When should each item be locked?

Scope and budget at booking, venue-dependent items after the recce, run of show two weeks out and content 72 hours before. Anything open inside 48 hours should be escalated rather than tracked.

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 AV Checklist

Category: Checklists
Read time: 7 min
Sections: 3
Updated: Nov 2025

Key takeaway

A complete AV checklist for exhibitions & trade shows covers booth LED & touchscreens, keynote stage PA, pavilion lighting, content playback, plus backup power, a technical rehearsal and a named show-caller. Confirm every line in writing with your AV partner a week before the event.

Key takeaways

Booth LED & touchscreens
Keynote stage PA
Pavilion lighting
Content playback

Exhibitions & Trade Shows: AV checklist

Scope

Booth LED & touchscreens
Keynote stage PA
Pavilion lighting
Content playback

Power & backup

Silent generator with automatic changeover sized to the full rig
UPS protection on consoles, media servers and switchers
Spare microphones, cables and a spare radio channel held in reserve

Run of show

T−48 hrs — Marshalling and load-in slot
T−36 hrs — Structure and power
T−24 hrs — LED and screen build
T−12 hrs — Content and brightness set
T−2 hrs — Handover to the stand team
10:00 — Hall opens, day one
12:30 — Keynote stage session
17:00 — Hall closes

What you will be judged on

The stand was live and tested before the hall opened on day one, not during the first visitor hour.
Screens and content ran all three days without a visitor ever seeing a desktop, an error or a black panel.
The stand team could start, stop and recover the system from a single printed page without calling anybody.
Neither the organiser nor a neighbouring exhibitor raised a complaint about power draw or audio spill.
Content read clearly on camera and in photographs taken under hall lighting with the doors open.

What this prevents

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.
What can go wrong
Booth audio spills and the organiser orders it switched off.
How we prevent it
Design short-throw, downward-facing coverage over your own stand area, set a measured level at the stand boundary, and use directional or near-field speakers rather than a pair of full-range boxes.
What can go wrong
The system does not come back after an overnight hall power event.
How we prevent it
Set players and processors to auto-power-on and auto-play, schedule start-up before hall opening, and keep a small uninterruptible supply on anything with a long boot sequence.

Tailor it to your event

Get an itemised quote from Prime AV Solutions within 24 hours — call +91 93093 80958 or WhatsApp our producers.

Published 30 November 2025 by the Prime AV Solutions production team.

FAQ

Exhibitions & Trade Shows AV Checklist: FAQs

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