Cable Documentation, Looms & Schedules

Cable documentation for AV and live production, cable schedules, loom and snake planning, labeling systems, and ID standards that hold up under load-out pressure.

Cabling is a database problem wearing a copper costume

Every cable in a system has an identity: an ID, two endpoints, a type, a length, and a route. Keep that data accurate and any tech can trace, pull, or replace any run. Lose it and troubleshooting becomes archaeology. The cable schedule is that database, see How to build a cable schedule for the method and a free template.

For live and touring work, the second discipline is looming: bundling runs that travel together into labeled multicores, snakes, and trunks with planned fanout lengths. A loom plan turns a 4-hour cable pull into a 40-minute one, and WireFlow's loom tools derive it from the same diagram that made the schedule.

  • IDs are permanent, patches are temporary, label the cable, not the destination.
  • Length on the schedule = measured run + service slack + dress allowance, and write down which convention you used.
  • Label both ends. Always both ends. The far end is the one you'll need at midnight.

Guides in this topic

  • How to Build a Cable Schedule, Build a cable schedule crews trust: the columns that matter, a cable ID scheme, honest lengths, loom grouping, a worked example, and a free CSV template.

Generate your cable schedule from the diagram

WireFlow derives the cable schedule from your signal-flow diagram, every run labeled end-to-end, exportable for the shop and the truck.

Start a free diagram · Download the CSV template instead