This course takes you step-by-step through the workflow Jerrold Stevens developed for designing AV systems right in Revit.
This will show you how working in Revit can speed up the process of system design and coordination, quickly produce more accurate and detailed drawings, and create more comprehensive schedules.
This is a 24-part series of videos, totaling 7 hours of online instruction. Jerrold explains the workflow he has developed to speed up and streamline the process of design, coordination, and documentation of AV systems. This series will help you skip the months of time it took him to learn and develop, and quickly get more productive using Revit!
We’ll walk you through setting up your “AV” model, linking the design team’s models into yours, and enabling Collaboration so you can share your model with the rest of the team. We’ll start the process of creating your own library of Revit assets beginning with your custom Shared Parameters file. Then we’ll look at building your library of equipment Families, starting with what the manufacturers already publish, and then editing them with the additional data, custom symbols, you will want for your documentation standard.
We’ll touch on methods for converting your library of standard AutoCAD blocks and details into native Revit elements, then start modeling an AV system in an example model just like you would get from an architect. We’ll discuss adding “Intelligence’ to Families that can perform calculations that you frequently perform in a spreadsheet or wizard that work right in Revit, saving you tons of time jumping from one application to another, transferring data between apps. And, we’ll create Parametric Families (similar to AutoCAD Dynamic Blocks).
We’ll look at creating details such as rack elevations, creating powerful Schedules such as coordination for MEP consultants, BOMs, Cost Estimates, and other details right in Revit, all of which automatically update every time you change something in your model. No more changing the location of a display, adding a touch panel, or changing the size of a projection screen on a floor plan, then jumping to the elevation and section to update them, then jumping to a spreadsheet to update the BOM and cost estimates, then jumping to the drawing legend to add/remove symbols and descriptions. Any change to any element in any view or schedule will immediately update in every other view or schedule that element is shown!
Then we’ll create schematics, rack elevations, plate and panel layouts right in Revit. No more importing details and schematics from AutoCAD keeping all your editing in on place.
Passing the final exam, the learner will receive a successful completion certificate and CEUs.
Prerequisites: While we do explain how to use various tools in Revit, it is not intended to be fundamental “Revit” training, so you will need to learn the basics of Revit including how to navigate a model, create views, create sheets, etc.
The course taught uses Revit 2019. You will need Revit 2019 or higher.
Course Outline
✅ Creating a Model
✅ Shared Parameters and Family Downloads
✅ Family Editing
✅ Creating Custom Symbols
✅ Adding Symbols to Families
✅ Adding Intelligence to Families
✅ Parametric Families
✅ Creating Families
✅ Automated Wiring
✅ Modeling Your System
✅ Creating Dynamic Legends
✅ Turbocharging Schedules with Excel and Dynamo
✅ Creating Schematics
✅ Creating Details
Check out an example video in the next tab.
Watch an example video from “Revit for AV Systems” online training.
Jerrold Stevens is currently an Associate Principal and Director of AV Systems at Marsh/PMK International, LLC. Like many in the professional audio industry, Jerrold started as a musician, working in a music store selling instruments and PA gear. There he learned the fundamentals of sound reinforcement system design through on-the-job training, SynAudCon courses, and numerous other seminars and classes.
Jerrold’s career path has taken him through years of design/build work as a contractor, a few years working as an independent manufacturer’s rep, Director of Support and Education for EAW, and finally as an audio/video systems design consultant.
His work includes the design and commissioning of audio and video systems for a variety of projects including performing arts venues, houses of worship, resort hotels and casinos, arenas, stadiums, and more such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Chesapeake Energy Arena in OKC, Caesar’s Palace, New York, New York, Mandalay Bay, and other casino resorts in Las Vegas and across the country.
Jerrold’s articles have been published in Sound and Communications, Live Sound International, and S&VC including the #1 most read article on ProSoundWeb in 2015, “The Best Place To Put Subwoofers Is… ?”. He has taught numerous classes at NSCA and InfoComm Expos, and Integrated Systems Expos in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
How long will it take me to compete this course?
There is a total of 7 hours of online instruction. It varies greatly. It depends on the your familiarity with Revit and the principles of sound system design.
Here is a brief layout of the course.
Revit for AV Systems consists 24 lessons.
The last lesson is the final exam. It has approximately 60 questions. With a passing score, you will receive a certificate of completion, 12 Renewal Units and 4.5 Cedia CEUs.
You will have 3 opportunities to pass the final exam. We consider 80% as the passing score.
Is there a time limit on watching the online training?
You will have 45 days to complete the course. The 45-day clock begins on the day that the course key is activated. If you need more time, no problem. Brenda will gladly extend it for you.
SynAudCon will send you reminders of your expiration date.
Can I use Revit LT or do I have to get the full version of Revit?
Revit LT does support many of the time saving processes we discuss in this series, but there are a few limitations.
First, it does not support MEP modeling, so you would not be able to use the circuiting and automated wiring features we cover in the course. You can still create “circuits” using custom Shared Parameters, but It does not support Panel Schedules, so you won’t get estimated cable lengths.
There are limitations with the Collaboration features, but you can still link/import Revit, DWG, images, and other file types.
LT does not support 3rd party Add-Ins, so some of the time saving features you can get with a couple of the Add-Ins we mention would not be available.
In short, LT does help you work faster. It is still a 3D modeling platform at it’s core which means any changes you make in a floor plan, section, elevation, or schedules will be instantly updated in all views. You can still add calculations, create Schematics, Dynamic Legends, BOMs, MEP coordination Schedules, etc., and you can still link other models from the architect and others on the design team into yours for coordination, so it may be a good “stepping stone” for some users to get up and running quickly on a budget. You can always upgrade to the full version later once you’re in and see first-hand whether the additional expense for the full version of Revit is justified for your needs.
You can find the comparison chart detailing all the differences here: https://www.autodesk.com/…/compare-featur…/revit-vs-revit-lt
Will I receive a certificate?
Of course. After passing the final exam, a certificate of completion will be emailed to you within one business day. The certificate will include the information that you will need for the CEUs.
To get credit for the RUs or Cedia CEUs, include your certificate with your renewal packet.
How do I ask questions about the this training?
We have created a support forum for our online training. You may post your questions there.
If you are little uncomfortable with this approach, you may email Jerrold directly.
Tell me about the purchasing process.
The online cart will request the credit card information. Add the name on the credit card, (not the person taking the training.) An automated email will be sent to the email address used in the purchasing process. If you do not get the confirmation, check your SPAM filter. The message will be coming from bbrown at prosoundtraining.com
The email will include:
✅ Credit card receipt
✅ Activation key to the training
✅ Directions to activate the key.
Forward the activation key with the directions to the person taking the training. The directions are quite easy but the learner can always call 812-923-0174 if help is needed.
May I share the video content I buy with others?
Purchased online training content is intended only for the learner who will be taking the course. Sharing SynAudCon online training is a violation of the terms and conditions of this site. All actions are logged and monitored, and this policy will be strictly enforced.
We appreciate your cooperation in this as it allows us to actively develop new material and keep the price low for everyone.
With respect to their privacy, we will only list their initials.
I think this course is a really great introduction to Revit for AV engineers. This is more of a general “how to use Revit” in the context of AV systems; BIM specialists may already be familiar with all the methods in this course, but the course does help the student brainstorm how they can best utilize Revit for AV design. Thank you! J.C.
I’ve been using Revit already for AV designs so I came in with some background knowledge already. Revit is so flexible that there are many ways you can do things, it was great to see this perspective. For us certain portions of our work still live in Autocad, such as line drawings and we link to revit. I think another portion that would be great to go into would be using Revit for visualizations and rendering, We use that function a lot to help a customer visualize what an AV system may look like in the space. M.W.
It would be helpful to either have some of the custom created families as available files. Or a screenshot of an explorer window showing all the families that end up being used in the final project. I realize that we need the practice of creating families on our own, but I tend to learn by taking someone’s work and reverse-engineering it in order to move ahead.
In places where steps were skipped, a more explicit note stating that fact would be helpful. You did that in places later in the training, but in the first lessons, I had to go back and look closely at your screen to figure out that something had been done.
Regardless, thank you for putting all your time and effort into this instruction. It has been very helpful in knocking down a lot of the intimidation factor with getting up to speed on this program. J.P.
I’ve wanted to take this follow-up Revit class for a year now. Our work load has been so heavy, it takes going on vacation to squeeze it in 😊. The first Revit class has proven to be extremely valuable and I’m learning tons in my first day with Revit Families for AV. I hope to also take advantage of some of your other SynAudCon resources this coming year. B.H.
Great content, would of loved more info on Dynamo, but maybe later in the FUTURE! R.B.
This was a very exciting class. I have been using Revit for AV since R14, and there were many obstacles I could never overcome in making my own Revit families that this course help resolve. With AV consultants having the unique requirement of having to use whatever version of Revit the Project Architect is using, I would have loved to have that mentioned, and some time spent exploring the features in R20, R21, and R22 (if it was available at the time of recording). I, myself, have been tasked within my organization to train my team to be able to use Revit at the level I am capable of (and hopefully one day will be at Jerrold’s too), and I do hammer it home with them that project templates and families must be created and updated with the oldest possible version, and that any “upgrades” to those files require their name suffix update to reflect the current version (i.e. “_R20.rfa”;). Overall, I enjoyed the course and watched the videos at least four times as I worked on projects during the generous extensions SAC/PST afforded me so that I could complete this. Next is wrapping up the Family course. Kudos. K.V.
The content was really helpful and will be very useful in my job. It would be nice if the content of the videos were edited and streamlined just a little bit more. It would also be nice if some of the families were provided so we could follow along better to do the things along in Revit. As it got near the back half of the training it became more about just watching what was being done and taking notes rather than following along in Revit, particularly once we got to using the add-ins. Overall, this was an extremely helpful and valuable course, and I’m glad I took it. I would recommend it to anyone in the AV industry working in Revit. J.E.
I am a manufacturer employee. Manufacturers want to know how AV integrators use BIM. We want to provide them with more useful BIM data. This seminar was very helpful to me. If I come up with a good seminar idea, I will let you know. Thank you for this program and opportunity. S.H.
I would be interested in learning more about wiring schedules, creating packages for wiring and automatically making wire IDs and labels. Thank you! I will forward this request to Jerrold Stevens.
Thank you for sending the certificate over! I will definitely be using what I have learned right away as part of my role. N.D.
The course was great; I wish I had would have taken it sooner. It definitely would have saved me some time and money on my projects. It’s always helpful to see how others are using the tools at our disposal. D.S.
Thank you. I have some very clear goals to accomplish now. I may take the new families course also. M.H.
This class has truly been a blessing. I’ve used AutoCAD for over 20 years and was self taught, and am extremely efficient in how I apply it to AV design. I tried the same approach with Revit, spending countless hours with Revit architectural and MEP books, lessons, etc. trying to understand capabilities and workflows. None of those resources provided a sufficient context by which to apply it to AV design. As our firm now has a mandate from architects to produce in revit, I kept telling coworkers “I don’t know what I don’t know”, as there weren’t really any resources specific to our industry. This class tied together many of those concepts I’d learned previously and took it so much further. Within a couple months (I had to extend the course time once due to our busy production schedule) I am now more productive in Revit than the entire previous year of self-education. My only suggestion is to keep going past this level and offer advanced courses in Revit for AV applications. Thank you for simply acknowledging the need for this course and sharing your pioneering methods to apply it to our industry. B.H.
Good course, maybe include the a download of the families used in the course. E.S.
Great course. Thanks for being responsive over email as well. This is a big jumpstart for us into revit and saved us alot of time. Thanks for taking the time to do this! F.C.
The learning was very helpful – both from an operational perspective and it was great to discover that Panasonic have projector models available. I have been searching for working projector files for ages so this will be really helpful for project work. We have a project at the moment which requires us to work in Revit so I am hoping to put everything into practice in the very near future. I.I.
Thank you for providing this course, I think it is really important that the AV industry get more onboard with Revit. Like others have said, there are not a lot of options for AV-specific drawing training available. For me, this course was a weird mix of “oh wow, I didn’t know you could do that!” and”yup, that’s what I do to”. This was helpful both for the new things that I learned, and to validate the choices I have made up until now. I imagine that is true for a lot of the people participating in this course as we follow our Revit journeys.
It would be helpful if some of the manufacturer families used as examples could be provided as part of the course material. I like to follow along doing the activities during a course like this, and some of the families used have been updated, are no longer available, or I had to spend time searching them out downloading them myself. R.S
This class was very helpful and displayed some very complex applications not commonly covered in typical general-purpose Revit trainings. The only consideration I have for the class is if it could have followed a step-by-step process to work along in Revit. The class started this way, but later deviated. M.S
Perhaps because I have been using Revit already and am not new to it, I was hoping for a little more in-depth exploration of Revit capabilities. While many parts of the course were useful (especially the discussions on wiring, family intelligence, and parametric families), the course was somewhat limited by only showing how you prefer to use Revit. While it does provide some food for thought, even to an advanced user, this course seems focused on being beneficial for those who are just at the cusp of transitioning from CAD to Revit. J.H.
I really did enjoy the course since it showed me more things I didn’t know how to do in Revit or I didn’t know anything about it. Also I just watched what’s new in Revit 2022 and that had some new features that might help with productivity. You can also give them ideas on how to make Revit better too. Here is the link for what’s new for Revit 2022. T.C. https://blogs.autodesk.com/revit/2021/04/06/whats-new-in-revit-2022/
I enjoyed the course. I thought it was well structured and informative. J.R.
It’s very nice to have a AV oriented Revit training. I use Revit for several years and it’s very helpful to see how you use it for AV drawings. This training gave me tips to improve my use of Revit for AV. Thanks. C.L.
That was one of the best online training classes I’ve taken. Very relatable real-world examples throughout the course. The conclusion video was a great way to pull it all together. I’ll recommend the course to my friends! Revit has made its way into the AV consulting world, but the integrators are still relatively slow to pick it up. It’s only a matter of time before they realize the benefits and decide they need to take your course. Jerrold, you stressed that we need to pressure the manufacturers to create quality Revit families for their products, but it would also be great to see more Revit add-ons directly targeting AV design. I’ve always been curious what the AVCAD add-on is like. M.T.
As a novice at Revit this course helped me understand the fundamentals and advantages over using Autocad and Excel databases. B.J.
I had taken a MEP Revit training course provided by an MEP consultant–we blasted through the material very quickly and had two whole days extra to ask whatever we want. He tried his best to get solutions for all the odd-ball AV-specific questions I had for him, this course effectively covered and in-depth answered those questions I had lingering–so thanks! Have a good holiday too. M.B.
I wanted to let you know I am finding the training extremely helpful. In fact I think this is far and away the most useful information I have ever seen pertaining to the use of BIM for AV.
The video presentations are so detailed and information dense that it is a little overwhelming and I am needing to go over some of the videos multiple times and work thru them in Revit in order to internalize the lessons. When it is a little closer to the expiration date I may reach out and request an extension if possible, depending on where I am at with the process.
I am wondering if there is any written resource available which could be referenced after the class is over, if so I would be interested in finding out how to obtain it.
Again, thank you for training video series and all the work that it represents. I know I will be recommending it highly for any designers and drafting personnel in the AV world trying to figure out how to successfully work and collaborate in Revit. W.G.
First off, I want to say thank you, and that this course was fantastic. It’s the first course I’ve come across that is dedicated to the AV Industry, which makes it much more relevant than learning Revit from the other training courses that are specific to other trades. As a new Revit user, it expedited my learning curve by diving right in and learning tricks that I will be able to practice and repeat for applying on other projects.
There was some jumping forward on the progress of the model, which is understandable based on the amount of time one can spend on the usual modeling tasks, which would take up unnecessary time in the video. However, I think it would be helpful to have a sheet of notes, or something in addition to the videos, which would breakdown and detail the elements and changes to the model that were done outside the scope of the video. (Families/Manufactures used, unique parameters created within the families, etc.) That way students, can know exactly where things are at, and keep up at the start of each video. I ended up comparing the families you had in your model, and took the time to go through manufacturer Revit libraries to load in as many as I could, and then went back after learning some of the parameters you were using in the scheduling etc. to update my families. Was good practice for myself to go in and build up the library regardless, but having the companies and gear that you are using in the model laid out ahead of time could be beneficial in that people taking the course can prepare some beforehand and get everything loaded in before starting up new videos.
The RF Tools add-in is fantastic. The use of Dynamo is a little bit advanced, so I wasn’t really able to follow that portion.
Overall, very informative, and helpful, and I have already recommended the course to other colleagues. Thanks again! S.M.
Feedback from Revit for AV Systems
Did this course meet your expectations?
48.84% – Agree
31.4% – Strongly Agree
This training has been a good value for the price.
41.86% – Agree
33.72% – Strongly Agree
The material covered in this course will help me be more productive in less time than trying to figure it out for myself.
47.67% – Agree
41.86% – Strongly Agree
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest, how helpful would you say this training has been to you.
47.86 gave the course a 4
32.56 gave the course a 5
Phone: 812-923-0174
Synergetic Audio Concepts, Inc.
Located in Southern Indiana USA
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