In two short days, it will be 2016. In that year, AV Connections will mark more than thirty years in business in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. We would be remiss in truly understanding our blessings and gifts as a family if we failed to write to each of you as the New Year begins. We take stock every year at this time in a way far greater than paperwork, numbers, and equipment.

Often, successful business people will note there was no luck involved in building a thriving business. At AV Connections, Inc. we know that is, at best, inaccurate. And if you know anything about us, and the company Brad and Margie Luckhart founded, you know that we cannot live with inaccuracy.

It is true that the couple you see above, their son Jared and his wife Natalie, along with countless employees and supporting family over the years have worked their fingers to the bone every day. There is no such thing as weekends here, vacations have always been few for the Luckhart's, they take calls from crews all night long all over the Southeast. Their success was largely driven by determination and decency and the culture of excellence they created for us and our customers.

But luck was always there too and it is not to be underestimated. We have each of you, bright and remarkable clients, customers, and partners. No amount of our hard work could make you real. That was all luck and good references from you. That is where we have been luckiest. Our long time clients and our new customers continue to impress us and move us with their partnership. The drive to excel is easy for us, we could not imagine letting any one of you down.

AV Connections, Inc. is moved and humbled to be a trusted audiovisual and lighting provider to the Carolina's. You and your families and loved ones are fast in our thoughts always but particularly in this week when all of our good thoughts are with you for a happy, safe, and successful 2016.

How do you turn a bare gym into a commencement space outfitted with ceremony AV rentals? You should call AV Connections, Inc. because, as you can see, it is not an endeavor you want to try to undertake on your own.  AV Connections, Inc. of North Carolina has the pleasure of providing ceremony AV rentals to each of Wake Tech's commencement ceremonies: These you see are held on the Wake Tech Campus in Raleigh, NC and multiple school of studies graduations held in the spring at Raleigh Convention Center.

This season we are pleased to share with you some behind the scenes photos of how AV Connections, Inc. installs our large fast-fold screens above the auditorium to be sure each guest has a clear view of their student graduating as well as a view of the speakers. There are few more important days in a lifetime than the achievement of these graduates, we could hardly fail to assure perfection for them in the ceremony AV rentals on the day their path of study concludes.

Every degree and diploma is precious, not just to those who have worked so hard to earn them, and the families who supported them. But, as we note each year at this time, they and their achievement are precious to all of us at AV Connections, Inc. We were founded here in North Carolina and have had the pleasure of working with and being community members along side so many of Wake Tech's contributors after graduation; we continue to be pleased to see more added each year. We feel strongly in the value of education and continuing education and we proud to bear witness to its successes at each and every commencement.

In the run up to the 2016 presidential election, AV Connections, Inc. has had the pleasure of providing speech AV rentals  to two presidential candidates. This month we were pleased to be the AV provider for Governor Jeb Bush's address to The Citadel's Republican Society. In December 2014, in preparation for his 2016 campaign, AV Connections also had the pleasure of presenting Donald Trump on our AV. We feel blessed to represent important voices, but certainly the pleasure of turning on the sound for people who may one day run the free world is a special kind of honor. Every client is precious to us, which is likely how we continue to be selected as the speech AV rentals provider for esteemed national voices and organizations.

It is important to note that AV Connections, Inc. does not endorse candidates, parties, or opinions. But we do endorse information which keeps voters informed. We are committed to do everything we can to be sure every voice, at every level is heard with perfect clarity. One day any one of these speeches could be returned to as a marker in our nation's history; we will not fail to project them powerfully and with accuracy. We can only hope we were standing by to hear words which better the nation's future. We are, after all, a generational family company. Our minds are as focused on the present as the future. And we are as riveted with the power of presidential messages as any guest.

We took a moment, as speech AV rentals provider to Governor Bush's speech to The Citadel Republican Society, to get a picture with the candidate, and, as always, to count our blessings. 2016 will be an exciting year for many reasons, not the least of which is that this free nation will elect a new president. We are humbled to deliver the sounds of their voices as they come to Charleston, and we are acutely aware we are witnesses to American history in the making.

AV Connections, Inc. of North Carolina was once again so very pleased to support the Northwestern North Carolina Make a Wish Chapter's 2015 Walk for Wishes Fundraiser with branded lighting rentals. This 5k walk and run road race which winds through the Festival of Lights was held for the sixth year at Tanglewood Park in Winston-Salem. The $120,000 raised so far goes to grant wishes to children with terminal sicknesses in Western North Carolina.

Make A Wish's Walk for Wishes begins in Forsyth's County park jewel, Tanglewood and ends at the Tanglewood Ampitheater. Inside the ampitheather. AV Connections, Inc. helped to kickoff the holiday season with this event by providing dramatic lighting on a uniquely shaped scrim cover, including magnification of the speakers onto the backdrop, and delivering to the field of over a thousand people, clear sound and music. The scrim cover and accompanying branded gobo lighting adds atmosphere, seasonal excitement, and a touch of elegant but not overwhelming branding to the Walk for Wishes.

When holding a charity, or especially a business, event where many people will congregate, a great lighting design which maximizes branding and your message are critical. Often a spotlight or a bit of uplighting will be considered, but the event is truly only a half without a bit of show stopping remember-why-you're-here messaging at center front. AV Connections, Inc. is pleased to make sight visits with you as you plan your event and to discuss the best plan for lighting and maximizing the time your guestes have before you.

Ask anyone at AV Connections what the magical part of their job is, and they will tell you: Event lighting rentals in NC. We are blessed to be part of hundreds of weddings each year throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia with our wedding lighting rental inventory and we never tire of the joy this beauty brings our customers and their guests. We are charged with bringing indoor and outdoor light to many of the South's most treasured locations on the most precious days of a couple's start as a marriage. We're committed to the "for better" part of their vows: They will see beautiful things on the day they are married; perfectly illuminated, and enjoy a great party. We're aware that we're there to help send them off into married life with a great time and even better memories. We take no chances: Not with our lighting rental equipment, and not with our working standards. AV Connections, Inc. maintains a tireless drive of excellence in design and customer service.

Today, we are sharing with you some of the stunning lighting work we did this fall, all of it magical, all of it for wonderful couples. We were pleased to share in the creative process and in their day. And we are just as proud and humbled to light the great venues of the South for some unforgettable parties and weddings.

When you or your event planner is designing your wedding, it's time to contact AV Connections, Inc. and let our standard of excellence be your guiding light through the wedding lighting rental process. We are here to help your marriage get off on the right, stress-free foot!

AV Connections, Inc. founded in North Carolina thirty two years ago, continues to be a Raleigh AV rental company of excellence providing the finest service and most economic pricing to audiovisual events and clients of every type and size. AV Connections, Inc. is a preferred audio visual vendor at Raleigh Convention Center as well as Hickory Metro Convention Center. We have supported clients throughout all of North Carolina with reliable, prompt, and affordable AV rentals and we are always pleased with an opportunity to win the business of new clients in North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington DC.

We know that you have choices in Raleigh AV rental company providers. Our goal is to provide you with the most prompt service, the finest and newest presentation technology inventory for your rental equipment needs, and the best prices. We want to be your one and only call for AV rentals in the future and we will go the extra mile to get and maintain your business. We know that the stronger our clients businesses,  the stronger AV Connections, Inc.'s. We never fail to keep your future in mind.

Our audiovisual technicians are consummate and pleasant professionals whose goal it is to become a part of your team and work together to create the strongest and most flawless presentation possible. We continue to improve, refine, and challenge ourselves to make your experience with this Raleigh AV rental company the best of your career, and the AV company which travels with you nationally.

We encourage you to be in touch with us about the audio visual for your next event.

The Raleigh Convention Center in downtown Raleigh, NC was the site of our recent NC trade show AV rentals work for various clients at the Raleigh Fall 2015 Home Show. This exhibition-style trade show is held over three days in the spring and fall each year. Live, interactive presentations and demonstrations are held on stages and platforms throughout the Raleigh Home Show, AV Connections, Inc. was on hand to provide NC trade show AV rentals to stages and booths throughout the exhibition hall. We are pleased to be a preferred audiovisual rental vendor to the Raleigh Convention Center.

Over three days at the Home Show, presentations relating to remodeling, home improvement, DIY, gardening, landscaping, home decor and design filled stages and booths throughout the show. Attendees also enjoyed celebrity tutorials and demonstrations by Kevin O'Connor of This Old House among other television and blog personalities presenting on various home topics.

Raleigh Convention Center is a modern and centrally located facility close to the finest in Raleigh's downtown hotels and restaurants. AV Connections, Inc. is in the center on a regular basis providing NC trade show AV rentals to every type of event and client from trade shows to commencement ceremonies. We enjoy a warm working relationship with the staff at the Convention Center and are always glad to be called upon to present a flawless event for clients working in the facility.

If you are presenting your products at a trade show in Raleigh, get in touch with AV Connections, Inc. for your NC trade show AV rentals. We are happy to review your request and/or RFP anytime. You will find AV Connections, Inc. runs the tightest and most reliable audiovisual business in the audiovisual industry. Our goal is to make your presentation our finest presentation.

Let's work together to make your next sales presentation in North Carolina extraordinary.

This past week, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding in historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC and AV Connections, Inc. was on hand to provide sound system rentals in NC for the gala and auction evening. One of the finest American museums on the subject of decorative arts, MESDA joined forces with Graylyn Conference Center - a quintessential example of the building-construction decorative arts in its own right - to host this lovely evening banquet for MESDA donors and sponsors.

With 280 guests expected, the size of the expected attendance greatly surpassed the number of people who could fit into Graylyn's historic Atlantis Room. AV Connections, Inc. was charged with assembling the AV in the Atlantis Room and broadcasting it to the terrace lawn outdoors. The Atlantis Room was important to the evening all on its own, as a prime example of Southern decorative arts. Hand painted to recreate an under the-scape, it is was a fitting place in which to note the accomplishments and growth of MESDA in its first fifty years and to plan for its future.

Turning fifty is a huge accomplishment for MESDA and its endowment which has been serving the growth of the Museum since 1960. Five years of planning preceded the opening of the Museum in 1965 by local antiquities dealers Frank Horton and his mother Theodosia Taliaferro. Seeing a void in both respect for, and preservation of, Southern decorative arts they endeavored for five years to fund the future museum endowment. With the support of the arts and collecting communities locally and throughout the South, the Museum sprung to life. MESDA continues to increase its collection and educational offerings and can be credited with bringing recognition to generations of Southern crafts-people.

In the permanent collection of MESDA an impressive array of decorative examples thrive under watchful eyes of dedicated cultural arts preservationists, including some of the South's finest works of furniture making, wood work, painting, and inlay design construction. And while this effort is celebrating fifty years, that is a relative youngster in the realm of museums preserving cultural arts. Creating healthy endowments and robust fundraising efforts are the key to museum survival and growing collections and offerings. This gala and auction evening was a resounding success, raising $212,000 for MESDA. As natives of the South, we could not be happier to report this was the case.

AV Connections, Inc. was pleased to provide two elevated screens with bright projectors and a sound system that extended outside into the soaring courtyard so those who could not be accommodated in the historic Atlantis Room were still a part of the event via the outdoor courtyard’s overflow space.

Audiovisual rentals for High Point Market are a top priority for AV Connections, Inc. every fall and this year is no different. From October 22 through 27th we are busy preparing booths, seminar areas, and trade sales floors at 220 Elm in High Point, NC to host the interior design world. 220 Elm is turned into a technological showplace for this event twice yearly and is ground zero for home entertainment industry market sales. High Point Market's March and October sessions take up ten buildings in the city of High Point, NC - the undisputed home of interior design presentation in the United States - and we are pleased to partner with many presenting businesses and concerns to brief the industry in the ever-fresh and quickly-moving home entertainment market.

Our trade show audiovisual technicians were on hand with several customer clients to create memorable, impactful booths and seminars to sell their products and leave the attendees with a cannot-leave-without-this-technology impression. After all, when you want to present great technology, you should have a great audio visual firm backing up your work.

Jay Seawall of our technology group helped to fill us in on the AV rentals work during High Point this fall:

"We returned again this year as a primary vendor of AV needs to several clients over the course of the High Point Furniture Market. Ranging from seminars to showroom displays, we saw plenty of sound systems, mounted TV’s, quick setup screen and projector packages, and computers for presentations and media playback in order to help sell an industry on the forefront of contemporary design with equally modern demands in the world of AV home entertainment. The primary housing of the week’s ventures, 220 Elm, hosted four seminars; each one saw a lightning fast set up and tear down as the space required flipping to accommodate use of the various showrooms before and after each seminar.

"We utilized a mobile cart solution that held wireless mics, a mixer, projection equipment, and two speakers in order to make this happen. Also, several showrooms featured video playback and presentation slides on our flatscreen LED TV’s, making the presentation feel right at home in a typical living room setup. AV Connections is proud to provide services that benefit the ages old industry of furniture making right in our backyard in High Point, NC."

Doesn't this gala look fantastic; we were thrilled to provide audio rentals in Winston Salem, NC for this recent affair at the legendary Reynolda House Museum and Gardens.

One of the finest historic sites in this part of North Carolina in which our corporate headquarters resides and where we were founded, the Reynolda House, is a tribute to the great builders and landscapers of the Guilded Age. Preserved largely through the efforts of events like these held yearly by the Reynolda House Foundation, one of the great eras in American structural history is stewarded and protected.

Once the home of Richard Joshua Reynolds (founder of RJ Reynolds, the local tobacco concern) and his wife, the Reynolda House was inherited by a daughter who first held the home as a vacation home and later took up residence full time. Loving the house as her decendents did, they undertook - under the guidance of granddaughter Barbara Babcock Millhouse - to create a foundation for the lasting preservation of the home and site, and the Reynolda House Foundation was born.

The site, largely still intact as originally constructed and completed in 1917 became a public museum in 1967. A viewing museum which now houses extraordinary works by American artists was additionally built on the grounds. The permanent collection houses some of the nation's finest works of art by preeminent hands. Revolving visiting collections are also part of the work of the museum. Regular visits to the collection will make you well versed in the great works of our national artists; once a year is not enough.

The gala you see here supports the efforts of the House to both sustain the house and landscape formal and informal gardens and to continue to broaden the museum collection and add revolving exhibits. AV Connections, Inc. was pleased to provide audio rentals for this years gala.