What’s The Difference: Traditional AV vs Warp Speed Tech
“Wait, AV and presentation management can be separated?”
It’s a question we hear all the time.
For years, AV companies have provided rigid, semi-functional presentation management solutions. But today’s conferences are more dynamic, data-driven, and digitally integrated than ever before. Because presentation management isn’t their primary focus, much of the AV infrastructure in use today is still stuck in 2004—built around ease of operation for the AV company, not the evolving needs of modern speakers and attendees.
Organizations are beginning to realize that managing content in 2025 requires more than what a traditional AV vendor can provide—it requires a modern, purpose built approach designed around the way people actually present and learn.
In this blog, we’re exploring the traditional AV approach to presentation management and contrast that to the modern approach of Warp Speed. We’ll see where there are differences and see why Warp Speed ISN’T here to replace your AV vendor, but rather complement it to elevate your conference to an entirely new level.
The Traditional AV Model: Equipment Experts, But Dated Technology
Traditional AV earned their place through decades of production design and equipment provision. They focus on ensuring the sound levels are balanced, lighting accents the right way, microphones work, and sessions room equipment is installed and plugged into power. But as presentation management has become a core component of conferences, their technical foundations haven’t evolved to keep up with the many presentation formats available.
Most legacy presentation workflows were designed for static, single-format slideshows handled manually by onsite technicians. In today’s environment, this model leads to several limitations:
Format limitations: If your presenters use Keynote, PDF, Google Slides, or Canva, you have two options: painstakingly convert their content into PowerPoint—introducing formatting errors, broken fonts, and unsupported videos—or pay the AV company for a second computer, doubling equipment/support costs and complexity.
Time bottlenecks: Manual uploads and testing in speaker-ready rooms create long wait times and logistical congestion. We’ve heard from clients whose speaker-ready computers were completely different from session room systems, making all that prep work pointless. Worse, speakers lose valuable networking time with attendees, limiting engagement and the overall conference experience.
Elevated Costs: Because of these manual processes and outdated workflows, AV companies rely heavily on expensive onsite technicians to accomodate their less than adequate technologies. Some systems even require you to purchase costly, low-performance speaker networks just to function. And if the network goes down, sessions are stopped cold and you’re out of luck and many more dollars.
Strict Update Limitations: Typically, AV companies don’t support presentation updates unless they happen 4 hours before their session time primarily due to the manual processes they use. Instead of giving flexibility for speakers – who are often traveling long distances – they’re forced into extremely rigid update time-frames.
Delayed content delivery: Post-event recordings and edits can take weeks to become available, limiting the momentum of your conference. Waiting for a large AV company’s turnaround—or paying high fees for expedited service—reduces ROI and frustrates attendees who want access to missed sessions. And, you’re not able to help those who are on-site and want to watch an overlapping session.
Traditional AV still provides the backbone of live event production –sound, lighting, staging, rigging and expo design—but presentation management has outgrown what the AV solution was designed to handle.
And that is where Warp Speed’s LaunchPad One comes in.
LaunchPad One: Purpose-Built for the Modern Conference
Warp Speed Technologies (WST) developed LaunchPad One to bridge the gap between reliable AV operations and the dynamic demands of modern conference content management. It’s a purpose-built system designed not only to ensure technical reliability but also to empower presenters and elevate the attendee experience.
Here’s how it stands apart:
True Format Freedom: LaunchPad One is the first solution of its kind that can natively run both Windows and Mac-based presentations on one computer – no duplicating or added costs, and no complex setups. Whether presenters use PowerPoint, Keynote, PDF, Canva, or Google Slides, the system displays them exactly as intended—no conversion, no compromise.
Seamless Synchronization: Every presentation in LaunchPad One is automatically distributed to the correct session room and kept perfectly in sync with any last-minute updates through our proprietary software. This automation eliminates the risk of mismatched versions or missing files, even during large conferences with tight schedules.
Streamlined Speaker Experience: Speakers can focus on their message, not the technology. With faster upload times and real-time synchronization, and true-format freedom, presenters spend a fraction of the time in the speaker-ready room and more time engaging with attendees and the entire conference experience.
Integrated Session Capture: Beyond presentation management, LaunchPad One includes built-in session recording capabilities. This allows full sessions to be captured, and the raw footage distributed within minutes of the session ending. For organizations that wish to offer recorded content post-event, it transforms what was once a multi-week turnaround into a matter of days or less – helping organizations leverage the content momentum and see a bigger ROI.
Included Networking: LaunchPad One includes its own network infrastructure with independently connected session rooms, reducing dependencies on external systems and ensuring fast, reliable communication between rooms. This integration helps simplify planning, reduce costs, and eliminates single points of failure.
From Technology to Experience
The real innovation behind LaunchPad One isn’t just its technical sophistication, it’s the shift in philosophy it represents.
Where traditional AV systems are equipment-oriented, LaunchPad One is experience-oriented. It’s not just about making presentations display correctly; it’s about empowering presenters, elevating content, and giving attendees uninterrupted, high-value learning moments.
The difference is visible in every aspect of the conference:
Presenters feel more confident because they can work in their preferred formats.
Attendees are more engaged because sessions run smoothly and content delivery is consistent.
Organizers save time and stress because content management is centralized, automated, and reliable.
The New Standard for Conference Technology
AV teams will always play a vital role in live events—but presentation management now sits at the intersection of technology, content, and user experience. It demands systems designed for flexibility, scalability, and immediacy.
LaunchPad One represents that evolution. It’s a platform built for today’s conferences—where great content, confident speakers, and seamless execution come together to define success.
Because in the end, conferences aren’t remembered for the cables or hardware behind the scenes—they’re remembered for the ideas, connections, and experiences that happen on stage.
A Partner, Not a Replacement
At WST, we don’t see LaunchPad One as a replacement for AV teams—we see it as an enhancement. AV professionals bring unmatched expertise in production, staging, and rigging. LaunchPad One complements that strength by handling the content side of the equation—presentation management, session capture, and content distribution—with the same precision and care that AV teams bring to audio and visual design.
Together, this creates a unified ecosystem where every detail, from file upload to final playback, works in harmony. Event planners gain confidence knowing both the stage and the content are under expert management, while AV teams can focus on what they do best—designing visually pleasing and auditorily engaging environments.
Our mission is to simplify the complex, support the professionals who make conferences possible, and ensure every presenter and attendee walks away impressed—not by the technology itself, but by how engaging, immersive, creative, and accessible the content was to everyone involved.
Because when technology disappears into the background, your message—and your mission—take center stage.
