By the Exhibition Stall Design editorial team · Updated 1 October 2026 · 9 min read
Short answer
To brief projection mapping accurately, answer thirteen questions on one page — the venue and the surface or screen size, the load-in and show dates, the show pattern, the available power and rigging, the goal with a figure attached, the audience, what is being shown, the content plan, the redundancy you want, a budget range and the approval chain — and send the identical text to every supplier. That is what makes two quotes comparable.
Key takeaways
- One page is enough. A dozen fields, a budget range and three reference images beat a five-page document with no numbers in it.
- State one primary goal with a number attached. "Build brand awareness" and "book 40 distributor meetings" produce two completely different results at the same cost.
- Share the budget as a range. A supplier who does not know the band will either over-design and lose your week, or under-design and lose the show.
- Every blank field becomes an assumption, and every assumption is priced for the worst case. That is the whole argument for filling it in.
- Say who is producing the content, in what format, and by when. It is the longest-lead item on most AV scopes.
- Name the approver and the decision date. The real timeline is usually your sign-off chain, not the workshop.
What a good brief is actually worth
Most exhibitors believe a quote is a statement about a supplier. It is mostly a statement about a brief. Given the dimensions, the dates, the specification and the outcome, any competent supplier arrives at a similar number; given "we need something impressive for the event next month", three will return three unrelated figures, and the gap between them is not skill — it is the different assumptions each one made to fill your gaps.
The practical consequence is a procurement problem. Event managers, corporate communication teams and agencies running conferences, launches, dealer meets and public shows tend to discover it at the comparison stage, when three figures refuse to line up. For a projection mapping scope the price is driven mainly by show duration and number of event days, equipment size and specification (screen size, projector brightness or drone count) and content creation and programming time, and every one of those is information that lives with you rather than with the supplier.
The second reason to write it down is time. A brief with every field answered produces a concept and an itemised quote inside 48 hours. A brief with four fields missing produces a clarification email, a reply two days later, a second clarification, and a proposal in week two — out of a schedule that also has to contain content production and a rehearsal. The brief is the cheapest week you will ever buy back.
A quote is mostly a statement about your brief, not about the supplier. Fix the variables and the numbers become comparable.
What to write, and why anyone wants to know
Below is the whole template in one grid: the field, why it is asked, and how a complete brief answers it. The worked column follows a single exhibitor throughout — consumer appliance brand, running a dealer conference and a product reveal, with a main stage with a 7 × 4 m LED wall and two delegate screens — so the answers hang together rather than being a dozen unrelated examples.
Use the middle column as a test. An answer that would not let you make the decision described is not yet an answer. That is the difference between a brief that produces a proposal and one that produces a question.
| Field | Why it is asked | Example answer |
|---|---|---|
| Company, brand and what you sell | Decides tone: the same budget produces very different work for a technical audience and a consumer one | Consumer appliance brand, running a dealer conference and a product reveal |
| Event name, city and venue | Decides transport distance, local labour rules, working hours and which rulebook applies | Annual partner conference, hotel ballroom; venue confirmed |
| Load-in, rehearsal and show dates | Every other date in the project is calculated backwards from this one | Load-in and rehearsal the day before; show as per the run order |
| One primary goal, with a number | Decides the whole approach. The same budget spent on reach and spent on depth produce completely different work | Get the reveal filmed and shared by at least half the room, and brief 400 dealers on the new range |
| Who you want to reach | Determines sightlines, reading distances and how much of the scope is intimate versus broadcast | Regional dealers and distributors, plus trade press for the reveal |
| What is being shown or revealed | Decides what occupies the hero position and what has to be built or rigged to serve it | One hero appliance under a reveal, and a three-minute brand film before it |
| Brand assets and references | Print-ready files decide whether graphics can be produced at all; references tell the designer what you mean by words like "premium" | Logo in vector, brand guidelines, product photography; three reference images with a line on each |
| Approvers and decision date | Tells the supplier how many revision rounds to plan for and whether your dates are realistic | Marketing head approves; sign-off within five working days of the concept |
| Surface, screen or room dimensions | The single biggest driver of hardware cost — projector count, panel count and processing all follow from it | a main stage with a 7 × 4 m LED wall and two delegate screens |
| Available power and rigging points | Decides feasibility before aesthetics — an unriggable position changes the design entirely | To be confirmed on a site visit; venue curfew applies |
| Content: who makes it, and in what format | Content is the longest-lead item on most AV scopes, and the wrong aspect ratio cannot be fixed on the night | We produce it; confirm format, resolution and the last acceptable delivery date |
One page, filled in like this, is enough to produce a proposal and an itemised quote without a single clarifying question.
The blank version, ready to paste
Copy this into whatever you write in. Leave the headings alone — they are what makes two replies comparable — and send the same text to everyone on your list. Improving the brief between suppliers is the quickest way to end up unable to choose between them.
Attach your reference images and brand files separately rather than describing them. Three images with one honest line each — "this layout, not this colour"; "this lighting, we do not need the moving element" — are worth more than a page of adjectives.
- Company / brand, and what you sell:
- Who buys from you, and who you want to reach at this event:
- Event name, city and venue:
- Primary goal, with a number attached:
- Secondary goal, if any:
- What is being shown, demonstrated or revealed:
- Elements you do not want:
- Brand assets attached (logo, guidelines, product photography):
- Reference images attached, with a line on what you liked about each:
- Budget range, and what it excludes:
- Who approves, and by when:
- How many suppliers you are briefing:
- Anything the venue or organiser restricts that we should know about:
- Room, stage or surface dimensions:
- Load-in date and available hours:
- Show dates, running times and repeats per day:
- Available power at the position, and rigging points:
- Venue noise limit and curfew:
- What must carry a spare (projector, server, radio channel):
The same brief, written out properly
Fields in a table can still be answered uselessly. Below is the same brief written as a supplier would want to read it — six short paragraphs, each answering a group of fields with something specific enough to work from.
What is striking about a good brief is how little of it describes the result. The creative decisions are the supplier's to propose — the constraints, the outcomes and the contents are the parts only you know.
01
Context
We sell consumer appliances through a dealer network and hold one national dealer conference a year. This year we are launching a new range at it, so the evening session has to work as both a trade briefing and a press moment. We have run the conference before with a basic stage and screen; we have never attempted a reveal.
02
Where it happens, and how often
The scope is a main stage with a 7 × 4 m LED wall and two delegate screens, three conference days, one rehearsal evening. We will confirm the venue's available power and rigging points with you on a site visit, and the venue applies a curfew we have to work inside. Load-in is the day before, with the rehearsal that evening.
03
What the show has to achieve
The primary goal is shareability: we want at least half the room filming the reveal, and the footage usable for our own channels afterwards. Secondary is comprehension — 400 dealers have to leave understanding three things about the range. The tension is that a dramatic reveal and a clear product briefing want different lighting and different pacing, so the run order matters more than the hardware.
04
Content, cues and non-negotiables
What has to happen: one hero appliance under a reveal, and a three-minute brand film before it. The elements we cannot do without are reveal moment on cue, a presenter with a lapel microphone, playback that cannot fail, and a photo position for press. Content is ours to supply and we will confirm the format and aspect ratio with you — tell us the last date you can accept final files and still rehearse properly.
05
The money
Budget ₹6–7 lakh for the production itself; venue charges and tax are separate. If the figure comes back high we would sooner reduce the scale than reduce the crew or the rehearsal time. Please quote line by line.
06
The decision
Our marketing head and the national sales head approve jointly, and the content is still being written, so assume the final film arrives late and tell us the last date you can accept it. We are briefing two suppliers. Please quote crew and rehearsal as separate lines — we want to understand what we are paying for on the day versus beforehand.
What that brief turns into
This is the output of the brief above, costed. A main stage with a 7 × 4 m LED wall and two delegate screens, three conference days, one rehearsal evening, itemised element by element, landing inside the ₹6–7 lakh range the brief stated. Quoted per show based on surface size, projector count and content length; small stall or stage mapping starts lower than facade shows. Treat the shape of the breakdown as the transferable part.
The ratio is the useful part. LED wall and screens accounts for 31% here, and everything else — content, rigging and power, crew, rehearsal, freight — makes up the other 69%. Budgeting for hardware alone therefore under-funds the production badly, and the under-funded lines are the ones that decide reliability.
| Screens — LED wall, side screens and video processing | ₹2,10,000 |
|---|---|
| Lighting — stage wash, key light and fixtures | ₹96,000 |
| Audio — PA, radio microphones and crew comms | ₹85,000 |
| Rigging, ground support and distribution | ₹72,000 |
| Content — presentation build, graphics and show programming | ₹68,000 |
| Crew across rehearsal and three show days | ₹94,000 |
| Freight to the venue and back | ₹45,000 |
| Indicative total, before GST | ₹6,70,000 |
Illustrative, and included to show proportions rather than prices. The real figure follows screen specification, the number of event days and how many operators the run order needs. Venue charges and GST are separate.
Exhibiting soon? Let's build your stall.
Why filling it in is worth twenty minutes
Here is the argument for the twenty minutes. A gap in a brief is not a gap in a quote; the supplier has to put a number against it either way. Guessing low exposes them, so they guess safe, and safe is more expensive. You pay for every field you did not fill in.
The invisibility is what makes it expensive. Assumptions are never itemised, so two quotes built on opposite guesses look like a straightforward price difference — and the one that guessed your way is indistinguishable from the one that is genuinely cheaper.
| Field left blank | What the supplier has to assume | What it does to the quote |
|---|---|---|
| Primary goal | A general-purpose approach | Budget spent on looking impressive rather than on the one thing you came to do |
| Who you want to reach | A broad, mixed audience | Sightlines and headline sizing pitched at the wrong reading distance |
| Dates and times | A comfortable schedule | Night-shift and rush charges surface after the order rather than inside the price |
| Brand files | Artwork will be supplied later | Production slips to the end, where it is most visible if it goes wrong |
| Surface or screen dimensions | Nothing can be assumed | No quote at all, because projector and panel counts follow from this one number |
| Show times and repeats | A single run | Crew and operator days under-counted, then invoiced as overtime |
| Available power and rigging | The conservative case | Either an unnecessary power line, or a rig the venue will refuse |
| Content format and delivery date | Content arrives in good time | The first full run happens in front of your audience |
| Redundancy requirements | No spares | A single point of failure between you and a dark screen |
| Venue noise limit and curfew | Standard hours | A design that cannot legally run at the volume or hour you planned |
None of these assumptions is a supplier behaving badly. Each is the only rational response to a gap. The fix is on your side of the table and takes twenty minutes.
Suppliers do not punish vague briefs. They price them safely, which amounts to the same thing.
The projection mapping-specific lines worth adding
A projection mapping scope has its own variables, and leaving them out is what turns a reasonable quote into a vague one. The lines below are the ones that matter. None of them requires technical knowledge to answer — only a decision, or an admission that there is not one yet.
If you genuinely do not know an answer, write "advise us" next to the field. That is a useful instruction. Silence is not.
- Screen size and pixel pitch, or projection surface dimensions and ambient light level
- How many times the show repeats per day, and the total number of event days
- Who is producing content, and whether it exists yet in the right aspect ratio
- Whether a technician is needed through show hours, and when the rehearsal can happen
- Whether items are hired by the day or for the full show, and who carries damage risk
Mistakes that make a brief unusable
Long briefs are not better briefs. The ones that work are short, numeric and specific about outcomes; the ones that fail are long, adjectival and specific about appearance. Below are the failures worth avoiding, in rough order of how much time each one costs.
The worst of them is the brief that describes a look instead of a job. "Clean, premium, impactful" is three words that constrain nothing — every supplier agrees with all three and none of them can act on any of them. Replace each adjective with the audience behaviour you want and the brief starts doing work.
The second worst is a different brief to each supplier. It feels efficient to add detail as you learn what to ask. It guarantees that the quotes you receive cannot be compared, and you will end up choosing on the basis of presentation rather than scope.
- No named approver, so revision rounds expand until production is squeezed
- No budget range, which produces either an unaffordable concept or an under-designed one
- Three goals of equal weight, which means the result has to compromise all three
- Describing a look instead of a job — adjectives in place of audience actions
- Deleting fields that do not apply, so the supplier cannot tell "no" from "forgotten"
- A different, improved brief sent to each supplier, destroying comparability
- Dates missing, so the schedule and any rush cost are both unknown
- Five pages of company background and no single sentence about the outcome
- Asking for a "best price" instead of an itemised quote against a fixed scope
- No word on content — who makes it, in what format, by when
Send the brief and get a quote
Send the completed brief through our enquiry form or by email, with brand files and annotated references attached. Complete, it returns a proposal and a line-by-line quote in about two days. Incomplete, it returns a list of questions — and that exchange is the delay nobody budgets for.
Quoted per show based on surface size, projector count and content length; small stall or stage mapping starts lower than facade shows. Design is free with a confirmed fabrication order, production happens in our own workshops, organiser submissions are ours to prepare and file, and one named project manager owns the job from the brief through to clearing the site. Tight dates are better declared than discovered.
- Facade, stage and object projection mapping
- High-lumen laser projectors and media servers
- Site survey, test-run and show-calling crew
- 3D content design and animation in-house
Frequently asked questions
What should a projection mapping brief include?+
Thirteen fields: company and what you sell, event and venue, load-in and show dates, surface or screen dimensions, show times and repeats per day, available power and rigging points, one primary goal with a number attached, who you want to reach, what is being shown, content status and format, brand assets, budget range, and who approves by when.
Should I share my budget with suppliers?+
Yes, as a range. Without it a supplier either designs above your band — which costs you a week and ends in a redesign — or below it, which costs you the show. A range is not a negotiating position; it is the constraint that makes the first concept useful.
How long should the brief be?+
Short enough to read in two minutes. The useful brief is a list of answers, not an essay: the scope, the dates, the goal, the money, the contents, the approver. Company background can be one sentence; everything a supplier needs in order to quote fits on a single page.
What if I do not know the answer to a field?+
Say so explicitly. "Advise us" is a useful instruction and will get you a recommendation; a missing line gets you an assumption, and assumptions are priced for the worst case. Keep every heading in the document even when the answer is "none".
Why do show times and repeats matter so much?+
Because they set the crew bill rather than the kit bill. The number of runs, the gaps between them and the number of event days decide how many operator shifts are needed, whether anything can be reset in between, and how much of the rig has to be duplicated to survive a fast turnaround.
What does a scope like this cost?+
₹6,70,000 before GST, for the illustrative scope on this page. That figure is there to show where the money sits — LED wall and screens is 31% of it — rather than to price your event, because projection mapping is quoted per show against the specification in your brief. Quoted per show based on surface size, projector count and content length; small stall or stage mapping starts lower than facade shows.
How quickly will I get a concept back?+
Within about two days, if the brief is complete. The delay in practice is never the drawing; it is the round trip of questions a half-filled brief generates — and that round trip happens at the start of the project, where you can least afford it.
Do I need to specify equipment in the brief?+
No. Specify the constraints and the outcome — surface or screen size, ambient light, audience size, show times, what must not fail — and let the supplier propose projector counts, pixel pitch and fixture lists in an equipment schedule. Over-specified kit is the commonest line of waste on an AV quote.
Should I brief before or after confirming the venue?+
After confirming the venue if you can, because available power, rigging points and curfew decide what is possible and they are properties of the room. If the venue is not yet fixed, brief against the two or three you are considering and ask what each one rules out.
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