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Vancouver's Audiovisual & Event Production Experts - Zero Stress, Every Time


17 Things to Check on Your Site Visit
This video gives solid advice for any PM or event business owner to consider when conducting a site visit! TLDR: AV Site Visit Checklist: 17 Things to Verify Before Load-In A production-focused walkthrough of every AV-critical item to assess during a venue site visit — from initial venue guidelines through load-in logistics, room specs, power, rigging, and key contacts. Pre-event documentation: Get the venue's AV guidelines packet in writing — it covers third-party restricti

Steven Visser
Apr 132 min read


Video 101 - GFX/Video Switchers
Here's a quick video that explains how Video Switchers work! TLDR: How Video Switchers Work — Technical Overview: A practical breakdown of video switcher fundamentals — covering signal routing, output configurations, and when to scale up to advanced switching systems for live event and broadcast productions. Signal inputs and source management: Switchers accept multiple input types across various connector formats — HDMI, VGA, composite, BNC — accommodating sources like pre

Steven Visser
Apr 131 min read


Presets, Cues, Cue Stacks/Lists, Sequences, and Executors
These terms are most commonly used in professional lighting consoles such as those from MA Lighting (e.g., grandMA3) and ETC (e.g., Eos). The exact terminology varies slightly by brand, but the core concepts are similar. Here’s a clear breakdown of each term and how they relate to each other: 1. Presets Definition: Building blocks (raw ingredients). A preset stores a specific value for one parameter (or a group of related parameters) that you can reuse. Examples: A specific r

Steven Visser
Apr 132 min read


Amp Modes - What They Are & When to Use Them
So you’ve got passive speakers and need an external amplifier. Awesome. But it’s not as simple as just connecting the cables, turning the dials to 11 (see Spinal Tap) and walking away. There’s different modes to choose from and they all have different impacts; like how many speakers you can use, how much wattage of output power you get, how you need to run cables into and out of your amp, etc. For the sake of consistency, let’s assume for the rest of this post that we’re usin

Steven Visser
Apr 65 min read


One of the BIGGEST myths in audio…
If you’ve ever worked with wireless microphone kits before, you may already know where I’m going with this. This myth is so prevalent that I’ve met more technicians who believe it than those who don’t. But if you actually research what the correct approach to gain staging digital wireless kits is, you’ll realize this belief is just plain wrong. Here’s one of the biggest audio myths: “You should always set wireless gain to 0dB”. I’m not sure how this myth started. Maybe it’s b

Steven Visser
Apr 63 min read


Cable Gages and Why They’re Important
Power cable gauge (gage) refers to the thickness of the wire conductor, which determines how much electrical current it can safely carry. In North America, this is usually measured using American Wire Gauge (AWG). 1️⃣ How the Gauge System Works 📖 The AWG system is a little counterintuitive: Lower number = thicker wire = more current capacity Higher number = thinner wire = less current capacity *Actual ratings depend on insulation type, temperature, and installation method. 2

Steven Visser
Apr 62 min read


Dip Switches on Dimmers and Controllers
Solved this issue the other day on a job site and thought it would make a good post! Dip Switches are a series of tiny binary switches numbered 1-9 that can be switched ‘on’ or ‘off’. They have different functions on different devices. Sometimes they indicate the radio frequency the device uses to operate - for example, perfect cues. In the case of Dimmers, they determine the starting address of the dimmer. For example, if you have 1 ON and the rest OFF, on a 4 channel dimmer

Steven Visser
Apr 61 min read


New to Sound System Design and Tuning? Start Here (for intermediate audio techs)
Michael Curtis makes a ton of great content. I’d highly recommend subscribing to his channel and checking out his other videos. TLDR: What the video is about: A beginner's roadmap for getting into live sound system design and tuning. Key resources he recommends, in order: His YouTube playlist — 15 curated videos to watch in sequence covering speaker placement, building a tuning rig, software, and more. Signal to Noise Podcast Discord — A free community (run by Pro Sound Web)

Steven Visser
Apr 61 min read


Myth: digital audio sources shouldn’t be set to 100%
There’s a common myth that digital audio sources shouldn’t be set to 100%. The explanations for this belief vary between people but here’s why they’re wrong: Setting digital audio sources to 100% volume is recommended because it preserves the maximum bit depth and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), avoiding the loss of precision that occurs when digital volume controls reduce the amplitude of the signal. Instead, volume control should be managed in the analog domain by adjusting th

Steven Visser
Apr 11 min read


These 3 things could make or break your event (and they’re often overlooked)…
TLDR if you want to reduce your risk, lower your stress, and make sure your event runs smoothly BUT you don’t want to spend the time or the effort learning about AV, send us a message and we’d be happy to sanity-check your AV quote for you! For event planners and executive assistants, the margin for error is thin. Timelines are tight, stakeholders are watching, and your reputation is on the line. That’s why you need to know that you’ve done everything you can to increase your

Steven Visser
Apr 12 min read
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