What Technipatch does
An audiovisual system diagram is the drawing that shows, device by device, what plugs into what: consoles, speakers, fixtures, cameras, network switches and power distros, linked by cables that each carry one specific type of signal. It’s a production’s reference document, the one everyone checks between soundcheck and curtain up. Technipatch draws it on screen and derives the rest from it.
What the diagram generates
Nothing is re-typed: the three documents and the printed export recompute from the diagram on every change.
Cable list
One label per cable, its source, its destination and its length — the sheet you follow while pulling cable.
Patch sheet
One sheet per device, inputs then outputs, with what’s connected and what’s free.
Equipment list
The devices to load, the cables to prep, and the adapters called for by the diagram’s checks.
Title-blocked PDF
The full diagram, framed and captioned, ready to send to the client or hang in FOH.
Families covered
Five device families, plus a free category for whatever no entry covers yet:
- Audio
- Lighting
- Video
- Network
- Power
Three separate axes
A port crosses three independent pieces of information: its direction (input, output, bidirectional), the type of signal it carries, and its physical connector. An RJ45 says nothing on its own: it can carry Dante, Art-Net, or a control link. That’s why a cable Technipatch refuses is always refused for a precise reason — incompatible signal, incompatible connector, or both at once.
Export formats
PDF A3 and A4, vector SVG, PNG at 200 dpi, CSV for each of the three documents, and a project file (.novaplan) that reopens the full diagram, minus undo history.
Stage vocabulary
The words Technipatch keeps as-is, instead of translating them into software jargon.
- FOH / control
- The position from which sound or lighting is run during the show.
- Front of house
- The main PA, aimed at the audience.
- Patch
- The correspondence between an input or output and whatever it’s wired to.
- Breakout
- A multicore cable that splits into individual connectors at one end, often through a DB25 breakout.
- Tap
- A second feed taken off an output that’s already in use — flagged, not forbidden.
- Jumper
- The short cable that chains two identical devices sitting side by side.
- Stage box
- The collection point for stage inputs, linked to FOH by a digital connection.
- P17
- The industrial connector for three-phase power feeders on a stage.
The device library
247 entries covering consoles, speakers, fixtures, cameras and networking, reviewed in batches one by one against the manufacturer’s documentation; an entry not yet reviewed carries an orange dot in the interface. A device missing from the catalog is created in two minutes, ports included, and then kept under “My devices.”
Sharing by link
Sharing is a link, not a file: it opens the diagram read-only, no account needed at the other end. A fragment link carries the project in its own address; a saved project carries a token that always opens its latest revision.
Saving is optional
Drawing and sharing by link ask for no account at all. An email address is only requested when saving a project to the server, to find it again from another machine; each save stacks a new revision, it never replaces one.