Washington DC's Audio Visual
Company
We engineer event experiences with the precision of a technical team and the polish of a live production crew.
Why DCAV
Built by Developers
Most AV companies rent gear. We buy the best and own every piece in our inventory. Being developers, we are highly technical — we geek out about gear, we build custom software, and we obsess over eliminating single points of failure. Every signal path is redundant, every system has a backup. Your event runs on infrastructure and expertise, not luck.
20 Years, Zero Downtime
Two decades of corporate conferences, medical broadcasting, galas, and virtual summits. Every scenario debugged, every edge case handled. We have playbooks the way engineering teams have runbooks — tested, versioned, and battle-proven.
Minority-Owned, Procurement-Ready
A certified minority-owned company with documentation ready for government, healthcare, and Fortune 500 procurement. HHS, Inova, Meta — we clear compliance without slowing your timeline.
Small Team, No Abstraction Layers
We are not a colossal behemoth. Like a lean engineering team, you work directly with the people who build and run your event. One team lead, zero handoffs, full accountability.
Your In-House A/V Upgrade
In-house AV often doesn't care — they are spread across the building, juggling rooms, and your event is just another ticket. We are dedicated. We understand the job, we know our window of impact is limited, and we show up locked in. Your event gets a focused team that treats it like the only thing happening that day — because for us, it is.
DC-Native, Every Venue Mapped
We have held events in nearly every hotel ballroom, conference center, and event space in the Washington DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia area. Load-in logistics, power requirements, room quirks — we already know the building before we walk in.
AV | Professionals
Brian Curtain
Proprietor & Executive Producer
Brian is a developer who builds event production systems. He founded DCAV at the intersection of software engineering and live production — building custom platforms, writing production tools, and applying technical rigor to an industry that runs on gut feel. 20 years producing events for Inova, Johns Hopkins, HHS, and Meta proved the model works.
You work directly with Brian — the person who architects, builds, and ships your event. No account managers. No abstraction layers. The same engineer from first call to standing ovation.
Built, Not Rented
4K Video Pipeline
Multi-camera live switching, cinema-grade lenses, broadcast monitors. Built for redundancy — if one feed drops, the system routes around it.
Custom Streaming Platform
Dictatio — our own platform engineered for gorgeous video that outperforms Zoom. Built in-house because nothing on the market met our specs.
Engineered Audio
Line arrays, wireless mic systems, in-ear monitoring. Signal-routed and gain-staged like a recording studio, not a hotel ballroom.
Stage & Set Systems
Custom fabrication, LED walls, projection mapping, theatrical lighting. Designed in CAD, built to spec, tested before load-in.
Hybrid Production Stack
Green screen studios, remote production kits, platform management. The same system whether your audience is in the room or across the world.
Presentation Software
Our proprietary tool for slide deck ingestion, cuing, and transitions. Built by our dev team because PowerPoint wasn't built for live events.
Tools We Built
When off-the-shelf tools couldn't meet our production standards, we built our own. Every platform below was developed in-house by our team — the same people who run your event.
Video Intelligence PlatformAI-powered video transcription, deep search, and CE/CME compliance for medical teams and enterprise. Search inside every video, jump to exact timestamps, and discover insights instantly. Built for organizations that need structured, searchable video libraries — not just a recording.
DCAVQ
Presentation PipelinePresenters upload their files. We ingest, process, and optimize every deck. You view the polished result on stage. The entire presentation pipeline — from raw PowerPoint to live cue — automated and managed through our system.
MXWANI
Live CaptioningReal-time captioning delivered straight to attendees' mobile devices. No special hardware, no vendor lock-in. ADA-compliant accessibility built into the event experience, not bolted on as an afterthought.
Red Button
On-Site SupportOne tap and a technician is dispatched. Our on-site support app gives your team an instant lifeline — request AV service in seconds, track response in real time. Because 'can someone come fix the mic' shouldn't require a phone tree.
Registration Sites
Event RegistrationCustom-built registration websites for each event. Not a template — engineered registration flows with the same branding precision as the event itself. Attendee data flows directly into our production systems.
Live Polling
Audience EngagementReal-time polling built into our livestream platform. Audience responses rendered live on screen, not through a third-party widget. Engagement data captured and available instantly for your speakers and stakeholders.
Your event + Our engineering
Send us the specs. We will architect, build, and deploy an event experience that your audience remembers.