Getting started

For AV installers: set up your company

AV Runbook turns your installation photos and what you know about a room into a branded runbook, a gear manual and a QR checklist for each client room. You can try it free for 30 days with no card.

Start your free trial

1. Go to the installer page and tap Start 30 day installer trial.
2. Create your account with your work email. AV Runbook emails you a 6 digit code to confirm it.
3. Enter your company name. This is what clients see on every PDF. Tap Start my free trial.
4. Your company portal opens at your own address, like yourname.avrunbook.com.

The trial includes 3 client rooms, 3 people on your team and 80 photo reads shared across the company. Everything you make is marked “Trial preview” until you choose a plan, so nothing reaches a real client by accident.

Set up your branding

1. In the portal, open Team and branding.
2. Add your logo (PNG or JPEG) and your contact line, such as a phone number and email.
3. Save. New PDFs use your logo on the cover and your contact on every page, so clients know who to call.

Build a client room

1. Add the client in the portal, for example a church or a school.
2. Choose Start a client runbook and name the room.
3. Take photos of the mixer, each rack, the computer and screens, and the remotes. Add a spoken or typed walk-through of a normal event.
4. Review the gear AV Runbook found and fix anything that is wrong.
5. Choose Start a client gear manual to add what each device does and how it connects.
6. Turn on the booth QR code. Volunteers scan it to open the checklist on any phone, with no app and no login.

Invite your team

In Team, type a teammate's email and tap Send invite. They get an email with a button to join. The link works once and expires in 14 days. They create an account, then join your company and see the same rooms.

Send the finished room to your client

Open the room and choose Send to client. Enter the client's email. They receive your branded PDF and a link to the crew checklist. Trial companies can only send to themselves, so you can see what clients will get.

Choose a plan

There is one plan, Starter, and you add rooms in packs. Finished rooms count forever.

• Starter: 15 client rooms, $99 a month or $990 a year
• 10-room pack: adds 10 client rooms, $39.99 a month or $399 a year. Up to 20 packs.

Choose a plan at any time from the installer page. Add packs when you sign up, or later in the portal under Plan and billing. When you do, the trial marks come off.

For your own booth: a personal room

If you run the sound or video booth at your own church, school or theater, you can document one room yourself. Try one photo free, or pay once per room with no subscription.

Create your account and room

1. Tap Document your own room on the home page.
2. Create your free account with an email and a password. AV Runbook emails you a 6 digit code to confirm it.
3. Type a name for your room, such as “Main Sanctuary”.
4. Choose how to start. Try it free: photograph your booth and get a starter runbook on screen, with 1 photo read and a preview PDF. Or Walk my whole booth: a paid room, $39 for a limited time (regularly $79), paid once, that reads up to 20 photos and unlocks everything below.

What a paid room includes

• Walk and talk: a photo and a few spoken words at each stop, and your runbook follows what you said.
• A gear manual that explains each piece of gear, what it does and how it connects.
• A crew checklist with a booth QR code, so volunteers open it on any phone with no app.
• Clean PDFs with no preview watermark.
• 20 photo reads and 3 free retries if a photo is read wrong. A re-scan is $5.99 for 20 more reads.

If you have a free room code

1. Sign in or create your account and start your room as above.
2. On the payment card, tap Have a code?.
3. Type the code and tap Use code. The room becomes a paid room with no card needed.

Each person can use a given code once.

After your room is built

1. Print the last page of the PDF and put the QR code at the booth, or share the checklist link with your team.
2. Ask a volunteer who has never run the booth to try the checklist, then fix any step that confused them.
3. Open the gear manual and check each item. Add anything the photos missed.

Tips for the best results

Better photos and a few clear spoken sentences give you a runbook that volunteers can follow without calling you. These tips apply to installer and personal rooms.

Photos

• Take one photo of each area, close enough to read the labels: the mixer and sound, each rack, the computer and screens, and the remotes and lights. Every piece of gear should be in only one photo.
• Make sure labels, knobs and buttons are readable. If you cannot read a label on your screen, the photo reader cannot either.
• Turn on the lights and hold the phone steady. Avoid shooting into a bright window or projector beam.
• Skip the wide shot of the whole booth. It repeats everything and makes duplicates. Photo reads are limited, so choose your best shot of each area.
• If the same item shows up twice, or equipment shows up that you do not use, tap Remove on the Check the gear screen. You can undo it right away.
• A free account reads 1 photo, so use your best photo of the mixer area. A paid room reads up to 20.
• Your photos stay in your browser. Only small copies are sent to be read, and they are not saved.

Walk and talk

• Say what you do, in the order you do it: what you switch on first, what you check, and what you power off last.
• Use the names your crew uses, such as “the choir mic”, not only the model number.
• Tap the microphone on your phone keyboard and just talk. You do not need to write it out.
• Mention what usually goes wrong and how you fix it. These become the fix-it cards volunteers reach for.
• Without a description, the runbook covers turning everything on and off only.

Gear manual

• Check the gear list before you start. Fix any wrong names and delete anything that is not really there.
• Answer each gear question in plain words. Say what the device is for and what it connects to.
• Use the note at the end of each item for settings, quirks and anything else a new person should know, such as “never change this fader”.
• Add gear that is not in the runbook, such as network gear, chargers and spare cables. It goes in the gear manual only.

Before you hand it over

1. Read the runbook once, start to finish, as if you had never seen the booth.
2. Have someone who has never run the booth follow the checklist while you watch.
3. Fix every step that made them hesitate, then print the PDF and put the QR code at the booth.