Zoom bolsters Events portfolio with new Production Studio and mobile app

The easy-to-use Production Studio for Zoom Events allows event hosts to easily create professional virtual Webinars and Sessions — no production agency needed

Today Zoom announced two key updates and investments in its Zoom Events portfolio — Production Studio and a Zoom Events hybrid experience including the mobile app for events. These new features will help event professionals expand their reach and foster community beyond the events, engage and inform audiences while building connections across in-person and virtual audiences, and simplify the hybrid experience.

Production Studio makes customizing and producing engaging virtual events a snap

Today Zoom launched Production Studio for Zoom Events and Zoom Sessions, a new feature for event professionals to easily create virtual event design elements for polished, professional, and dynamic events. Now available globally with a Zoom Events or Zoom Sessions license, Production Studio allows event, marketing, and internal communications professionals to free up their time and budget that is usually spent working with a production agency.

“Now, every event pro has access to professional-looking events in an easy-to-use interface, without spending thousands of dollars on a production agency,” said Annika Elias, product manager at Zoom. “Other ‘out of the box’ webinar solutions don’t allow you to customize the look and feel of your event, which makes for a bland and less engaging experience. With Production Studio, event specialists can curate and customize the attendee experience without needing specialized design skills.”

Whether planning internal events like an All Hands webinar or external marketing events like product demos, Production Studio provides dynamic layout options, custom branding, and presenter management tools to make every virtual event visually engaging and uniquely branded. 

Production Studio includes the following features to make virtual events look unique and on-brand:

Dynamic layout selection

• Choose from 50+ customized layouts
• Flexible aspect ratios
• Ability to adjust space between videos

Customized branding

• Create multiple webinar scenes per session with shared screen layout options
• Determine scene sequencing 
• Border editing
• Customized wallpapers for each scene

Presenter management tools

• Pre-route people in scenes
• Update the presenter in live scenes

Technical features

• Cloud recording
• Lobby and third-party live-streaming capabilities
• Easy setup within the Zoom Events portal

In the coming months, existing Webinar customers will be able to unlock all Production Studio features instantly through the web portal by upgrading to a Zoom Sessions or Zoom Events license. 

New features, including a mobile app, improve hybrid event experience

Today Zoom also announced its updated mobile app with access to Zoom Events. Available globally for Android and iOS, attendees can access the hybrid event experience from their existing Zoom mobile app, so there’s no need to download an event-specific app they will use only once. The mobile app makes managing an itinerary, event chat, session Q&A, and networking easier for on-the-go participants.

Through the Zoom mobile app, attendees can join the event, explore, bookmark, and attend sessions, receive important event notifications, navigate the physical space using maps and digital aides, easily switch between in-person and virtual / on-demand sessions, and connect with other in-person and virtual attendees. During live events, mobile app users can access event sessions, participate in chats, polls, and Q&A, and view recordings of past events.

Zoom has also enhanced its hybrid setup flow for event hosts. Event professionals today struggle with planning hybrid events, feeling like it requires twice as much work, and Zoom Events aims to simplify that process with new features. Now available in the web portal, event professionals can use templates to easily set up hybrid events, including the ability to build out hybrid ticketing, add venue maps, and set up a native hybrid experience via the Zoom mobile app. 

Host hybrid event capabilities

Pre-event host setup (web) 

• Event setup (virtual / hybrid / in-person)
  • Event level
  • Session level
• Ticketing (virtual / hybrid / in-person)
• Mapping: upload maps, drop pins, and associate sessions
• Badge printing integration with xTag

In-Event: Attendee experience (native mobile)

• Event discovery: meeting feed and “Events” tab in the Zoom app
• Check-in (join): links, QR codes, manual
• M / W companion mode: shared chat / Q&A, no video / audio, “go virtual” controls
• Mapping: view maps, find sessions, find rooms

Existing desktop features: chat, networking, and itinerary (excluding Expo)

Post-Event: Attendee experience (native mobile)

• VOD: view recordings on mobile

Catch Production Studio and the Zoom Events mobile app in action Oct. 3–4 at Zoomtopia, where Zoom will be using the feature to bring virtual content to life. 

About Zoom

Zoom is an all-in-one intelligent collaboration platform that makes connecting easier, more immersive, and more dynamic for businesses and individuals. Zoom technology puts people at the center, enabling meaningful connections, facilitating modern collaboration, and driving human innovation through solutions like team chat, phone, meetings, omnichannel cloud contact center, smart recordings, whiteboard, and more, in one offering. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Get more info at zoom.com.