u/joewalls3

I’m doing early research, not trying to sell anything. I’m trying to understand where the pain actually is for studio racks, patchbays, outboard gear, interfaces, converters, monitoring, and audio system documentation.

What do you currently use for rack layouts, patchbay docs, wiring diagrams, cable schedules, labels, BOMs, and as-built notes?

What part of the process is the most annoying, broken, or still living in someone’s spreadsheet, notebook, or memory?

Some features I’m thinking about:

• rack layouts
• device libraries
• port-to-port cable tracking
• auto cable schedules
• patchbay/signal flow maps
• labeling info
• BOM/export docs
• as-built/change history
• field checklist mode
• optional quote/build review later

What would be genuinely useful in a studio/audio workflow, and what would be useless nonsense?

I’m doing early research, not trying to sell anything. I’m trying to understand where the pain actually is for audio, video, lighting, comms, networking, and control racks in theater/live production spaces.

What do you currently use for rack layouts, wiring diagrams, cable schedules, signal flow, labels, BOMs, and as-built docs?

What part of the process is the most annoying, broken, or still living in someone’s spreadsheet, notebook, or one person’s brain?

Some features I’m thinking about:

• rack layouts
• device libraries
• port-to-port cable tracking
• auto cable schedules
• labeling info
• signal flow maps
• DMX/sACN/Art-Net/network notes
• BOM/export docs
• as-built/change history
• field checklist mode
• optional quote/build review later

What would be genuinely useful backstage/in the shop/in the booth, and what would be useless nonsense?

I’m doing early research, not trying to sell anything. I’m trying to understand where the pain actually is when documenting, maintaining, upgrading, or handing off broadcast racks and technical systems.

What do you currently use for rack elevations, wiring diagrams, signal flow diagrams, cable schedules, labels, BOMs, as-built docs, and change tracking?

What part of the process is the most annoying, broken, outdated, or stuck in someone’s memory?

Some features I’m thinking about:

• rack layouts / rack elevations
• device libraries
• port-to-port cable tracking
• auto cable schedules
• signal flow maps
• labeling info
• BOM/export docs
• as-built/change history
• field checklist mode
• documentation export for handoff
• optional quote/build review later

What would be genuinely useful in a broadcast engineering environment, and what would be useless nonsense?

I’m doing early research, not trying to sell anything. I’m trying to understand where the pain actually is for things like IEM racks, amp racks, playback racks, RF racks, flypacks, and general live sound systems.

What do you currently use for rack layouts, wiring diagrams, patching docs, cable labels, input/output lists, BOMs, and as-built notes?

What part of the process is the most annoying, broken, or still stuck in a random spreadsheet or notebook?

Some features I’m thinking about:

• rack layouts
• device libraries
• port-to-port cable tracking
• auto cable schedules
• labeling info
• patch/signal flow maps
• BOM/export docs
• as-built/change history
• field checklist mode
• optional quote/build review later

What would be genuinely useful in the real world, and what would be useless nonsense?

I’m doing early research, not trying to sell anything. I’m trying to understand where the pain actually is for commercial AV system design, install, and handoff.

What do you currently use for rack elevations, wiring diagrams, cable schedules, BOMs, labels, and as-built docs?

What part of the process is the most annoying, broken, or still living in someone’s spreadsheet?

Some features I’m thinking about:

• rack layouts / rack elevations
• device libraries
• port-to-port cable tracking
• auto cable schedules
• BOM/export docs
• signal flow maps
• labeling info
• as-built/change history
• field checklist mode for installs
• optional quote/build review later

What would be genuinely useful, and what would be useless nonsense?