Graduation Ceremony

Transforming a graduation ceremony into a multi-site immersive experience

The graduation ceremony of Sorbonne University was historically held in a large venue in Paris. In 2022, the university decided to relocate the event within its own premises, taking advantage of its prime location in Paris while achieving significant budget savings. However, this change introduced several constraints, the most critical being the size of the Sorbonne auditorium, which can accommodate a maximum of 500 people, while the total audience exceeds 1,000 attendees (350 graduates and their guests). The chosen solution was to invite guests to follow the ceremony remotely from other lecture halls before reuniting with the graduates for the cocktail reception.

Following the organization of the first edition in 2022, the university recognized the technical challenge of transforming such an event and decided to call on PremC in 2023 to make the new format better aligned with everyone’s expectations.

PremC was engaged with the following objectives:

Display graduates remotely in real-time in the auditorium for a brief message during the roll call.
Strengthen interaction between the lecture halls and the main auditorium.
Implement a technical setup to support a dynamic flow, including live music, graduate roll call, film screenings, interviews with audience members, seamless transitions, and jingle launches.
Ensure high-quality recording and dynamic live production for those following the ceremony remotely.

Students going upstairs at their graduation ceremony

Our added value

We have an in-depth understanding of the needs and feedback from the 2022 edition, allowing us to refine and enhance the event experience. To achieve this, we implemented innovative solutions, including an immersive setup with permanent close-ups on graduates as they walked across the stage, on-site correspondents in the lecture halls to collect testimonials from guests, and real-time, latency-free interactions between the auditorium and other spaces.

Resource optimization was also a key focus. We leveraged existing equipment while supplementing it to meet specific needs, ensured an efficient task distribution for audiovisual production, and carefully sized the technical team to guarantee a smooth execution without inflating the budget.

We loved working on this graduation ceremony because it challenged us with technical constraints that allowed us to explore new methods. The organizer was extremely satisfied with the result and has entrusted PremC with every edition since 2023.