The hybrid event technical checklist.

The golden rule: the online audience is not an afterthought — it's usually the bigger audience. Design the show for both rooms from day one.

Audio. Will the stream take a dedicated mix (not the room PA feed)? Who provides the audio split? Are remote speakers' returns mix-minus so they don't hear themselves? Audio is 80% of perceived stream quality — settle it first.

Cameras and vision. How many cameras cover the stage, and is at least one shot framed for screens rather than the back of the room? Are slides fed to the stream as a clean source rather than a camera pointed at a projector? Who mixes the stream — and is that a different person from whoever mixes the room screens?

Remote contribution. How do remote speakers join — a managed broadcast link or a consumer video call? Have they been tested on the actual hardware? What happens in the room when a remote speaker presents: where do they appear, and can they see and hear the room properly?

Connectivity. Is there dedicated, wired internet for the stream — separate from venue guest Wi-Fi? What's the backup path (bonded 4G/5G, second circuit)? Has someone actually speed-tested the line from the position the encoder will sit?

The platform layer. Where does the online audience watch, and can they interact — Q&A, polls, chat? Do questions from the platform reach the moderator on stage? Is registration data captured somewhere useful?

People. Who is the single technical point of contact across venue AV, streaming and platform? On hybrid shows the most common failure isn't equipment — it's three suppliers each assuming another one owns the gap. That's the job we're most often hired to do: own the gap.