Shawn Barrett

Getting technical systems into a building, correctly, the first time

A venue is not a room with equipment in it. It is a set of interlocking systems — sound, picture, light, and everything hanging over people's heads — installed inside a construction schedule, against a specification, on a date that was published before the work started.

My side of that runs from the first conversation through to signature: reading what a project actually needs, making sure the scope on paper matches the room being built, pricing it honestly, and putting the right people on it. Infinity Sound's promise is clarity early, certainty delivered. Early is the operative word — it is the point at which a question is still cheap to answer.

Work reaches us two ways. Sometimes the design and specification are already issued and the job is to read them exactly and price them honestly. Sometimes no specification exists yet — someone describes a room that cannot be heard in, a stage that cannot be lit, a service that has outgrown its infrastructure — and the design is part of what we are being asked for. Both run through this desk.

Three people at the table, wanting different things

• General contractors

  A subcontractor who reads the specification exactly, submits a scope that states plainly what is and is not included, and does not discover a problem during commissioning that was visible during design.

• Owners and end users

  A room that works on the night it is needed — and staff who can still run it two years after the install crew has left the building.

• Architects and consultants

  An integrator who flags what the drawings leave unresolved while it is still cheap to resolve, rather than pricing around the gap and raising it later.

The job is holding all three at once — because the cost of an unresolved question rises with every week it survives. Answered during design it costs a conversation. Answered during submittals it costs a resubmittal and a procurement delay. Answered at commissioning it costs a change order, a schedule, and sometimes the opening.

Four disciplines under one contract

Split across four subcontractors, the gaps between those trades become the owner's problem. Carried by one integrator, they become ours — one party responsible for how the systems meet, and one number to hold to.

• Audio

  Sound reinforcement that stays intelligible in a full room — speech and programme material, front of house and monitors, distributed and networked.

• Video

  Displays, projection, cameras, switching and distribution, and the production infrastructure behind a broadcast or a stream.

• Theatrical lighting

  Stage and house lighting, dimming and control, and the network and power that sit behind them.

• Theatrical rigging

  Overhead rigging, hoists, and motorised systems — the discipline where life safety, inspection, and certification are not optional.

Infinity Sound, Ltd.

Infinity Sound has been building technical systems in North Texas since 2004, with an in-house design and engineering department, a fabrication shop, and factory-certified installation staff. The record below is the company's.

Founded

2004, Mansfield, Texas

Systems installed

Over 1,000

Bonding capacity

In excess of $10 million

SCN Top 50

#35, 2025

DBJ Fast 50

#19, 2025

Certifications carried

AVIXA CTS · ETCP Certified Rigger

infinity-sound.com →

Two things I keep off the clock

• North Texas Lawn Grass GuideEvery grass worth growing in the southern DFW metroplex, compared across sun, drought, heat, traffic, and cost — written for Blackland clay and twice-weekly watering rules.
• Sudoku StudioA sudoku app with difficulty that adapts to how you actually play. Free in the browser, no account.