Efficient Onsite Recording: How Playback Now Navigated the Sleep 2023 Conference

Earlier this year, Playback Now began working with a new group, and their annual conference was held in Indianapolis, June 3-7.  SLEEP is the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), which is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and the Sleep Research Society (SRS).  Ironically, nothing about this conference or topic was “sleep-inducing”.  In fact, quite the opposite…this was a lively and fascinating conference featuring an interesting blend of doctors, sleep experts, sleep therapists and medical researchers.  Everything you ever wanted to know about sleep…or the lack thereof.

This is the type of work Playback Now would call “production-only”…in other words, no sales booth, no commerce site, no livestreaming.  But don’t let the word “only” fool you.  There was nothing “only” about this work for Playback Now.  As a part of the Sandbox Solution, it’s ensured Playback Now works seamlessly with all the vendors you already have in place. Playback Now sent 2 of its finest production technicians to Indianapolis to cover 9 concurrent rooms spread out in the sprawling Indianapolis Convention Center for 5 days.  In the past, this work was handled by SLEEP’s AV team, but as is typically the case, many AV companies just don’t have the manpower or time onsite to assure quality recordings and speedy delivery of edited files.  AV companies set up the rooms with microphones, speakers, mixers, projectors, and screens, but more and more, they’re letting the experts handle the nitty gritty tasks like recording and editing sessions.  There are a lot of gray areas in the AV world, as most meeting coordinators and event planners have no doubt discovered, and getting a lot of sessions professionally recorded and edited quickly is definitely a gray area that Playback Now adds its own unique color.  Some AV companies might be threatened by an outside company coming in and handling a specific AV task like this, but not SLEEP’s AV company.  They confided with Playback Now that they were all too happy to pass this work on to a company that can handle the volume and get the job done efficiently and effectively.

And sure enough, when it was all said and done, Playback Now delivered the goods…and the edited files.  140 files to be exact…all delivered on a hard drive onsite on the final day to a very happy client.

 Tools of the Trade – A Playback Now audio recorder captures the session audio from AV’s mixer in the foreground, while a Playback Now laptop captures PowerPoints near AV’s projector in the background.

Delivery of Exceptional Quality

But the work wasn’t done.  SLEEP sessions featured many panels, and not every panelist gave permission to be recorded.  So a 2^nd round of editing was required to edit out all the presenters who didn’t give permission.  And once again, Playback Now turned this workaround with amazing efficiency – thanks to our 24-hour turnaround time.  And once again, the client was thrilled.  So thrilled they immediately asked Playback Now to block the dates for their 2024 event.

You may wonder, what’s involved for Playback Now to get all this work done onsite with just 2 people.  The answer: Good equipment – Playback Now uses its own professional recording equipment…Good coordination – Playback Now works together closely with the hired AV company to get the best recording feeds…Hard work – recording and editing that many files over a 5 day conference requires some late nights, there are no shortcuts to that…and a LOT of walking!  SLEEP walking in this case.

Walking the Extra Mile

There are 2 pieces to every session recording…the audio recording and the PowerPoint capture.  The audio recording is always the most important piece.  As Playback Now preaches again and again, you can’t fix bad audio.  So ensuring the best audio quality is priority Number One for Playback Now.  And the only way to ensure this with a conference of 140 sessions delivered by over 500 panelists is to stay vigilant in monitoring all 9 rooms all day long.  This means a lot walking…in very spacious convention centers.  As a result, counting steps has become a favorite Playback Now competitive activity.  At SLEEP in particular, with 9 rooms spread out over multiple floors, each Playback Now tech was accumulating well over 20,000 steps per day in their continuous effort to monitor quality.  That’s over 10 miles of walking!  Or in this case, SLEEP walking.  Nobody is complaining about this.  Some people run for exercise…some people bike…some people do Orange Theory.  Playback Now techs record sessions in large convention centers.  During COVID, when onsite recording went away, Playback Now techs noticed their belts getting tighter around their waists.  The lack of physical activity was showing.  So now that conventions have somewhat returned to normal, Playback Now techs are once again feeling a bounce to their steps.

While convention attendees sit and learn, Playback Now techs walk and monitor…and pile up the steps in the process.  The above example is a 4-day stretch in which Todd Galucki walked nearly 80 miles at a conference.

Monitoring session quality is a very important part of what makes Playback Now such a perfect option for “production-only” work.  AV companies have the equipment and can certainly press the “REC” button, but they just don’t have the manpower or patience to monitor those recordings all day long, and then get them edited so quickly.  Playback Now can do that…they’ve been doing it for years.  Heck, they can almost do it in their SLEEP!

And you can probably guess what those 2 Playback Now techs did when they returned home after 40 miles of walking over the course of 4 days…they slept!