Blog – AVConnections SC

Champions Conference at Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina

May 1, 2018

Conference audiovisual. What does this usually bring to mind? Large screens? LCD projectors? Speakers? Wireless mics? You know, the usual!

But what if the Conference Organizer says, “Hey, part of this conference is going to be outside and we’d like a personalized gobo shining on the side of a tiki hut while our attendees participate in Olympic type games! Can you do that?”

What does AV Connections say? We say, “Of course we can!” And when the weather doesn’t cooperate, we find a way to work with our client to take that very same gobo and move it inside a pavilion and aim it at the large fireplace where it looks just as fabulous!

This April, InDeal held their 2018 Champions Conference at the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina. And while the weather might not have cooperated, completely, the conference was in Charleston, so the scenery was always gorgeous!

And AV Connections was there to make sure they had everything they needed to make their conference run as smoothly as possible when it came to their audiovisual needs. From the JBL Powered Speakers, Shure Wireless Mics, Yamaha and Mackie Mixers in Sunrise Terrace, Atlantic Ballroom, Indigo Grille Room and Commodore Room, to the Leko/Source 4 Specialty Lighting Fixtures moved into the pavilion, to the standing podium, 7’x 12′ Fast Fold HD Format Screen, more wireless mics and Sony VPL-FH60 5k projector set in the Yacht Club for the daily sessions, AV Connections had it covered! And we brought the experienced technicians along to make our client received the turn-key service they deserved!

So, “special orders don’t upset us!” Bring them on!
Event lighting rentals for Magnolia Plantation by AV Connections, Charleston

November 30, 2015

We have the amazingly talented team at Cruz Coordination, event and wedding planners, to thank for these stunning photographs of our recent lighting rentals for Magnolia Plantation. This wedding was an eye-catching beauty for our fall season. Cruz assembled a A-team of vendors for this wedding and reception and we were pleased to work among some of our favorites: Cru Catering of Charleston, Eventworks, Ashley Bakery, and Squeeze Onsite Bar Services. We are lucky to see most of these remarkable professionals at events and weddings several times a month; having partners of this caliber together to roll out a major event effectively and efficiently is one of the great blessings of getting married in Charleston. The second is that there is a non-stop feed of creativity between the professionals involved in the wedding industry here. Being comfortable together and understanding one another’s work styles keeps things moving and the stress away from the happy couples.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens is one of Charleston’s oldest and most picturesque wedding venues, offering Lowcountry views and the waterline along side some of the most magnificent gardens in the nation. Tucked away north of the city in quiet pastoral scenery, Magnolia maintains one of the original land grant areas remaining in Charleston. In both a nod to history and new beginnings, a rush of new creativity is juxtaposed alongside the marshy beauty of the old place, making a perfect location for lighting rentals for Magnolia Plantation.

We are always pleased to be called upon to create a new glow for the jewel in the crown of South Carolina’s plantations.
Charleston SC AV rentals for conferences from AV Connections

November 17, 2015

It is November and 2016 is quickly approaching, now is the time to get in touch with us for your Charleston SC AV rentals for conferences and meetings in the coming the year.

AV Connections serves every hotel and event venue in the Lowcountry with unparalleled excellence in customer service, and technology. Early planning allows conference and meeting event planners to shop their price around. We encourage you to send your RFP to us at avrentals@avconnectionssc.com and allow us to offer you a comparison to the prices of other AV providers. We actively pursue the ability to provide the most cost effective choices to Charleston’s visiting conventions and conferences.

We look forward to working with you to provide your attendees with the finest presentation your business has ever given, and your budget a cost-effective event in Charleston.
New national press on our event lighting rentals in Charleston

November 10, 2015

(Photo by the extraordinary Marni Pictures of Charleston, SC.)

It has truly been another season of wedding creativity and excellence in event lighting rentals in Charleston from AV Connections’ lighting design team. We are still entranced by Marni Pictures dreamy photo above. Although we work together with the planners and couples through the meetings, until the final product is presented, the real effect can never be well enough explained or sketched. It is clear from this photo, Jared Luckhart’s team is experienced int he creation of fairy tale vistas and never-before-imagined lighting touches.

(Marni Pictures of Charleston.)

Continuing in AV Connections’ thirty-plus years of audiovisual and lighting excellence, we challenged ourselves to keep the Fall, 2015 weddings fresh and new. There is always some new way to present it, a new fixture no one has seen, an un-tried fairy tale still left to build. And so it was, with Cibi Events, a Charleston wedding planner of great taste and fearlessness, that we imagined the lighting you see in this piece in Borrowed & Blue. As you know, Jared has managed to hang enormous crystal chandeliers from the clear night sky, it was no surprise these weddings would be as blessed with his creative genius and tireless patience for things that seem impossible.

And then, before we could even turn around, the incredibly talented Richard Bell Photography was at bat with a spread including our lighting of a Magnolia Plantation wedding. Aren’t they beautiful? Yes, the couple is very handsome, too!

(Photo by the extraordinary Richard Bell Photography of Charleston.)

We’re not finished! Then Jenna and Matt’s picturesque wedding planned by that amazing Katie at Burlap Elephant’s fete at Lowndes Grove made the pages of The Wedding Row! And Anthony and Anna with Cibi Events on the night we turned historic Hibernian Hall into a hot pink dream was in Wedding Row too, see it here.

We’re blushing! Blushing while we’re moving, of course, because no one has a moment to sit down, wedding season in Charleston is fully upon us. Are you planning a wedding? we are always here to help with Charleston’s most fantastic array of wedding lighting rental options at your disposal. Let AV Connections make your wedding a new fairy tale.
AV at Francis Marion Hotel Charleston by AV Connections

November 2, 2015

AV Connections was pleased to provide AV at Francis Marion Hotel Charleston recently for the Sociedad Interamericana conference of continental translators. The Francis Marion is located on Charleston’s picturesque Marion Square Park at the corner of King and Calhoun Streets in downtown Charleston. A great landmark of the Holy City, this hotel is visible from West Ashley and Mount Pleasant as it was one of the only semi-high rise structures ever allowed to be built in Charleston. After that, in order to preserve our historic city, a four-story maximum was imposed on the historic district. For this reason, the hotel commands an unparalleled view of Charleston and the water like none other.

In the tradition of the grand hotels of the early 20th century, the Francis Marion is a stunning and magnificent hotel full of beautiful ballrooms and meeting rooms; glamorous and timeless. Many conference planners choose this location because it is both a charming place to attend a gathering and because guests can enjoy all Charleston has to offer in restaurants and stores literally outside the front door of the building.

AV Connections is always pleased to quote a price and services suggested for meetings and conferences at the Francis Marion. While we are not the in-house audiovisual rental supplier, we serve clients there who shop their events on the open audiovisual rentals market in Charleston. Often, even with the surcharge applied our price is significantly less than those of the in-house provider. We encourage you to be in touch with us, information is free. Email us for audiovisual rentals and conference technology at the Francis Marion Hotel at avrentals@avconnectionssc.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
AV at Embassy Suites Charleston, SC by AV Connections

October 20, 2015

AV Connections of Charleston, SC is the proud preferred provider for AV at Embassy Suites Charleston in downtown Charleston’s historic district on Marion Square Park. One of the most central and historically impressive hostel properties in Charleston, Embassy Suites is the imposing and impressive pink castle hotel at the square center of peninsular Charleston, once the original home of the Citadel. Marion Park, the green space directly ahead and south of the hotel you see in the photo above looks like it was a parade ground because indeed it was the Citadel’s original marching space.

Conference and meeting organizers looking for a hotel hospitality space in the Lowcountry look often to Embassy Suites Charleston to give their attendees and guests a complete and charming place in which to meet and a complete immerison in the beauty of historic Charleston. With ballrooms and separate meeting rooms the hotel is equipped to handle conferences of several hundred attendees. Breaks and other events are also held in the soaring central atrium of the hotel with is also a wonderful space for galas and evening event.

AV Connections provides conference technology for conference, meetings, and events thought the hotel and conference facility.
Cooper River Room AV rentals and event lighting by AV Connections of Charleston

October 12, 2015

We really were in luck with a clear blue sky and sunny day for a recent Cooper River Room AV rentals and event lighting job just over the bridge in Mt. Pleasant, SC. With a panoramic view of the Ashley River as it leads south to meet the Cooper River on the tip of the Charleston Peninsula, the Cooper River Room commands one of the finest views of the Low Country’s tidal basin of all of Charleston’s event venues. Often a favorite for picture-perfect weddings and parties, the Cooper River Room is also a meeting and conference venue. Easily accessible from Patriots Point hotels and by car from downtown Charleston, the Cooper River Room is quickly becoming a favorite of event planners in both the celebration and business markets.

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AV Connections was called on to provide Cooper River Room AV rentals and event lighting for a recent investor-partners meeting of the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau. We are pleased to serve this organization which assists most of Charleston’s businesses in one function or another with it’s various sales, support, and marketing arms. The CVB has been a strategic partner to Charleston’s business community and government in creating a city the world loves to visit for dozens of reasons. Certainly, the CVB partnership has helped to drive the four-year running Number One City in the World to Visit ranking as voted on by Conde Nast readers.

Generally, about 250 guest partners are expected for each of the CVB monthly meetings, over the past year AV Connections has provided audiovisual rentals for most of the CVB event venues. The Cooper River is one of our favorites, it was great to see it used for meetings. So often we are in this room or in a tent on the great lawn installing wedding lighting designs. This was really an opportunity to showcase the site for another purpose and keep us all mindful that the Cooper River Room is not just for weddings!

The Cooper River Room is accessible by Mt. Pleasant’s wonderful Waterfront Park. We encourage you to visit this location if you are visiting us in Charleston, it is a photo-taking opportunity not to be missed and will make a great Charleston memory.
Audiovisual at Charleston Harbour Club by AV Connections

October 1, 2015

AV Connections has recently been back to one of Charleston’s best meeting and power lunch venues, The Charleston Harbour Club; to provide meeting audiovisual at Charleston Harbour Club. A historic building in the heart of Charleston’s renowned cobble-stoned original colonial city, the Harbor Club is the perfect place to host out of town meeting attendees and give them a real feel for Charleston’s four hundred year history.

With both indoor and outdoor facilities for hosting celebrations and conferences, the Harbor Club is both refined and elegant. During the year it sees as many power meetings as weddings. It boasts a huge outdoor terrace for which we often provide wedding lighting as well. The terrace commands an incredible view of the Charleston Harbor on the Ashley River and the Ravenel Bridge to the east and all of South of Broad Charleston to the south west.

Many attending meetings, conferences, and weddings at the Harbour Club now in it’s two hundred year old structure may not realize that aside from it’s esteemed survival history, through fires and floods, it was also the home of the restaurant which created Charleston’s reputation as a fine-dining town. While the Harbour Club opened in 1994 as a venue and membership business club, it was previously known as Colony House. Colony House was Franz Meier’s ode to fine European influenced dining in Charleston. Open for forty years, the Colony House was Charleston’s celebration standby for two generations. Eventually, the owners sold the business and Colony House gave way to the Harbour Club. Not without forever leaving a mark on the memories of native Charlestonians who still lament its closing. Many are members of the famed Harbour Club now.

The food is still just as impressive as it was when Colony House was in full swing and so, if you are lucky enough to get an event or wedding invitation to Harbour Club, take advantage to see the views and have a moment with one of our great historic entertaining structures. The tradition very much continues and we are pleased to provide audiovisual at Charleston Harbour Club.
Audiovisual rentals at The Cedar Room, Cigar Factory, Charleston, SC

September 28, 2015

Our second visit to the new Cigar Factory was to provide audio visual rentals at The Cedar Room for the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau September Investor Partners meeting. It was another great opportunity to get to know the newly opened conference, meeting, and wedding space called The Cedar Room which you see here.

The Charleston CVB is a robust and vibrant organization managed by the city, which can be credited with supporting so much of Charleston’s growth over the past twenty years. Retail, hospitality, and business partners are all included in monthly discussions regarding the direction the city will take, new laws and ordinances, and shared educational opportunities to further increase members revenue and Charleston’s health in turn.

Forty years ago, Charleston was a struggling city of the South. Organizations like CVB had a major hand in the recovery and remain at the fore in gaining international attention for Charleston in every sense. The CVB attracts many national conferences each year, national sporting events, new businesses and corporations, and a great deal of event traffic to the Holy City. AV Connections is both an AV partner for these meetings and events and a proud investor in Charleston.

We encourage all businesses in Charleston to join us at these monthly gatherings to learn and share. Together, we better a city worth every ounce of effort to support. We are proud to be a family owned local business and always proud to be in business with the CVB.