AV Entrepreneurship

Introduction

A freelance A1 is booked every week. Clients start asking whether she can bring a second engineer, then a full crew, then the console and the speakers too. One month she has sent out six people, rented a truck, paid everyone, and is still waiting for the client's money. Without quite deciding to, she has started a company.

This book is about making that decision on purpose. It covers the four kinds of AV business and how each one earns, the plan and the legal setup, insurance and contracts, pricing a job so it leaves a profit, the gap between paying people and being paid, gear, hiring, systems, growth, and what to do when things go wrong.

United States rules are the main example, from the IRS, the Department of Labor, the Small Business Administration and Florida's state agencies, with a short note on Colombia. None of it is legal or tax advice: it tells you what to ask, and an accountant and a lawyer where you work tell you the answer.

How to Use This Book

Read it in the order a business is built: the decision, the setup, the money, the clients and the team, then growth. Freelance Business Fundamentals comes first: it covers the day rate build-up, quarterly tax and chasing an invoice for a business of one, and this book takes them for granted.

Beyond Freelancing

An AV business is more than a busy freelancer — it is something that can run and grow.

From freelancer to business

Freelance Business Fundamentals taught you to run yourself as a business of one. AV entrepreneurship goes further: building an actual business — a company that serves clients with a repeatable offering, has systems and possibly people beyond just you, and can grow beyond what one person can do. The difference is significant: a freelancer sells their own time and skill; a business creates value through systems, capacity, and possibly a team, and can grow in ways a solo career cannot. Building an AV business means creating something that is bigger than yourself — an enterprise rather than a job.

This is not for everyone — many have great careers freelancing or employed — but for those drawn to it, building an AV business is a path to greater impact, capacity, and potential reward (along with greater responsibility and risk). It means thinking like an owner: about the offering, the clients, the finances, the operations, and the growth of an enterprise, not just your own gigs. Understanding the leap from freelancer to business owner — from selling your time to building a company — is the starting point of AV entrepreneurship.

The test is simple: who does the work? A freelancer is paid for their own hours, so income stops when they stop. A business is paid for work that other people, owned gear and written systems deliver, so it earns on days the owner is somewhere else. Most AV companies start the way the introduction describes, one booking at a time, and the owner notices late that the paperwork, the risk and the cash have all changed.

Be honest about the odds before deciding. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks every new private-sector establishment: of those that opened in the year to March 2020, 80.9 per cent were still open a year later and 51.4 per cent five years later. Roughly one in five closes in its first year and half by its fifth. Most of the rest of this book is about being in the half that stays open.

What an AV business is

An AV business serves clients with some offering — it might be an AV production company (providing crews and gear for events), an integration company (designing and installing systems), a rental house (renting gear), a specialised service, or a combination. Whatever the offering, a business has the elements of an enterprise: a value it provides to clients, the resources to provide it (gear, people, systems), the finances to run sustainably, and the ability to find clients and grow. Understanding your business as an offering delivered to clients through resources, run on sound finances, is the framework for building one.

The key shift from freelancing is that the business can deliver more than you personally can — through gear it owns, people it employs or contracts, and systems that make delivery repeatable. This is what lets a business scale beyond one person's hours. An AV business owner builds and runs this capability: defining what the business offers, assembling the resources to deliver it, managing the finances, winning the clients, and growing the whole. That is what the rest of this book covers — the building blocks of an AV enterprise.

Every AV business answers three questions: what it sells, what it needs to deliver it, and how the money moves. The offering is the first. The resources are the second: people, gear, premises, vehicles, software. The third is where most new owners go wrong, because a business pays for its resources before its clients pay it.

It is a big trade to build in. AVIXA, the industry's association, put global pro AV revenue at 332 billion US dollars in 2025, forecast to reach 402 billion by 2030, though it cut its five-year growth rate from 5.3 to 3.9 per cent. There is room for small companies, but not for vague ones.

The four kinds of AV business

Most AV companies are one of four kinds, or a mix. Each earns differently, needs different money to start and carries different risk, so choosing between them is the first real decision.

A crew and labour company sells skilled people by the day or the hour, to production companies, venues and rental houses. It needs little equipment and little money to start, and its margin is the difference between what it charges and what it pays the crew. Its risks are people: classification, workers' compensation, and a no-show on a show day.

A rental and production company owns the gear and earns every day it goes out, often with its own crew to run it. It needs the most money up front, a warehouse, vehicles and insurance for equipment on the move. Its profit depends on utilisation: how many days a year each item is earning rather than sitting on a shelf.

An installation company, usually called an integrator, designs, supplies and installs systems that stay in a building: boardrooms, classrooms, churches, stadiums. It earns on equipment resale and labour over projects lasting weeks or months, so it needs money to buy equipment before the client pays, and it carries the risk of fixed-price jobs that overrun.

A design and consulting practice sells expertise: needs analysis, system design, drawings and specifications, as AV Consulting describes. It needs the least money, but the deepest experience and professional liability insurance, because its product is advice.

The four kinds of AV business, side by side

The same three questions answered for each kind. Many companies combine two, most often production with crewing, or installation with design.

Practice it

A video engineer owns a Blackmagic ATEM, a few cameras and monitors, and is regularly asked to supply crew.

Starting an AV Business

Turning an idea into a running business takes a plan and a proper setup.

The offering and the plan

Starting an AV business begins with a clear offering: what value will it provide, to whom? Deciding what your business does (the service or product), who its clients are (the market it serves), and what makes it worth choosing is the foundation — a focused, clear offering to a defined market is far stronger than trying to do everything for everyone. From the offering, you make a plan: how the business will operate, what it needs (gear, people, money) to start and run, how it will get clients, and how it will make money. A business plan need not be elaborate, but thinking through the offering, market, operations, and finances before diving in is what separates a real business from a hopeful gamble.

This planning is the entrepreneurial work of conceiving the business: clarifying what you will offer, to whom, how, and how it will sustain itself. It draws on understanding the market (where is the need and opportunity), the offering (what you will provide), and the basic economics (how it will make money). A clear offering and a sound plan are the foundation; building on a vague idea without a plan is how businesses fail early. Start with a clear answer to what the business does, for whom, and how it will work.

The business plan for a small AV company fits on two pages. Who the clients are and how many there are within reach. What the business sells them and at what price. What it costs to deliver: people, gear, transport, premises, insurance. How the first clients will be found. And the money: how much is needed before the first invoice is paid, and where it comes from.

Write the money section as months, not as a year. A year can show a profit while one month in it shows the business unable to pay its crew, which is the cash flow chapter's whole subject.

Setting up properly

Turning the plan into a real business means setting it up properly — the legal, financial, and operational foundations. This includes the legal setup (registering the business in the appropriate form, which varies by location and has implications you should get professional advice on), the financial setup (business banking, accounting, and the systems to manage money properly), insurance (protecting the business and meeting client and legal requirements), and the operational basics (how the business will actually function day to day). Getting these foundations right from the start avoids serious problems later, and most warrant advice from qualified professionals (accountants, lawyers, insurance advisors) for your specific situation.

This is the unglamorous but essential infrastructure of a business. A clear offering and great AV skills are not enough; the business must be set up to operate legally, manage money soundly, and protect itself. The entrepreneur builds this foundation — properly registered, financially organised, insured, and operationally ready — so the business stands on solid ground. Because the specifics vary by location and carry legal and financial consequences, getting qualified professional advice for the setup is itself good business practice. Set the business up right, and you can build on a solid foundation.

In the United States the main choices are a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company (LLC) and a corporation. A sole proprietor, in the IRS's words, owns an unincorporated business by themselves; there is no separation between the owner and the business. An LLC is formed under state law and keeps the business's debts separate from the owner's. For income tax, the IRS treats a single-member LLC as disregarded from its owner by default, so its profit goes on the owner's own return, though it is still a separate entity for employment taxes. An LLC with two or more members is taxed as a partnership by default.

An LLC or corporation can elect to be taxed as an S corporation on IRS Form 2553, signed by every shareholder. Income then passes through to the owners, who can pay themselves a salary and take the rest as distributions; this changes how much self-employment tax, 15.3 per cent, is paid. Whether it saves money depends on profit and state, and is a question for an accountant.

An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is the business's federal tax ID. It is needed to hire employees and is usually asked for by banks and clients. It is free from the IRS online, issued at once; anyone who charges for one is charging for nothing.

In Colombia the usual form is the sociedad por acciones simplificada (SAS), created by Ley 1258 de 2008: one or more people can form one, and they are liable only up to what they put in. It becomes a legal person once entered in the commercial register at the Cámara de Comercio. It must register with the DIAN in the RUT, which is free, and anyone obliged to invoice must invoice electronically.

Insurance and risk

One dropped LED wall or one injured guest can close a small company, so insurance is not optional. General liability covers injury to other people and damage to their property; the Small Business Administration lists bodily injury, property damage, medical expenses, libel and the cost of a defence. Professional liability covers errors and negligence in advice and design, which matters most for design practices.

Equipment needs its own policy. Gear that travels is covered by an inland marine policy, usually a tools and equipment floater, which the Insurance Information Institute describes as covering the insured property wherever it is used. A business vehicle needs commercial auto: a personal auto policy does not cover a vehicle owned by a business. Hired and non-owned auto cover protects the company when crew drive their own cars on its work.

Workers' compensation is set by each state. In Florida, a non-construction business must carry it once it has four or more employees, and corporate officers and LLC members count towards the four; a construction business must carry it from the first employee. Installation work can fall on the construction side.

Venues ask for proof before load-in. A certificate of insurance (COI) is a one-page summary from the insurer of what a policy covers. Venues commonly require general liability of 1 million dollars per occurrence and 2 million in aggregate, as the City of Winter Park's events centre does, and ask to be named as additional insured: covered by your policy for claims arising from your work there. Ask the insurer for these on the day you book the show, not the day before.

Contracts and terms

Every job needs terms in writing before the work: scope, price, what is excluded, the deposit, when the balance is due, what happens on cancellation, overtime, who insures what, and the limit of liability. Freelance Business Fundamentals covers the contract for one person; a company adds the things that only arise with crew and gear.

Those are damage and loss of gear on site, the client's responsibility for power and access, crew meals and turnaround, who pays for a cross-hire if the client adds kit late, and what the company pays its own crew if the client cancels. Write the terms once with a lawyer, then use them on every job.

How to do it

1. Choose the form with an accountant, and form it with the state.
2. Get an EIN from the IRS, free, online.
3. Open a business bank account, and pay nothing personal from it.
4. Register for sales tax with the state if the business will rent out equipment, and get a resale certificate.
5. Buy insurance before the first job, not after the first claim.
6. Write standard terms and a contract before the first client asks.
7. Set up bookkeeping software from the first day.

What goes wrong

Practice it

Two freelance technicians start a crew company together as an LLC. A hotel then asks them for a COI showing 1 million dollars per occurrence, 2 million aggregate, with the hotel as additional insured.

Business Finances

A business lives or dies on its finances — understand the money.

Revenue, costs, and profit

A business runs on its finances, and the core is understanding revenue, costs, and profit. Revenue is what the business brings in (from clients paying for its offering). Costs are what it spends to operate — gear, labour (employees or contractors), overhead (premises, insurance, software, vehicles), and the expenses of delivering the work. Profit is what is left after costs — and a business must make a profit to survive and grow. Understanding that the business must bring in more than it spends, and managing towards healthy profit, is the financial foundation of entrepreneurship. A business that does not understand and manage its money fails, however good its AV work.

This is more complex than freelance finances because a business has more moving parts — more costs (gear, possibly staff, overhead), and the need to price its offering so that, across all the work, revenue comfortably exceeds costs with profit left. The entrepreneur must understand the business's economics: what it costs to deliver, what to charge, and what margin is needed to be sustainable and to grow. Sound financial understanding — revenue, costs, profit, and pricing for healthy margin — is essential to running a viable AV business, and getting professional accounting help is wise.

Split costs into two kinds. Direct costs belong to one job: the crew paid for it, cross-hired gear, the truck, the fuel, the hotel. Overhead belongs to the business: insurance, rent, software, vehicles, the owner's salary, accountancy. Revenue minus direct costs is gross profit; as a share of revenue it is the gross margin. Gross profit has to pay all the overhead before anything is left.

Know the difference between markup and margin, because they are often confused and the confusion costs money. Crew who cost the company 1,000 dollars, charged at 1,400, carry a 40 per cent markup on cost but only a 28.6 per cent margin on the price. An owner who wants a 40 per cent margin must charge about 1,667.

Cash flow and managing money

Beyond profit, cash flow — the timing of money in and out — can make or break a business, even a profitable one. A business may be profitable on paper but fail if it runs out of cash to pay its bills while waiting for clients to pay — a classic and fatal trap. Managing cash flow means ensuring the business always has enough money on hand to meet its obligations (paying staff, gear, rent) as they come due, which requires watching the timing of income and expenses, invoicing promptly, and keeping reserves. Cash flow management is a survival skill for a business, distinct from and as important as profitability.

Managing a business's money also means keeping proper financial records, understanding the business's financial health, planning for taxes and obligations, and making sound financial decisions (about spending, investing in gear or people, and pricing). This is more involved than personal finance, which is why businesses use accounting systems and professionals. The entrepreneur stays on top of the business's finances — profit, cash flow, and overall financial health — because the business's survival depends on it. Treating the money seriously, with proper systems and advice, is fundamental to running a sustainable AV business.

The cash gap is the time between paying out and being paid. A company pays its crew within two weeks of the show, its card bill within a month, its cross-hire on collection, and its client pays thirty, sixty or ninety days after the invoice. For every show booked, the company lends the client its own money until then. The busier it gets, the bigger the loan.

This is a common problem, not a rare one. In the Federal Reserve Banks' 2024 survey of more than 7,600 US small employer firms, 51 per cent named uneven cash flows as a challenge and 56 per cent named paying operating expenses. Atradius, a trade credit insurer, found about half of all US business-to-business invoices overdue in 2024.

The tools are plain. A cash flow forecast for the next thirteen weeks, updated weekly, showing every payment out and every payment expected in. Deposits on booking. Invoices sent the day the show ends. A reserve. And a line of credit arranged with the bank before it is needed. Once a week, an hour: update the forecast, list what is owed and chase what is late, check next month's deposits and the next two weeks' bills, and move the tax set-aside into its own account.

Pricing and day rates

Freelance Business Fundamentals builds one person's day rate. A company prices a job: each line's direct cost, plus a share of overhead, plus a profit. Labour is priced per person per day above what the company pays them; owned gear is charged at a rental rate, because its cost is overhead the business has already paid; cross-hired gear is charged above what it costs; transport and travel at cost or above.

Work out the overhead share from a year: divide a year's overhead by the number of show days the business expects. If overhead is 90,000 dollars and the business expects 150 show days, each day must carry 600 dollars of overhead before it makes any profit. A job priced only above its direct costs can look profitable and lose money.

Price against the value and the market, not only the cost. The cost build-up tells you the lowest price you can afford; the market tells you the highest you can get. A price between the two is a decision, and a low price to win a client is still a cost.

Getting paid

Accounts receivable is the money clients owe the business. Freelance Business Fundamentals sets out how to chase one invoice; a company has dozens, so it needs a routine: a weekly list of everything owed and how late, terms agreed before the work, deposits that cover at least the direct costs, and a named person who chases.

Ask who pays before you quote. A production company that hires you may only pay when its own client pays it, which may be ninety days. A deposit and a stage payment are fair on large jobs, and a client who will not pay any deposit is telling you something.

How to do it

1. List every crew position, the days, and what each costs the company.
2. List owned gear at its rental rate, and cross-hire at cost plus markup.
3. Add transport, travel, hotels and meals.
4. Add the overhead share for the show days.
5. Add the profit, then check the margin, not the markup.
6. Write what is included and what is not, and the terms.

What goes wrong

Practice it

A one-day corporate show needs an A1, a V1 and a stagehand, who cost the company 650, 600 and 400 dollars. Owned gear rents at 2,400 and the truck costs 350. The overhead share is 600 dollars a show day. The client pays net 60 from the invoice; the crew are paid two weeks after the show.

Clients & Operations

Win the work, and build the systems to deliver it reliably beyond just you.

Getting and keeping clients

A business needs clients, and getting and keeping them is central. This builds on the sales and relationship skills covered in Technical Sales Fundamentals, Client & Stakeholder Communication and Freelance Business Fundamentals: finding clients (through relationships, reputation, marketing, and business development), winning their work (understanding their needs and offering a solution, professionally), and keeping them (delivering excellently and building lasting relationships so they return and refer). For a business, this client work is ongoing and essential — a business with no clients has no revenue — and often becomes a dedicated effort (sales and business development) as the business grows. Building a steady stream of clients is the lifeblood of the enterprise.

Keeping clients is especially valuable: a business built on repeat clients and referrals (earned through excellent delivery and strong relationships) has a far more stable foundation than one constantly chasing new one-off work. The reputation and relationship principles of individual AV work apply at the business level — a business known for excellent, reliable, professional work earns the repeat business and referrals that sustain it. The entrepreneur builds the client base through winning and, crucially, keeping clients, which is how the business secures its revenue and grows.

Most AV work is repeat work. Know who your best ten clients are, how much each spent last year, and when you last spoke to each of them away from a show. Walk the venue with them before the event, send the follow-up after it, and ask what to do better next time.

Know who you are really selling to. A production company is a middleman; the budget belongs to its client. Some AV businesses grow by working for production companies, others by going directly to corporate event teams, venues and agencies. Both work, but they need different prices and terms.

Building systems and a team

What lets a business deliver beyond one person is systems and, often, a team. Systems are repeatable ways of doing things — how the business sells, prepares, delivers, and manages its work — so the business operates consistently and reliably, not dependent on one person improvising each time. Building good operational systems (drawing on operations, coordination, and warehouse disciplines) is what lets a business handle more work reliably. As the business grows, it also builds a team — hiring or contracting people, and leading them — to deliver more than the owner alone can.

This is the core of scaling beyond freelancing: systems and people let the business deliver capacity beyond the owner's own hours. The entrepreneur shifts from doing all the work to building the systems and team that do the work — which is a different role (owner and leader rather than just technician). Building reliable systems and, when ready, a capable team is how an AV business grows from a one-person operation into a real enterprise that can take on more, deliver consistently, and not depend entirely on the founder. Systems and team are what make a business scalable.

A system is a written way of doing a job that anyone on the team can follow: the quote template, the pull sheet, the prep checklist, the load-in order, the show report, the invoice. Write each one the second time you do something. The test is whether a show goes out properly when the owner is on holiday.

Gear: buy, rent or cross-hire

Buy gear that will be out often, and cross-hire the rest. To cross-hire is to rent equipment from another company for one job and charge it on to the client. It lets a small company quote a show bigger than its warehouse.

Work out payback before buying: the purchase price divided by what the item earns a year. A projector bought for 20,000 dollars that earns 500 a day and goes out forty days a year earns 20,000 a year before maintenance, so pays back in about a year. If it goes out ten days a year, cross-hire it. That number of days out is its utilisation, and it is what makes a rental company profitable or not.

Two rules affect the numbers. In the US, Section 179 of the tax code lets a business deduct the cost of qualifying equipment in the year it starts using it rather than over several years, up to 2,560,000 dollars in 2026 (IRS Publication 946). And many states charge sales tax on equipment rental: Florida taxes renting tangible personal property, including electronics, at 6 per cent plus county surtax. A Florida Annual Resale Certificate lets a company rent gear tax-free only when it re-rents it, as in a cross-hire, and it expires every 31 December.

Hiring crew: contractors and employees

The first person you add changes the business, and how you engage them is a legal question, not a preference. A contractor runs their own business and is paid on an invoice; an employee works under your direction and is paid through payroll, with tax withheld and workers' compensation.

Worker classification is decided by the facts, not the label. The IRS looks at three groups of evidence: behavioural (who controls how the work is done), financial (who has the chance of profit or loss, who supplies the tools), and the type of relationship (benefits, permanence, whether the work is the core of your business). No one factor decides it.

The Department of Labor's own test is in flux. Its 2024 rule took effect in March 2024; in May 2025 it said it would no longer apply that rule in its investigations, though the rule still applied in private lawsuits, and in February 2026 it proposed replacing it. Check the current rule before you hire. If you treat an employee as a contractor without a reasonable basis, the IRS can hold you liable for the employment taxes, and the worker may be owed minimum wage and overtime.

Contractors you pay above a threshold get a Form 1099-NEC each year: 600 dollars for payments before 2026, and 2,000 dollars for payments made in 2026.

How to do it

1. Decide what they will do that you now do yourself.
2. Check contractor or employee against the IRS's three groups.
3. If employee, set up payroll and workers' compensation before day one.
4. If contractor, get a W-9 and their own insurance certificate.
5. Hand them the written systems and walk one show together.

Practice it

A rental company uses the same three technicians five days a week, sets their hours, gives them company shirts and tools, and calls them contractors.

Growing & the Entrepreneurial Mindset

Build deliberately, grow sustainably, and think like an owner.

Growing sustainably

Growing an AV business means increasing its capacity and reach — more gear, more people, more clients, bigger projects — but sustainably, in step with sound finances and reliable delivery. Growth is exciting but risky: growing too fast (taking on more than the business can deliver or afford) can break it, while growing too slowly may miss opportunity. Sustainable growth means expanding capacity (gear, team, systems) as demand and finances support it, maintaining quality and reliability as you grow, and managing the increased complexity. The entrepreneur grows the business deliberately — investing in capacity as it is justified, keeping delivery excellent, and keeping the finances sound — rather than chasing growth recklessly.

This connects all the elements: growth requires more clients (business development), more capacity (gear and team), better systems (to handle scale), and careful finances (to fund growth without running out of cash). Managing these together as the business grows is the entrepreneur's ongoing work. Sustainable growth — bigger, but still profitable, reliable, and sound — is the goal, and it is achieved by growing deliberately rather than just as fast as possible. A well-grown AV business is a substantial, lasting enterprise.

Growth costs cash before it makes any. More shows mean a bigger cash gap, more gear means money spent before it earns, and more people mean payroll every two weeks whatever the bookings. Grow in steps: add the next truck, the next person or the next line of business when the forecast says the business can afford it for six months without the new work.

Watch the founder's diary. A company where every show needs the owner cannot grow past the owner's diary. The step from five people to fifteen is mostly the owner stepping back from the shows and doing sales, money and people.

The entrepreneurial mindset

Underlying all of this is the entrepreneurial mindset: thinking like an owner who builds and grows an enterprise, not just a technician who does the work. This means taking responsibility for the whole business (the offering, clients, finances, operations, people, and growth), making decisions and bearing their consequences, taking calculated risks, solving problems creatively, and persistently building something over time. It also means combining your AV expertise with business skill — because an AV business needs both excellent AV capability and sound business management. The entrepreneur is part AV professional, part business builder, and developing both sides is what makes a successful AV business owner.

AV entrepreneurship is demanding and risky, but for those drawn to it, deeply rewarding — building something of your own, creating jobs and value, and achieving impact and potential reward beyond a solo career. This book has covered the building blocks: the offering, starting up, finances, clients, systems and team, and growth, all wrapped in the entrepreneurial mindset. Combined with your AV skills and the freelance and sales foundations, it equips those who want it to build an AV business. Whether you build a small company or a large one, thinking and acting like an owner is what turns AV skill into an AV enterprise.

Try this. Imagine starting a small AV business. What would your clear offering be, who would your clients be, and what's one system you'd build so the business doesn't depend entirely on you?

An owner takes the decisions nobody else will: who to hire, which client to turn down, when to borrow, when to say no to a show. The mindset is less about risk-taking than about looking at the numbers every week and acting on them before they force you to.

When it goes wrong

Most small AV companies that close do so for a handful of reasons: too much work for too little margin, one client who stopped paying or stopped calling, gear bought before the work was there, a cash gap the business outgrew, or an uninsured loss. Every one of them shows in the numbers months before it closes the company.

If it goes wrong, talk early: to the accountant, to the bank, to the crew about when they will be paid, and to the clients who owe you. Problems told early are often solvable; the same problems hidden until payday usually are not.

What goes wrong

Practice it

An owner wants to buy a second box truck and hire a full-time technician because the last two months were the best ever.

Glossary

Where to Go Next

Freelance Business Fundamentals covers the business of one, Technical Sales and Business Development cover finding work, Project Management the delivery, and AV Consulting the design practice. An accountant and a lawyer where you work are the next step, and the SBA's free SCORE mentors are a good one.

What the gear actually looks like

Every device named in this book, in one place. Recognition is the whole point of Chapter 4 — use this page to attach a picture to each name before you meet it on a dock at six in the morning.

Audio

Dynamic microphone

Condenser microphone

Wireless handheld

Radio rack

Mixing console

Stage box / snake

Power amplifier

Main loudspeaker

Subwoofer

Stage monitor wedge

In-ear monitors

DI box

Video

Camera

Video switcher

Scaler / processor

Projector

LED wall panel

Confidence monitor

Lighting & control

Conventional fixture

Moving-head fixture

Lighting console

Dimmer

Show controller

Media server

Networking & infrastructure

Network switch

Patch bay

Equipment rack

Power distribution

Cable tester

A properly coiled cable

Connectors, close up

XLR

TRS / TS ¼-inch

SDI on BNC

HDMI

Cat5e / Cat6 (RJ45)

Fiber optic

DMX (5-pin XLR)

AC power — not signal