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Guest post
Hybrid events and live streams that work for every generation
A hybrid event is two events at once, one in the room and one on screens elsewhere, and a mixed-age audience raises the stakes for both. Clear sound, checked captions, one simple joining link and a recording afterwards help every generation. This guide from Granary Digital, which films and streams conferences and hybrid events, covers the stream, the room, remote speakers and a checklist for the day.
A conference streamed to staff at other sites, a town hall on Teams and a church service streamed to people at home all have one thing in common: an audience that is not in the room. Many also have an audience that spans several generations. I run Granary Digital, a studio and production company near Chichester that also films and streams conferences and hybrid events, and most of what makes a stream work for a mixed-age audience is decided before the day.
In Communication Habits and Preferences 2024, the survey of 4,067 people published on this site, 55% of workers communicated by video call for work. How much they enjoy it varies with age: 18% of 18 to 21 year olds who use video calls for work enjoy them frequently, against 40% of Baby Boomers. An online audience will not all be equally practised, equipped or at ease, so the production has to do the work.
What is a hybrid event, and why does age matter?
A hybrid event has an audience in the room and an audience watching remotely, often with speakers in both places. Age matters because it shapes how people hear, see and join in. RNID estimates that over half the population aged 55 or more have hearing loss, and that almost 80% of people over the age of 70 will. Preferences differ too: in the same survey, 32% of 22 to 27 year olds whose jobs involve networking in person would prefer to network online, while 44% of Baby Boomers said they quite like networking in person. A good hybrid event offers both routes and makes each one work.
The guide to running events for a multigenerational audience on this site covers format, timing, networking and the choice of speakers. This piece covers the production: what the remote audience sees and hears, and what the room needs to make the two halves meet.
How do you make the stream feel like a programme?
Give remote viewers more than a camera at the back of the hall. Several cameras cut live on a vision mixer, name captions for each speaker and holding slides for the breaks turn a view of the backs of heads into a programme they can follow.
Sound comes before pictures. Every voice needs a microphone, including every question from the floor, because a question the microphones miss is lost to everyone watching online and to many people in the room. Give the stream its own mix of those microphones, separate from the sound in the room, and have someone listen to it on headphones throughout.
Then there is the connection. At Granary we stream on our own connectivity, never the venue Wi-Fi, which is shared with every phone and laptop in the building. Whoever runs your stream, ask for a wired line that has been tested at the venue before the day.
How do you make it accessible to every age?
Switch on captions. Teams, Zoom and Google Meet all offer automatic captions; check them in the rehearsal, since names and technical terms are where they slip. For a large or public stream, a human captioner is more reliable with both.
Keep joining simple. Send one link by email, with a text reminder on the day, that opens in a web browser without an app to download. Add a phone number for anyone who gets stuck: 62% of the Silent Generation and 49% of Baby Boomers in the 2024 survey like phone conversations and have them frequently.
Make the room work for people with hearing loss. If the venue has a hearing loop, feed it a clean mix of the microphones and test it before the doors open. Big screens that show each speaker's face in close-up help people at the back follow expressions and lip movements, as well as slides.
Keep text legible on every screen. Slides that work on a projector can be unreadable in a small window on a laptop, so use large type and strong contrast, and put anything people need to note, such as a link or a phone number, on screen for longer than you think.
How do you bring remote speakers into the room?
A speaker joining from elsewhere needs to hear the room and see the audience, and the audience needs to see and hear them at a size that works. That means return audio and video for the speaker, a view of the room on their screen and a rehearsal of their link on the day, with a fallback such as a phone line or a recorded version of their talk.
On our streams, remote contributors are brought into the mix with return audio and video, and their feed is recorded separately for the edit, so a wobble on the line can be tidied in the version that goes out afterwards.
Questions should flow both ways. Ask a moderator to gather questions from the online chat and read them out alongside questions from the floor, so remote viewers are part of the conversation.
Why record the event?
Not everyone who wants to watch can do so live. Shift workers, carers and people in other time zones can watch later if you let them, and a church service streamed to people at home and recorded for the week ahead reaches more of its congregation than one that disappears when the stream ends.
Record every camera separately, so the event can be edited into a tidy version for people who missed it, plus short clips for social media and for promoting the next event.
A checklist for the day
Book the connection
A wired line you control, tested at the venue, never the shared Wi-Fi.
Plan the sound
A microphone for every voice, roving microphones for questions from the floor, and a clean mix for the stream and the hearing loop.
Switch on captions
Automatic captions checked in rehearsal, or a human captioner for names and technical terms.
Send one link
By email, with a text reminder on the day, opening in a browser, with a phone number for help.
Rehearse remote speakers
Test each link on the day, with return audio, a view of the room and a fallback.
Record everything
Each camera separately, for the replay, the edited version and short clips.
For the thinking behind the format, listen to Rob Davidson, Managing Director of MICE Knowledge, on reinventing conferences for a multigenerational audience, one of the podcast's earliest episodes.
Frequently asked questions
What is a hybrid event?
An event with an audience in the room and an audience watching remotely, often with speakers in both places. It needs two sets of arrangements: sound, screens and seating for the room, and cameras, captions and a reliable stream for the people watching elsewhere.
How do you make a live stream accessible?
Give every voice a microphone, switch on captions and check them in rehearsal, keep slide text large with strong contrast, send one joining link that opens in a browser, and offer a phone number for help. Record the event so people can watch later.
Should you stream an event over the venue Wi-Fi?
It is better not to. Venue Wi-Fi is shared with every phone and laptop in the building. Use a wired connection you control, tested at the venue before the day.
Book Alastair to speak at or host an event with a mixed-age audience.
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