry out pre-records, speaker filming or live streaming to a platform of choice. 

From Savoy Place, the IET’s London venue, planners can work with IET.tv, the IET’s in-house video and webcasting team. Packages also feature optional add-ons like Sli.do, which can be embedded into the streaming to encourage interactivity.