Every integrator has a story they save for after hours. It’s usually not about a dead projector or a missed deadline. It’s the job where something felt off, and nobody on the punch list could explain it.
Some horror is everyday stuff: ground loop hum, a firmware update that bricks a DSP mid-commissioning or an EDID handshake that fails five minutes before the client walkthrough. Then there are the jobs that send you running to the truck.
Earlier this month, we invited our readers to share their most frightening jobsite stories. You delivered. Below is a sampling of the responses we received, from quick hits to one featured tale that still has its author leaving the office before dark!
The Quick Scares
The Bolt That Changes Everything
Some fears don’t need a dark warehouse. They just need a single piece of hardware.
Any installer who has stood on a ladder holding a 75-inch display knows he’s not exaggerating.
When the Client Base Is Funeral Homes
One installer works a market where late nights come with a little extra atmosphere….
Screenshot by CI Staff.
The Jukebox, the Warehouse and the Gorgar Game
New construction comes with its own soundtrack. This installer learned that a quiet building is never as empty as it seems, especially when it’s full of arcade machines.
Screenshot by CI Staff
Motion sensors work exactly as designed. That’s the scary part!
Something Behind You on FaceTime
Video calls with clients are supposed to save you a trip. For Dalton Parker, director of sales and marketing at ClearVista, one call delivered a surprise neither side expected.
“I was on-site at a client location, on FaceTime to verify a few details. As I walked into the garage and turned around, they asked, ‘What is that behind you?’ In the corner of the garage, a sleeping bat was up on the wall above me,” says Parker.
Featured Story: Alone in the Showroom
Our scariest AV Story comes from Albert Leal Ferreira Santos, head of operations at Convergint. His story takes place in 2012, when he was an intern learning the trade inside an old mansion turned AV office. It’s the kind of tale that starts with a familiar frustration and ends somewhere much stranger.
Here it is in his words:
The Showroom That Wouldn’t Stay Fixed
“I’d like to share something that happened to me in 2012, when I was working as an intern in the audiovisual industry. It was one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had, and I still remember it clearly.
“Back then, I was learning how AV systems worked and how all the equipment connected and communicated.
“The company I worked for was based in an old mansion with wooden floors, a large workshop and a beautiful staircase. There was also a showroom full of AV equipment used for client demonstrations and testing.
“The room looked great, but almost nothing worked properly. Equipment was all over the place, and systems that should’ve worked together never seemed to work as expected.
“I thought the problem was that the room was constantly being used for testing. Things were installed, removed and changed all the time. So, being young and eager to prove myself, I decided to take responsibility and get everything working.
“I spent the whole week organizing the room, fixing the audio, setting up multiple projectors with blending and warping, and getting the 3D system to work.
“The strange thing was that whenever I got everything running, I’d come back the next day and find something wrong again. The projectors were out of alignment, the audio had noise or the systems were no longer working the way I’d configured them.
“I kept fixing everything, thinking it was just part of the job. After several days of doing the same work over and over, I decided I’d stay late and finish it once and for all.”
Friday, April 13, 2012
“I started early and spent most of the day in the showroom. Every now and then, I heard strange noises around the building, but I didn’t pay much attention. The office was usually busy, and the old wooden floors made plenty of noise when people walked around.
“As the day went on, everyone left. One by one, my colleagues said goodbye until I was the only person left in the building.
“At around 9:15 p.m., I finally finished. The equipment was organized, the projectors were aligned, and the audio and video were working perfectly. I played a test video to check everything one last time.
“It all worked.
“I was relieved. After a week of problems, I’d finally gotten the room working the way it should.
“Then I heard a huge crash from the floor above. It sounded like something heavy had fallen.
“I stopped what I was doing. I knew nobody else was in the office. The last person had left hours earlier.
“A few seconds later, three light bulbs burst, one after another. Then I heard footsteps on the staircase. They were slow and heavy, as if someone was coming downstairs.
“I just stood there for a moment, trying to understand what was happening. I knew I was alone, but I could clearly hear the footsteps.
“I didn’t go to check. I turned off the power at the breaker, ran out of the building and didn’t come back until the next morning.”
The Morning After
“When I returned, I asked for the broken bulbs to be replaced. But something else bothered me. The equipment was no longer configured the way I’d left it. The systems I’d spent the entire week fixing weren’t working properly again.
“I never found an explanation for what happened that night or why the same problems kept coming back.
“After that, I stopped working in the showroom. I also made sure I was never the last person to leave the office, especially at night.
“Some people might say it was just an old building, electrical problems or my imagination. Maybe. But I know what I heard that night, and I still remember how it felt to be alone in that building.
“I’d stayed late to fix a room full of technology. I never expected to leave with a story I still can’t explain,” says Santos.
The Takeaway for the Rest of Us
Every integrator has chased a system that won’t stay fixed. Usually the culprit is a shared demo room, an undocumented change or a colleague who “just borrowed one cable.”
Santos’ story is a reminder that sometimes the root cause never shows up in the logs. Back up your configs, label everything and, if you can help it, don’t be the last one out of an old mansion on Friday the 13th.
Happy Halloween From Commercial Integrator
Thank you to everyone who shared their scary AV stories with us. Your submissions prove that the strangest part of the job isn’t always the technology. Sometimes it’s what happens after the lights go out.
From all of us at Commercial Integrator, Happy Halloween!
May your signal paths stay clean, your racks stay quiet and your jobsites stay unhaunted!
