A custom backdrop is the one piece of an event that ends up in every photograph taken there. In Nashville that might be a step and repeat at a press conference, a printed scrim behind a festival stage, or a tension-fabric wall in a hotel ballroom at a conference.

Those are three different products with three different builds. The choice is usually made before anyone opens the artwork, and it is easier to make if you know what each one is for.

The four backdrops events order most

Four products cover most of what an event actually needs.

• Step and repeat backdrops. One logo or graphic printed in a repeated pattern across the surface, so a brand or a sponsor appears in frame no matter where the person is standing. Red carpets, press conferences, sponsor walls.
• Stage backdrops and scrims. A single designed image sized to the stage it sits behind. These set the scenery around stages, trade show booths and press conferences, and they are the piece a camera frames widest.
• Pop-up fabric frames. A printed fabric graphic stretched over a portable frame. This is the backdrop that travels: it goes up, comes down and moves to the next date.
• Hanging structures. Printed fabric over custom-fabricated aluminum tubing, flown above the space rather than standing in it. It reads from across a hall and it takes up no floor space.

Table throws and runners are not backdrops, but they come up in the same conversation often enough to mention. If you are branding a table in front of the backdrop, throws and runners are printed on the same system and can match the same artwork.

Ten feet is the number that shapes the build

Big Visual Group runs high-speed dye-sublimation fabric printing up to 10 feet wide. That single figure decides more about a backdrop than most people expect.

Under 10 feet in one dimension, the graphic prints as one piece. Over it, the finished backdrop is made from more than one panel, sewn together by the finishing and sewing department in Antioch. That is normal work and it is done in house, but it is worth knowing before the design is finished, because it is the point at which the position of a seam becomes a design question rather than a production one.

So when you brief a backdrop, lead with the finished size and the orientation, not the file. A 20-foot sponsor wall and a 20-foot stage scrim are built differently, and both are built differently again from a 9-foot pop-up.

Four specs that decide a backdrop

What the Antioch shop can print and build

These are the production facts behind the choice between a step and repeat, a stage scrim, a pop-up frame and a hanging structure.

10 ft

The widest a single dye-sublimation fabric panel prints. Beyond it, panels are sewn together in house.

3 systems

REXframe®, the Triga Tension-Fabric System and the Matrix System: the fabric framing options offered for portable backdrops.

0 tools

Every fabric framing option is tool-less, so a crew sets up, tears down and transports it without a case of hardware.

Any shape

Hanging structures are fabricated from aluminum tubing to any shape or size, with lights added where the room needs them.

Fabric or vinyl

Fabric is the default for event backdrops here. Dye-sublimation printing is run in house on a system chosen to keep the drape and the soft feel of the cloth. The finished print is odorless, vibrant, glare-free, wrinkle-resistant and completely washable.

Two of those matter most at an event. Glare-free is what keeps a lighting rig or a photographer’s flash from bouncing straight back off the surface, which is covered in more depth in whether fabric backdrops cause glare in flash photography. Washable is what lets a backdrop serve a season rather than a date: one that comes back marked can be machine-washed instead of reprinted.

Fabric also reads as a higher-end finish than a traditional vinyl banner. Where it gives way to vinyl is duration outdoors: dye-sublimated fabric is typically used indoors and is suitable for short-term outdoor use, so a weekend festival is within what it is made for and a month on a fence is not. If the backdrop lives outside, say so when you brief it and the substrate changes.

If you want the detail behind the two processes, dye-sublimation compared with screen printing covers how each one behaves on fabric.

How it hangs, and who hangs it

The hanging method is part of the order, not an afterthought, because it changes how the backdrop is sewn. Pole pockets, grommets and hook-and-loop each ask for a different finish along the edge, and the right one depends on what you are hanging from: a truss, a wall, a frame or a pipe and drape line. The comparison of the three hanging options goes through where each one holds up.

Pop-up fabric frames solve the problem differently. The graphic stays on the frame, the frame folds, and the whole thing is tool-less to set up and break down. REXframe®, the Triga Tension-Fabric System and the Matrix System each suit a different footprint, and the choice is usually about the size of the space and how often it moves.

Hanging structures are the one case where the install is the job. The aluminum tubing is fabricated to the shape you want, the fabric is printed in the same building, and the team assembles the structure and helps put it up. Installation and fulfillment is one of the four services Big Visual Group runs, alongside consultation, design and production and fabrication.

Sizing the backdrop to the room

Measure the space before the artwork starts. For a stage, that is the full width the audience and the cameras can see, not just the width of the platform. For a step and repeat, it is the length of the carpet or the receiving line, and the distance photographers will be standing back.

Scale follows from that. A step and repeat sized for a two-person photograph uses a different logo size from one shot in groups of six, and a logo scaled for the wrong group size is what makes a backdrop photograph badly. Designing a step and repeat for a red carpet works through the layout in detail.

Venue paperwork

Nashville venues differ on what they ask to see before a backdrop goes up, and some ask for flame certification in writing. Ask the venue early rather than the week of the event, and if the answer is yes, what NFPA 701 certification means for a fabric backdrop explains what the document covers.

Getting a custom backdrop made in Nashville

Big Visual Group prints, sews, fabricates and installs from 5764 Crossings Blvd in Antioch, southeast of downtown Nashville. The dye-sublimation press, the finishing and sewing department and the metal fabrication all sit in the same building, which is why a backdrop, the frame it stretches over and the structure it hangs from can be quoted as one job.

To start one, send the finished dimensions, the venue, the date and what you are hanging from. Artwork can follow. Templates and the file guidelines cover how to set the files up, and finished art goes through file submit.

Request a quote or call 615-731-3700.

Frequently asked questions

How wide can a custom backdrop be printed in one piece?

The dye-sublimation fabric printing runs up to 10 feet wide, so a single printed panel can be 10 feet across. Anything wider is finished as more than one panel and sewn together in the finishing and sewing department in Antioch.

Can a dye-sublimated fabric backdrop be used outdoors?

Dye-sublimation fabric prints are typically used indoors and are suitable for short-term outdoor use. They are odorless, glare-free, wrinkle-resistant and completely washable, so a backdrop that comes back from an outdoor event dirty can be machine-washed rather than replaced.

What is the difference between a step and repeat and a stage backdrop?

A step and repeat prints one logo or graphic in a repeated pattern across the whole surface, so a sponsor mark lands in frame wherever a person stands. A stage backdrop or scrim is a single designed image sized to the stage behind it. Both print on the same system; the difference is the artwork and how it is sized.

Does Big Visual Group install backdrops in Nashville?

Yes. For hanging structures the team fabricates the aluminum tubing, prints the fabric in its own shop, assembles the structure and helps install it on site.

Start with the room, not the artwork

The order that goes smoothly is the one that starts with a measurement, a venue and a hanging method. Everything else — fabric or vinyl, one panel or three, a frame that folds or a structure that flies — follows from those three answers, and the artwork fits the decision rather than the other way round.