What it actually decides.
A distro is portable power distribution: a rack or box that accepts a large feeder input, usually on single-pole cam connectors, and splits it into individually protected branch circuits on stage pin, Edison, twist-lock or multipin outputs.
It is doing three jobs at once. It divides the service into circuits small enough to be useful. It protects each of those circuits with its own breaker, so a fault in one fixture does not take down a department. And it is the one place where the whole show’s power can be metered and switched, which is why it carries the phase indicators a crew checks before anything is plugged in.
Distribution is planned in a tree rather than improvised, and the planning is about where the boxes sit. A distro is placed to keep cable runs short, out of audience paths and out of the way of a crew pushing cases, with the heaviest loads closest to the source. Long branch circuits lose voltage, and a run of cheap extension leads to the far corner of a ballroom is how a video wall ends up browning out on a bright cue.
Separating departments matters as much as capacity. Audio on its own circuits, away from dimmers and motors, is the usual defence against a hum that nobody can find afterwards.
We own this equipment.
Corporate event production — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.