Things to Consider As You Speaker Hire

Speakers are an essential part of any sound system, and you may need to hire them separately to complete your sound equipment collection. There are different kinds of speakers for hire which have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Active speakers, Advantages and Disadvantages

The first type of speaker is active speakers, which refer to those which have built-in amplifiers. These speakers are quite pricey for hire because they are usually of the latest technology and brands. Active speakers have several benefits.

You will have less speaker cables to deal with because the amp is built in, so setting up is a bit easier. Another advantage is that the speaker and amp are from the same manufacturer, which matches the quality of the sound. There is less work needed to use active speakers because all you need to know is the frequency that the speakers can handle.

Active speakers have a few demerits, one of which is that they are heavier than other types of speakers. The inbuilt amplifier makes the speaker bulky, and you will need to take special care when transporting and mounting them.

Passive speakers, Advantages and Disadvantages

The other type of speaker available for hire is passive speakers. These do not have the amplifier built in, so you will need to include the amp in the hiring package. Passive speakers are cheaper to hire as compared to active speakers.

Since the speaker and amp are separate, passive speakers are lighter to handle. They are also more flexible because you do not need an amp for every speaker, which gives you more room to alter the speaker arrangements.

However, this is also a great disadvantage because you will need to look for matching amplifiers for your speakers. You need to find amps from the same manufacturer, RMS rating and power output. This requires you to have more extensive knowledge about speakers, amps and manufacturers in order to get the right combination.

These are the basic types of speakers that you will encounter when looking to hire. Different manufacturers will provide their own unique features, and the more high-tech the speakers are, the more expensive they will be to hire. Keep these tips in mind as you choose speakers for hire.

When you want to hire a sound system for your event, there are a number of things you need to check. The following is a basic checklist that you can use to get the best value for your money, and the best sound system to suit your needs.

1. Check the terms of hire

Before hiring a sound system from any provider, make sure that you understand and agree with the terms of hiring the equipment. This includes the specific equipment included in the package, the time you will be hiring it for, how much it will cost and who takes care of any damages to the sound system. If you agree with all these terms, you will get exactly what you paid for and avoid any losses.

2. Insurance for the sound system company

Depending on the venue at which your event will take place, you will need insurance for the sound system. It is important because the insurance will protect not only the equipment but also the audience and the venue. Make sure that the insurance coverage is suitable to the type of event you are planning.

3. Electrical safety

Sound systems are electrical equipment that require to be checked for safety standards. You should always check for a certificate that shows that the sound system has been tested and approved to operate without putting you at risk. You will need to present this certificate to the owners of the venue for your event, as they will need to verify the safety standards of the equipment.

4. Setting up is done by professionals

Your sound system should only be set up and uninstalled by qualified people who know how to handle the electrical equipment. The sound system hire company should provide personnel that are experienced in setting up sound systems to save you time and risks involved.

These 4 things are essential to sound system hire, so you should always check on them every time you have an event that requires hiring equipment. Should anything go wrong in your event, the above precautions will have you covered, so you will get the best equipment for your party.

Sound and lighting are the hallmark of a great music festival. If you are in the music festivals business you will require these equipment. But the show is not all about lighting and sound, here are some of other things that you will need to have.

A Stage / Venue

The first thing you need to do is to choose a stage for your music festival. The ideal stage is determined mostly by the size of the venue. Check the height, width and length of the stage before hiring, so that you will be sure it can fit the venue and the rest of the performance equipment like instruments, lights and so on.

Lighting Equipment

Music festivals will definitely need amazing light displays both for the bands performing and the audience. You may need a lighting rig or trussing that will give your festival a professional feel to it, as well as a backdrop that keeps the light out of the back stage for the performers and organizers to prepare. The music festival hiring company you choose should have different packages suited for different types of festivals.

Sound System

The size of the event will dictate the sound system you choose for the festival. You should consider the venue, the expected turnout and the type of music played at the festival when choosing a sound system. You should ensure that the best sound is provided to make the festival experience even better, so select the best quality speakers, microphones and amplifiers for hire.

Laser Show Equipment

The ideal music festival comes with a laser show, which makes the event more memorable. Getting laser show equipment is quite cost effective, so you should always look for it as part of your music festival package hire. You can always ask about how the equipment works and the colors you can get for the lasers. Make your event special by including a laser show.

Inflatables

One more thing to add to your music festival is inflatable gear for the show. You can get all kinds of shapes and colors of inflatables to set up on stage and even throw into the audience during the show. These are very easy to use and make the festival more exciting.
Choose a hiring company that specializes in setting up music festivals to get great deals and ideas for your event.

Wedding parties and receptions are joyous events full of music, dancing and entertainment. For the best wedding party for both the newlyweds and the guests, you need to hire the best sound equipment to complement your day.

There are sound hire companies that specialize in catering for weddings, and it is advisable to go for these rather than the general sound equipment hire companies. The obvious reason of doing this is these companies are experienced in their craft. But other than that, these companies will also afford you these other advantages:

1. You will get a DJ and Emcee as part of the package

Nearly every other wedding sound hire company sweetens the deal by throwing in a dj or an emcee as part of the package. As the client, you stand to benefit greatly from such an arrangement as you will not to spend time and money looking for and hiring people for these jobs. Another advantage of such an arrangement is that you will be working with a team that have been together for a while and know each other well. They will be able to offer you tips on how to make the party livelier and come up with a unified script for entertaining the guests.

1. All Activities Of The Wedding Party Are Covered

Once you get a wedding sound package deal, all the relevant details and activities will be catered for by the company. Some of the burdens that will be taken away from your shoulders include selecting the pre-dinner or cocktail hour music, dinner and dance music, along with announcements like the arrival of the bridal party, cutting the cake, and so on.

1. Professional Quality Equipment And Staff

You will get the latest and best quality equipment for your wedding party, as well as professionals who will set up the gear properly for the event. You are assured of high quality sound for your wedding party.

1. Huge Music Library

As part of the package, you get to select the music you want for your wedding party from a wide selection of popular wedding music. The dj will help you make the decision, and recommend some ideal choices for your event from their wide and vast music library.

1. Competitive Rates

Hiring a sound system for your wedding function will be cheaper than buying a sound system. And even if you have a sound system, you will still have to hire a professional dj and emcee, if you want it professionally done.

Look for a wedding sound hire provider near you and make your wedding party memorable and fun.

It is very easy to hire DJ equipment from online shops and hiring companies. But for you to get value for your money, you have to have some knowledge on what you are looking to hire. Below are some tips to help you get the right dj equipment.

Do Your Research About The Equipment

You should know the different DJ equipment, how they function and their prices for hire. DJ software, turntables, mixers and other tools come in different brands, costs and quality. The best way to find out these variations is to talk to other DJs who have prior experience in hiring their equipment. Get their suggestions and advice before you settle for any DJ hiring company.

Compare Both Online And Offline Prices

You will definitely find that hiring DJ equipment online is a lot cheaper than from your local music store, but the differences in prices should be reasonable. Any provider that has very low or very high prices for their equipment is probably not a genuine supplier. The differences in prices should make sense, especially for the same brand of equipment.

Always Look For Trusted Merchant Sites

The website from which you hire the DJ gear should be a verified site. There are several ways of identifying a genuine site, the first being a label at the bottom of the site that shows verification from an antivirus provider and a online payment service like PayPal. You should also check for a comprehensive FAQ section, which should answer your inquiries. Look for the year at the bottom of the web page which should show you how recently the website was updated. Avoid sites that are old or poorly maintained.

Contact The Online Merchant Via Email

One final tip is once you have identified suitable DJ equipment hire websites, contact them as a way of confirming their legitimacy. Each website should have a “Contact Us� page that provides email addresses or contact forms, so use these to send in your questions. If you get a positive response, you are assured of getting the right equipment sent to you.

All these factors count in making your decision to hire DJ equipment online. Do not give your money to any merchant that does not meet any of these requirements.

You may need to hire a sound system for a party, a wedding, an educational event or any other type of gathering. In order to hire the best sound system for your specific occasion, you need to do a couple of things first:

Attend A Few Parties Yourself

Before choosing a sound system, it does help to have experienced other parties and events that have hired before. You will definitely remember the occasions with all the great music, which is exactly what you are looking for in a sound system. You should ask the hosts of such parties about where they hired their system as a way of getting references.

Get Quotes From Different Sound System Hirers

You need to find out how much the different sound equipment hiring companies charge for their packages. Remember that the price will be determined by the type of equipment you want. Getting quotes will give you an estimate of the amount you will need to have early in advance.

Know Your Budget

Sound system hire should be included in your entire event’s budget. After getting the quotes, you should know how much you are willing to spend on hiring a sound system, and stick to it. Do not exceed your budget, but find means of saving money without compromising the quality of the party.

Ask Whether The Equipment Will Be Available For Your Event

Many sound system hirers require that you book the equipment in advance. You should have set the date and location for your event in order to make all the necessary arrangements, such as transportation and installation.

Check For Discounts

Some sound system companies do offer discounts for certain events such as charity events or education. There are also promotions over holidays or during other times in the year, so inquire about them before you rent the equipment.

Get this information before paying for your sound system hire to get the best value and service in your event.

In many cases, people organizing events have to choose between buying their own sound equipment or hiring for their event. Sound equipment hire can be the best option for you, since there are several advantages to this.

Transportation Is Taken Care Of

Getting your sound equipment to the venue of your event can be very tedious. Some parts of the sound system are quite delicate and expensive to replace. The best thing is to hire the sound equipment from a supplier that will deliver the equipment directly to your venue.

You Do Not Have To Worry About Maintenance

If you buy your own sound equipment, you will need to consider things like storage, frequent use, risk of damage, and making repairs. All these things will be taken care of by sound equipment professionals if you choose to hire instead of purchasing. You will always get the best quality equipment through sound equipment hire.

If Yours Is A One-Time Event

You will definitely get good value for your money when you hire sound equipment for a one-time event such as a wedding or birthday party. Hire charges are usually per hour, and you can get a great deal if your event is during the off-peak seasons. Also, if you develop a good working relationship with the sound equipment hire service, you can get discounts for any future events.

It Can Be Set Up For You By Professionals

One more advantage of hiring sound equipment is that not only does the hire company deliver the equipment, but they also set them up according to your plans. This applies regardless of whether your event is indoors or outdoors.

With all these benefits of hiring sound equipment, you can be sure that all your events will be much easier to plan. Find the best sound equipment hire to experience these conveniences for yourself.

28/03/2010 - 01/04/2010

Igoe PA in association with Okoru & Shock Solutions produce another slamming week of sick parties - 2 miles in the sky!

 

BUSC is the British Universities snow sports Council.  Young ski and snowboard enthusiasts from many British Universities get together annually for this end of season bash. It’s a tough week as students compete at a high level by day and then party hard all night long.

This is the second year we have looked after BUSC. These events including production for the Varsity 2009 trip at Tignes have established Igoe PA as a competent production partner who can deliver world class results on budget in the most challenging of environments.

We put together an “A-Team� of the best Bristol has to offer in sound, lighting and rigging crew. Stage and sound equipment were supplied in house by Igoe PA and we are proud to team up, once again, with Shock Solutions for lighting and AV. 

Our lorry arrived in the resort on Friday morning after traversing the 20 plus hairpin bends that zig-zag up the side of the mountain. On arrival the heavens opened and over 6 inches of snow fell in under 2 hours. This set the theme for the week. At the end of March Alpe D’Huez normally receives little or no snow as the spring thaw sets in - not this year!  We suffered heavy snow and blizzard conditions throughout the week, practically unheard of for this time of year.

The event schedule for the week required an outdoor stage with sound and light for the opening night and then two further events with similar requirements inside a large sports hall. We set about unloading the truck in disbelief at the conditions, quickly realising that none of us had enough changes of clothes.

Once the lorry was unloaded we took a minute’s break and watched as our equipment gradually disappeared under a thick blanket of snow. We knew we had our work cut out, so we donned waterproofs, hats and gloves and set out through the storm to begin assembling of the skeleton of the outdoor stage.

The weather presented us with significant problems for the outdoor part of the event. Once we had three inches of snow underfoot the wheels on our flight cases jammed and became useless. We had over 75 rolling flight cases and speaker cabinets that became dead weights, each requiring a four man lift!

In the resort they have a team with heavy machinery whose full time job it is to clear away snow. The stage was situated in a large car park area. Snow clearing was impossible at the stage site as the structure itself was in the way. The snow just kept on pilling up until it was lying at 2-3 feet.  Once the stage was up and canopies attached we had to work in shifts throughout the night, dragging snow off the roof with extra long ratchet straps.

The snow was relentless during most of the build. We had big problems trying to plot lights on the night before with frozen kit and we lost several moving heads to snow damage. At one point snow drifts reached 5ft up against the speaker stacks, literally covering the speakon inputs on the back of the first row of subs. Outdoor concerts just aren’t meant to happen in Arctic conditions but I guess it will seem like a piece of cake when we do this in the UK this summer!  Stage spec: Milos self-climbing  MR1 with PA and AV wings / scrims; black and silver canopy with mesh back and side walls.

The undisputed highlights of the lighting specification were 6 stunning (1500 watt!) Clay Paki “Alphabeam� moving head spots. These looked utterly spectacular, bright as sky-roses but with colour mixing and changeable gobos. We had 18 x 575 moving spots and washes, Martin Atomics, 4 Cell Molephays, 8 Cell Howie battons, RGB LED battens, Source 4’s and other generics with Jem smoke and Unique haze. The lighting desk was the Jans Vista.

Headline act Urban Knights are VJ specialists, seamlessly mixing tunes with visuals. We supplied a video wall comprising 9 x High Definition LCD panels to go behind the DJ table and 2 x Sanyo XP57 projectors with screens either side of the stage all controlled via an Arkaos media server.

The on stage DJ table was far longer than the usual and looked like a technophile fantasy; featuring 2 x Pioneer CDJ2000 2 x Pioneer CDJ1000mk3, 2 x Technics MK5 G, Pioneer SVM1000, Pioneer DJM 800 mixer, Pioneer DJM909 mixer an Edirol V4 vision mixer with 3 preview video screens.

The PA system consisted of 8 x CV long throw folded horn subs. 8 x EAW SB850 bass bins, 4 x EAW AS422 bass/mid boxes and 4 x EAW AS490 tops. We also used 4 x Mackie s408 (passive) in fills across the stage. The main stacks were ridiculous, towering above the height of the stage roof.

In the amp rack we had 6 x Lab Gruppen fp6400, 2 x Lab Gruppen fp3400 with an Ashley Drive rack and separate delay unit.  We used a pair of EAW MK 5166 and EAW SB 330e as monitor stacks powered by Crown. Our Midas Venice 320 acted as a go between from the DJ mixers to the drive rack to ensure we could keep a lid on inevitable DJ clipping abuse.

Okoru’s DJ ASSASSIN, scratch champion DJ SWITCH and then Okoru’s VJ bad boys URBAN KNIGHTS rocked an audience that topped 4000 punters.

The second gig was indoors. Unfortunately for us this was 400 yards from the site of the outdoor stage so we had to “hand ball� everything through blizzard conditions; shovels and swearwords abounded!

Once inside our work got somewhat easier although we had issues with resort politics and were already behind schedule after our battle with the elements.

We reconfigured the stage layout to make it shallower to fit the room and used the wings for the rear of the structure instead of the front. We also flew a section of truss with curving ends half way down the room for source 4’s, movers and other generics. 

The LCD video wall was broken up and positioned across the stage in pairs attached to pre-rigged trussing and ground supports. We used one large projection at the back of the stage.

We used the same PA system but placed all subs in front of the stage and used time delays to eliminate comb filtering / phasing.

The acts in the sports hall were Okoru’s own DJ ASSASSIN, Dub Step master NERO and classic breaks act STANTON WARRIORS.

BUSC 2010 was a roaring success; DJ’s played storming sets that sent the crowds wild. The PA was insane with eyeball wobbling bass and mind shattering detail. The video looked awesome together with a jaw dropping light show this production really was as good as it gets. Our crew worked tirelessly throughout the week producing a world class event in spite of the difficulties we faced. Thanks to all the guys – you know who you are. 

It’s been a heavy winter season at Igoe PA. We’ve tapped a previously unknown market of Alpine festivities. Where most event companies shut up shop we have been busier than ever. Now we’re looking forward to a big summer calendar of parties, festivals and outdoor concerts.

Look out for us at some of the UK’s most prestigious music events.

There are PA systems for all kinds of events and venues available for hire. The basic component of a good PA system is a microphone, an amplifier and a loudspeaker. Before choosing a PA hire, a few things need to be put into consideration, as shown below.

Type Of Environment

The PA system you hire will depend on whether your event will take place indoors or outdoors, in a quiet or noisy environment. This is because of the need for the sound to be heard clearly regardless of where you will be.

Number Of People In The Audience

The people attending your event also determine the PA system to hire. The audience do contribute to noise, and they affect the sound distribution significantly. You want to be able to reach every listener in the event, so choose your PA hire with this in mind.

Type Of Event

Which event are you hiring a PA system for? Is it a birthday party, wedding reception, a meeting? These different types of events, and many more, have different PA requirements. For example, a birthday party held in the backyard may require less amplification than a wedding reception because of the environment and number of attendants. Also, the type of event will determine the design of the speakers you choose. More prestigious events will require stylish-looking or unobtrusive speakers, while if there are children in attendance, the speakers will need blunt edges and be placed above children’s reach.

Installation Services

PA hire providers should offer to set up the system for your event, at a fee which is included in the total price. You may opt to install the PA yourself, but it is best if the hire company does it for you to save time and energy.

Price vs Features

Before you choose a PA hire, do compare the prices of different PA systems and their features. The price rises with any additional component that you may choose. Keep to your budget and get the best PA hire deals.

DJ equipment include mixers, CD players, turntables, headphones, tables, stands, processors and many others, which are all available for hire. The quality of the equipment matters as much as the skill of the DJ, so you need a good combination of the two to have a great party.

Do some window shopping for DJ equipment

The first thing you need to do is to find out where you can hire DJ equipment and at what cost. DJ equipment has many components, which determine the cost of hiring. You can get a great deal if you do your research well.

Use Simple But Functional Equipment

If you are hiring for the first time, the best thing to do is to get the basic equipment for your DJ gig, instead of going all out and hiring items you may not use. This is especially if you are hired for events where many other activities are going on and people are not entirely focused on music and dancing.

Book The Equipment Early Enough Before The Gig

Most DJ equipment hiring companies require that you book in advance for the equipment. This means that you will need at least 10% of the total hiring charges to book your equipment. Do ask about discounts and other promotional offers that can help you cut costs and take full advantage of them.

Try Out The Equipment And The Different Styles Of Mixing

Once you have chosen the ideal DJ equipment that you need, test its quality yourself. Check the efficiency of the turntables, headphones and mixer, and do the same before the event begins. This ensures that you will be familiar with the equipment and be able to perform well using them.

Keeping these tips in mind will give you excellent results. You will have the best equipment, the best deal for your money, and ultimately the best party.