As Commercial Integrator resumes the #AVLivingLegends series, we induct Yiannis Cabolis, technical advisor at TruSound, among the reputed ranks. With over three decades of expertise, Cabolis is a recognized leader in the AV industry for creating immersive spaces that merge technology with visionary storytelling. His nearly 18-year tenure at Electrosonic cemented his position as a thought leader and mentor, where he contributed insights through articles, blogs and webinars.
Cabolis has also held diverse roles, including senior project engineer and director of technology innovation, leading AV projects globally. Honored as one of the Blooloop 50 Theme Park Influencers in 2022 and an AVIXA adjunct faculty member in 2018, his career exemplifies innovation, forward-thinking solutions and a passion for using technology to inspire and connect audiences.
Read on to learn more about our latest inductee in the #AVLivingLegends series! You can also check out our hub page for past honorees.
Commercial Integrator: What motivated you to join the commercial AV industry?
Yiannis Cabolis: I didn’t so much join this industry as grow up inside it or at least something remarkably close. My mother was the first female electrical engineer in Greece, a brilliant polymath who was also a piano teacher and a political speechwriter. My father, a chief engineer and inventor, developed early versions of the answering machine and launched a micro-electronics firm in Athens during the 1960s. Our home was a live-in think tank.
By the time I was a teenager, I soldered tube amplifiers, building color organs, setting up PAs for our music bands and operating Pirate FM radio uplinks using surplus U.S. military gear. I wasn’t destroying toys, I was trading new ones with my brother for broken ones, just so I could take them apart and understand their logic.
Music and electronics were my dual obsessions, and they gave me the freedom to create, explore and connect. Whether it was designing speakers for audiophile environments, installing burglar alarms for an Italian company in Greece, or experimenting with signal routing and lighting at live events, I was unconsciously shaping a multidisciplinary future long before I knew what that meant.
I eventually moved to the U.S. and worked as a sound engineer in theaters, concert halls, and film studios. But it was my 1990s interview at Sound Solutions in Santa Monica, thank you, David Epstein, that truly launched my commercial AV journey. From that moment on, I was immersed in a world of 70mm film projection, custom speaker design, planetarium systems, environmental FX, smart home automation, 6DOF motion control, themed entertainment and storytelling at scale. I was home!
Commercial Integrator: What has kept you motivated and engaged in the decades that followed?
Yiannis Cabolis: Curiosity, restlessness and a refusal to stop asking “What if?”
I’m wired to see not just how things work, but how they could evolve. I’ve always chased the magic behind the moment, not the spectacle, but the engineering, storytelling and intentionality that make people feel something. I love the bending of rules, the creative misuse of technologies across sectors to make impossible things feel natural.
One day it’s fine-tuning Cobra Net appliance behavior. Another it’s blending theatrical lighting with edge-blended video in a 70-foot sphere. And another it’s watching someone’s jaw drop when they hear spatial audio from a system that doesn’t look like it should be there at all.
Today, I continue to pursue that edge as Technical Advisor to TruSound, a spatial audio company pushing the limits of immersive, object-based, real-time audio. My work with them draws on decades of experience and a passion for echoic memory, auditory localization and storytelling through sound.
This industry has given me the tools and canvas to bring together architecture, sound, light, storytelling, psychology, physics and poetry. I never needed to niche myself; the through-line has always been experience and that continues to be enough to wake up every day feeling like a beginner again.
Commercial Integrator: Reflect on your role as both a mentee and mentor. Who shaped your path? How have you shaped others’ careers?
Yiannis Cabolis: My parents were my first mentors, my mother with her empathy and structure, my father with his “What Ifs” and his sacred lab where anything was possible. They encouraged me to build, fail, try again, and trust my instincts, even if I thought differently or learned differently.
Later, I worked with diverse teams in crawl spaces and creative war rooms alike. I became the guy who not only built systems but explained why something worked, and why other solutions didn’t. I always believed in collective know-how. When you share knowledge openly, the whole industry gets stronger.
At Electrosonic, I was fortunate to help build mentorship programs, educational lunches and even a full “Innovation Garage.” I brought team members to creative meetings not just to observe but to contribute. And through it all, I stayed approachable, whether I was explaining signal latency or coaching someone through their CTS exam.
If I’ve helped one person think differently, feel seen or find their voice in this industry, that’s the real ROI.
Commercial Integrator: What’s the most memorable story or anecdote of your career in commercial AV?
Yiannis Cabolis: There are countless project stories, many under NDA, but one moment stands out for its personal meaning.
In the early ’90s, I was commissioning a THX-certified home theater that doubled as a dedicated music listening room. The client, an executive at USA Network, and I bonded over radio. I shared my pirate radio adventures in Greece, including organizing the only known FM-band strike. He lit up. Turns out, he was writing a book on radio culture and wanted to interview me.
That surreal dinner conversation, a blending of past rebellion and present innovation, reminded me how every part of our journey informs us who we become. And sometimes, even pirate radio can earn you respect in a boardroom!
Commercial Integrator: What has been your greatest professional accomplishment to date?
Yiannis Cabolis: The relationships, the trust, the legacy of collaboration!
Whether it’s being called into someone’s startup to help shape their pitch, or getting asked to guide the design of an experience that doesn’t yet exist, those invitations are sacred. Being seen as someone who listens, who elevates teams, who makes the complex human again, that’s my real resume.
This #AVLivingLegends nomination is an incredible honor, but my hope is that younger professionals see this not as a finish line, but as proof that if you build with care, dream boldly and stay curious, you’ll earn the respect of peers who remember how you made them feel, not just what you built.
Commercial Integrator: What has been your biggest professional regret to date?
Yiannis Cabolis: In the late ’80s, I helped the Greek government digitize content for what would become their national tourism strategy. It was fulfilling work, technically and financially. But around the same time, I was offered the chance to work on a horror film franchise that would’ve taken me into uncomfortable, unknown creative terrain.
I turned it down.
Looking back, I wish I’d followed the road less certain. That detour might have opened new dimensions in my storytelling path even earlier. But no regrets, just lessons. Sometimes the safe route gives you the stability to leap farther later on.
Commercial Integrator: What’s the best advice or pearl of wisdom you either received during your career or came to realize on your own?
Yiannis Cabolis: Don’t hide how your brain works, train it to fly!
I’m dyslexic, and while it could’ve been a lifelong stigma, my family lifted me. They taught me to lean into my strengths: my imagination, my intuition, and my need to feel knowledge, not just memorize it.
This industry isn’t a popularity contest. It’s a convergence of engineering, storytelling, psychology, and emotional intelligence. Your ability to connect, not just connect cables, is what builds real legacy.
So: Stay humble. Build relationships. Reward your curiosity. And remember, the best work doesn’t just impress but it resonates. That’s what I strive for!
Would you like to nominate a peer or colleague — or perhaps yourself! — to be featured in this #AVLivingLegends series? If so, just email Dan Ferrisi, group editor, commercial and security, Emerald, at [email protected].
