What Does "Embedded Technical Partner" Actually Look Like?

If you've ever wondered what Talon actually does behind the scenes for other agencies, this is a good example. About half of our work isn't running full shows under our own name. It's stepping in as a strategic outsourcing partner, taking on the technical scopes that would otherwise eat up an agency's time and attention, so they can stay focused on what they do best.

What does that partnership actually mean?

When an agency or production company brings us in this way, we're not a rental vendor filling an order. We're interfacing directly with in-house network teams, client IT departments, and other production vendors on the ground, and we're owning whatever technical scope we're handed, from network infrastructure to signage to streaming.

The ask:

Metro Media Productions came to us with exactly that kind of scope. They needed someone to coordinate with the in-house network team, the client's IT department, and multiple production vendors to make sure everything stayed connected. On top of that, they needed a digital signage solution that could show user generated content alongside a live daily agenda. And, almost as an afterthought, a cellular backup network for the VIP board meeting's Zoom call.

What we actually built (The Tech Breakdown):

Working alongside Encore Global, the property's in-house AV and network vendor, we optimized the network order across every need the show had, from registration to production to attendee WiFi. For the board meeting, we deployed a Peplink bonded cellular solution as backup, along with building-wide network infrastructure using Netgear AV managed switching to distribute multiple VLANs from the house network out to production.

On signage, we used Brightsign players across a mix of wired and wireless connections to display daily agendas layered above live-updating social content, and we provided networking support to the AV, lighting, and video teams from Metro, 4Wall, and Proxy AV.

For streaming, we deployed Epiphan Pearl encoders to send overflow, green room, and client office feeds over IP, plus Zoom feeds so on-site and offsite staff could monitor sessions from their own devices. Need that feed in 1080p? Already enabled on every account, no extra ask required.

Why does this matter?

Projects like this rarely show up as one clean request. They show up in pieces, a network ask here, a signage need there, a "can you also handle this" tucked into a board meeting. The value we bring isn't any single piece of gear. It's having the equipment, the staff, and the vendor relationships already in place to say yes to all of it, without making the agency stitch it together themselves.

How we can help:

This is what being an embedded technical partner looks like in practice. IT support, streaming, signage, accessibility, captions, interpretation, we've got the equipment, staff, and vendor relationships to handle it.

How COVID Changed The Industry

A collection of blogs written during COVID lockdown

When the World Stopped, We Kept Writing

In March of 2020, live events stopped cold. Stages went dark, calendars emptied overnight, and an entire industry built on gathering people together suddenly had no room to gather in.

Over the following thirteen months, Tim wrote his way through it. Not with answers, because none of us had those yet, but with real time thinking: what virtual events might become, what the industry could look like on the other side, and how we stayed connected to clients and each other when the room itself disappeared.

What follows is that record. Several posts written between quarantine's first weeks and the early days of hybrid's return, tracking the questions we were asking as we asked them. Some predictions held up. Some didn't. All of them capture what it actually felt like to run an events business through the most disruptive stretch our industry has ever seen.

We're pulling them together here, in order, as a look back at how Talon thought, adapted, and stayed in motion when everything else stood still.

• Live from Quarantine - The New Normal of Live Events

  Live Events are changing and we’d better keep up

  March 30, 2020 - Tim Kerbavaz, Talon Entertainment Audio Visual

  (Published under the same title on LinkedIn Pulse)

  Watching The iHeart Living Room Concert for America presented by FOX on Sunday evening, I was struck with the overwhelming sense that this is the “new normal.” This is what a live event looks like now, at least in the immediate future.

  Clients have been calling me all week, assessing how to put traditionally in-person events like galas and graduations online. As an events professional, my job is to bring the expertise, technology, and teams to execute my client’s vision, whether that’s projection mapping an abandoned cement factory, holding a benefit concert in a downtown intersection, or figuring out how to hold a graduation or a gala fully online. Events bring people together over shared goals and shared connections, teach and share knowledge, reinforce social bonds, and build communities. The challenge now is how to convey to an online audience the messages and emotional impacts we experience live and in-person. This is the problem I hear over and over again among my peers, friends, and even competitors as our whole industry grapples with connecting services to our communities during COVID-19. How do we continue to educate, inspire, and bring joy to our audiences in this time of social distancing?

  Virtual Events 2020 - Combining ENG with Cell Phones

  The iHeart/Fox “concert” was effectively a telethon, soliciting donations for both Feeding America and the First Responders Children’s Foundation. Combining ENG-style recordings of artists performing in their homes and studios with phone camera cameos and into-the-lens host segments, the program tugged at heartstrings and brought joy and levity into living rooms across America with a relatively low-tech, but very earnest and touching format. 

  The broadcast was a concert in the sense that it was mostly performances of music, and it was a TV show in that it was video-based and aired on a major network. But it wasn’t pretending to be an in-person concert or a traditional TV broadcast.  It was well produced, but didn’t hide the fact that much of the show was essentially home movies recorded on cell phones. It used that raw edge to remind the viewer at home that these famous performers are sheltering in place just as the rest of us are; we’re all in this together.

  Event planners and clients need remote events that convey message and emotion, but that don’t mask the unprecedented nature of this current moment - COVID-19 has changed how we interact, and as event professionals we need to honor and acknowledge that.

  Key Takeaways

  These are some of my key take-aways from Sunday night’s program, which I think are important to taking other high-profile events online:

  • Engineer your event like a TV news broadcast with remote/satellite contributors.

  • Pre-record as much as possible to avoid connection issues with remote sites. Ideally cut the whole show Live-to-Tape, or edit offline and roll as a package. The iHeart show was not broadcast truly live, yours doesn’t need to be either.

  • Showcase segments from contributor’s and host’s homes.

  • Use broadcast cameras and equipment for key segments (hosts, live performances) whenever possible. Use cell phone videos for short shout-outs and cameos. 

  • Avoid vertical video for longer segments, when possible. For a short shout-out or cameo, your talent will record vertically even if you tell them not to. Roll with it - it provides a level of raw “homemade” intimacy to your broadcast.

  • For live segments, use broadcast codecs whenever possible. If you must use consumer technologies, use “TV Magic” to make the audience experience better. (See Elton John’s “video call” with Lizzo from the iHeart broadcast.)

  • Don’t pretend this is a traditional in-person event broadcast; make sure to remind viewers that your talent is also sheltering-in-place.

  • Encourage live social media engagement, reply to comments and tweets in real time, and showcase live social engagement on the broadcast to encourage social sharing and interaction.

  By embracing the raw, intimate nature of phone video and video chat, and adding just enough broadcast polish to make it easy to watch, iHeart and Fox have established a formula for a virtual event that really works. This is a formula that I expect to see replicated more and more as event planners everywhere grapple with how to take an event online. I know my clients were all watching tonight, and I look forward to the many phone calls scheduled for this week as I help my clients build on this model to make the rest of this events season happen.

  A friend of mine always says that the adage “The show must go on” is a misnomer. Audiences continue to crave interaction, education and entertainment, and we continue to provide it. The show WILL go on, and we’re just keeping up.

  To all my friends in production, stay strong. We’ll see the other side of this, and while our industry will be different, the show will go on. Until then, stay home, and keep streaming.

  View

• 2021 : An Events Odyssey

  April 20, 2020 - Written by Tim Kerbavaz

  “The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine.” -Governor Newsom of California, April 14, 2020

  "Large gatherings such as concerts and sporting events may not be approved in the city for at least 1 year... It's difficult to imagine us getting together in the thousands anytime soon, so I think we should be prepared for that this year," -Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles, April 15, 2020

  This is about what I was expecting, but for those of us who make our living in events, it means we’re likely out of work until mid 2021 or beyond.

  I’ve honestly been expecting that timeline for a while now, so while it’s devastating news, it’s at least somewhat validating to have more official certainty on that point.

  Our industry is extremely adaptable, extremely flexible, and extremely nimble. Show business will still exist now and in the future - there are too many of us addicted to the craft for it to disappear. Online productions will fill the gaps, creative technologies and solutions will be more and more common, and communication, education, and entertainment will continue.

  But the kind of events we have had for the past few years in what was a growing and booming events market aren’t coming back for a long time. Many of our friends and colleagues will not be able to hold out for a year or more for events to come back, and will move on to other industries. I expect the integration market to boom as companies enhance telecommunications solutions, and I expect the broadcast sector to grow as more and more goes online. And I think many of our colleagues will leave production entirely for other different fields.

  I am not optimistic about the viability of the live event production industry over the next few years. I think we have a lot working against us and I believe many production companies, big and small will be casualties of this pandemic.

  I am however extremely optimistic about the futures of the people in this industry - my friends, my colleagues and myself because I know that we are as adaptable, innovative, and gritty as any industry out there. I am optimistic many of us will find opportunities in new production and AV market segments, and that those folks who move to greener pastures in other industries will flourish, bringing the skills they honed on the show site to new sectors.

  I love event production and I want nothing more than to see the curtain rise again. I love the work and the stress and the exhilaration of that first “g-o”. I love the final cue and the curtain drop and that last slam of the last truck and the feeling of exhaustion and satisfaction of watching the show roll away. I love my colleagues and friends and brothers and sisters on the crew, who work tirelessly from load in to load out to make possible the closest thing I know to magic. And someday soon we’ll all have that again.

  Until then, to all my production friends, I love you and miss you - please reach out. We’re all lonely and confused and need each other more than ever. Share with me - I want to hear your celebrations and your pains and the skills you want to learn and how you are celebrating your little successes in this time. Let’s share opportunities for work and jobs in and out of production that we can use to keep afloat or re build our careers. If folks leave the industry let’s leave room for then to re join us when we’re back in action and for those building opportunities elsewhere let’s build bridges to bring our production colleagues along with us.

  Events are as close to magic as anything I have ever experienced, and that magic isn’t going away. The show will go on, and we’ll be there to make it possible. Until then, let’s please remember our community and build each other up. We all need a hand.

• 24 Months and Beyond: The Event Industry in a Post-Social Distancing World

  April 25, 2020 - Written by Tim Kerbavaz

  Many of us (myself included, twice) have written about what the next 12-18 months look like for the events industry. It’s going to be rough, there will be a lot of video conferences, and we’ll figure out what “virtual event” really means. I think we’ll see some interesting innovation, and some people and companies will be able to make a decent, if less than typical, living. Others won’t be so lucky, and I expect some production companies won’t be in a good position, and some technicians will leave the industry. I am confident, however, that our industry will come out of this and thrive. I’ve read lots of thoughts about the short term, but I haven’t read much about what our industry will look like after the events industry bounces back. What happens in the next 24 months, and beyond?

  Whenever live events come back, I expect our whole world will look a little different, and that the AV and Events industries will reflect that.

  Counting on video conferencing

  At the lower end of the market, Zoom, Webex, and other desktop Video Conferencing platforms are commoditizing and democratizing VC. With the news that Verizon is buying BlueJeans, we can expect more and more consumer and self-service commercial VC to be the norm. Our clients and audiences have embraced desktop VC, often entirely without AV professionals. 

  One rental and staging executive I talked to was worried about how to keep providing value at the lower end of the market when there are so many DIY technologies. I too often worry what value I provide when supporting Zoom or other VC calls - what is the value proposition when the end users can do it themselves. “It’s so easy” I say to myself. To this point a friend reminded me that of course it’s easy for us, this is our livelihood, but for our customers it’s a business need and worth hiring help to remove pain points. My friend offered the analogy “think about how your accountant feels doing your taxes” - it’s old hat for them, but I gladly pay for the service. While the technology is more and more consumer friendly, I think we can continue to provide value in white glove VC and remote event services, in both the short- and long-term.

  The small stuff will come back first

  Even before conventions and sports games and concerts can happen, I expect to see smaller events happening in smaller venues, bars, and restaurants. Audiences are starved for socializing, so I expect that companies will have small meetings, small bars will have live music, and hotels will see bookings trickle in. Humans are social creatures, and I suspect we’ll gather in small groups as soon as it’s allowed and reasonably safe to leave the house. These events will have strict in-person attendance caps, and many attendees still won’t be comfortable going out. While they won’t necessarily have much production budget, many of these smaller events will have a live-streamed or video conference component. Once the service sector returns to operation, we’ll start to see bookings for these small gigs, and a niche market for value-engineered turnkey small event VC and streaming packages.

  Once a vaccine is available and wider restrictions are lifted and, we will see the return of larger events. At this higher end of the market, I expect to see changes in the way events operate, and perhaps even growth in some areas.

  An evolving office means evolving events

  As companies have transitioned employees to remote work for the duration of this quarantine, I have heard from business executives, tech support staff, and space planning teams that many companies, across industries, are reconsidering their office layout. The open office may no longer be trendy, and frequent or permanent remote work may become the norm at many companies across industries. Businesses that are equipped for a partially or fully remote workforce will be able to get back to work before a vaccine is ready, and will be able to quickly adapt to future challenges because the infrastructure for telework will already be in place.

  ““I think you could see a doubling down on the (big in-person events) where they create a ‘narnia’  in real life because everyone has been living behind a device””

  — Kyle Santen - PixelForge

  The big challenge for both management and remote workers is that they see less of their colleagues in person, so connection, shared vision, and team bonding can be a challenge. All-Hands meetings and team retreats will be increasingly important to building cohesive teams and to business success. With limited time for team bonding and internal networking, the ability to gather in one room for a meeting becomes critical.

  With fewer desks and less expensive real estate to pay for, operating budgets may have more room for bigger, more elaborate productions, both internally and for client- or public-facing events. An added incentive - with everyone, coworkers and clients included, working from home on a laptop, the chance to go out to an event is a great change of environment. Thus event production, scenic, and lighting can be positioned to provide a welcome sense of escapism from the home office.

  “I think you could see a doubling down on the (big in-person events) where they create a ‘narnia’  in real life because everyone has been living behind a device” posited Kyle Santen of PixelForge. “More money will get poured into physical events to make up for the lack of physical connection outside of the events” because everyone has been working remotely from home.

  An increased interest in escapism, wow-factor, and atmosphere makes a ripe market for Media Server makers like Disguise, GreenHippo, Watchout, and Resolume. New demands for immersive experiences, polish, and effects could lead to new opportunities for augmented reality, mixed reality, and virtual reality, both in person and online.

  Even in-person events are likely to have an increased focus on the online viewer; broadcast will be less of an afterthought and more of an equal (or potentially primary) audience. With larger online audiences, and more demand to stand out with eye- catching video, more of the event may be focused on the camera, which leads to more opportunities for new video technologies, 3D graphics, and mixed reality environments. 

  
  It will be a long while before we can gather in person and events can return to some semblance of normal. We’re looking at a timeline of 12-18 months to start moving back to large gatherings, and in the meantime client needs and expectations are changing. When we’re back on production, we should be ready for an evolved events market that includes more online and video-heavy productions, both big and small, and be able to provide an increasingly immersive and exciting in-person experience. We have a lot of down time, so now is a great time to re-imagine our recurring events to make them ready for a Post-COVID world. There are lots of training opportunities, and now would be a great time to share skills you have with your friends and peers in the industry. Even if we won’t see the curtain rise on a big show for a while, we can make sure now that our shows on the 24 month horizon are ready for a revamped production environment.

• Improving Virtual Meeting Attendee Engagement with an Interactive Coffee Break

  August 8, 2020 - Written by Tim Kerbavaz

  Let’s take this online

  In mid May, the staff at Veloz, a nonprofit organization focused on electrifying transportation in California, came to me with a challenge. Their July member meeting, scheduled to be an in-person round table in Downtown Los Angeles, was going to be impacted by COVID-19 travel restrictions. Like most event planners, they wondered how to take the meeting online. The conference involved 50 members around a table discussing state policy, industry marketing, and increasing member investment. How would we move it to an online format while maintaining the networking, conversation and attendee engagement of the in-person meeting? How could we make members feel valued and invested in the organization without being with them in person?

  Author and Technical Director Tim Kerbavaz takes a selfie during a session break while managing the webinar from the client’s office.

  They were familiar with Zoom, and already had a Webinar license, but weren’t sure how to ensure good audio and video quality as their Executive Director hosted the meeting. They also wanted to provide an extra level of engagement for their members as they participated in the meeting.

  In order to ensure that all the member organizations were able to participate in the discussions, each member was asked to designate one delegate to have a seat at the virtual Zoom Webinar table. These appointed delegates were invited to the webinar as panelists, so that they could participate in the round-table discussion. Any other member representatives, or attendees from non-member organizations, were enrolled as listen-only attendees to streamline the conversation in the meeting.

  In addition to pre-production planning, Talon provided onsite AV support at the Veloz office. We turned a conference room into a studio with camera, lighting, and audio equipment, allowing the Director to host the meeting on camera with high-quality video. Talon staff remotely controlled the production from down the hall in an office suite to preserve social distance and prevent noise or distraction on camera.

  Make your guests feel at home, at home

  Custom Camping-Style Coffee Mugs were sent out along with freshly roasted coffee beans from a local roaster.

  To ensure members felt valued, and to ensure they were alert and attentive for the meeting, each member delegate was sent a Veloz-branded coffee mug and a bag of locally-roasted coffee. We partnered with Sacramento, CA -based Seasons Coffee Roasters. Seasons offers a retail mail-order coffee service, as well as wholesale beans for retail and foodservice, so they were a natural fit to enlist for both coffee and fulfilment of the gift packages. Boxes were shipped to arrive at attendees homes the weekend before the event, to allow plenty of time to enjoy the coffee and be ready for the meeting.

  What’s that sound?

  Screenshot from the webinar of DJ Jon VonRonk spinning records for the conference audience.

  To set the tone of the meeting, attendees were greeted by Sacramento local vinyl DJ Jon VonRonk from Kicksville Vinyl & Vintage spinning records on the webinar, joining us live from his home studio. Because the audio from the DJ’s studio was music, not speech, Zoom’s standard audio processing would have interfered with the quality of playback. To prevent this, we adjusted some key audio settings within Zoom to disable the noise and echo cancellation processing, ensuring the highest possible music fidelity in the webinar environment. While the music played, attendees were presented with some light-hearted polling questions designed to spark conversations and encourage creative thinking before the discussions began in earnest.

  Feel-Good Impact

  Many members made a point to have their coffee mug in the frame for the call, even a few who admitted it was filled with water because they preferred tea or cocoa to coffee. Throughout the conference, and in a subsequent meeting of the same group, members exclaimed how exciting it was to have a DJ open and close the meeting. “I’ve never been to a webinar with a live DJ before” said several attendees. Some guests lamented that they don’t have music to greet them at all their conferences.

  Overall guests responded with great excitement to the “virtual coffee break” and it provided a great example of combining creative attendee engagement tools to keep virtual event attendees interested and connected to the meeting and message.

• Look Both Ways Before You Step Out: Looking Back at Virtual 2020 as we head into Hybrid 2021

  April 1, 2021 - Written by Tim Kerbavaz

  The end of the first quarter of 2021 marks a full year of the events industry in a Covid world.  I think this is a good time to look back at the year past, and to look forward to my view of what's next for our industry.

  I previously wrote about virtual events early in the pandemic - in March, and in April, Twice.

  Take a look back and see how many of my predictions came true and how many rang hollow.
  In the meantime, I’ve spent the last year producing virtual events - ranging from 1 hour webinars to 5-day flagship conferences - and my calendar is rapidly filling for the rest of 2021 with virtual and hybrid events. I know everyone in the event industry is itching to get back to “normal” - I am also excited to be in a ballroom again, but I don’t think we’re quite going to just jump back into where we left off when the industry froze in Q1 2020, and I don’t think we should want to.

  Businesses large and small, and their target audiences, have discovered the power of virtual events - events without travel and catering budgets, events that span the globe, with presenters and attendees that would never have been able to come in person. Virtual productions provide increased accessibility of events to parents who can’t leave their kids at home, increased accessibility of events to people with disabilities that make attending face-to-face events difficult, and provide increased accessibility of events to independent professionals, small business owners, and students who may not have the time or resources to travel to an in-person event. Bigger events with broader audiences, or multiple smaller events for hyper targeted audiences, whichever makes more sense. Instantly evergreen content you can re-share, re-edit, and combine with other content to re-sell. With tremendous ROI of virtual, why would we want it to stop?

  Enter Hybrid. I know that “hybrid events” is a buzzword of the moment, but really it’s not a new concept. Our industry has been producing hybrid events for years, we just didn’t describe them that way.

  I’ve streamed millions of viewer-hours of live event video from in-person events. I remember first producing events that brought in individual speakers via teleconference almost a decade ago. TV news bridges an in-person studio with remote presenters 7 nights a week. The idea of serving both an in-person and remote audience simultaneously is really not unusual, but in the events world prior to 2020 it hadn’t been the default. The tools and techniques have existed for a while - what I think will change is the expectation and “normalcy” of virtual components in almost any event

  Just like every event for the past several years has needed to be ready to play audio and video someone’s slide presentation, even if it’s not in the “spec”, I think every event going forward needs to be ready to add a presenter via Zoom or Teams or Meet. I think teleconference in and stream out is a default assumption for any in-person event going forward. Any event from a flagship conference to a PTA meeting will need the ability to add a call-in option at the last minute, with no fuss.

  Another change I expect to stick is the shifted and elongated event cycle. As we think about the event ecosystem, and as event dates have been shaken up due to COVID, something has shifted - events are now year-round. We have less defined “event seasons” with bookend or flagship events, and more ongoing events as part of broader outreach and marketing efforts.

  There is less waiting for the big tradeshow to announce products, and more year round marketing drip. Even one-off events are part of a broader marketing ecosystem, and clients need all events to align with their broader communication goals, online or off.

  As in-person events return, and as clients evaluate their goals and event needs, I expect to see more roadshows, smaller regional events, and overlapping regional events that are connected via video technology to bridge in-person speakers and audiences across multiple venues and locations.

  As high profile clients focus on adding pizzaz to their events, we move into an area where hybrid gets interesting and we get beyond the basic stream or Zoom call. Under the hybrid-event umbrella, there are some newer technologies and techniques that have really gained traction over the past year. I expect to see more events using consumer-facing VR and AR technology and studio side xR tech, 3D virtual sets, and volumetric stages along with Unreal Engine, disguise, and other media server environments to make the experience for the online audience more immersive than your average zoom call.

  Another tech innovation I expect to see more of is the Pepper's Ghost “hologram” on stage. It was used to much fanfare to “resurrect” beloved performers at music festivals over the last few years, and I expect it to be used to “beam” CEOs and keynote speakers into multi-site conferences to allow “embodied” presentations to remote audiences when executives can’t travel or events overlap.

  There are many more technologies, techniques, and event formats on the horizon. As you plan online, in-person and hybrid events, think about the specific takeaway you want the audience to have before you pick a format or technology. Keep in mind audiences you might have missed in the past, and how you can bring your event and message to a more diverse audience who might experience your event differently than other attendees. Consider ways to make your event more accessible to people with a variety of different personal, ability, and travel needs. Think about the experience you want each person in your audience to have and define the goals for takeaway and experience first, then pick the platform, format, or venue that best fits those needs. For some events an online-first approach may still offer the best ROI.  Where in-person components fit the bill, remember that there are a myriad of options to bridge an in-person and online experience to maximize impact.

Advice for Independent AV Technicians - Sound Design Live Interview

August 13, 2020

I was recently a guest on the Nathan Lively’s podcast Sound Design Live discussing ways that independent AV technicians can adapt in the face of Covid-19. It’s designed for AV industry professionals, but it’s got some general advice that might be useful to other folks in the event space. This video also has some background on me, which clients may find interesting.

Remote Production is Here To Stay - July 5, 2021

How do I caption my event?

CART vs. AI Captioning for Live Events:

How to Choose the Right One

If you're planning a live event and someone has asked for captions, you've probably run into two options that sound interchangeable but aren't. There's human CART captioning, and there's AI captioning. Plenty of articles online will tell you one of them is always better. The real answer is that it depends on your event, and choosing well can save you money on some sessions while saving you from a very public headache on others.

We provide both at Talon AV. Here's how we actually help clients decide.

What the two options really are

CART stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation. A trained, certified human captioner, either a stenographer or a voice writer, listens to your event and produces verbatim captions in real time, often at hundreds of words per minute. Stenography is a skilled profession, and a good captioner does more than transcribe sound. They handle context, jargon, crosstalk, and accents the way a human listener does.

AI captioning uses Automatic Speech Recognition, or ASR. It's the same family of technology behind your phone's dictation. Captions appear automatically from the audio, with no human in the loop. In some platforms it's quite literally a switch you flip on.

Both are useful. They just have different strengths.

The honest tradeoffs

Accuracy. This is where the real difference lives. A skilled CART captioner reliably delivers very high accuracy, even when the room is noisy, speakers overlap, or the content is full of technical, medical, or legal terminology. ASR has come a long way, but it still struggles with exactly those conditions: heavy jargon, strong accents, multiple speakers, bad audio. For a casual internal meeting, that's fine. For a keynote in front of a thousand people, a caption feed full of errors becomes its own kind of failure.

Cost. ASR is meaningfully cheaper, and for high-volume situations, like a dozen simultaneous breakout rooms over several days, the math often favors it. CART captioners are skilled professionals, and their time is priced that way. Where people get into trouble is treating cost as the only number that matters. The better question is what an inaccurate caption actually costs you on a given session.

Preparation. Both get better with prep, and this is where a lot of caption projects succeed or fall apart. Human captioners do their best work when they get speaker names, agendas, and industry terminology ahead of time, and they do even better when they can sit in on a rehearsal to get used to the speakers' cadence and accents. ASR systems can be tuned too. You can pre-load key terms and names to improve recognition. Either way, good captions are not a flip-the-switch-day-of accommodation.

Risk and the room. ASR runs on the audio it's given. Bad audio means bad captions, full stop. A human captioner can adapt mid-sentence to a surprise speaker change or an audience Q&A. A machine can't anticipate. On a high-stakes event, that adaptability is a big part of what you're paying for.

A simple way to decide

Match the method to the stakes of each session.

Human CART is usually the right call for high-profile, public-facing, or executive sessions like a keynote, a commencement, or a board meeting. It's also the right call when the content is dense with specialized terminology, when you have a formal accommodation request or a compliance requirement, or when multiple speakers and live Q&A make the audio unpredictable.

AI captioning is a reasonable fit for internal, informal, or low-stakes sessions. It works for high-volume content, like many breakout rooms over many days, where putting a human captioner in every room isn't realistic. And it makes sense when budget is genuinely the binding constraint and some captions are far better than none.

Here's the part most of the "always pick a human" articles leave out. You don't have to choose one for the whole event. You can put a human CART captioner on the general session and your highest-stakes content, and run well-prepared ASR across the breakouts. That's exactly what we did for Children's Miracle Network's Hospital Week: human CART in the general session, including the live musical performance, ASR support across the breakouts, and a full accessibility review afterward. The client got the accuracy where it mattered most and sensible economics everywhere else.

Getting captions onto the screen is its own job

One thing worth flagging, because it catches people off guard. Picking CART or ASR is only half the work. Getting those captions to show up accurately and in sync, on the in-room screens and on your live stream, takes dedicated systems and technical expertise. Broadcast-standard closed captions, CEA-608 and 708, in-room caption displays, captions burned into a stream, captions on a second-screen link, those are all different technical paths. The captioning method is the what. The caption delivery system is the how. A great captioner feeding into a broken display doesn't help anyone.

How we help

At Talon AV, we treat captioning as a production value, not an afterthought. We'll tell you honestly which method fits each part of your event, help you collect and organize prep materials for your captioning team, design the caption display and delivery systems for both in-room and streamed audiences, and build in the redundancy that keeps captions running when something goes sideways. We do this for our own clients, and as a specialty partner for other production and AV companies.

If you're weighing captions for an upcoming event, or you just want a second opinion on what your event actually needs, reach out for a consultation. And if you want the deeper technical picture, our Event Accessibility services page gets into CART, ASR, sign language interpretation, audio description, and assistive listening.

Secure Networking, Cell Bonded WiFi & Precision Turnkey AV Production for a Corporate Managers Meeting in Los Angeles

When the senior leadership of a nationwide electrical contractor gathers to define the future, the technology supporting them must be as reliable as the infrastructure they build.

In January 2026, Talon Audio Visual partnered with Austin-based agency Premier Event Source to execute this client’s Leadership Summit in Los Angeles. CA. Bringing together 160 senior leaders from across the country, this high-profile event required a flawless blend of immersive scenic design, complex logistical support for breakouts, and a robust, independent network infrastructure.

The Challenge: Security First

One of the most complex requirements for this summit was connectivity. The client has a strict internal security policy prohibiting the use of hotel or venue networks for business operations. They needed a "building-wide" solution that was completely air-gapped from the venue.

Talon AV designed and deployed a massive cellular-based network:

• The Hardware: We utilized 12 distinct cellular modems and 16 access points strategically placed throughout the venue.

• The Coverage: This custom network blanketed the General Session, Backstage, FOH, Media Room, Expo, Registration, and all 8 Breakout rooms.

• The Result: A secure pipeline for production data, digital signage, and attendee connectivity without ever touching the hotel’s infrastructure.

General Session: High-Fidelity Impact

For the main stage, the goal was broadcast-quality presentation.

• Audio: To ensure crystal-clear intelligibility, we deployed a premium JBL audio system. By utilizing the VTX A6 series for our main arrays and VRX delays, we achieved concert-level sonic clarity that remained visually unobtrusive.

• Visuals: The centerpiece was a triple-LED wall configuration driven by a Barco E2 Screen Management System for seamless widescreen playback. Talon’s creative team also collaborated with the client to design the PowerPoint decks and custom motion graphic assets.

• Comms: With a 30-person crew, reliable communication was non-negotiable. We utilized a hybrid Clear-Com FreeSpeak II and HelixNet system, ensuring wireless, crystal-clear comms for stage managers and techs anywhere in the building.

Breakouts & Expo: Consistent Quality Everywhere

The experience didn't stop at the main stage. We supported 8 breakout rooms and a central Expo/Meal room with the same attention to detail.

• Audio Uniformity: We deployed uniform speaker coverage across the breakout and expo spaces. This ensured that whether an attendee was in the main hall or a small workshop, the audio quality remained premium and consistent.

• Wayfinding: We built and managed touchscreen kiosks in key foyer locations, updated daily with the agenda to help the 160 attendees navigate the complex schedule.

• Digital Signage: In the expo and Meal Spaces, we deployed 6 BrightSign Players to display looping videos in several expo areas, as well as timely updates about breakouts and meals in the lounge space.

• Session Transcription: Even in the intimate breakout sessions, the client wanted a transcript of all the proceedings. We used traditional recorders in the GS, and in the rooms without presenter microphones, we deployed a tablet-based transcription system to provide transcription of all the sessions for their internal records.

The Executive Session & Wrap

On the final day, our team rapidly converted the Expo area into a private, closed-door Executive Session for a final strategy recap. Over the course of 8 days on-site, our crew of 30 (including travel and local techs) delivered a seamless experience, handing off ISO recordings, session transcripts, and behind-the-scenes footage to the client's internal media team for immediate post-event use.

The Technical Deep Dive (Gear List)

Audio: Precision & Coverage

• PA System: JBL VTX A6 Line Array System (Mains) combined with JBL VRX delays.

• Subs: JBL VTX B18 Subwoofers.

• Fill: JBL AC25 Ultra Compact speakers for front fill.

• Control: Yamaha QL5 Digital Mixing Console with Rio3224-D Stage Box.

• RF: Shure Axient Digital Wireless with DPA 4088 Directional Headset Mics.

• Amplification: Crown IT-3500HD Amp Racks.

Video: Processing & Playback

• Switching: Barco E2 4K Screen Management System.

• LED Surface: 180x INFILED DB2.6 Pro LED Panels (creating 3 separate walls).

• LED Processing: NovaStar MX40 Pro Controllers & CVT10-S Fiber Converters.

• Playback Servers:

• 4x MacBook Pro M4 Max (with DeckLink cards in Sonnet chassis).

• 3x MacBook Pro M1 Max (Primary Playback/Graphics).

• Support Machines:

• 14x Lenovo ThinkPads (Graphics/PPT).

• 2x MacBook Airs (Additional Content, BGM, Audio Cue Playback).

Lighting: Atmosphere & Design

• Console: GrandMA

• Fixtures:

• Chauvet Maverick Force 2 Profiles (Key light/Specials).

• Martin MAC Auras (Wash).

• Chauvet COLORado 72x Battens & COLORdash PAR H7X (Scenic Uplighting).

• Chauvet Freedom PAR battery Uplights in Expo and Foyer

Comms & Infrastructure

• Intercom: Clear-Com HelixNet (wired digital partyline) & FreeSpeak II (wireless).

• Network: 14x Cellular Modems & 14x Access Points (Air-gapped production network), with Peplink SDX Pro, MBX, and BR2 Routers.

Connection, Collaboration, and Calm Under Pressure for National Nurses United in San Francisco

National Nurses United Global Conference – San Francisco, CA

At large, high-stakes events, connection is everything. Not just the technical kind, but the human kind; the magic is in the collaboration between production partners, technicians, and clients who all share a commitment to keep the message flowing.

When the Global Nurses United Union Conference convened in San Francisco, Talon AV served as the connectivity and technical-production partner, supporting streaming, interpretation, digital signage and attendee Wi-Fi across multiple hotel properties. Our role was to make sure every delegate could see, hear, and be heard, no matter where they were or what language they spoke.

Preparation Pays Off

In the weeks leading up to the conference, our team worked closely with Metro Media Productions who served as both the AV vendor and the General Services Contractor, 4Wall Entertainment, and the Venue IT staff across 3 different venues to map out connectivity for the general session, evening events, and multiple breakout rooms. We built layered redundancy into the plan from the start: bonded-cellular hardware on standby, dedicated subnets for production, and failover options ready to deploy.

We also supported the interpretation partner, Tiller Language Services, whose interpreters used the RSI X platform to deliver live multilingual audio streams. Because interpretation is especially sensitive to latency and dropouts, we designed a separate, monitored network segment just for them. Our goal: to make their experience seamless and predictable, even if the venue’s attendee network fluctuated.

The Challenge

Mid-conference, one of the hotel’s core routers failed. For the client, that router wasn’t just a box of blinking lights, it was the bridge between the stage and 1300 attendees listening to simultaneous interpretation on their personal devices.

The hotel had alternative systems on site, but restoring service would take time. Rather than wait, we pivoted immediately to protect the show. Our goal was simple: lightning-fast recovery and confidence for the client that there were multiple backup paths in place should any system falter again.

The Response

Because Talon AV had pre-positioned cellular systems on site, we were able to activate backup connections for uplink and interpretation ingest systems in moments, and continued to expand coverage quickly. Working through the night, our technicians and partners increased the penetration of cellular backups throughout the general-session and breakout spaces, deploying additional attendee-facing backups on top of the existing production backup systems.

The solution combined rental phones provisioned with fresh data plans, Peplink bonded-cellular routers, and a LiveU uplink, each adding a layer of redundancy. The approach was flexible, modular, and above all, fast. A mix of carriers and data plan options, plus key carrier and data provider relationships meant activating over 40 new lines of cellular data overnight was easy, and by morning, critical interpretation and streaming channels were restored, hotel network issues were mitigated, and we had backups upon backups to reassure the client we could keep the connections alive through our multiple independent network paths.

Partnership in Action

Moments like this underscore the strength of relationships. Talon AV’s onsite crew worked shoulder-to-shoulder with IATSE Local 16 technicians, whose professionalism and flexibility were invaluable throughout the show. Union stewards at each property coordinated late-night staffing adjustments so we could reposition resources without delay. It was a perfect example of how production partnerships, union and non-union alike, come together to serve the common goal of keeping the show online.

The collaboration extended beyond labor. Metro Media and 4Wall provided Audio, Video, and Lighting gear and personnel support, while the hotel’s engineering and IT teams stayed engaged and communicative even as we implemented our own layered contingency plan. Everyone understood the mission: keep the connection alive.

The Outcome

By the start of the second-day General Session, all critical systems were stable, and the client was confident moving forward. The interpreters reported feeling supported and informed, attendees reconnected smoothly, and the remainder of the event ran without incident.

What could have been a show-stopping technical issue became a quiet success story; a moment where preparation, calm leadership, and trust in our partners turned a potential failure into proof of resilience.

Looking Back

This project demonstrated what Talon AV values most: connection through collaboration. Every successful recovery begins long before show day, in how we plan redundancies, empower our teams, and build relationships strong enough to weather surprises.

It also marked a turning point in our own growth.

On the drive home, I found myself reflecting on how far we’ve come, and how different it feels to lead a company that clients now recognize not just by my name, but by our team’s reputation.

For many years, people hired me to solve problems. Now, they hire Talon AV to lead solutions. During this project, a client’s IT manager greeted us by name - not mine, but the company’s - and mentioned our team members before I could introduce them. That moment said it all: Talon has become more than one person’s effort.

I’m so proud of our crew, grateful for our partners at Metro Media Productions, 4Wall, Tiller Language Services / RSI X, and IATSE Local 16, and honored to have earned the trust of a client who knew we would always find a way forward.

Events don’t always go exactly as planned, but when the people behind them stay connected - to each other and to a shared purpose - the message always gets through.

Because at Talon AV, that’s what we do. Talon Connects.

Carrier-Diverse Bonded Cellular Event Wi-Fi for a 500-Person Conference in Chicago

Event Connections

At a glance

• Location: Chicago hotel (three show days)

• Footprint: General session (~500), exhibit hall, multiple breakout rooms, production offices, backstage

• Setup speed: Breakouts online in ~5 minutes each; GS/Expo core stood up in ~3 hours

• Backbone: ~10 cellular modems across multiple carriers with intelligent load balancing; hard-wired AP grid for GS/Expo; portable “throw-down” kits for breakouts

• Performance: ~200 Mbps down for attendees across the venue; dedicated office connection for the production team

• Support: Live remote monitoring on Central Time + phone support throughout show hours

• Cost: Significantly under the venue’s in-house quote

The brief

Make the internet invisible: reliable everywhere, from the keynote to backstage. The venue’s in-house quote was steep, and the show needed full coverage—general session, exhibit hall, simultaneous breakouts—without the sticker shock or the risk of a single point of failure.

Our approach

We built a modular backbone that fit the show’s shape:

• Breakouts: Portable throw-down kits brought rooms online in about five minutes each—clean, quick, and repeatable.

• General Session & Expo: A larger core combined ~10 cellular modems across multiple carriers, then load-balanced traffic into a hard-wired access-point grid for stable coverage under higher density.

• Production Office: A dedicated connection kept uploads, show ops, and file syncs snappy—separate from attendee traffic.

• Monitoring & Support: Our team watched the network live (on Central Time) for the duration of the event, with remote support ready for the on-site crew.

The architecture is carrier-diverse by design and can integrate venue handoffs or satellite (e.g., Starlink) when needed. The goal isn’t the gadget—it’s giving teams confidence that the show won’t stall because the internet did.

Deployment

• Day 0/AM: Core stood up and the GS/exhibit AP grid hard-wired and tested (~3 hours).

• Rooms: Breakouts brought online in ~5 minutes each; consistent playbook across spaces.

• Go-live: Continuous remote monitoring during all show hours; quick adjustments on request.

Results

• Consistent attendee experience: ~200 Mbps down across the venue, even as rooms filled and schedules shifted.

• Happier production team: Dedicated office line that “just worked,” making content transfers and show comms smooth.

• Faster setup, lower cost: Deployed quickly and landed significantly under the venue’s internet quote.

• No drama: Redundancy across carriers meant one tower’s bad moment never became everyone’s problem.

Where this shines

This carrier-diverse, modular network has been deployed in hotels and convention centers, outdoor parks, and film sets. It scales up for density, pares down for speed, and can be managed remotely when the on-site crew just needs a reliable backbone.

Services provided

Event Wi-Fi & Production Internet • Network Design & Deployment • Live Remote Monitoring • On-Call Phone Support

Ideal for

Event agencies, production vendors, corporate internal events—anyone who needs reliable connectivity without venue-rate sticker shock.

Planning a show in a tricky venue—or staring at a painful in-house quote?

Let’s blueprint a right-sized, carrier-diverse plan for your next event.

Reliable Cellular Wi-Fi for Sacramento Pride 2025 - Keeping Sales and Ticketing Online

Sacramento, CA State Capitol Building

Client: Sacramento Pride
Location: Capitol Mall, Downtown Sacramento, CA
Attendees: 20,000+
Services Provided: Cellular-bonded Wi-Fi, Live Monitoring & Support

The Challenge

Sacramento Pride takes place in the high traffic Capitol Mall, the streets leading to the California State Capital - an area with known cellular congestion and inconsistent coverage. The event needed reliable WiFi for ticketing, point-of-sale, and production—spread across gates, bars, stages, and HQ. They had failures with past solutions, and past vendor attempts to provide Wi-Fi for part of the event, but their systems failed mid-festival, causing major disruptions to ticketing and operations.

Our Solution

Talon AV delivered a flexible, redundant, and monitored event WiFi solution:

• Carrier Survey conducted ahead of time to select the strongest-performing networks.

• 14 Portable Wi-Fi Units deployed for use at entry gates, bars, and stages.

• Bonded Internet at Festival HQ for secure and stable backbone connectivity.

• High-Priority Data Plans to avoid the slowdowns typical of consumer cellular plans.

• Full-Event Monitoring & Remote Support, with technicians available by chat and phone throughout the event.

One operation system vendor brought their own hotspots - when those hotspots failed this year, the Sacramento Pride team quickly migrated all critical operations to the Talon AV network, restoring stability and keeping the festival moving.

The Result

• 100% uptime across ticketing and POS networks

• Immediate resolution for other failed systems via migration to our network

• Reliable coverage in a challenging urban environment

• Scalable, repeatable infrastructure for future events

Celebrating 15 Years of Talon AV

We have a milestone to share. Talon Audio Visual has been in business for 15 years.

A few weeks ago we hosted a little anniversary party at Sophia's Thai Kitchen - Where Talon founder Tim worked as a sound engineer in college.

Here is a short highlight reel - complete with tiara, along with a speech Tim gave.

Thank you to the many friends and colleagues who came out to celebrate!

A Secure, High-Speed Cell-Bonded Network for a National Managers Conference in Anaheim

The Portable Network Operations Center (NOC) Backstage at the event

At Talon Audio Visual, we know that a reliable network is essential for any successful event. When a client planning their national managers’ conference in Anaheim, CA approached us with a unique event networking challenge, we were excited to deliver. The client’s strict data security policies prohibited corporate devices from connecting to the hotel’s WiFi network, but they still needed a secure, high-performance internet solution for both attendees and for our onsite production team managing the audio, video, and lighting for the event.

To address these requirements, we engineered a private network that operated independently of the venue’s infrastructure. Leveraging 5G networks from all three US cell carriers, and bonded cellular technology from Peplink, we provided a fast, reliable, and secure network that exceeded the client’s expectations.

The Challenges

1. Data Security: The client’s strict corporate IT policies meant we had to be entirely separate from the hotel’s internet connection, and that we needed to isolate client devices from each other and from production machines. We also needed to support client PCs with a corporate VPN.

2. High Bandwidth Demand: Supporting internet access for hundreds of attendees while meeting the needs of the production team to download and upload large media files, while ensuring consistent performance across devices.

3. Temporary Setup in a Busy Venue: Designing and implementing a robust network within a short timeframe, all while ensuring it seamlessly, if temporarily, integrated into the event environment.

The Solution

To meet these challenges, we deployed the following:

A Wireless Access Point on a stand in a hotel ballroom.

• Peplink Network Backbone: A powerful system to handle high volumes of traffic. Using a Peplink SDX Pro as the core router, we built a temporary NOC in the backstage Video Village tech area that managed the network building-wide.

• Ten Cellular Modems: Bonded to combine bandwidth from multiple 5G providers for a reliable and high-speed connection.

• WiFi Access Points: Strategically placed around the venue to provide seamless coverage in all event areas.

• Temporary Cabling: Carefully routed to connect the entire setup without disrupting the aesthetics or flow of the event.

• Device Isolation: A critical security feature to ensure corporate devices couldn’t communicate with other endpoint devices on the local network, protecting sensitive data.

The Results

The result was a secure, high-speed private network that supported all aspects of the event. Attendees enjoyed reliable WiFi access for work, email, event polling and engagement, while the production team leveraged the robust network for video streaming, AV integration, and other resource-heavy needs.

Technical Highlights

• 5G Cellular Bonding: Combined multiple connections to create a fast, redundant, and reliable internet experience.

• Advanced Security: Delivered a network that complied with the client’s strict IT requirements, including device isolation.

• Event-Specific Design: Tailored the setup to the unique needs of the conference, ensuring flawless execution.

Our team’s expertise in bonded cellular and 5G technology broadly, and in the Peplink Ecosystem specifically, not only addressed the client’s challenges but also enhanced the overall attendee experience. The event went off without a hitch, with both the client and attendees benefiting from the secure, high-performance network.

At Talon Audio Visual, we specialize in creating customized solutions that meet the unique needs of live events. Whether it’s building a secure network, delivering seamless AV integration, or providing full technical production services, we’re here to ensure your event is a success.

Want to learn more about how we can power your next event? Contact us today to get started.

Technical Production for a Tech Company User Conference on SF Pier 27

In the Fall of 2024, a leading tech company hosted its first in-person conference at San Francisco’s Pier 27, blending on-site and virtual experiences via the GoldCast platform. Working with our agency partners, Talon AV led the technical team across departments and vendors to make sure every technical detail was spot-on.

Comprehensive Technical Oversight

We handled a range of technical elements and departments, from Audio Visual, to Lighting, to Power, to Network.

• Video & Audio: Oversaw audio building-wide, including general sessions, breakouts, and paging, and oversaw video for both in-room screens and live stream, to ensure high-quality visuals for both on-site attendees and the online audience, giving everyone a unified experience.

• Network Coordination: Coordinated with the in-house IT team, AV team, registration vendor, and production teams to set up a robust network that supported both the event’s internal needs and the live stream for virtual attendees. This meant planning in advance for internet access in hard-to-reach outside locations, as well as managing multiple networks for attendees, presenters, and production staff.

• Power Distribution: Carefully planned power needs between vendors and the venue’s preferred electrical vendor to supply power to everything from catering to AV to expo to lighting, ensuring everyone had a great experience.

• Lighting Design: Worked closely with the design team and AVL Vendors to create lighting that not only lit up the venue but also matched the event’s branding and themes - we paid meticulous attention to color temperature, focus, and locations to light everything just right

• Logistics Management: Coordinated load-in and load-out schedules with the producer and all vendors, collaborating efficiently with production teams, client, venue, and vendors to ensure timely setup and teardown.

Design-Centric Approach

Knowing the client’s focus on design, we paid special attention to elements like set design and lighting color temperature. Our aim was to create a space that was visually appealing and aligned with the event’s goals. This meant choosing lighting colors that complemented the set design, but still worked for the cameras, ensuring both in-person and virtual audiences had the best viewing experience.

Seamless Hybrid Experience

A key aspect of this event was its hybrid nature. We made sure virtual attendees felt just as engaged as those on-site. By leveraging both the GoldCast platform and YouTube, we delivered a live streaming experience that was interactive and immersive, allowing remote participants to engage with the content effectively.

Tight Onsite Window

With only 36 Hours onsite, we had 24 hours to build the event, and 12 hours to take it all down. Coordination between vendors, venue, and production teams was crucial to pulling it all together on time.

Collaborative Effort

The event’s success was a result of the teamwork between Talon Audio Visual and our Agency, Client, Venue, and Vendor Partners. Our shared goal was to bring the client’s vision to life, down to the last detail. In the end, the event was a big success, with great feedback from the client and attendees. At Talon Audio Visual, we take pride in teamwork, in managing complex technical requirements, and in keeping an eye on aesthetic excellence, ensuring every event we handle is both operationally sound and visually captivating.

Project Spotlight - 2024 AI Engineer World's Fair - San Francisco, CA

Talon Audio Visual was proud to support the biggest technical AI conference in San Francisco, CA - the 2024 AI Engineer World's Fair. This marquee event brought together leading AI companies, founders, VPs, and engineers, featuring over 30 companies on the exhibit floor and more than 100 speakers delivering live talks and workshops to approximately 1,500 in-person attendees and thousands more online.

Talon Audio Visual provided technical production services and oversaw all audiovisual technology for the show. We also provided the Show Caller for the General Sessions and managed a team of a dozen breakout producers and over 40 union technicians and stagehands who covered 11 different rooms.

Challenges and Solutions

The project was daunting, requiring hundreds of hours of pre-production planning. Our production team faced several challenges, including multiple sessions, mid-show program changes, and unique tech needs. Here's how we tackled them:

1. Managing Multiple Sessions: With 11 breakout sessions and a General Session that split and re-combined twice a day, keeping everything running smoothly was a significant task. We succeeded through careful planning and quick adjustments.

1. Last-minute Changes: Our team handled numerous last-minute speaker changes and content updates. This required coordination between Talon, our partners, and the many producers and technicians. It also meant many live updates to the run-of-show. Our teams coordinated with presenters and producers to ensure seamless updates without disrupting the ongoing show.

1. Specialty AV Needs: The tech-heavy show featured many live demos requiring rock-solid network connections, complex AV routing, and custom audio filters. Our team collaborated closely with speakers on their last-minute needs and handled these unique requirements with ease, ensuring every demo went off without a hitch.

Teamwork

The success of the event was a true team effort, involving:

• Argus HD Event & Digital Productions: The AV team from Argus HD and their partners provided solid leadership and expertise.

• IATSE Local 16: The union technicians and stagehands showcased their skills and dedication throughout the event, and made the show possible.

• San Francisco Marriott Marquis: The Banquets and Event Services Teams at the Marquis were incredibly helpful, adjusting room setup and reset times, crew meals, and security schedules to support the production, and the in-house IT Team provided consistent network support throughout the event.

The entire production team managed the show and navigated challenges with confidence and grace. The AI Engineer World's Fair was a tremendous success, thanks to our team’s and our partners’ hard work and support. The event's complexity and scale pushed us all to grow, and demonstrated the strength of our teams. Together, we delivered an exceptional event and we are excited to deliver an even better show next year.

Networks, Streams, Signage, and More for a Nurse's Convention in New Orleans

Networks, Streams, Signage, and More. That’s what Talon AV provided to the National Nurses United Conference 2024, held this year in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Did you know that about half of Talon’s work is managing specialty scopes for our AV and Agency partners? As a strategic outsourcing partner, we take on complex technical scopes for our partners and their clients, allowing them to focus on their core areas of expertise while delivering complex and flawless shows to their clients.

Earlier this year our partners Metro Media Productions came to us with just that sort of ask - interface with the in-house network team, the client’s IT department, and the multiple production vendors on the project to ensure the packets were flowing. Also can you provide a digital signage solution that showcases user generated content along with the daily agenda? And oh by the way, we need a cellular backup network for the VIP board meeting’s Zoom Call.

We got you Metro!

Coordinating with Encore Global, the in-house AV and Network vendor at the property, we optimized the network order for the multiple network needs that the show had - from registration, to production, to attendee WiFi. We provided a Peplink bonded cellular solution for the board meeting, as well as network infrastructure building-wide including Netgear AV managed switching to distribute multiple vLans from the house network to the various production needs.

On the signage front we provided Brightsign players, on a mix of wired and wireless connections, to display daily agendas above live-updated social media content, and provided networking support to the AV, Lighting, and Video teams from Metro, 4Wall, and Proxy AV.

We provided Epiphan Pearl encoding to deploy overflow, green room, and client office feeds over IP, along with Zoom feeds for staff on and offsite to monitor sessions from their personal devices. You want that Zoom feed in 1080p? Don’t worry, it’s already enabled on all of our accounts!

From IT support, to streaming, to signage, to accessibility - captions, interpretation, etc., we’ve got equipment, staff, and key vendor relationships to deliver key technical expertise and support and ensure that your events go swimmingly - whether we provide the whole AV package, or we support agencies and AV companies that just need a bit of help.

Outside Looking In - a vendor perspective on event production for internal production teams

In Spring 2023, I had the opportunity to present at the University of California Video Producers Conference. This annual event brings together video and production professionals from all over the University of California System to share resources, reconnect with colleagues, and inspire each other with new ideas. As a founding member of this group, I was asked to come back as a featured guest speaker and present to an audience of my former colleagues with an outside perspective on the work we share.

Tim Kerbavaz of Talon Audio Visual presents at the University of California Video Producer's Conference 2023, hosted at UC San Diego

Talon Audio Visual's Crucial Role at a San Francisco Healthcare Professionals Conference

In the heart of San Francisco, at the iconic Moscone Center, the stage was set for an international healthcare professionals conference. Behind the scenes, Talon Audio Visual was hard at work supporting our partners at Metro Media Productions ensuring one of their flagship projects was a resounding success.

We were tasked with managing digital signage, Zoom calls, breakout recordings, bonded cellular networks, and live streaming.

Digital Signage: Setting the Stage

To set the stage for the conference, our clients wanted to transform the Moscone Center into an immersive experience. Talon’s team managed digital signage, which included both venue and temporary monitors, LED walls, and BrightSign digital signage players across the venue. We curated content in multiple formats, resolutions, and aspect ratios, incorporating timed updates and live social wall content on the displays. To add an extra layer of dynamism, our team also crafted animated motion graphics content for the massive LED screens in the lobby and projection in the expo. The result was an electrifying atmosphere that captivated attendees and set the tone for the entire event.

Zoom Calls: Bridging Language Barriers

In today's globalized world, language should never be a barrier to understanding and collaboration. For this event, our team handled Zoom calls that provided real-time human language interpretation across multiple rooms. This service extended to the general session and an evening outdoor live performance, ensuring that every participant could engage and comprehend the proceedings. With the power of technology including Zoom, Talon’s hardware and support, the RSI Exchange interpretation app, and a global team of live interpreters from Tiller Language Services, we brought the world together under one roof.

Breakout Recordings and Quick Edits: Capturing Every Moment

In a world that moves at the speed of light, we know the importance of preserving valuable content. Talon Audio Visual took charge of recording and quickly editing breakout sessions. This meant that attendees who couldn't make it to a particular session didn't miss out. Our team's dedication to prompt delivery ensured that the conference's impact reverberated long after its conclusion. Using remotely managed recorders from Epiphan, the files were automatically uploaded to the cloud for our editor to start working on right away.

Bonded Cellular Network: Connectivity Beyond Boundaries

For an outdoor event, we had the unique challenge of setting up a bonded cellular network. This network was responsible for production networking, Zoom uplink for interpreters, and providing attendee Wi-Fi for 300 users of the interpretation app. We had to ensure that this network was robust, reliable, and could withstand heavy traffic.

With 12 cell modems across all three major carriers, six Wi-Fi access points, and a fiber truck between event areas, we created a network that could handle anything thrown at it. The evening before the event, the client informed us of an unexpected increase in the number of translation app users, almost six times the original estimate. We responded with extensive testing and traffic shaping, scaling up the network to accommodate the surge in demand. The result was a seamlessly connected outdoor event that went off without a hitch.

We also provided bonded cell backup networking for key sessions inside the Moscone Center ballrooms during the event.

Livestream Uplink: Sharing the Experience with the World

Finally, to share the conference with a global audience, we managed a livestream uplink via TVU bonded cell video link. This link connected to a master control room where livestream encoding, management, and recording took place. We also had a distributed remote engineering team monitoring the stream. With their expertise and vigilance, we ensured that the conference was accessible to those who couldn't attend in person.

Our Dedicated Team:

• Tim Kerbavaz - Technical Producer: Tim Kerbavaz, a seasoned professional in the audio-visual industry, took the lead on this project. As the Technical Producer, Tim was responsible for overseeing pre-production, gear specification, and acted as the onsite manager and client contact. He also managed the streaming and networking scope for the event.

• Ryan Behrmann - Zoom and Breakout Recording Lead: Ryan Behrmann assumed a critical role in managing Zoom calls and breakout recordings. She spearheaded a team of six local technicians and collaborated closely with the General Session and Breakout operators to ensure that Zoom calls were seamlessly connected and presented in a way that was both visually and auditorily appealing. Her expertise was instrumental in bridging the gap for international participants.

• Jack McRoberts, Networking Lead: Jack McRoberts and his company Copano Media Group provided invaluable network support and additional network hardware to ensure that the increased network demands at the outdoor event ran without a hitch. Jack’s expertise in network management and dedication to ensuring a seamless online experience for attendees made a significant impact on the success of the event.

Our management of digital signage, Zoom calls, breakout recordings, bonded cellular networks, and livestream uplink was only a small part of a bigger production, and we know that the success of this event was a collective effort. Talon Audio Visual was proud to play a pivotal role in supporting Metro Media as they exceeded their client’s expectation.

In the world of live event production, we understand that no two events are alike. Each brings its own unique challenges and opportunities. Our experience at the Moscone Center underscores our commitment to pushing boundaries and delivering seamless, immersive experiences for our clients and their attendees.

As we reflect on the challenges and achievements of this event, we acknowledge the dedication of our team members. Tim Kerbavaz, Ryan Behrmann, Jack McRoberts, and our animator Ray Tarara, along with the rest of the Talon Audio Visual and Metro Media Productions teams, demonstrated unwavering commitment to the success of the production, contributing to the overall success of the conference.

As we look ahead to more events and adventure, we look forward to more opportunities to collaborate and deliver excellence in audio-visual support at future events. You can rest assured that Talon Audio Visual will be there, ready to tackle complex challenges and exceed expectations.

Production with Pride - Davis Pride 2023

It may no longer be June, but Talon Audio Visual is PROUD to be a long time partner of the Davis Phoenix Coalition and Davis Pride - we've been providing the production support to the Davis Pride Festival for many years. Here's a little recap of the fun we had in June!

Raising Funds and Ensuring Access - Captioning and Accessibility Consultation for Children's Miracle Network

When your mission is ensuring that 10 million children receive life saving hospital care each year, you have to sweat the small stuff. Details matter to Children’s Miracle Network, the nonprofit organization that raises funds for children's hospitals across the U.S. and Canada. Among those details are accessibility and equity, areas in the core focus of Talon Audio Visual’s Accessibility Consulting Services. In the Spring of 2023 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals hosted their 2023 Hospital Week event in Sunny Orlando Florida, and reached out to Talon Audio Visual’s Talon Access Service to help ensure that the event was accessible to all their attendees.

Part Telethon, part healthcare industry conference, with a dash of esports, and a live performance from Andy Grammer, it was quite the event. Talon AV / Talon Access provided live human-generated CART captions in the General Session, including for the live musical performance, along with Automatic Speech Recognition Captioning Support in the breakout sessions, and an event-wide accessibility review post-conference for the client and their production teams.

We got great feedback from the Children’s Miracle Network Team, as well as from our partners on the event, one of whom was so blown away she asked us if we could “be [the accessibility] techs for all of our conferences and events? You’re the first I’ve seen that TOTALLY gets what we need to do our job the best we absolutely can.”

At Children’s Hospital Week 2023, Talon AV helped make the great work of Children’s Miracle Network hospitals accessible to all. The positive feedback we received is a testament to Talon AV's expertise in providing comprehensive accessibility solutions.

At Talon Audio Visual, we understand the importance of sweating the small stuff to create meaningful experiences. We invite you to reach out to us for more information about our Talon Access accessibility consulting services. Let us help you ensure that your events are accessible to all, leaving a lasting impact on your audience. Reach out to us today for more information and let's work together towards a more inclusive world.

Awards Season? Let's Get to it!

It’s Awards Season, so here’s a throwback to the UC Davis Alumni Awards, A Night At the Aggies.

Throwback Movie Night!

Talk about #ThrowbackThursday - what about a whole 1950’s drive-in themed gala? We made some cusom “pre-roll” video content as part of a drive-in themed gala for UC Davis - check out the on-brand opening slideshow here.

AV With Pride - Recap of Davis Pride 2022

As June comes to a close, I know we all have a lot on our minds, but I wanted to take a moment to look back and celebrate as we wrap up Pride Month. I know many large cities just celebrated their Pride festivals this past weekend. Here's a look back to a couple of weeks ago when Talon Audio Visual helped celebrate pride in Davis, CA. As an LGBTQIA-owned live events business, Talon Audio Visual has been proud to be the production partner for Davis Pride since 2015, and I look forward to many more years of a successful and growing festival. Hope you enjoy this look back at Davis Pride 2022. This video is #captioned

Thanks to Jolie Media for the great sizzle reel.

Video Description: A colorful review of the Davis Pride festival, this video opens with footage of the AV team setting up speakers and equipment and then transitions to colorful footage of the performers and audience at the festival. The video ends with Tim, dressed in black, speaking directly to the camera.

Congrats Grads! - Graduation 2022

A video recap of Talon Audio Visual's production for the DaVinci Charter Academy Graduation in Davis CA