Theatrical Audio & Lighting in Ann Arbor, MI
Built for performance spaces
Stage sound and light built for the people running the show.
Thalner designs theatrical audio and lighting for auditoriums, demonstration theaters, lecture halls, and stage productions across Ann Arbor and surrounding areas. From high school theaters to university research auditoriums, our AV systems keep sound clear and lighting cues simple enough for whoever runs the booth that night.
- Custom distributed speaker systems tuned for stages and auditoriums
- Truss-mounted theatrical lighting fixtures with programmable cue control
- Demonstration theater audio reinforcement for teaching kitchens and labs
- Crestron and QSC control integration to cue lighting and sound together
Custom AV designs built around free consultation.
We'll assess your AV needs through a one- to two-week design process, customized around your space, at no additional cost to you.
Consultation
Your assigned account manager and engineer work with you to define your AV needs.
Design
We design the system around how your space is actually used, and demo it before you commit.
Installation
Once you approve the design, our in-house technicians seamlessly install and program it.
Support
We continue to troubleshoot and support the system for as long as you own it.
Connect All Your AV Features
Custom AV control systems designed for the stage
The audio and lighting on a stage rarely stand alone. The same control system that runs your projector, video wall, or room scheduling display usually has to run the dimmers and the mixer, too. When lighting and sound come from separate vendors, the booth operator ends up juggling remotes instead of running the show.
At Thalner, we design theatrical lighting and sound systems that are as simple and seamless as they are superior. Our AV control systems allow your theater's sound and lighting to always take center stage.
- One touch panel controls sound, lighting, and video together
- We provide ongoing tech support, troubleshooting, and repairs
We know exactly what a stage AV system has to get right
Theatrical audio and lighting works differently than a conference room or a classroom. A stage has to project to the back row, hold up through a full show, and let whoever is running the booth control cues without a manual in hand. That's why we design and install these systems for auditoriums, demonstration theaters, lecture halls, and stage productions across Ann Arbor and surrounding areas, working alongside the architects, event staff, and facility teams who have to live with the system long after we leave.
Whether it is a demonstration theater built for teaching, a research auditorium on a university campus, or a stage inside a K-12 or municipal building, our goal stays the same: design sound systems that reach every seat and install lighting setups that even a non-technical staff member can run correctly the first time they touch it.
Audio, lighting, and video systems designed to work together as one
A theatrical AV system can feature quite the intricate setup. The speakers, the lighting fixtures, and the truss they hang from usually have to answer to the same control system that runs the projector, the video wall, or the room's scheduling display. That's why our in-house AV programmers write the interface for every audio and lighting system themselves.
This means a booth operator can bring up a lighting cue and a sound cue from the same touch panel instead of juggling separate remotes for separate vendors. Before we spec a single fixture, our AV design & engineering team walks through the space, checks the sightlines and acoustics, and finds out who is actually going to run the show day to day. The same AV control system programming that ties our conference room concepts together does the same job here, just pointed at dimmers and speakers instead of a video codec.
60+ years of lighting up Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Lansing stages
We have been headquartered in the same Ann Arbor building for over 60 years, and most of our theatrical work stays inside the same service area we have always worked in, reaching into metro Detroit and Lansing as well as the smaller communities in between. Our long-running relationship with the University of Michigan has also put us inside lecture halls, research auditoriums, and demonstration spaces on campus, and that same experience carries over to community college theaters, municipal auditoriums, and K-12 stages throughout the region.
A demonstration theater we built for a community college culinary program is a good example of what that looks like in practice: reinforced audio and lighting built for an instructional stage, not a concert hall, sized to the room instead of oversold to fill a spec sheet. You can see more of that kind of work by checking out some of our featured projects.
Ensuring AV excellence for your theatrical space
When we say we want to be your AV partner for life, we're not mincing words. Every AV installation includes a one-year warranty, and we also offer ongoing maintenance contracts to troubleshoot, repair, and ensure your audio-visual system is always working to perfection.
We design every project for free before you sign anything, and the same engineers and programmers who build your system are the ones who answer the phone when you call for support. If you are planning a new stage, updating an aging auditorium, or just tired of a lighting board nobody on staff can run, Thalner is always here to come look at your room, talk your through what it actually needs, and install a system that's designed to dazzle your audience.
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