Sound, lighting, video, and production systems designed around your stage, your productions, and the team that runs them.
Built for live performance
Wireless and RF coordination
Serving clients for 30 years
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Technology shapes the theater experience long before the curtain rises. The microphones, speakers, lighting rigs, and video systems in your facility determine what your audience hears, sees, and feels. For theaters and performing arts centers, the stakes are high: a failed wireless mic, a feedback burst during a quiet scene, or a lighting system that can't keep pace with a modern production all become part of the audience's memory of your organization.
The challenge most venues face is not a lack of good equipment options. It is understanding which systems fit the acoustic properties, sightlines, production demands, and operational realities of their specific space.
Audiobahn Professional designs and installs theater sound, lighting, video, and production communication systems for performing arts centers, school and community theaters, and multipurpose auditoriums.
From main sound reinforcement and wireless microphones to stage lighting, projection, LED walls, livestreaming, and production communications, theater technology has a lot of moving parts. Every system has to fit your acoustics, sightlines, productions, and crew.
Getting the system design right from the start prevents years of workarounds, costly retrofits, and audience experience problems that are difficult to explain and harder to fix.
Theater Sound Systems
Stage Audio Systems
Wireless Microphone Systems
Theater Lighting Systems
Projection & Video Systems
LED Video Walls
Livestream & Recording
Production Communications
The audio system is typically the most complex and most noticed technology in any theater. When it works well, audiences don't think about it. When it doesn't, it defines the experience in the worst possible way.
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Line arrays at the proscenium or delay positions, plus front fills and center fills for even coverage. Speech intelligibility is measurable, and AVIXA benchmarks help a system reach it in every seat.
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Room correction, delay alignment between zones, feedback suppression, and gain management. Without properly configured DSP, even high-quality speakers underperform.
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Productions running 20 or more wireless channels need a frequency plan, antenna distribution, and reliable receivers. Shure offers detailed RF design resources for performance venues.
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Both a practical and legal requirement, designed in from the start. Our audio systems integration services cover theater sound from specification through commissioning and training.
The systems that bring a production to life on stage, online, and behind the scenes.
Modern productions use video as a primary design element: dynamic scenery, narrative support, and atmosphere. Projection remains common for surtitles and rear-projection scenery.
LED video walls solve the brightness problem projection faces under stage lighting and offer more flexibility for immersive scenic designs. Fine-pitch indoor panels in the 2.5mm to 4mm range are designed for typical theater viewing distances.
Our video and livestream integration services cover the full range of theater video requirements.
Livestreaming and archival recording have shifted from optional features to strategic assets for performing arts organizations, supporting community outreach, remote audiences, hybrid events, and educational programming.
A multicamera livestream needs independent audio feeds, a camera plan that preserves live audience sightlines, and an operator with production experience.
Built right, your recording setup captures every production and reaches audiences well beyond your seats.
Stage lighting increasingly relies on LED theatrical fixtures, which offer color mixing, reduced heat, and significant energy savings compared to tungsten instruments. Intelligent moving fixtures add production value but require DMX and RDM infrastructure and operator training.
House lighting is often treated as an afterthought, but it affects audience experience and energy costs. Underpowered dimmer capacity and inadequate DMX runs are among the most common limits in older theaters, so infrastructure should be designed with expansion in mind.
Our lighting design and installation services cover stage and house systems for theaters of all sizes.
Intercom is the nervous system of a live production. Without reliable communication between the stage manager, board operators, fly rail, follow spots, and running crew, productions fall apart in ways skilled performers can't recover from.
Modern systems range from analog party-line setups to digital matrix systems that let any position reach any other at the push of a button, along with production cueing, show control, and stage management displays.
Integrators with live performance experience understand which failure modes matter most and how operators actually use the equipment under pressure.
Every venue has its own acoustics, sightlines, and production demands. Here's how we approach the most common ones.
Predictable acoustics, but limited speaker placement and deep balconies. Line arrays at the proscenium with balcony delays and front fills are standard.
Variable seating and intimate scale make coverage critical. Distributed point-source systems with flexible rigging adapt to every configuration.
Symphony, opera, dance, and touring shows on one stage. Touring-ready infrastructure reduces friction with outside productions and protects the venue's reputation.
In volunteer-run venues, a modest, well-designed system consistently outperforms an oversized one the crew can't operate reliably.
Production venue and training ground in one, on systems that reflect professional practice. See our school AV solutions for K-12 performing arts spaces.
Performances one night, meetings the next. Systems balance theatrical needs with the flexibility of corporate AV environments.
Most of the venues we work with are dealing with at least one of these.
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Crowded RF spectrum and poor frequency coordination cause dropouts mid-scene. A proper frequency plan and antenna distribution fix it.
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Feedback bursts in quiet scenes and dead spots in the balcony usually trace back to speaker placement and DSP configuration.
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Older rigs can't keep pace with modern production design. LED and intelligent fixtures open up new looks with less heat and energy.
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Limited dimmer capacity and inadequate DMX runs hold back many older theaters from the productions they want to stage.
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Speech intelligibility is measurable. A well-designed system lets every seat understand dialogue without effort.
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When only one person knows how the system works, every show is a risk. Good design, documentation, and training fix that.
Getting the plan right is the most cost-effective part of any project.
Projects that skip the consulting phase tend to produce systems that don't quite fit the space, equipment chosen without full knowledge of production needs, and budgets that surprise everyone.
A proper needs assessment includes artistic leadership, technical directors, facility managers, and board members, because each group carries different priorities.
Equipment is one component. Labor, conduit and cabling, structural work, commissioning, and training are others.
Defining the system first, then developing the estimate, leads to a better conversation about priorities. Guidance from NSCA and resources from Extron support the planning process.
Our AV consulting services are available as a standalone engagement for organizations in the planning phase.
Getting expert input early costs far less than correcting mistakes after construction is complete. Review completed performing arts work on our projects page.
Whether you're planning a new facility, renovating an existing space, or addressing specific system problems, the right starting point is a conversation.
We work with theater directors, technical directors, facility managers, and arts administrators to understand what a space needs to accomplish, then develop system designs and integration plans that match those requirements and your organization's budget.
Don't see your question here? Give us a call or send a quick note and we'll get you an answer.
The right system depends on room geometry, seating capacity, production types, and budget. Most mid-size proscenium theaters benefit from a main line array system at the proscenium supplemented by front fills and balcony delay clusters. Smaller venues and black boxes often do well with distributed point-source systems. The design should be driven by acoustic modeling of the specific room, not by brand preference. DSP processing, properly configured for the room, matters as much as the speakers themselves.
Smaller productions may need 8 to 12 channels. Large musicals routinely use 20 to 30 or more. The practical limit is spectrum availability in your area, since urban environments have less clean RF spectrum than rural locations. A well-designed 16-channel system will outperform a poorly installed 24-channel system. Plan for more channels than your current largest show requires because productions tend to grow.
LED theatrical fixtures are now practical for most theater applications. Key considerations are color rendering (look for a high CRI and a TLCI rating above 90 for broadcast-adjacent applications), dimming behavior (fixtures should dim smoothly without color shift at low levels), and fixture quality. A theater that replaces a tungsten-primary rig with LED instruments can typically see lighting energy consumption drop by 50 to 70 percent.
Yes, particularly for productions that use video as a primary scenic element. Fine-pitch indoor LED panels are designed for viewing distances that align with most theater seating. Compared to projection, LED panels are brighter, perform better under stage lighting, and can be configured in non-rectangular shapes. The main considerations are rigging requirements, content playback infrastructure, and per-square-foot cost, which remains higher than projection for large areas.
Start with a needs assessment that documents what existing systems can and cannot do, and what production plans require. From that gap analysis, develop a prioritized list of improvements with rough cost estimates. For most theaters, audio system reliability and intelligibility represent the highest-impact first investment. A realistic multi-year technology plan gives leadership a framework for fundraising and grant applications that one-off equipment purchases cannot provide.
Waiting for systems to fail is the most expensive approach. A better framework is a technology assessment every three to five years that measures current performance against production requirements and current standards. For theaters undergoing physical renovation, that construction period is almost always the most cost-effective time to address AV infrastructure, since walls and ceilings are already open and scaffolding is in place.
Look for documented experience with performance venues specifically, and ask for references from technical directors who use the systems daily. At project completion, your team should receive complete as-built drawings, signal flow diagrams, equipment schedules, and configuration files for every programmable component. Structured operator training and documentation that survives staff turnover are signs of an integrator who thinks beyond project closeout.
See how we’ve helped churches, schools, and venues transform their spaces with professional sound, lighting, and video systems designed for real-world use.
Every space has unique needs. We design and install custom audio, video, and lighting systems tailored to how your environment is used every day.
Design systems that support clear communication, powerful worship, and engaging experiences every week. From small sanctuaries to large auditoriums, we help your message be heard and seen.
Reliable AV systems built for assemblies, performances, and daily communication. We create solutions that are easy to use and built to last in high-use environments.
High-performance sound, lighting, and video systems designed for productions, concerts, and live events. Built for consistency, clarity, and impact.
Professional AV systems that elevate meetings, presentations, and events. Clean installs, intuitive controls, and dependable performance every time.
Whether you need a new sound system, upgraded video equipment, stage lighting, or a fully integrated AV solution, we're here to help. Fill out the quick form at the top of the page or reach out directly.
