Two tickets each, and a family of six.
Every graduation runs into the same wall. The hall seats what it seats, so each graduand gets two guest tickets, and the grandparents, the siblings and the family still overseas do not get one. For international students that is most of the people who paid for the degree.
A stream fixes that, but only if it is treated as part of the ceremony rather than a camera at the back. Names have to be right. The crossing of the stage has to be caught, not missed while the camera is elsewhere. And it has to hold up for five consecutive ceremonies, because the family watching the last one of the day did not get a worse ticket.
We work with universities and colleges on graduation season, prize ceremonies and open days, and on the awkward ones too: cathedral venues, marquees, and buildings with no usable internet.
What the day needs
Ceremony five looks like ceremony one.
For your procurement team
The paperwork, before you ask for it.
Certificates, method statements and risk assessments go out with the quote rather than on request. It saves a round of emails and it is what most venues want before they let a crew through the door.
Public & products liability
£5,000,000
Any one occurrence. Certificate supplied with the quote.
Employers’ liability
£10,000,000
Any one occurrence, covering our own crew and freelancers.
RAMS
As standard
Risk assessment and method statement written for your venue, not a template.
PAT
All kit tested
Everything that plugs in is PAT tested, with records available on request.
Also on file: hired-in equipment cover to £500,000, and our environmental, equality, anti-bribery, anti-slavery and supplier policies. All of it here ›
Questions ceremonies teams ask.
How do you handle several ceremonies in one day?
With a rig that stays in place and a crew that does not tire out. The fifth ceremony of the day has to look like the first, so we build for the whole run rather than for one ceremony, and we plan the turnaround between them with your ceremonies team.
Can families overseas watch?
That is usually the main reason for streaming a graduation. We deliver to a platform that works internationally and, where time zones make live viewing impossible, the recording goes up promptly so nobody misses it by a day.
How do you get the names right?
We work from your reading order and brief the graphics operator with it beforehand. Names on screen come from your list rather than from someone hearing them over a PA, which is how most name errors happen.
Do graduation recordings need captions?
If the recording stays published for more than fourteen days it is treated as pre-recorded content and needs accurate captions. University graduation archives are usually kept for years, so in practice yes. This is background rather than legal advice.
Can you stream to overflow rooms as well?
Yes. The same production can feed IMAG screens in the hall, an overflow room for guests who could not get a ticket, and the public stream at the same time.
What if the venue is a cathedral or a marquee rather than a hall?
Fine, and common. We plan camera positions and cable routes around the building, and we bring our own bonded connectivity so a venue with no usable line is not a problem.
When should we book?
As early as the ceremony dates are fixed. Graduation season concentrates into a few weeks in July and again in the winter, so crew and BSL interpreters are competing for the same handful of days.
Graduation season coming?
Send us the ceremony schedule and the venue and we will tell you what it takes to cover the whole run properly.