Whether you’re delivering a high-stakes international summit, a televised sporting event, or a corporate sales meeting, the audience’s experience can make or break your message. On top of that, navigating layers of creative, technical, and logistical complexity requires a skillful team that has both precision and grit.  

Enter Studio Blue, a creative production studio with a focus on AV design and delivery.  

We sat down with Mike Wohlitz, a 30+ year production pro and the head of Studio Blue, to hear the new brand’s backstory, learn about their focused expertise as well as what’s on the horizon. 

Q: What makes Studio Blue different from agencies and other AV companies? 

Mike: A lot of these companies fall into one of two buckets. You’ve got staging companies that provide equipment and technically minded people who know how to run it. Then you’ve got agencies who focus on branding events.

As a creative production house, Studio Blue sits in the middle. We don’t author brand narratives or help you figure out your message. We interpret our customers’ established messaging as well as their ideas/intention for a meeting or event, then we take that and turn it into an incredible experience on stage and off.

We live to deliver compelling production design and delivery … not strategy decks. But that’s not to say we don’t love a good strategy deck, because who doesn’t?!

But that’s an agency tool. Our expertise is aligning our production to your strategic vision. Then we breathe life into the live event delivery so the message hits home with audiences.

Q: So, you’re not an agency. What does Studio Blue offer that agencies don’t? 

Mike: Rather than a team of strategists who work with customers to develop their stories or brand narratives from scratch, we offer executive producers, creative directors, and technical directors, to bring that brand story and/or meeting vision to life. 

Our competitive advantage? We’re not outsourcing gear to make the client’s vision happen — we have access to everything in-house. That gives us flexibility and control, which is a big difference. Since we’re a lean team with hefty expertise, we like to say we’re “always nimble, never constrained.” 

Q: Does Studio Blue also handle media rooms and press centers? 

Mike: That’s one of our sweet spots. We’ve built media centers for everything from the Super Bowl to international government summits. These spaces may look simple on the surface — tables, chairs, a stage — but they’re super complex behind the scenes.  

We manage lighting, audio, interpretation feeds, press pool distribution, and 24/7 coordination. If there are 5,000 credentialed media, we treat them like 5,000 individual clients. That kind of production detail (and attention) is essential. 

Q: What’s something most people don’t know about orchestrating a media room? 

Mike: The complexity is invisible. You’re not just setting up a room — you’re managing global media logistics, security protocols, and live broadcast infrastructure. For some events, we are broadcasting in more than a dozen languages.

These are high-stakes environments, and Studio Blue knows how to deliver a seamless production, no matter how complex. 

Q: Rumor has it you worked for a very famous talk show host who continues to OWN her impact on media and culture. Any stories from that experience?

Mike:  I had the incredible honor of supporting the Oprah Winfrey show for more than a decade. She was surrounded by a world class team with a unified commitment to make the impossible happen, day in and day out. 

There are so many great stories. I especially remember when the studio was transitioning to HD. I learned quickly to view a set with a camera’s eye, and not a human eye. Most people assume celebrities and presenters just step up on stage and you flip on the lights. But there’s an art to it.

Every person, every production poses new challenges that we get to tinker with until we find the right formula, including the right production design. 

Q: What’s next for Studio Blue?

Mike: We are excited to support such a wide variety of really cool projects. The Super Bowl and FIFA are around the corner, and we are neck deep in the planning stages.

We just produced an first-ever AI summit in a Huntington Beach parking lot — the trick was orchestrating the build outside while also checking all the logistics and AV boxes. We helped their team deliver an immersive destination of unique spaces and stages to engage attendees.

Several other projects are in the works, so we look forward to sharing more visuals and footage from these coast-to-coast productions. 

Q: Unpack the Studio Blue tagline: “Your story. Our mission.”

Mike: That’s more than just a clever tag — it’s truly who we are and how we work. We’re here to interpret your brand story and bring it to life with precision and enthusiasm.

We are built to amaze your audience while delivering on time and on budget.  That’s Studio Blue. 

Want more? See how Studio Blue’s design direction, engineering expertise, and concept execution brought the NATO Summit to life.