A technical seminar can bring together contributors who use different measurement conventions. The editor may be tempted to make every figure look consistent. Decide instead whether the recording should retain the speakers' original conventions or use an expressly approved common presentation. A neat graphic is not authority to convert a technical statement.
The buyer is commissioning the treatment of supplied information, not asking production to perform an engineering calculation. The responsible specialists should approve any conversion and explain whether a difference concerns units alone or a different definition of the quantity being discussed.
Inventory the conventions before designing graphics
Ask each contributor for the values they expect to discuss, the units and any convention needed to interpret them. Keep this information with the source material. A number copied from a slide without its label can become difficult to verify later.
Then identify where the session will place values together. Differences that are harmless in separate presentations may become confusing in a shared comparison. The buyer should know those points before approving a common chart or summary graphic.
Do not assume that similarly named quantities can be made comparable through conversion. Ask the specialists to confirm the relationship. If they describe different bases, the film may need separate explanations rather than a unified numerical display.
Choose a display policy the speakers can support
Retaining original values preserves the direct link to the spoken presentation and source. It may require an additional explanation for viewers unfamiliar with a convention. Adding approved equivalent values may help those viewers, but introduces more material that needs verification.
Choose one policy for the relevant passage and document any exception. If an added value appears on screen, make its role clear instead of allowing it to look like the number the speaker actually said. The original and the approved presentation should remain traceable in the editorial record.
A later change to the source value should trigger review of its associated display, not a fresh conversion by whoever happens to be editing. Assign that subject-matter check explicitly. The issue is numerical meaning, not just visual consistency.
A hypothetical supplier seminar
Two hypothetical suppliers discuss equipment dimensions using different unit conventions. The proposed replay places their figures on one graphic without preserving the labels. During review, the organiser discovers that the presentation could confuse the audience. The buyer commissions a revised display that retains the source values and adds only equivalents checked by the responsible contributors. The video does not imply that the products have been technically compared or selected for a project.
Accept the traceable presentation
Ask a reviewer to identify the convention attached to each displayed value and distinguish a source figure from an added presentation value. If they cannot, revise the labels and explanation.
Have the relevant specialists approve the final spoken and visual combination, including excerpts. The completed seminar should let viewers follow contributions made in different conventions without allowing the edit to silently rewrite what the speakers supplied.
Discuss suitability
Contact Live Images with the proposed subject, audience and intended use to discuss suitability, scope and availability.
Editorial note
Original commissioning guidance prepared with AI assistance. Hypothetical examples are invented, not Live Images projects. This unpublished resource makes no engineering, legal or performance guarantee.