Influential Women in Events & Marketing

On a wet Wednesday in March, guests of networking group Influential Women in Events & Marketing were treated to an immersive event experience – a collaboration between Event Emporium, Beta and AV1.

From the moment the elevator doors opened guests began a journey of the senses.

Beta, an incredible venue space in the heart of Sydney CBD, delighted with its rustic, fiery atmosphere, fresh and fruity cocktails, and an incredible display of seafood and vegan bites.

Event Emporium, the brains behind the immersive production, created moments to remember throughout.

Creative Director Francesca Peskops spoke about immersive experiences being the key to improving event ROI and demonstrated how immersive technology can completely change the feel of a room and intent of an audience.

AV1’s Toni McAllister and Beta’s Tegan Burford then joined the panel for a fascinating Q&A discussion with the audience.

The tech in the room played a crucial role. It had a clear purpose: to immerse guests in an environment unique to them, invigorate their senses, and spark conversation. All with the aim to facilitate networking and engagement. That is why they came after all.

AV1 Producer Luke Fosbury was the mastermind behind the technical elements. Here’s what was involved.

Feature screens & wall projection

The feature set involved eight 75” portrait screens, connected together to create one large, panoramic screen.

We set the screens with a slight curve to ‘hug’ the audience, ensuring a more immersive feel and creating a unique wow-factor.

Being so close to the action meant guests were highly engaged with the presenters and content throughout.

We chose to use LCD panels rather than a LED screen, as it provided higher definition for the large, detailed videos, photos and graphics. The combined screens incorporated a huge 8640 x 1980 pixels.

To playback such large file sizes with high definition content we used Coolux technology.

Above the feature screens we used a two-projector blend straight onto the raw brick wall to show large imagery and titles to accompany the feature content on screen. This aided the storytelling aspect – reinforcing the content with eye-catching graphics.

Projection mapping

To showcase Beta’s incredible food, we created custom animations that were projected directly onto grazing tables. All content was designed by our media team, and our onsite team used Coolux technology to run the 3D projection mapping.

We used two special projectors to point the projection directly downwards, rather than the standard forward or rear projection.

We also used masks (projected white shapes positioned to block out certain areas) to halo the grazing plates and warp reality. For example the sharks didn’t swim over the top of the food – just around it – giving the illusion the food plates were floating on water.

Custom content

When it comes to immersive events – or any event – the most important element is content. It doesn’t matter how fantastic your set up is, how big your screens are, or how crisp your projection is… if you haven’t got good content to display, you might as well scrap the tech altogether.

AV1’s media team created bespoke graphics, seamless animated transitions and sourced specific imagery and footage to complement the presentations.

The content for the grazing tables was created from scratch – ocean themed graphics for the Seafood table and forest themed for the Vegan table.

Each table looped through three designs – keeping things fresh, interesting and providing many ‘grammable’ moments.

Sprintr by AV1

Guests were treated to an engaging entry right from the get-go with the Sprintr kiosks. The kiosks were branded with the event’s colours, graphics and logos, and designed to complement the venue’s unique backdrop.

A quick entry is a good entry. After selecting their name on screen they were then asked a quick question; What’s your favourite type of movie? (a bit of fun!) before sticking on their name badge and being handed a fruity gin cocktail.