University Open House Welcome With an AI Avatar: Script and Cost

An admissions office can send prospective students a campus host video ahead of an open house. On Sume Avatar 1.0 the clip is a render of 4 to 60 seconds, so it welcomes everyone alike and does not talk back.

Prices are from Sume's API pricing page and the request shape from Generate avatar video, both read on 2026-10-05. The avatar must exist first: Create new avatar accepts a prompt, a profile or a photo.

What should the script and scenes look like?

Cover where to go, what the day includes, and how to register. Counts use 2.8 words per second, rounded up per scene.

The seconds column is Sume's planning estimate of ceil(words / 2.8) per scene, not a measured render time.

POST https://api.sume.com/v1/avatar-1.0/talking-video
{
  "avatar_handle": "front_desk_host",
  "aspect_ratio": "16:9",
  "quality": "plus",
  "video_inputs": [
    { "id": "welcome", "voice": { "type": "text", "script": "Welcome to Northfield's open house, where you can see classrooms, labs and residence halls." }, "background": { "type": "prompt", "prompt": "Bright, plain room, locked-off camera, soft daylight" } },
    { "id": "day", "voice": { "type": "text", "script": "Tours start at ten, and you'll meet faculty from every department over lunch." }, "background": { "type": "prompt", "prompt": "Bright, plain room, locked-off camera, soft daylight" } },
    { "id": "go", "voice": { "type": "text", "script": "Register online and check in at the main hall. We can't wait to meet you." }, "background": { "type": "prompt", "prompt": "Bright, plain room, locked-off camera, soft daylight" } }
  ]
}

What does it cost?

The plan above comes to 16 seconds, inside the 4 to 60 second window. At Sume's per-second rates (no product image), one render costs $2.94 on standard, $3.92 on plus (the default when quality is omitted) and $8.80 on max. Creating the avatar is a separate one-time $0.95; later clips reuse the handle.

Where do live avatars fit?

On Tavus's Griffin page, read on 2026-10-05, Griffin-Lite is described as a research preview for select trusted testers, not a customer product. For admissions, that means a conversational recruiter is not something to plan around yet.

Sume's shipped route is a pre-rendered clip, which is predictable and reviewable before a student ever sees it.

What will it not do?

It will not respond to a prospective student's questions. Sume does not claim real-time conversation, so link to your admissions team.

Scripts for Avatar Video should be English; Sume's guidance is that non-English speech breaks caption alignment.