Most event footage goes wrong before the crew arrives. It goes wrong when the venue’s rules, the county’s permit clock and the client’s schedule were never put side by side. West Palm Beach event video production has three very different rulebooks depending on whether you are inside the Palm Beach County Convention Center, inside the Kravis Center, or anywhere the public can walk. This guide puts the three together.

The market is busier than most people outside Florida realize. The Business Development Board reported on March 3, 2026 that Palm Beach County closed 2025 with $260.5 million in production revenue, 602 productions, 323 permits issued and 20,055 hotel room nights, its fourth straight record year. Film Commissioner Michelle Hillery called it “a sustainable economic engine that generates millions of dollars annually.” Your conference or launch is sharing crews, permits and ballrooms with all of that.

Table of contents

• Rule 1: At the Convention Center, book around the house AV
• Rule 2: At the Kravis Center, the hall decides the camera plan
• Rule 3: Public property means a county permit, and it is free
• Rule 4: The island has its own rules
• Rule 5: Plan the deliverables before the shoot, not after
• West Palm Beach event video production FAQ

Rule 1: At the Convention Center, book around the house AV

The Palm Beach County Convention Center on Okeechobee Boulevard is where the large conferences, trade shows and association meetings land. Its own facility guide lists a 100,000 square foot exhibit hall that splits into two 50,000 square foot column free halves, a 22,000 square foot ballroom that divides into four rooms, and 19 meeting rooms totaling 48,000 square feet. The same guide names PSAV as the in house audio visual provider, Spectra as the exclusive food and beverage provider, and notes the ballroom has multiple rigging points for lighting and sound.

For a video crew those three facts translate directly into a plan:

• Audio comes from the house. If PSAV is running the room, your cleanest keynote audio is a feed from their board, not a microphone on a stand at the back. Ask for the feed in the AV order, weeks out, and bring the adapters to take it.
• Rigging is a venue conversation. A camera position on a riser is yours to place. Anything hung from the ceiling goes through the building, with lead time and labor attached.
• The split halls change your sightlines. A 50,000 square foot half hall with an air wall behind the stage is a different lighting problem from the full room. Confirm the configuration before you plan camera positions.

We cover the convention and conference side of West Palm Beach event video production from the Tone Films Palm Beach office, and the first thing we ask for on any Convention Center job is the AV order and the room set, in that order.

Rule 2: At the Kravis Center, the hall decides the camera plan

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts opened in September 1992 and is where West Palm Beach puts its galas, award nights, lectures and large nonprofit evenings. The main house, Dreyfoos Hall, seats 2,195; the Rinker Playhouse holds around 300; and the Cohen Pavilion, opened in 2003, houses the Gimelstob Ballroom for up to 800 guests.

Each space asks for a different crew:

• Dreyfoos Hall is a proscenium theater. Camera positions are governed by the house, long lenses matter more than extra bodies, and the stage lighting is designed for the audience’s eye, not the sensor. A pre show light check with the house electrician saves the edit.
• The Gimelstob Ballroom is a banquet room. Here the problem is the opposite: flat, warm uplighting and a program that happens between courses. A two camera setup with one operator roaming and one locked on the podium is usually the right size.
• The Rinker Playhouse is intimate enough that a crew of three changes the room. One operator, fast glass, a lav on every speaker.

If the evening is a fundraiser, the honoree tribute and mission film shown in the room are usually the real deliverable, and we set out how to plan those in our guide to Palm Beach gala video production.

Rule 3: Public property means a county permit, and it is free

The moment any part of your event touches a street, sidewalk, park, beach or public building, the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission’s one stop permitting applies. The rules are short and public. Per the commission, permits are “issued for public property (i.e. parks, beaches, streets, sidewalks, public buildings)” at no cost to production, standard permits take “three business days to process,” and securing one “requires a $1 million comprehensive or commercial general liability policy”. Stunts or special effects raise that to $5 million. Off duty law enforcement, where required, is billed to the production and varies by municipality.

Two details catch event producers:

• Private property can still need a permit if the shoot affects nearby roads or sidewalks. A step and repeat on a hotel driveway that backs traffic onto Okeechobee is the classic case.
• Large commercial productions should hold a pre production meeting about three weeks out and no later than five business days before cameras roll, in the commission’s words.

Tone Films carries the liability cover the county asks for and handles the application as part of pre production. For drone work the same office is the starting point, and we cover the aerial side on our main Palm Beach page.

In Palm Beach County the permit is free, the officer is not, and the lead time is the thing that actually costs money when it is missed.

Rule 4: The island has its own rules

This is the detail that separates a local West Palm Beach event video production company from a crew flown in for the day. The county commission states plainly that it “does not issue permits for the Town of Palm Beach”. Anything on the island, from Worth Avenue to a Royal Palm Way sidewalk, is a direct application to the Town.

The practical rule: if your event is at a venue on the island and your footage never leaves the venue’s property, the venue’s own policy governs. The moment you want an establishing shot from the sidewalk, a drone pass over the Intracoastal, or arrivals filmed from the street, that is a Town conversation, and it starts earlier than the county’s three business days. Our office is at 400 Royal Palm Way, so this is a conversation we have often.

Rule 5: Plan the deliverables before the shoot, not after

The most expensive mistake in event video is a crew that filmed everything and a client who needed three specific things. Before the shoot, decide which of these the footage has to produce:

• A recap film (60 to 120 seconds) for the week after.
• Session recordings for attendees who missed a room, which need clean audio and a slide capture.
• Speaker and sponsor clips cut vertical for social, ideally the same day.
• Executive interviews, which need a quiet room and a scheduled hour, not a hallway grab.
• Evergreen b roll of the brand in a real room, used for the next twelve months of sales decks and recruiting pages.

Each one changes the crew count and the schedule. A session recording needs a locked camera and a board feed in every room you care about. Same day social cutdowns need an editor on site. Interviews need two hours that someone has to protect on the run of show. Scope these in the first call and the quote is honest; scope them after and the footage is a compromise. For a sense of what those packages look like, our portfolio has conference, event and brand activation work, and our note on Palm Beach video production cost walks through the line items.

West Palm Beach event video production FAQ

How far ahead should we book a crew for a West Palm Beach event?

Four to six weeks is comfortable for most of the year. For events in January through March, when the social season, the conference calendar and the county’s record production volume all overlap, book as soon as the venue is confirmed. The county permit itself needs three business days, but officer scheduling and venue AV orders run on longer clocks.

Do we need a permit to film inside the Palm Beach County Convention Center?

Filming inside the building is governed by the venue and your event’s own agreements, not by a county film permit. The county permit applies when the shoot touches public property such as the sidewalk, the street or a county park. Loading zones and parking reservations can still involve the city, so confirm the specifics with the venue and the film commission.

Can you take a live audio feed from the house AV?

Yes, and it is the best source for any keynote or panel. We request the feed in advance through the venue’s AV provider and bring our own recorders and adapters. A backup microphone on each speaker protects against a feed problem on the day.

Can you deliver clips during the event?

Yes. With an editor on site we deliver 30 to 60 second vertical cutdowns during the event for your team and sponsors to post. This is scoped as a separate line because it adds a person and a workstation to the crew.

What insurance does the county require?

The Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission requires a $1 million comprehensive or commercial general liability policy to issue a permit, with a $5 million policy for stunts or special effects. Tone Films provides the certificate in the wording the county emails after the application is filed.

Tell us the venue and the date

Send us the venue, the date, the run of show if you have one and the three things the footage has to do afterwards. We will come back within 24 hours with a crew plan, the permit path and a fixed fee quote. Our Palm Beach video production company covers West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Wellington, Delray Beach and Boca Raton, and works alongside our Miami team for events that span both counties. Contact Tone Films to start.

About the author — Andrei Tone is the founder and director of Tone Films, a video production company with studios in 45 U.S. cities. He has directed films for police and fire departments, 9-1-1 districts, school districts, hospitals and brands including Disney Junior and Cuisine Solutions.