San Francisco · Trade Show AV
Who are the best trade show AV companies in San Francisco?
WestWave AV scores highest on our published rubric for San Francisco trade show AV, ahead of Fog City Audio Visual and SFAV Rentals and Trade Show Services, across twelve vendors scored.
Trade Show AV companies in San Francisco, scored
Each vendor below is scored 0 to 100 on five dimensions, weighted for this category. The weights were set before the scoring ran and apply to every vendor here. A dimension we could not verify is left unscored rather than counted as zero, and the remaining weights are renormalised, so no vendor is penalised for a gap in our research.
| Vendor | Rating quality (25) | Review depth (20) | Service depth (25) | Price transparency (15) | Operational proof (15) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WestWave AV | 100 | 20 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 84 |
| Fog City Audio Visual | 98 | 47 | 63 | 0 | 80 | 62 |
| SFAV Rentals and Trade Show Services | 100 | 3 | not verified | not verified | not verified | 57 |
| Got Light | 74 | 24 | 86 | 0 | 80 | 57 |
| Sound and Video Rentals | 100 | 40 | 43 | 0 | 80 | 56 |
| Projection Presentation Tech | 100 | 2 | not verified | not verified | not verified | 56 |
| Golden Gate Computing | 100 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 54 |
| NextArts Audio Visual Lighting Rentals & Services | 90 | 86 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 52 |
| JCX Expendables | 94 | 52 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 43 |
| JK Sound | 87 | 25 | 6 | 0 | 60 | 37 |
| Impact | Lighting | Audio | Video | 82 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 36 |
| Desired Effect | 92 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 36 |
How this compares to Google’s own local pack for San Francisco trade show AV
Google’s local pack for “trade show audio visual san francisco” on 2026-08-01, in the order Google showed it:
- WestWave AV — 5.0 across 21 reviews
- SFAV Rentals and Trade Show Services — 5.0 across 3 reviews, Sunnyvale
- Fog City Audio Visual — 5.0 across 52 reviews
Our order differs from Google’s
We agree with Google on the top position and differ further down the list. The reasons are given in each vendor's section below.
Why each vendor placed where it did
WestWave AV · trade show AV in San Francisco · 5.0 across 21 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 344 Harriet St Ste 101, San Francisco, CA 94103
Publishes trade-show AV planning as a named service, alongside interactive displays and on-site show support, and is based in SoMa within reach of the city's exhibition venues. Same profile strengths as the conference category: an unblemished 21-of-21 five-star record, 49 published services, a published starting price, and all five operational checks passed.
Fog City Audio Visual · trade show AV in San Francisco · 5.0 across 50 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 1145 Pine St APT 25, San Francisco, CA 94109
Ranks second here on the rubric while sitting third in Google's pack for this query. The gap is review depth against everything else: it holds 52 reviews to SFAV's 3, and 31 published services to SFAV's unaudited listing. We rank it second because it is the more documented vendor, and we are showing Google's different ordering directly above so the reader can weigh both.
SFAV Rentals and Trade Show Services · trade show AV in San Francisco · 5.0 across 3 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · Sunnyvale, CA
Holds second position in Google's pack for this query and is a genuine trade-show specialist by name, but it is based in Sunnyvale rather than San Francisco and we could score it on only two of five dimensions: a 5.0 rating across 3 reviews, with no audit of its published services or pricing. Thin evidence, not a negative finding.
Got Light · trade show AV in San Francisco · 4.4 across 25 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 211 Industrial St, San Francisco, CA 94124
San Francisco lighting, audio and video production company on Industrial Street, publishing 42 itemised services including LED and projection. A long-established name on Bay Area venue preferred-vendor lists.
Sound and Video Rentals · trade show AV in San Francisco · 5.0 across 42 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 712 Bancroft Rd, Walnut Creek, CA 94598
Audiovisual equipment rental business in Walnut Creek serving the Bay Area, publishing an itemised rental list including projection.
Projection Presentation Tech · trade show AV in San Francisco · 5.0 across 2 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 747 Howard St, San Francisco, CA
Presentation-technology and AV provider on Howard Street beside Moscone Center. Holds local-pack positions on both the San Francisco conference-AV and teleprompter-rental queries on a very small review base.
Golden Gate Computing · trade show AV in San Francisco · 5.0 across 106 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 388 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94111
Audiovisual equipment rental and IT services business on Market Street in San Francisco, with a deep and unblemished review base.
NextArts Audio Visual Lighting Rentals & Services · trade show AV in San Francisco · 4.8 across 91 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 1300 25th St, San Francisco, CA 94107
Audiovisual and lighting rental and services business on 25th Street in San Francisco's Dogpatch, with one of the deepest review bases in the city's AV market.
JCX Expendables · trade show AV in San Francisco · 4.9 across 55 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 255 Bayshore Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94124
Stage lighting and expendables supplier on Bayshore Boulevard in San Francisco, serving film, event and theatrical production.
JK Sound · trade show AV in San Francisco · 4.7 across 27 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 1425 Davidson Ave, San Francisco, CA 94124
Audiovisual and sound equipment rental business on Davidson Avenue in San Francisco.
Impact | Lighting | Audio | Video · trade show AV in San Francisco · 4.6 across 36 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 30955 San Antonio St, Hayward, CA 94544
Lighting, audio and video rental company based in Hayward serving the Bay Area event market. Appears on published preferred-vendor lists at San Francisco venues.
Desired Effect · trade show AV in San Francisco · 4.8 across 23 Google reviews as of 2026-08-01 · 1948 Oak Park Blvd, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
Audiovisual equipment rental business in Pleasant Hill serving the Bay Area, registered across nine Google categories.
Companies kept out of the San Francisco trade show AV ranking, and why
These businesses appear in the same Google categories or search results but sell a different service. Several would score near the top on review depth or published service count, which is exactly why the reason for each exclusion is published rather than left to a filter nobody can see.
Creation Networks, Inc.
Its primary category is Audio visual equipment supplier, it is based in Concord, and its review themes are conference-room technology, shipping, ease of use and certified programming. That is installed corporate AV and systems integration, not event production. It would score near the top of an event AV ranking on review depth and service count alone, which is exactly why it is kept out: the buyer commissioning a conference cannot buy what it sells.
Sway
Its category is Event management company and its published prices are for party planning, starting at $499 for anniversary planning. It is an event planner rather than an AV supplier, and on the rubric it would out-score most genuine AV vendors on service depth and price transparency while not doing the job the ranking is about.
Avimo Audio Visual Solutions for Bay Area Churches and Organizations
It is an audio visual consultancy specialising in installed systems for Bay Area churches and non-profit organisations. That is permanent-install AV, a different purchase from renting and operating AV for a corporate event.
Hidden Connections Inc
An audio visual consultancy working on installed systems, operating from a correspondence-only address in Alameda. Consulting and integration rather than event production.
Virtual AV
Registered under Contractor rather than any audio-visual category, with no published service list to establish what it supplies. Not enough evidence of event AV work to place it in an event AV ranking.
How this category is weighted, and why
Trade-show work is scored the same way as conference AV, and for the same reason: the buyer is committing to a vendor who has to perform on a fixed date inside someone else's venue, so depth of documented capability and a clean service record matter more than a headline rate.
| Dimension | Weight | How it is scored |
|---|---|---|
| Rating quality | 25 | score = (mean / 5) x 100 x (1 - share of ratings below 4 stars). A vendor with a published mean but no rating breakdown is scored on the mean alone and flagged. |
| Review depth | 20 | score = (this vendor's review count / the highest review count in this category) x 100. Normalised within the category on purpose: a specialist with 20 reviews in a narrow category is not behind a generalist with 100 in a broad one. |
| Service depth | 25 | score = (this vendor's count of published, itemised services / the highest count in this category) x 100, taken from the services block of the Google Business Profile. |
| Price transparency | 15 | score = 100 where the vendor publishes a rate or a starting price a buyer can read without contacting them, 0 where a fully audited profile publishes none. Unscored where we have not audited the profile. |
| Operational proof | 15 | Five checks worth 20 points each: profile claimed by the owner; a street address published; the on-site services attribute set; 25 or more photos; three or more Google categories. |
What trade show AV covers in San Francisco
Trade-show AV is a different job from conference AV: shorter load-ins, booth-scale rather than ballroom-scale kit, and a venue with its own rules about rigging and power. This page scores every verified AV vendor in the San Francisco market that could take trade-show work, not only the three Google shows in its pack. Where our order differs from Google's, we say why rather than quietly reordering to match.
Sources
- Google Business Profile data, checked 2026-08-01: ratings, rating distributions, published service counts, categories, published prices, profile attributes and photo counts.
- Google local pack for “trade show audio visual san francisco”, San Francisco localised, pulled 2026-08-01.
- Vendor websites for scope and years-in-business claims, which are recorded as the vendor’s own claim and labelled as such.