Corporate Event AV FAQ: Costs, Booking and Equipment

Answers to the questions corporate planners ask NAVP most often about event AV in Houston: what it costs, how far ahead to book, how hotel in-house AV works, and how to choose screens. Prices are drawn from recent NAVP projects.

How much does conference AV cost in Houston?

Conference AV in Houston typically costs under $10,000 for a virtual or small program, $15,000–$25,000 for a one-day, single-room conference, and $60,000–$100,000 for a multi-day or multi-room meeting with breakouts or LED walls. The biggest factors are the screens, the number of rooms and days, and labor hours. Typical ranges based on recent NAVP projects, before sales tax:

What drives the cost of event AV?

Screens drive event AV cost more than anything else, followed by the number of rooms, the number of days and labor hours. An LED wall costs more than a projection screen of the same size, each breakout room adds its own equipment and technician time, and every extra day adds equipment rental and crew. Rigging from the ceiling, overnight or same-day turnovers, and travel for out-of-town meetings also add cost.

How much does a breakout room cost?

A standard NAVP breakout room package costs about $800 per room per day for equipment: a 5,000-lumen projector, a 96″ tripod screen, a powered speaker, a mixer, a wireless microphone, a flipchart and a presentation remote. Technician labor is added based on how many rooms each technician covers and how long the sessions run.

Should I choose an LED wall or projection?

Choose an LED wall when the room has daylight, low ceilings or no space behind the stage; choose projection when you need a very large image on a tighter budget in a room you can darken. LED walls are bright enough to read with the lights up and need no throw distance. Projection is less expensive at large sizes but needs a dark room and space for the projector. At Historic Union Station, for example, NAVP built pipe-and-drape cones behind each projection screen to block light from the windows.

What LED wall pixel pitch do I need?

A common rule of thumb is that the closest comfortable viewing distance in feet is about 3.3 times the pixel pitch in millimeters. NAVP’s own Unilumin Upad III panels have a 2.6 mm pitch, which looks sharp from about 9 feet back, so they work for general sessions where the front row sits close to the stage. Larger pitches cost less and suit screens viewed only from a distance.

Can I bring my own AV company into a hotel with in-house AV?

Yes, but the moment to protect your budget is before you sign the hotel contract. Most Houston hotels allow an outside AV company, but many hotel contracts include charges that apply when you bring in a third-party AV vendor, such as fees for power, internet, rigging or patching into the house sound system.

Ask for the AV section of your hotel contract before you sign it. This is the critical moment: while you are still negotiating with the hotel, you can ask it to waive third-party AV vendor charges as part of the deal. Once the contract is signed, those charges are usually locked in.

NAVP can review the AV section with you before you sign and include any remaining house fees in its quote. Some work, such as ceiling rigging, may still have to be done by the hotel’s in-house team.

How far in advance should I book AV for a conference?

Book AV as soon as your venue and dates are confirmed. NAVP’s multi-room meetings are usually quoted two to four months ahead, which leaves time for site visits, room diagrams and rehearsal planning. NAVP requires a 50% deposit to hold the date, with the balance due 72 hours before load-in.

Is sales tax included in an AV quote?

No. Texas sales tax of 8.25% is added to the equipment and labor total unless your organization is tax-exempt. Tax-exempt organizations should send their Texas sales tax exemption certificate with the signed quote so it can be applied to the final invoice.

Can NAVP livestream or record our sessions?

Yes. Every NAVP system is built with hybrid and streaming capability, so sessions can be streamed to remote attendees or overflow rooms and recorded at the same time. Remote speakers can join over Zoom through the same switcher that feeds the house screens. For the 2022 Algae Biomass Summit, NAVP ran 16 days of live Zoom webinars.

Does NAVP travel outside Houston?

Yes. NAVP serves Houston, The Woodlands, Katy, Sugar Land and Galveston from its warehouse in Spring, and travels with clients for meetings elsewhere. For Group 1 Automotive’s 2024 annual meeting, NAVP flew a seven-person production team to Orlando for three days.

What does NAVP need to give me a quote?

NAVP needs five details to quote: the event date, the venue or city, the expected headcount, the number of rooms or breakouts, and whether any sessions will be streamed. Send them through the Request a Quote form or call (832) 427-9584.

See also Conference & General Session AV, Energy-Sector Conference AV and Case Studies.