Safety Awareness & Rigging Basics

Introduction

Most people who get hurt in AV are not hurt doing something dramatic. They hurt their back lifting a case alone, fall off a stage edge in the dark, step backwards into a forklift's path on a loading dock, drop a wrench from a ladder onto a colleague, or stand under a truss while it is being flown because it was only going up a metre. Every one of those was visible beforehand to somebody who knew what to look for.

This book is about learning to see those hazards, to work in a way that controls them, and to recognise the jobs — rigging, electrical work, lifts, working at height — that need their own training before anybody touches them. None of it slows good crews down. The crews that work safely are usually the ones that work fastest, because nothing stops the day.

What this book covers

The safety mindset, risk and the hierarchy of controls; the hazards of AV sites — loading docks and vehicles, stage edges and trips, noise, heat and weather, chemicals, fire, effects, crowds, structures and fatigue; manual handling, lifting, team lifts and moving cases; PPE and situational awareness; ladders, lifts, fall protection and dropped objects; electrical and rigging awareness; and knowing your limits, emergencies, first aid and reporting.

It was measured against OSHA 10-hour training for the entertainment industry, the Event Safety Alliance's guide and training, the UK events industry's Purple Guide, the UK Health and Safety Executive's manual handling guidance and the international code of practice for entertainment rigging, so that nothing a new crew member is taught elsewhere about staying safe on an AV site is missing here.

What this book does not do

It does not qualify you to rig, to do electrical work, to operate lifts, forklifts or telehandlers, or to work at height with fall protection. Each of those needs its own certified training. This book gives you the awareness to work safely around them and to recognise the line.

How to Use This Book

Each chapter follows the same shape, and the shape matters more than it might look. You read the ideas, then you see them play out in a real situation, then you get the procedure, then you are shown what goes wrong and how to recognise it early. Reading only the parts that look new is the fastest way to arrive on a job holding half of something.

1. Read the chapter body first. This is the understanding layer, and it is written to be read straight through.
2. Read On the job. The same material as a real situation on a real site, which is where it stops being abstract.
3. Work through How to do it. These are procedures you can follow on a job this week.
4. Study What goes wrong. Experienced crew are not people who never make mistakes; they are people who recognise mistakes early.
5. Do the exercise before reading the answer key. Recognition feels like learning and is not.
6. Take the checklist with you. Photograph it on your phone. Use it until you no longer need it.

Keep a notebook

One habit is worth starting today, before the first chapter: keep a small notebook and write the site's safety details in it as you meet them — where the exits and assembly point are, where the first aid kit and defibrillator are, who the safety officer and first aiders are, the radio call for an emergency, the weather plan, and anything the safety briefing told you that was specific to this site.

Write it by hand rather than trusting memory. Writing an exit down means you looked for it, and on a new site that is most of the point.

Then use it twice. Read a few pages on the way to a job, which takes five minutes and turns things you half-know into things you know. And carry it on the job, because the detail you cannot remember in an emergency is the one that matters most.

A note on the words

Safety vocabulary varies between countries and regulators, and it is worth expecting that. Health and safety, HSE, WHS and EHS all mean much the same thing. A safety data sheet is an SDS, and older ones were MSDS. Hi-vis is high-visibility clothing. A load hazard zone is an exclusion zone, a drop zone or simply "under the load". An RCD elsewhere does the same job as a GFCI in North America. A competent person and a qualified person have specific legal meanings in some countries.

None of that is worth arguing about. On a new site, the safety briefing tells you the words used there, and when a word is not clear, ask. On safety, a misunderstood word is a hazard.

A note on this book and the law

Health and safety law differs by country, state and province, and it changes. This book teaches the practices that are common to professional AV work everywhere. Your employer, the venue and the site safety rules set the requirements you must follow on each job, and where they are stricter than anything here, they apply.

A note on safety

The hazards this book is about are the ones that hurt people on real crews: weight in the air, work at height and ladders, mains power, moving loads and lifts, and sound loud enough to damage hearing. None of them look dangerous most of the time, which is exactly why they injure people.

Nothing in this book qualifies you to rig, to climb, to operate a lift or to do electrical work. It teaches you to recognise those hazards, to keep yourself and others clear of them, and to stop and ask when a task is not yours. Your employer's training and the qualified person on site come first, every time.

Where this book sits

This book assumes no experience at all. It is for anybody about to work their first load-in, show or load-out, and it pairs with AV Fundamentals 101 on day one.

What pairs with this

• Set & Stage Etiquette — the conduct that goes with working safely on a crew

Where it leads

These are not steps in an order. Take whichever one fits.

• Rigging Awareness — the non-rigger's view of the most dangerous work on site, in depth
• Electrical Fundamentals for AV — power, the other hazard with its own firm line
• Scissor Lift Operator — Certification Prep — when the job needs you trained to work at height

Before You Begin

The Safety Mindset

Safety is not a checklist you resent — it is the professional habit that lets everyone go home unharmed.

Why safety comes first

AV work happens around electricity, heavy equipment, heights, and time pressure — a combination that can seriously injure or kill when treated carelessly. A safety-first culture means that protecting people always takes priority over speed or convenience, and that everyone on a crew watches out for everyone else. This is not bureaucracy; it is the difference between a long career and a tragedy. The most respected professionals are visibly safe, because the crew trusts them not to create danger.

Crucially, no show is worth an injury. Time pressure is constant in live events, and the dangerous temptation is to cut a safety corner to save minutes. The professional standard, and the one this whole book reinforces, is that the standard for safety never bends for the schedule. A leader or crew member who holds that line, even when it is inconvenient, is the one who keeps people safe.

Awareness and responsibility

Safety starts with awareness — actively noticing hazards rather than walking past them. A coiled cable across a walkway, a wobbly stand, a wet floor near power, a load being lifted overhead: the safe professional sees these and acts, rather than assuming someone else will. Everyone shares responsibility for safety; you are responsible for your own actions and for speaking up about dangers you notice, regardless of your rank.

Speaking up is part of the job. If you see something unsafe, say so — to the person involved, to a supervisor, or to whoever can fix it. A good crew welcomes this; nobody is offended by being kept safe. The culture where anyone can stop unsafe work without fear is the culture where people do not get hurt. This book gives you the awareness; using it, every day, is the responsibility.

Stop work, and your right to refuse unsafe work

On professional productions, anybody who sees imminent danger to a person may stop the work, whatever their role. The event industry calls this stop work authority. It is the practical form of everything in this chapter: the person who notices the danger is often the newest person there, and a few seconds' stop is always cheaper than an injury.

Using it is simple. Call "stop" loudly enough to be heard, point to the danger, say what you saw, and tell the person in charge of the work. You do not need to be sure; you need to have seen something that looks dangerous.

Workers also have legal rights. In most countries employers must provide a safe workplace and training, and workers may raise safety concerns without being punished for it. Many jurisdictions also give workers a right to refuse work they reasonably believe is dangerous, with a set procedure for reporting the refusal and having the situation checked. The exact rules differ, and your employer or union can tell you how they work where you are.

A crew that treats speaking up as normal is a crew where people do not get hurt. A crew that mocks it is telling you something important about the job.

Hazard, risk and a simple risk assessment

Two words are used carefully in safety. A hazard is anything that could cause harm: a truss being flown, a cable across a walkway, a wet floor near a distro, a heavy case at the top of a truck ramp. Risk is how likely that harm is and how bad it would be.

A risk assessment is simply thinking that through in order. What are the hazards in this task? Who could be harmed, and how? How likely is it, and how severe would it be? What controls reduce it? Is what remains acceptable? Productions write formal risk assessments for their shows and venues, and many ask crew to read and sign them.

A technician does the same thinking informally all day. A case on a ramp: the hazard is its weight rolling; the people who could be hurt are anyone below; it is likely if one person handles it alone, and severe if it runs away; the control is two people and a controlled descent. That small, quick assessment is what separates a safe crew from a lucky one.

Likelihood and severity combine. A hazard that is unlikely but could kill — a load falling from height — deserves strict controls, because severity matters more than probability when the outcome is a death. A hazard that is likely and minor — a small cut from a cable tie — still deserves a simple control, such as gloves.

The hierarchy of controls

Once a hazard is recognised, some ways of controlling it work much better than others. The hierarchy of controls ranks them, most effective first.

Eliminate the hazard. Do not hang the thing over the audience at all; plan the cable run so it never crosses the walkway.

Substitute something less hazardous. Use a lighter fixture; use battery-powered equipment on a wet stage instead of mains.

Engineering controls separate people from the hazard physically: guardrails on a platform, a barrier round a load hazard zone, cable protectors, a GFCI on a circuit.

Administrative controls change how people work: procedures, training, signs, briefings, exclusion zones enforced by a spotter, schedules that keep people out of an area during a lift.

Personal protective equipment is last: the hard hat, the gloves, the boots, the hearing protection. It protects only the person wearing it, only if they wear it correctly, and only against part of the harm.

The order matters because the higher controls do not depend on anybody remembering anything. A barrier keeps people out whether or not they were at the briefing; a hard hat only helps the person who wears it and only once the object is already falling.

Site inductions and safety briefings

On professional sites, the first thing that happens before work is a safety induction or briefing. Festivals and large venues induct every worker; productions brief the crew at the start of load-in and before any unusual work.

An induction usually covers the site rules, the emergency procedures and exits, the assembly point, first aid, where vehicles move, where PPE is required, the working hours, the reporting procedure and any specific hazards of that site. Briefings before a day's work or a particular operation — a large lift, special effects, a weather risk — cover what will happen, who is in charge and what everyone else must do.

Attend them, listen, and ask about anything you did not understand. Sign in where required, because the attendance record is how the production knows who has been told what. If you arrive after the briefing, ask your lead to go through what you missed before you start work.

The hierarchy of controls, strongest first

Likelihood and severity

A simple way to think about risk. Severity matters most when the worst outcome is serious.

On the job

A load-in at an arena. The production's safety briefing at 7 a.m. explains that the rigging crew will be flying the main PA hangs from 9 a.m., that the floor below the PA points will be marked with barrier tape as a load hazard zone, and that nobody enters it while motors are running.

At 9:40 a stagehand pushing a case of cable realises the shortest route to the stage runs straight through the taped area, and the motors are quiet for a moment while the riggers check a bridle. He lifts the tape and starts to cross.

A new crew member who has been on the job for two hours calls "Stop — the zone's live!" and points up. The head rigger looks down, calls all stop on the radio, and the stagehand backs out. The riggers were about to bump the motors again.

The head rigger thanks the new crew member, and the production manager adds a spotter at the zone for the rest of the flying. The barrier tape was an engineering control that worked only as long as nobody lifted it; the spotter adds an administrative control; and the new crew member's shout was the stop work authority the briefing described, used exactly as it should be.

How to do it

1. Name the task.
2. List the hazards — what could cause harm.
3. Say who could be harmed, and how.
4. Judge how likely and how severe.
5. Choose controls, starting at the top of the hierarchy.
6. Check that what remains is acceptable; if not, stop and ask.
7. Tell the people involved what the controls are.

What goes wrong

Practice it

Answer before checking.

Recognising Hazards

You can only avoid the dangers you can see. This chapter trains your eye.

The main AV hazards

AV job sites concentrate a few categories of hazard. Electrical hazards come from the substantial power AV systems use, damaged cables, overloaded circuits, and the dangerous mix of electricity and water or rain at outdoor events. Heights and rigging hazards include falls from height and — just as dangerous — objects falling onto people below from overhead rigging. Manual handling hazards arise from the heavy, awkward equipment that must be lifted and moved, which causes a large share of everyday injuries like back strain. And the busy environment itself brings trip hazards (cables, cases), crowding, and the pressure of fast load-ins.

Recognising which hazards are present is the first defence. Walking onto a site, the safe professional automatically scans for these: where is the power, what is overhead, what needs lifting, where are the trip hazards and busy paths. Naming the hazard is what lets you avoid or control it; the unseen hazard is the one that hurts people.

Manual handling and the everyday risks

The injury most AV workers will actually risk is not dramatic — it is hurting their back lifting heavy gear. Safe manual handling matters every single day: assess the load before lifting, get help or use equipment (carts, dollies, lifts) for heavy or awkward items, lift with good technique rather than the back, and never try to prove yourself by lifting beyond your safe capacity. A career can be quietly ended by a back injury from years of careless lifting.

The other everyday risk is the trip-and-fall on a cluttered site, which is why cable management is a safety practice as much as a tidiness one. Cables taped down or ramped over walkways, cases stowed out of paths, and clear aisles protect everyone. The unglamorous habits — lift smart, keep paths clear, tidy your cables — prevent the most common injuries, and they are entirely within your control.

Loading docks, vehicles and forklifts

The loading dock is one of the most dangerous places on any AV job, because trucks, forklifts, telehandlers, pallet jacks, heavy cases and people all share a small space under time pressure.

Trucks reverse onto docks with limited visibility, and people are crushed between a reversing truck and the dock edge. Stay out of the path of a reversing vehicle, never walk behind one, and where the site uses a spotter or banksman to guide vehicles, let them do it and follow their signals.

Forklifts and telehandlers carry loads that block the operator's view and can tip. Stay out of their operating area, make eye contact with the operator before crossing in front of one, never walk under raised forks, and never ride on forks or pallets. Operating one requires certified training.

Dock plates and dock edges are trip and fall points: a gap between truck and dock, a plate that shifts, an edge a metre and more above the ground. Keep clear of edges, and never jump from a dock or a truck.

And the dock is busy. Wear hi-vis where it is required, keep your head up, and call your moves when you are pushing a case.

Slips, trips, stage edges, pits and openings

Slips, trips and falls on the same level cause more injuries in entertainment workplaces than almost anything else, and falls from stage edges, into orchestra pits and through open traps are among the most serious.

Trips come from cable across walkways, cases left in corridors, uneven floors, cable ramps with loose ends and gear left in dark wings. Keep walkways clear, run cable at the edges, cover crossings with protectors, and put things back in staging areas.

Slips come from spilled drinks, rain, haze residue on stage floors and polished surfaces. Clean up spills or report them, and be aware that haze and smoke fluids can leave floors slippery.

Stage edges are hard to see in show lighting or blackouts, and a fall of a metre or more onto a concrete floor or into seating causes serious injury. Stage edges should be marked with a contrasting strip or glow tape, and nobody walks backwards near one. Orchestra pits are covered or netted when not in use, or barricaded. Trap doors, lifts and openings in stages are guarded when open. When the lights go down, know where every edge is before you move.

Noise

AV workplaces are loud: sound checks, rehearsals and shows regularly exceed levels that damage hearing within a working day, and some positions — beside the PA, at the side of a stage, near subwoofers — far exceed them. Hearing loss from noise is permanent, painless and gradual, and tinnitus, a constant ringing, can follow.

Hearing protection is PPE that many crew under-use. Foam or moulded earplugs and earmuffs reduce the level reaching the ear, and each has a rating — the noise reduction rating, NRR, in the United States, and the SNR elsewhere — that describes how much, though real-world protection is usually less than the label. Custom moulded musicians' earplugs reduce level more evenly across frequencies, so sound stays clear, which is why audio crews often prefer them.

Wear protection whenever the level is loud enough that you have to raise your voice to be heard by someone a metre away, and always near loudspeakers during sound checks. Keep it with you as part of your personal kit.

Heat, cold and weather

Outdoor events, hot stages under lights and long days in summer make heat a real crew hazard, and cold, rain and wind bring their own.

Heat exhaustion comes first: heavy sweating, weakness, dizziness, nausea, headache, cool clammy skin. The person should stop, move somewhere cool, drink water and rest, and get help if they do not improve. Heat stroke is a medical emergency: confusion, slurred speech, collapse, hot skin that may be dry, sometimes seizures. Call emergency services, and cool the person while help comes.

Prevent it: drink water regularly, before you are thirsty; take breaks in shade; wear a hat and light clothing where the dress code allows; watch colleagues, because people with heat illness often do not recognise it in themselves; and be especially careful on the first hot days of a season, before bodies are used to it.

Cold, wet and wind cause fatigue, loss of grip, slips and hypothermia on long outdoor nights. Dress in layers, keep dry, and warm up.

Weather also stops work. Lightning, high winds and heavy rain have limits set in every professional outdoor event's weather plan, and when those limits are reached, work at height stops and crews leave stages and metal structures. Commonly, work does not resume until a set time, often thirty minutes, has passed with no further lightning close enough to matter. Follow the plan and the person responsible for calling it.

Chemicals, haze fluids and safety data sheets

AV sites use more chemicals than people notice: haze and smoke fluids, cleaning products, contact cleaner, adhesives, paint and scenic finishes, battery chemicals, and fuel for generators.

Every hazardous product comes with a safety data sheet, an SDS: a standard document, usually in sixteen sections, that says what the product is, what its hazards are, how to handle and store it, what protective equipment to use, and what to do if it is spilled, swallowed, breathed in or gets in eyes. Labels on the container show the main hazards with pictograms. The production or venue keeps SDSs for the products on site, and anyone using a product can ask to see its sheet.

Haze and smoke fluids deserve particular care. Used as intended they are designed to be safe for performers and crew, but high concentrations can irritate eyes and airways, residue can make floors slippery, and some people are sensitive to them. Follow the operator's instructions, do not refill machines with the wrong fluid, and report anyone having trouble breathing.

Large lithium batteries — in wireless systems, cameras and battery-powered lighting — can overheat and burn if damaged or charged incorrectly. Charge them only on their own charger, on a surface that will not burn and never unattended; take any battery that is swollen, dented, leaking or hot out of use and tell your lead; and never put one in a general bin.

Fire safety

Venues full of cable, drapes, scenery, hot lighting and people treat fire very seriously, and so does every professional crew.

Keep exits, exit routes, fire doors, extinguishers, hose reels, fire alarm call points and sprinkler heads clear and visible at all times. Never prop a fire door open, never park cases in an exit corridor, and never hang anything from a sprinkler pipe. In theatres, the safety curtain line — where the fire curtain comes down between stage and audience — must be kept clear of anything that would stop it closing.

Drapes, backdrops and scenic materials used in public venues are required in many places to be flame-retardant, with certificates the venue may ask to see. Do not bring in untreated fabric or hang your own materials without checking.

Keep heat away from anything that burns: lighting fixtures from drapes and paper, cable away from heaters, gaffer tape away from hot lenses. Hot fixtures burn skin too; wear gloves when handling them.

Know where the nearest extinguisher is, and how the alarm is raised. Put out a small fire only if it is safe and you know how; otherwise raise the alarm and leave.

Special effects, lasers and pyrotechnics

Effects add hazards that only their specialist operators may handle: pyrotechnics and flame effects, lasers, confetti and streamer cannons, CO2 jets, snow and foam, and flying performers.

Pyrotechnics and flame effects need licensed operators in most places, with exclusion zones, fire extinguishers standing by and a firing procedure. Lasers can injure eyes instantly and burn camera sensors; audience-scanning and powerful lasers need a laser safety officer and regulatory approval in many countries. CO2 effects release gas that can build up in low areas, and cannons eject material at speed.

A non-operator's part is clear: attend the safety briefing, stay out of the exclusion zones, never touch effects equipment or its cables, never look into a laser, and follow the operator's calls during rehearsals and shows.

Crowds, structures and fatigue

Many AV positions sit among the public. Front of house mix positions, camera platforms and delay towers are surrounded by audiences, and crowds bring their own hazards: pressure against barriers, people climbing structures, people who are unwell or intoxicated, and evacuation. Keep your position's cables and equipment secure and out of reach, know the route out, and report crowd problems to security or stewards rather than intervening yourself.

Temporary structures — stages, ground-support towers, camera and delay platforms, grandstands and marquees — are designed and built to specific loads and conditions. Never climb or add loads to a structure that is not designed for it, never remove a brace, pin or bolt, and report anything that looks damaged, moving or overloaded. Wind limits for structures and hanging screens are part of the weather plan.

And fatigue is a hazard of its own. Very long days, short turnarounds and overnight load-outs make everyone slower, clumsier and worse at noticing danger. Drink, eat, take breaks, tell your lead if you are too tired to do something safely, and take special care driving home.

Hazards to scan for on arrival

Heat illness

Keep clear at all times

• Exits, exit routes and fire doors.
• Extinguishers, hose reels and alarm call points.
• Sprinkler heads and pipes.
• The safety curtain line in theatres.

On the job

A summer festival stage. It is 34 °C by noon and the crew have been building the stage roof and screens since 6 a.m. A stagehand in his first season is carrying cable across the stage, slower and slower, and stops to lean on a case.

A lighting technician notices he has stopped sweating although everybody else is soaked, and when she asks him how he is, his answer does not make much sense. That combination is not tiredness.

She sits him down in the shade of the stage wing, calls the site medics on the radio as a heat emergency, and asks two colleagues to fan him and pour cool water over his neck and arms while they wait. The medics arrive within minutes, cool him further and take him to the medical tent. He recovers.

That afternoon the production manager changes the schedule: water breaks every forty-five minutes, shade over the working areas, heavy work moved to the early evening, and a supervisor watching the newest crew members, who are the ones least likely to say they feel unwell.

How to do it

1. Walk the route from the dock to your work position and note the hazards.
2. Find the exits, the assembly point, the first aid point and the nearest extinguisher.
3. Look up — note any overhead work and load hazard zones.
4. Look down — note edges, pits, traps and cable crossings.
5. Check the weather plan on an outdoor site.
6. Put your hearing protection, water and gloves in your kit.
7. Report anything that is not controlled.

What goes wrong

Practice it

Answer before checking.

Manual Handling

The injury most AV workers will actually risk is not a fall or a shock. It is a back, shoulder or knee injury from lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling heavy, awkward equipment, day after day. It rarely happens in one dramatic moment. It builds, and it ends careers quietly.

This chapter is how to move loads safely: avoid lifting where you can, assess what you cannot avoid, lift and carry with good technique, lift as a team properly, and move cases on wheels, ramps and stairs without them getting away from you.

Avoid, assess, reduce

Manual handling guidance around the world follows the same order.

Avoid lifting where you reasonably can. Use the equipment the job provides: carts, dollies, pallet jacks, lifts, truck lift-gates, hoists. Roll cases rather than carrying them. Plan the load-in so heavy items are moved as few times as possible.

Assess what cannot be avoided, before you start. How heavy is it, how awkward, how far does it need to go, and over what?

Reduce the risk: split the load, get help, change the route, use a better grip, take breaks.

Weight alone does not make a load safe or unsafe. A light load lifted from floor level with a twist, over and over, can injure; a heavier load lifted close to the body at waist height once may not. Some guidance uses reference weights as a trigger for a closer look — for example, UK guidance treats around 25 kilograms for men and 16 kilograms for women, held close at waist height, as the point at which a fuller assessment is needed — and none of them is a safe limit. If a load feels too heavy, it is too heavy for you to lift alone.

TILE — task, individual, load, environment

A simple way to assess a lift is TILE: four things to consider.

Task: does it involve lifting from the floor or above shoulder height, twisting, stooping, reaching, carrying a long way, repeating often, or moving suddenly?

Individual: is the person strong enough, trained, fit, not injured, not exhausted? Does the task need unusual strength or height? Is anybody pregnant or recovering from an injury?

Load: is it heavy, bulky, hard to grip, unstable, with contents that shift, sharp, hot, or unbalanced with its weight off-centre?

Environment: is the floor slippery, uneven or cluttered? Is there enough space? Are there stairs, ramps or narrow doors? Is it hot, cold, windy or dark?

Any "yes" is a reason to change something: a cart, a second person, a different route, a better grip, more light. Experienced crew run through TILE in seconds before every awkward lift, often without naming it.

Lifting and carrying technique

When a load has to be lifted, good technique shares the effort with the strongest parts of the body and keeps the spine in a strong position.

Plan first: know where the load is going and clear the route. Stand close to the load with feet apart and one slightly forward for balance. Bend at the hips and knees rather than stooping from the waist, and keep the back in its natural, straight posture. Get a firm grip, using handles where there are any. Keep the load close to your body, because the further away it is held, the greater the strain on your back. Lift smoothly, with your legs doing the work, without jerking. Do not twist while lifting or carrying: turn by moving your feet. Keep your head up and look where you are going. Put the load down the same way you lifted it, and then adjust its position.

Know your limit and respect it. There is no reputation to be gained from lifting beyond it, and a crew member who strains to show they can is the one who is off work next month.

And wear gloves for grip and to protect hands from sharp edges, splinters and pinch points.

Team lifts and calls

Many AV loads — truss sections, LED panels in their cases, speaker cabinets, large lighting fixtures, flight-cased consoles — need two or more people. A team lift without a plan is two people getting hurt at once.

Agree the plan before you lift: the route, where the load goes, and who calls. One person calls the lift, usually the one who can see best or who knows the load. The call is simple and agreed: "ready — lift", "walk", "stop", "ready — down". Everybody lifts and lowers together, on the call.

Match the team where possible, so the load is shared evenly. Keep communicating as you move, especially round corners, through doors and on stairs, and call out if you need to stop — never simply let go. The person walking backwards is guided by the others.

Truss and long loads have a person at each end and, if needed, the middle. Put them down on the agreed call, onto blocks or a cart rather than onto fingers.

Carts, road cases, ramps and stairs

Most AV equipment moves on wheels, which saves a great deal of lifting and introduces a different hazard: a heavy case moving faster than the people controlling it.

Push rather than pull where you can, so you can see where you are going and use your body weight. Keep the load at a height you can see over. Go at walking pace, and slower round corners and through doors. Use the brakes on casters when a case is parked, especially on any slope and in trucks.

Ramps are where cases run away. A heavy case going down a truck ramp or a stage ramp needs control from below and above — typically one person guiding from the high end and another steadying from the side, never standing directly in front of it at the bottom. Take it slowly, and never try to stop a runaway case by standing in its path.

Stairs are for carrying only when there is no lift and no ramp, and heavy cases on stairs need a planned team lift with people above and below, or better, a different route.

Never ride on carts, dollies or cases. Never stack cases higher than you can see over or higher than is stable. And strap loads on carts that could shift.

TILE

Lifting technique

• Plan the route and clear it.
• Feet apart, one slightly forward, close to the load.
• Bend hips and knees; keep the back straight.
• Firm grip; load close to your body.
• Lift smoothly with your legs; do not twist — move your feet.
• Put it down the way you picked it up.

Team lift calls

• Agree route, destination and who calls.
• "Ready — lift."
• "Walk." "Stop."
• "Ready — down."
• Never simply let go; call stop.

On the job

A conference load-in. The truck carries twenty LED panel cases, each around 60 kilograms, and the dock has no lift-gate, only a steep ramp down to the ballroom corridor.

The first two stagehands start rolling a case down the ramp, one pushing from the top. Halfway down it gathers speed and the stagehand at the top loses his grip. The case runs to the bottom and slams into the corridor wall, missing a caterer carrying trays by a metre.

The crew chief stops the load-in and sets it up again. The ramp is the hazard; the environment and the load are the problems. Two people handle every case: one controlling it from the high end with a firm grip, one at the side walking it down, never in front. A spotter at the bottom keeps the corridor clear and calls "clear" before each case starts down. Gloves on everybody.

The remaining eighteen cases come down in the time the first two took. Nobody is standing at the bottom of the ramp when they arrive.

How to do it

1. Check the ramp, the case's casters and the route at the bottom.
2. Put a spotter at the bottom to keep the area clear and call "clear".
3. Put one person at the high end with a firm grip and one at the side.
4. Nobody stands in front of or below the case.
5. Go slowly, controlling speed from the high end.
6. At the bottom, stop, brake the casters and move the case on at walking pace.
7. If control is lost, let the case go and step clear — do not try to stop it with your body.

What goes wrong

Practice it

Answer before checking.

Working Safely: PPE & Awareness

Protect yourself with the right gear and the right attention, every job.

Personal protective equipment

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the gear that protects you from hazards: closed-toe protective footwear (essential around heavy gear and for grip), gloves (protecting hands and preventing cable burns when pulling cable), and, where overhead work or busy sites demand, hi-vis clothing to be seen and a hard hat to protect against falling objects. Eye and hearing protection are used where relevant — hearing protection in particular matters around loud audio, as the chapter on hazards explains. Wearing the right PPE for the situation is basic professionalism.

PPE is the last line of defence, not the first. The order of safety is to remove or avoid the hazard if possible, control it if not, and use PPE to protect against what remains. So PPE complements safe practices rather than replacing them — boots do not make it safe to drop a case on your foot, they reduce the harm if it happens. Use PPE, and also work in a way that means you rarely have to rely on it.

Situational awareness

Situational awareness is continuously paying attention to what is happening around you on a dynamic site — and AV sites change constantly as gear is built, moved, and struck. The practice is a loop: scan the space, spot the hazards, plan your safe moves, communicate with those around you, and re-check as the situation changes. The person absorbed in their own task, oblivious to the forklift behind them or the load being flown overhead, is the one at risk.

Communication is central to working safely around others. Calling out when you are moving something heavy, when something is going up or coming down, or when you need a path keeps everyone coordinated and out of harm's way. The same comms discipline that runs a show also keeps a load-in safe. Staying aware and communicating turns a chaotic, hazardous site into one where a crew works around each other safely.

Choosing and wearing PPE

Each piece of personal protective equipment protects against a specific hazard, is made to a standard and only works when it fits and is worn properly.

Safety footwear protects against crushing, punctures and slips. Look for a protective toe cap and a slip-resistant sole, made to a recognised standard such as ASTM F2413 in North America or EN ISO 20345 in Europe. Sports shoes and canvas shoes are not safety footwear.

Gloves protect hands from cuts, abrasion, pinch points, splinters, hot fixtures and rope and cable burns. Choose gloves for the task: close-fitting work gloves for rigging and cable, heat-resistant gloves for hot lighting, and nothing loose near rotating machinery.

Hard hats protect against falling objects and knocks. Wear one wherever there is overhead work, flying or rigging above, and wherever the site requires it — on many load-ins, from the moment you arrive until the last load is on the floor. Replace a hard hat that has taken an impact, is cracked or has passed its service life, and never paint or drill it. Some sites require a chin strap for work at height, so the hat stays on if you fall or bend.

High-visibility clothing makes you visible to vehicle drivers and plant operators. It is required on loading docks, roads, outdoor sites and anywhere vehicles move, often to a specific class.

Eye protection guards against flying debris, dust, chemical splashes and some effects. Hearing protection guards against noise. Respiratory protection is sometimes needed for dust or certain effects, and has its own fitting and training.

Inspect your PPE before use, keep it clean, and replace anything damaged. PPE that does not fit, or that sits in a bag, protects nobody.

Calling your moves

On a busy site, the people around you cannot see everything you are about to do, and a few words prevent most collisions.

Call out when you are moving something large: "Coming through", "Behind you", "Case on the move". Call out when something is going up or coming down: "Going up", "Coming down", "Flying in". Call "Heads!" loudly if anything is dropped or falls from height. When somebody calls, respond — step aside, stop, protect your head — rather than turning round to see what is happening.

And look before you move: behind you before stepping back, up before walking under a truss or a platform, around a corner before pushing a case through it.

PPE and what it protects against

Calls on a busy site

• "Coming through" / "Behind you" — something is moving past you.
• "Going up" / "Coming down" — a load or lift is moving.
• "Heads!" — something has fallen from above; protect your head and move away, do not look up.

On the job

A stadium load-in, day one. The site rules say hard hats from the dock to the stage while the roof and PA are being rigged. By mid-morning a lot of the crew have taken them off, because it is hot and nothing seems to be happening overhead.

Just after eleven, a rigger at the top of a ground-support tower drops a shackle pin while making a connection. He shouts "Heads!" The stagehand directly below has his hard hat on and hunches instinctively; the pin bounces off the brim and away. The stagehand beside him, hat hooked on his belt, was lucky: it landed a metre from him.

The production manager stops work for five minutes and gathers the crew. Nobody is in trouble, and nobody needs a lecture. The hats go back on, the rigging team adds tool and pin tethers for work over the stage, and the area under the tower is taped off as a load hazard zone while they work.

The hard hat was the last line of defence, and it worked. The tether and the zone, added afterwards, are the controls higher up the hierarchy that should have come first.

How to do it

1. Check boots for damage and good grip.
2. Check gloves for holes and choose the right pair for the work.
3. Check your hard hat for cracks, impact damage and its expiry, and adjust it to fit.
4. Put on hi-vis where vehicles move.
5. Pack hearing and eye protection.
6. Replace anything damaged before starting work.

What goes wrong

Practice it

Answer before checking.

Ladders, Lifts and Working at Height

Falls are among the most common causes of serious injury and death at work, and AV crews work at height constantly: on ladders to focus a light or run a cable, on lifts to rig and hang, on platforms and towers, on truss. Working at height is also where a small dropped object becomes a serious injury to somebody below.

This chapter covers the part every crew member needs: using ladders correctly, recognising that lifts and fall protection need their own training, and preventing dropped objects. It does not qualify anybody to operate a lift or work in a harness; it gives the awareness to work safely around them and to know when training is required.

Ladders

Ladders are simple, familiar, and responsible for a large share of falls, nearly all of them avoidable.

Choose the right ladder: tall enough that you never need to stand on the top step or top cap, rated for your weight plus anything you carry, and non-conductive fibreglass rather than metal anywhere near electrical work. Every ladder has a duty rating on its label.

Inspect it before use: rungs and steps sound and clean, feet present and not worn, spreaders and locks working, no cracks, bends or missing parts. A damaged ladder is taken out of use and tagged.

Set it up properly. A stepladder is fully opened with its spreaders locked, on a firm, level floor. An extension or straight ladder is angled at about one metre out for every four metres up — the four to one rule — extends about one metre above the landing if you are stepping off it, and is secured or footed by another person. Never set a ladder on a case, a pallet or a stage riser, and never in front of a door that is not locked or guarded.

Use it properly. Keep three points of contact — two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand — and face the ladder. Keep your belt buckle between the rails; overreaching is how ladders tip. Do not stand on the top two steps of a stepladder unless it is designed for it. Carry tools in a belt or haul them up, not in your hands. One person on a ladder at a time.

And ask whether a ladder is the right tool at all. For long jobs, heavy items or work that needs two hands, a platform or a lift used by a trained operator is usually safer.

Lifts — the training line

Mobile elevating work platforms — scissor lifts, boom lifts, vertical personnel lifts — are how most AV work at height gets done: rigging lighting, hanging screens, running cable to truss, focusing fixtures in a ceiling.

Operating one requires training, and in many places certification, for the specific type of lift. The training covers pre-use inspection, controls, stability and load limits, ground conditions, overhead hazards, fall protection, and what to do in an emergency. Nobody who has not been trained operates a lift, however simple it looks.

What every crew member needs to know is how to work safely around them. Keep clear of a lift's path and the area below the platform. Do not move or lean on its outriggers, and never remove the barriers around it. Do not ask the operator to lift more weight, more people or larger loads than the platform is rated for. Keep floor protection, cables and cases out of its path, because a wheel dropping into a gap or over a cable can tip a raised lift. And tell the operator about overhead hazards they may not see from below.

Most fatal lift incidents involve tip-overs, falls from the platform and crushing against overhead structures — the three things training exists to prevent.

Fall protection, briefly

Fall protection keeps people from falling, or stops a fall safely, when they work where a fall could injure them.

The safest protection is collective and passive: guardrails on platforms, edges and lifts, and covers over openings, which protect everybody without anyone doing anything.

Fall restraint uses a harness and a lanyard short enough that the wearer cannot reach the edge at all. Fall arrest uses a harness, a connecting device and an anchor to stop a fall that has already begun, with enough clearance below for it to stop before the person hits anything. Boom lifts, rigging on truss and steel, and some other work require personal fall protection.

Harnesses, lanyards and anchors are specialist equipment. Using them safely needs training in fitting, inspection, anchor choice, clearance and rescue — including the fact that hanging motionless in a harness after a fall becomes dangerous within minutes. Anybody who has not been trained does not work in a harness, and never clips into something they have not been shown is a rated anchor.

Dropped objects

A small object falling from height is a serious hazard: a wrench, a shackle pin, a phone, a torch or a clamp dropped from a truss can cause a severe head injury, and a heavy one can kill.

The controls work at every level of the hierarchy. Keep people out of the area below overhead work with a barrier or a load hazard zone. Tether tools used at height to the worker or the structure. Carry only what the job needs, in closed pouches, and empty pockets of loose items before going up. Haul equipment up in bags or buckets on a line rather than carrying it up a ladder. Secure everything fitted at height with safety bonds as the rigging and lighting departments require.

Below, wear a hard hat where required, stay out of marked zones, and never walk under work at height to save time. If anything is dropped, the person above shouts "Heads!", and everybody below protects their head and moves away.

Ladder rules

Working at height — what needs training

Around a lift

• Keep clear of its path and below the platform.
• Do not touch outriggers or barriers.
• Keep cables, gaps and cases out of its path.
• Tell the operator about overhead hazards.

On the job

A conference ballroom. A technician needs to refocus one lighting fixture on a truss 4.5 metres up while the rest of the crew are at lunch. The venue's tall stepladder is in the corridor, the lift is locked, and the shortest stepladder in the room would put the fixture just within reach if he stood on its top cap.

He knows the top cap is not a step, and that the short ladder with a stretch is how most ladder falls happen. He also knows the fixture hangs over the front row, where two catering staff are laying tables.

He fetches the tall stepladder, inspects it, opens it fully and locks the spreaders, and asks a colleague back from lunch to foot it and keep the catering staff out of the area below. He tethers his wrench to his wrist, climbs keeping three points of contact, focuses the fixture with his belt buckle between the rails, and comes down.

It took twelve minutes instead of four. Nobody fell, nothing dropped on a caterer, and the fixture was focused.

How to do it

1. Choose a ladder tall enough that you will not stand on the top two steps, rated for you and your tools.
2. Inspect it and tag it out if damaged.
3. Place it on firm, level ground, clear of doors and the area below the work.
4. Open it fully and lock the spreaders.
5. Have somebody foot it and keep people clear below where needed.
6. Tether tools or use a belt; empty loose items from pockets.
7. Climb and work facing the ladder with three points of contact and your belt buckle between the rails.
8. Climb down to move the ladder; never shuffle or walk it while on it.

What goes wrong

Practice it

Answer before checking.

Electrical & Rigging Awareness

The two highest-stakes hazards in AV — and the clearest lines about what requires real training.

Electrical safety awareness

AV runs on significant electrical power, and electricity can injure or kill, so basic electrical safety awareness is essential. The everyday principles: treat all power as live and dangerous, use undamaged cables and proper connectors, do not overload circuits, keep electricity away from water (a critical concern at outdoor and wet events), and never improvise or bypass electrical safety devices. If a cable is damaged or something feels wrong (a tingle, a burning smell, a warm connector), stop and report it rather than pushing on.

Know the line between using power safely and doing electrical work. Plugging in gear, running cable, and using distribution as trained is normal AV work. Actual electrical work — wiring, modifying mains power, anything inside the electrical supply — is for qualified electricians and is often legally restricted. The aware professional uses power safely and calls a qualified person for anything beyond that, never improvising with mains electricity.

Rigging awareness

Rigging — suspending equipment like speakers, lighting, and screens overhead — is among the most dangerous work in the industry, because a failure can drop heavy gear onto people. This book gives you awareness, not qualification. The essential awareness: rigging requires proper, certified training (such as recognised rigging certifications) and must only be done by trained, competent riggers; everything overhead must be properly rated and secured; and everyone else must stay clear of areas under suspended loads, never walking or standing beneath gear being flown.

Your job as a non-rigger is to respect the hazard: keep clear of loads, follow the riggers' instructions and exclusion zones, never add weight to or interfere with rigging, and report anything that looks wrong. The same applies to working at height and operating lifts (scissor lifts, boom lifts) — these require their own certified training and must never be attempted untrained. Knowing your limits here is not weakness; it is exactly the judgment that keeps people alive. When in doubt, defer to the certified specialist.

GFCIs and inspecting cords

Two everyday habits prevent most electrical injuries on AV sites.

Use ground fault protection. A GFCI in North America, or an RCD elsewhere, disconnects a circuit within a fraction of a second when it detects current leaking away from it — through damaged insulation, water or a person. Outdoor, wet and temporary power is normally protected this way. Press the test button before use to check it trips, and never move a load to an unprotected supply because a GFCI keeps tripping; the tripping means something is leaking, and it needs finding.

Inspect every cord, every time. Before plugging in, look along the cable and at both ends: cuts or crushing in the jacket, exposed inner wires, tape repairs, bent or missing pins, a broken or removed ground pin, cracked housings, scorch marks or a burning smell. Anything damaged is taken out of service, tagged with what is wrong, and put where nobody will use it.

And keep power and water apart: connectors off wet ground, covered from rain with proper covers, and nobody handling power with wet hands or standing in water.

The load hazard zone, and what rigging awareness means for you

The single most important rigging rule for everybody who is not a rigger is to stay out of the load hazard zone: the area a suspended or moving load, or anything falling from it, could reach.

While anything is being lifted, lowered or worked on overhead, that area is marked or announced and kept empty, of people and of the things people go back to fetch. It remains a hazard zone while the load hangs there, not only while it moves. Walk round it, however quick the short cut looks.

Everything suspended overhead in a professional rig is rated, inspected and put there by trained, competent riggers following a plan. That is why a non-rigger never adds anything to a truss, a point or a hoist — not a light, not a banner, not a bag of cable — without the rigger's agreement, never adjusts a sling, shackle or chain, and never climbs rigging.

What you do contribute is attention. Report anything that looks wrong: a sling that looks damaged, a shackle without its pin secured, a safety bond looped round a clamp instead of the truss, a load that swings or tilts, a hoist that makes an unusual noise. Riggers want to hear it.

Inspect a cord before use

What takes a cord out of service, and the rules around rigging that apply to everybody.

Take it out of service if you see

• Cuts, crushing or exposed inner wires.
• Tape repairs.
• Bent, missing or loose pins, or a missing ground pin.
• Cracked housings or pulled-out strain reliefs.
• Scorch marks, melting or a burning smell.

Around rigging, always

• Stay out of the load hazard zone.
• Add nothing to rigging without the rigger's agreement.
• Never adjust, climb or interfere with rigging.
• Report anything that looks wrong.

On the job

An outdoor corporate event under a marquee, in drizzle. A technician is setting up a small PA at the side of the stage and plugs a power strip into an extension cord that runs across the grass.

The GFCI at the distro trips. He resets it and it trips again. A colleague suggests running a cord from the catering tent's generator, which has no GFCI and has not tripped all day.

The technician says no, and they look for the leak instead. Following the extension cord across the grass, they find a join between two cords lying in a puddle. The connector is wet inside.

The wet cords are unplugged, taken out of service and tagged. A single outdoor-rated cord replaces them, with its connection raised on a cable tray and covered. The GFCI holds for the rest of the event — the only protection there was between a wet connector and the guests walking across that grass.

How to do it

1. Confirm the supply is GFCI or RCD protected, and test it.
2. Inspect every cord along its length and at both ends.
3. Use outdoor-rated cords outdoors, with connections raised and covered.
4. Keep cords out of water and walkways.
5. If protection trips, find the cause one item at a time — never move to an unprotected supply.
6. Tag and remove anything damaged or wet.

What goes wrong

Practice it

Answer before checking.

Knowing Your Limits & Emergencies

The safest professionals know exactly what they should not do, and what to do when things go wrong.

Knowing your limits

A defining mark of a safe professional is knowing the boundary of their training and refusing to cross it. It can feel tempting, under pressure or to look capable, to attempt work you are not trained for — to climb to fix something, to operate a lift, to sort out a power problem. The professional answer is to recognise when a task requires training or certification you do not have, and to get the right person rather than risk yourself and others. Saying I'm not trained for that, let's get someone who is is a sign of strength and judgment, not weakness.

This connects safety to the rest of your career: certifications (rigging, lifts, electrical, first aid) exist precisely so that dangerous tasks are done by trained people. As you grow, you will earn the training to do more. Until you have it, the safe and professional move is to work within your limits and call for qualified help beyond them. No one was ever fired for refusing to do something unsafe they weren't trained for; people have been hurt for the opposite.

Emergency basics

Despite best efforts, incidents happen, and knowing the basics of responding matters. The fundamentals: know your site's emergency procedures and exits before you need them, know how to raise an alarm and call for help, keep calm, and do not put yourself in danger trying to help (you cannot help if you become a second casualty). For injuries, get trained first-aid help and emergency services rather than improvising beyond your training; for electrical or fire incidents, follow the specific safe procedures rather than instinct.

Prevention remains the goal — the best emergency is the one that never happens because the hazards were recognised and controlled. But preparedness is part of safety: knowing the exits, the procedures, where the first-aid help is, and how to call for assistance turns a frightening moment into a managed one. Combine the awareness, safe practices, knowing your limits, and emergency preparedness from this book, and you become the kind of professional a crew is genuinely safer for having around.

Practical sign-off

Safety is proven in practice. The learner identifies hazards on a site, selects and uses appropriate PPE, demonstrates safe manual handling and cable management, and shows they know which tasks require certified training. A mentor signs off when the learner consistently works safely and within their limits. Note: this awareness training does not replace required certified training.

• Identified the main hazards on a real site and their controls
• Selected and used appropriate PPE
• Demonstrated safe lifting and cable management
• Correctly identified tasks requiring certified training and deferred them

When the alarm sounds — evacuation and assembly

Every venue and site has an emergency action plan: how the alarm is raised, the exits, the assembly point, who counts people, and who is in charge. The induction or briefing tells you, and your notebook records it.

When an alarm sounds or an evacuation is called, stop work, make your immediate task safe only if it takes a few seconds — switch off a saw, lower nothing mid-air unless the operator says so — and leave by the nearest safe exit. Do not use lifts. Do not go back for your kit, your phone charger or your jacket. Go to the assembly point and tell the person counting that you are there. Do not leave the site without telling them, because an unaccounted person may cause somebody to go back into a building to look for you.

During a show, crew often have roles in an evacuation: bringing up house lights, playing an announcement, opening exits, guiding the audience. If you have one, learn it before the show. If you do not, follow the instructions of those who do and help the audience leave calmly.

First aid, CPR and AEDs

On professional sites, first aid is provided by trained first aiders, a set medic or event medical teams, and everybody should know how to reach them. Find out on arrival where first aid is, who the first aiders are and the radio call or phone number for medical help.

When somebody is hurt, check for danger first, so you do not become a second casualty — electricity, a load still moving, fire. Then call for help: the site's medical team, or emergency services, giving the exact location. Stay with the person, keep them still if they may have a neck or back injury, and reassure them. Do what you are trained to do and no more.

If someone collapses and is not breathing normally, it may be a cardiac arrest, and minutes matter. Call emergency services and send someone for the automated external defibrillator, the AED. Start CPR — firm, fast compressions in the centre of the chest — if you are trained, and many emergency call-takers will guide an untrained person through it. When the AED arrives, switch it on and follow its spoken instructions; it is designed to be used by anyone.

First aid and CPR training takes a day or less and is one of the most useful courses a crew member can do.

Reporting incidents and near misses

Every injury, however small, and every near miss is reported. An injury report makes sure the person is looked after and meets legal requirements. A near miss — something that could have hurt somebody and did not, such as a dropped tool landing beside a colleague — is reported because the next one may not miss.

Report to your lead, the production manager or the site safety officer, as the site's procedure says, as soon as the situation is safe. Say what happened, where, when, who was involved and what you saw. Stick to facts. If there is a form, fill it in accurately.

Good productions treat reports as information, not blame, and use them to change things: a spotter added, a route changed, a briefing improved. A crew that reports well is a crew that gets safer through the season.

In an emergency

Know on arrival

• Nearest exits and the assembly point.
• Where first aid is and who the first aiders are.
• Where the AED is.
• The radio call or number for emergencies.
• Your role in an evacuation, if you have one.

On the job

A trade show in a convention centre. During build day, a carpenter collapses near the loading dock. A lighting technician is the first to reach him. He is not responding and not breathing normally.

She shouts for help, sends one stagehand to call the venue's emergency number from the wall phone by the dock, and another to fetch the AED she remembers seeing in its green cabinet at the dock entrance during the site induction. She has done a CPR course, so she kneels and starts compressions.

The AED arrives within two minutes. A colleague switches it on and follows its voice prompts, placing the pads while she continues compressions until the machine tells everyone to stand clear. It delivers a shock. She continues CPR as it instructs. The venue's medics arrive four minutes later and take over, and the carpenter is taken to hospital, alive.

The production manager later points out to the crew that three things made the difference: someone who knew where the AED was because she had listened at the induction, someone trained in CPR, and a crew that did what they were asked immediately.

How to do it

1. Check for danger before approaching.
2. Check whether they respond and are breathing normally.
3. Shout for help and call emergency services, or send someone to call, with the exact location.
4. Send someone for the AED.
5. If they are not breathing normally, start CPR if trained, or as the call-taker directs.
6. Switch on the AED when it arrives and follow its instructions.
7. Continue until medical help takes over, then report.

What goes wrong

Practice it

Answer before checking.

Glossary

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