Can you work to a fixed budget?

Yes. Tell us the number and the non-negotiables, and we design the strongest show that fits inside it — usually by simplifying scenery and scope rather than by cutting backups or rehearsal time.

How much power should we order for an LED booth wall?

Work from the panel specification rather than a rule of thumb. Indoor panels typically average 150 to 350 watts per square metre with a peak well above that, so a 12 square metre wall plus processing, players and accent lighting commonly needs a 15 to 20 ampere three-phase feed to run comfortably. Order to measured peak plus headroom, because an under-ordered feed is the most expensive saving at an exhibition.

LED wall or large-format screens for a stand?

LED wins for brightness in a daylight-affected hall, for seamless large areas and for non-standard shapes. Screens win for small stands, for close-up detail content and for budget. For anything above roughly 6 square metres of display area, LED is usually both brighter and better value than tiling screens, and it survives being looked at from two feet away less well, which is worth considering for text-heavy content.

Can the stand team run the AV themselves?

Yes, if it is designed for that. Scheduled power-on and shutdown, auto-playing local content, a single remote for source changes and one printed page of instructions will cover almost every situation. What they cannot do is re-map a processor or repatch a failed player, which is why a technician on call in the hall for the show days is normal on anything larger than a single screen.

Why does exhibition build cost more per hour than other events?

Because the window is fixed, shared and short. Thirty-six hours of access, one marshalling yard, queuing lifts and an organiser clearance deadline mean crews work compressed shifts with overtime, and preparation that would be optional elsewhere becomes mandatory here. The kit is often cheaper than a conference rig; the labour, the handling and the organiser-mandated contractor charges are what move the number.

How do we stop our audio annoying the neighbours?

Design for your own stand footprint only. That means near-field or directional speakers aimed down at visitor height, multiple small sources rather than two loud ones, headphone stations for long-form content, and a measured level cap at the stand boundary. Set it during the build with the hall quiet and then re-check once the hall is full, because the noise floor rises and operators creep the level up.

What content works best on a trade-show stand?

Short, silent, legible loops. Visitors look for three to six seconds, so content must carry one message per frame at large type, read without audio, and loop seamlessly without a visible restart. Save detailed material for a touchscreen or a headphone station where someone has chosen to engage. Avoid dialogue-driven films on the main wall; they are watched from the middle and understood by nobody.

Exhibitions & Trade Shows: How AV Scope Is Decided

Category: Cost & Pricing
Read time: 8 min
Sections: 4
Updated: Dec 2025

Key takeaway

AV scope for exhibitions & trade shows is built up in levels. Sound, screens and lighting account for most of it; spectacle elements sit on top of a working base rather than replacing it. The levels below set out what each one actually includes.

Key takeaways

Single booth
Feature stand
Pavilion plus keynote
Hall-wide production

What exhibitions & trade shows budgets actually cover

An exhibition is a power-distribution problem before it is an audio-visual one. Every booth draws from a shared hall supply through a metered feed ordered weeks in advance from the organiser's appointed electrical contractor, and the single most common cause of a dark booth is a feed ordered at half the load the LED wall and processing actually need. Calculate the draw honestly, order single or three phase deliberately, keep LED processors and media players on their own circuit away from switched lighting, and put a small uninterruptible supply behind anything whose reboot takes four minutes.

Scope levels

Single booth

A 3x3 or 4x4 metre stand for three days: an LED wall or large-format screen, a media player with attract-loop playback, a touchscreen and a short-throw audio point.

Feature stand

A larger pavilion with multiple screens or a shaped LED feature, interactive stations, accent lighting, local content management and a technician attending daily.

Pavilion plus keynote

A hall pavilion with a presentation stage: PA, delegate and radio mics, presentation switching, session recording, and multiple booth screens on a managed content system.

Hall-wide production

Organiser-side delivery across a full hall: inaugural stage, registration and wayfinding screens, pavilion lighting, multiple session rooms and a floating crew for the run of the show.

Where scope quietly expands

What can go wrong

How we prevent it

What can go wrong
The booth trips and takes a section of the hall's phase with it.
How we prevent it
Calculate draw per circuit honestly, order the correct feed from the appointed contractor, balance across phases, and put inrush-heavy LED and lighting on separate protected circuits with their own breakers.
What can go wrong
The power order is placed at half the real load to save money.
How we prevent it
Produce a written load schedule per device at design stage, size the order to measured draw plus headroom, and treat the contractor's feed cost as fixed infrastructure rather than a negotiable line.
What can go wrong
Content arrives in the wrong aspect for a non-standard LED canvas.
How we prevent it
Issue the exact pixel canvas map and safe area to the content team at briefing, and test the real files on the real processing during the build rather than on a laptop.
What can go wrong
The truck sits in the marshalling queue and the build window shrinks.
How we prevent it
Book a load-in slot, load in build order with numbered cases, and send a small advance team to secure the footprint while the vehicle waits its turn.

Typical split

Roughly a third sound, a third screens and video, a quarter lighting and staging, and the remainder crew, transport and power. Your scope: booth LED & touchscreens; keynote stage PA; pavilion lighting; content playback. Get an itemised quote from Prime AV Solutions within 24 hours — call +91 93093 80958 or WhatsApp our producers.

Published 2 December 2025 by the Prime AV Solutions production team.

FAQ

Exhibitions & Trade Shows: How AV Scope Is Decided: FAQs

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