AV System Commissioning Checklist

What is AV system commissioning?

Installation ends when the last cable is dressed. Commissioning ends when a recorded test proves the room performs, which is when it can honestly be handed over.

Commissioning is the process of energizing an installed or staged AV system, verifying every signal path and performance target against the design, documenting that the system does what the drawings promised.

It is not the plan that precedes it or the package that follows it.

The AV preproduction checklist is the design and advance work before anything is built; the installation handoff, or closeout package, is what you leave behind after. Commissioning is the middle: the hands-on pass that generates the evidence the closeout package is assembled from (redlined drawings, measured results, a punch list).

The commissioning process at a glance

Commissioning runs in phases. The order matters. Work from the physical layer up, trusting each layer only after you have verified the one beneath it: you do not chase an audio problem before confirming the device even has power and an address.

What to verify comes from the design. It is not improvised on site. Every connection on the signal-flow diagram is a path to test. Every row of the cable schedule is a run to confirm. Built from the drawings before load-in, a commissioning plan turns this table into a checklist with real line items.

Phase 1: What do you check before applying power?

Walk the physical install against the paperwork before a single device is energized. Finding a swapped input or mislabeled run now costs a minute; finding it after an hour chasing a phantom fault costs the afternoon.

1. Confirm every device is installed where the drawings say, and that model and quantity match the gear list.
2. Check that each cable carries the ID from the cable schedule, printed on both ends and matching the physical label, see how to label cables and ports.
3. Verify connectors are seated and strain-relieved, and that nothing is landed on the wrong port. The cable schedule is your reference for which run belongs where.
4. Inspect rack grounding, cable dressing, and airflow clearances against the rack drawings, still without energizing anything.
5. Note every discrepancy on a marked-up drawing; that redline is the first page of your as-built.

Phase 2: How do you bring up power and the network?

Energize in a deliberate order: infrastructure first, then sources and destinations, so you never diagnose a device that is simply not powered yet.

As each device comes up, confirm it is reachable before moving on.

1. Bring up power in stages and confirm each device boots cleanly: no fault lights, no error on the front panel, no fans running away.
2. Confirm every networked device holds its assigned address and that it matches the IP schedule exactly, with no duplicates and no leftover DHCP leases.
3. Verify VLAN membership so control, AV media, and management traffic land on the segments the VLAN plan assigned them.
4. Check that PoE-powered endpoints are actually powered and negotiating the class the design assumed. Budgets vary by switch and device, so confirm the switch is not over-subscribed, see PoE budget planning.
5. Confirm control processors, DSPs, and switchers see each other, comms up, before you test anything that rides on that control.

Phase 3: How do you verify every signal path?

This is the heart of commissioning. Every connection you drew is a claim that signal can travel that route. Verification is where you prove it: one path at a time, from a real source to its final destination.

1. Walk each path end to end: inject a known signal at the source and confirm it arrives, correct and clean, at the destination. A test pattern and a tone beat "it looked fine."
2. Confirm every format transition actually happens: HDMI to SDI, analog to Dante, resolution and frame-rate changes, embed and de-embed. These are where paths silently die.
3. Verify the diagram matches reality at every hop. Where the built path differs from the drawing, redline the drawing rather than trusting yourself to remember.
4. Check the return and monitoring paths too, not just program: multiviewer, confidence monitors, record and stream feeds.
5. Tick each verified path off against the signal-flow diagram and the cable schedule so coverage is visible, not assumed.

In WireFlow, signal tracing walks a path upstream and downstream from any device. The diagram you designed from becomes the checklist you commission against; the redlined result exports into the as-built. See port-to-port documentation for how each connection is recorded on both ends.

Total runs to verify = every row in the cable schedule (each row is one run with two endpoints)
Example system: 42 rows in the cable schedule
Runs signed off after test = 39
Coverage = 39 / 42 = 93 percent
Untested = 42 - 39 = 3 runs still open

Phase 4: How do you verify performance to spec?

A path that passes signal is not the same as a path that performs.

Performance verification confirms the system meets the design targets: levels and intelligibility, image geometry, acceptable latency and sync. Those targets come from the design and the manufacturers, not a rule of thumb.

1. Audio: confirm gain structure and levels, that no stage is clipping or starved, and that mix-minus and echo cancellation behave on a real call. Check speech intelligibility in the actual room, not on the bench.
2. Video: confirm each display shows the correct source at the correct resolution, geometry, and color, with no scaling artifacts or overscan surprises.
3. Sync and latency: confirm lip-sync across the path and that any genlock or reference is locked, see genlock and timecode explained for why a drifting reference shows up here first.
4. LED walls: confirm the processor drives the mapped pixel space, brightness and color match cabinet to cabinet, and there are no dead tiles or visible seams under real content, not just test patterns.
5. Record every measured result next to the target it was checked against. "Passed" with no number is a memory, not a record.

Phase 5: How do you test control, presets, and failover?

A system that works when a technician drives it by hand is only half commissioned; the other half is proving it works the way a normal user will operate it, and that it degrades safely when something fails.

1. Exercise every control preset and scene: source selection, room-combine, volume, mute, camera recalls. Confirm each does exactly what its label claims.
2. Drive the system from the real user interface, the touch panel, button panel, or app, not from the back-end configuration tool.
3. Test failover deliberately: pull the primary program feed, drop a network link, kill a source, and confirm the record and stream survive or fail in a way the operator can see and clear.
4. Confirm automated behaviors: scheduled power, occupancy, and standby, so the room does not sit hot all night or refuse to wake for a meeting.
5. Log which preset does what in plain language, so the operation guide in the closeout package is written from tested reality.

Phase 6: How do you document results and get sign-off?

Commissioning is finished not when the tests pass but when the results are recorded and someone signs for them; the output of this phase is the evidence layer the closeout package is built on.

1. Write the commissioning report: what was tested, the result against each target, and the date. A pass with no record cannot be handed over or defended later.
2. Redline every drawing to as-built, so the cable schedule, IP schedule, and signal-flow diagram describe the room that exists, not the one that was proposed.
3. Turn every open item into a dated punch list with an owner, not a vague "few things left." The punch list is the honest gap between commissioned and complete.
4. Run an acceptance test with the client: demonstrate the system working from the user interface and walk the punch list together.
5. Capture the sign-off, then roll the as-built drawings, test results, and punch list into the installation handoff package or the show tech pack.

Derive the report and the as-built from one project and the closeout becomes a re-export instead of a rewrite. For where commissioning sits in the wider job, see the AV preproduction checklist and the rest of the AV documentation guides; run the set through the before-you-send checklist before it reaches the client; and for why the paper earns its hour, see why show documentation matters.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between commissioning and installation?

Installation is the physical build. Mounting and pulling, terminating and dressing. Commissioning is the verification pass that follows: energizing the system, proving every path and target against the design, recording the result. A system can be fully installed and not commissioned. Unproven is not ready to hand over.

How is commissioning different from the handoff or closeout package?

Commissioning is the test process. The closeout package is the document set you leave behind, assembled from what commissioning produces: as-built drawings and measured results, credentials and the punch list. Commission first. Then package. The full contents live in the AV installation handoff checklist.

Do temporary show systems get commissioned?

Yes, in compressed form: hours rather than days. The system check and tech rehearsal before doors is commissioning: power up and verify every path, check levels and sync, test the redundancy and clear the punch list. The phases are the same whether the system lives one night or ten years.

What is a commissioning punch list?

It is the dated list of open items found during commissioning, each with an owner, that stand between tested and accepted. Examples: a missing label, a run that failed its check, a preset that does the wrong thing. Clearing it is what lets the client sign.

Is there a standard for AV commissioning?

AVIXA publishes a systems performance verification standard and related guidance defining how the checks are structured. It does not replace the project's targets or the manufacturer datasheets. It does not set the numbers for you. Commission against the stated design targets and vendor specs. Where a contract requires formal verification, follow the applicable standard with a qualified verifier.

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