The term audio-visual production basically covers anything in the known universe that combines varying components of movement, sound, and light.

Movies are nothing more than big expensive (really expensive) audio-visual shows. Television programs; the fireworks, performed music, and laser lights of a major rock concert; a business presentation; Uncle Spud showing slides of his vacation in Idaho—all are audio-visual productions.

A complex audio-visual production, such as the big rock concert, combines many types of contents and is called a multimedia show, which combine sounds and music, projections of video and photos (often several at once), lights, spoken words, text on screens, and more.

Audio visual shows, those of an educational nature as well as for entertainment value, might be produced with equipment such as the following: