Chicago & Phoenix Director of Photography, Cinematographer, Drone Pilot, and Video Production
Dunlee at RSNA 2025 | Trade Show Video & Photography Production
Project at a Glance
Client: Dunlee
Agency: We Are Sparx
Event: RSNA 2025 (Radiological Society of North America Annual Meeting)
Venue: McCormick Place, Chicago, IL
Scope: Booth photography, executive interviews, three product feature videos
Duration: Two-day production
Production: Jamie Link Photography
Services: Commercial Photography · Corporate Video Production · Trade Show Video Production
The Brief
RSNA is one of the most significant annual gatherings in the medical imaging industry, drawing radiologists, healthcare executives, and technology buyers from around the world to McCormick Place in Chicago. For imaging component manufacturers like Dunlee, the conference is a primary platform for product launches, client relationships, and brand positioning.
Chicago-based marketing agency We Are Sparx engaged Jamie Link Photography to handle all visual content production for Dunlee's RSNA 2025 booth. The initial brief was straightforward: capture booth photography and general video coverage in a half-day. No executive interviews were requested. One edited video deliverable was discussed.
When the Brief Changed on Day One
Trade show productions rarely go exactly as briefed. On the first morning of shooting, Dunlee's team requested executive interviews on camera, something that had not been part of the original plan. The scope had effectively doubled before the first hour was complete.
Rather than turn down the work or deliver a compromised result, Jamie restructured his schedule and committed to a second full day of production. The final deliverable list expanded to three product feature videos, each covering a dedicated area of Dunlee's booth: mammography imaging components, CT scanner components, and onboard imaging systems.
This kind of scope expansion is common on large trade show floors. What separates a production partner from a day-rate shooter is the ability to absorb that change, communicate clearly, and deliver without making it the client's problem. That is what happened here.
Production Workflow
With the studio infrastructure in place, the production workflow became the competitive advantage. A typical shoot day at The Great Escape is built for volume and consistency, the studio environment, established lighting approach, and tethered shooting workflow allow the team to move efficiently through a high SKU count without sacrificing image quality.
On a standard production day, the team covers approximately 400 individual product images across multiple furniture sets and configurations. Products range from individual chairs and fire pits to large dining sets, sectional sofas, and full outdoor living vignettes. Tethered shooting allows immediate review and approval on set, reducing the back-and-forth that typically adds time and cost to high-volume product shoots.
The Production Environment
RSNA fills the South and North halls of McCormick Place with thousands of exhibitors and tens of thousands of attendees. The Dunlee booth was a large island configuration with open sightlines on all sides, multiple branded display areas, and real medical imaging hardware on display.
Filming on a live trade show floor presents specific technical challenges that do not exist in a controlled studio environment. Ambient noise is constant and unpredictable. Crowds move through frame. Neighboring booths compete for visual and audio attention. There is no access to venue power for production lighting.
That last point is worth addressing directly. Running professional lighting on a trade show floor without venue power typically means either renting a generator, working with available light only, or coming prepared with a portable power solution. Jamie ran the lighting package off two DJI Power 1000 portable power stations, allowing full control of the interview lighting environment without any dependency on venue infrastructure. The interviews were lit to the same standard as a studio setup.
Camera and Audio Package
The production ran a two-camera setup for the interview coverage, with the Canon EOS C400 as the primary cinema camera and the Canon EOS R5C as a secondary camera. Both cameras were paired with Canon RF L-series glass. Lighting was handled with Aputure fixtures powered by the DJI Power 1000 units.
Audio was captured with a Rode shotgun microphone as the primary source and DJI Mic 2 lavalier microphones as a backup. Running dual audio capture on a loud trade show floor is not optional. It is insurance. The shotgun handles the primary interview audio while the lav protects against moments where crowd noise or PA announcements spike on the main channel.
The Deliverables
All filming, editing, and post-production was completed by Jamie Link. The final package delivered to Dunlee via We Are Sparx included:
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Three product feature videos, one for each key product category at the booth: mammography imaging components, CT scanner components, and onboard imaging systems
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Executive interview coverage featuring Dunlee leadership and team members speaking to camera against branded backdrops
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Booth photography capturing product displays, the booth environment, and event activity
Each product feature video was structured to serve as a standalone asset, usable for post-event digital marketing, product pages, or sales collateral. The interview footage gave Dunlee human-facing content featuring their own team speaking directly about the products and the company, content that performs significantly better in B2B marketing contexts than product-only footage.
What This Production Demonstrates
The Dunlee RSNA production is a useful illustration of what trade show video production actually requires at a professional level. The original brief was modest. The final production was not. The gap between those two things was bridged by showing up prepared for more than what was asked, having the equipment and the experience to adapt, and delivering a complete package without disruption to the client or the agency.
For agencies and brand marketing teams evaluating production partners for trade show coverage, the questions worth asking are not just about reel quality. They are about what happens when the brief changes on day one, whether the production partner can solve a power problem independently, and whether a two-camera interview setup can be deployed and lit properly in the middle of a working trade show floor.
McCormick Place hosts some of the largest trade shows in North America. Jamie Link Photography has produced content at RSNA, and across the convention center's halls, for multiple clients. That experience is not something that can be replicated by a production team that has never navigated the specific logistics of that building and that environment.
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