In short
- Decide the layout first: speaker only, speaker with slides, or slides with a small speaker.
- Slides can come from the AV feed, a filmed screen or a file you supply. Each has trade-offs.
- Name who changes slides, who runs the AV desk and who supplies final files.
- Screen capture and picture-in-picture are available on request, confirmed for each event.
Choose the layout first, then where the slides come from, then who is responsible for keeping them in step with the speaker. Say all three in the brief, because they affect cameras, cables and editing.
Three layouts to choose from
| Layout | What viewers see | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speaker only | The speaker, with slides seen on the room screen if at all | Talks with few slides, ceremonies | Slides may be unreadable |
| Speaker with slides | Slides large, speaker in a small box (picture-in-picture), switching as needed | Training, seminars, technical talks | Needs a clean slide source |
| Slides with voice | Slides full frame with the audio | Webinars, software demos | Loses the speaker’s presence |
For most seminars, speaker with slides is the practical choice. The editor can switch to a larger speaker view when the slide is just a title and back to the slide when it carries information.
Where do the slides come from?
This is the decision that most affects quality.
- Direct feed from the AV desk or presenter laptop. The cleanest picture. It needs a free output on the AV equipment and a person to manage it.
- A camera filming the screen. Needs no connection to the AV system, but the picture can flicker, glare or look dull.
- Slide files supplied by you. The editor places clean slides over the recording. This needs final files and someone to mark when each slide changes.
- Screen capture of the laptop. Used for software demos. The presenter’s laptop must allow it.
Which one is possible depends on the room and equipment. The venue filming questions checklist lists what to ask the venue’s AV team.
Who keeps slides and speaker in sync
Sync means that the slide on screen matches what the speaker is saying. It can go wrong when speakers skip slides, go back, or use animations.
| Task | Usually done by |
|---|---|
| Change slides during the talk | The speaker, or an AV operator |
| Provide the live slide feed | The AV team or the presenter laptop |
| Record the feed and the camera together | Our crew |
| Match slide timing in the edit | Our editor, using the recorded feed or marked slide changes |
| Provide final slide files | You or the speaker |
| Check names and spelling on slides | You |
If a person on your side changes the slides, tell us. A recorded slide feed with time marks is much easier to line up than a feed we must guess at later.
Practical points that are easy to miss
- Changeovers. Each presenter laptop swap can cause a gap or a flicker. Plan a short test between sessions.
- Resolution and text size. Small text may be unreadable in a recording. Ask speakers to use large fonts.
- Confidential slides. Mark them so they can be hidden in any shared version. See public and private edits.
- Sound. Slides do not help if the speaker cannot be heard. Check microphones with the audio brief builder.
- Two rooms or several tracks. Each track may need its own camera and slide source.
An illustrative example
For example, a half-day seminar has four speakers in one room. The organiser asks for each talk as a separate file, with picture-in-picture, slides from the AV desk feed, and a wide camera as backup.
The organiser also sends final slides one day before, names an AV contact and asks speakers to use one shared laptop. Our crew records the slide feed and the camera together, and the editor sets the layout for each talk. This is an illustration, not a past client.
What we confirm for your event
- The layout, so viewers see the speaker and slides at once.
- Whether we take the slide feed directly or film the screen.
- Who needs to be at the AV desk, and what we need from the venue.
- What we need from you before the day, such as final slides.
- How we fix slides and speech that drift out of step.
See our seminar and workshop recording and conference and convention videography services. For more detail on the finished files, read what a full recording includes and use the video deliverable selector to build your list. Our event videography quote can then include the layout and slide source.
If your session depends on slides or a screen demo, tell us the room, the presenter laptops and who runs the audio-visual (AV) desk. We will plan how the slides are captured.
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