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Common Mistakes In Event Planning

The Sound & Light Hire Company Logo

The Sound & Light Hire Company Logo

Event Planning Tips & Tricks To Help Your Event Run Smoothly

Being in the events industry is cut-throat and demanding. And as an event creator, you have to think smart and execute fast when it comes to just about every detail from the event planning down to the actual day of the event. It is also with the greatest significance to keep up with the latest trends and emerging technology to get you ahead in the business.

And while you have everything ironed out during the process of your planning, the odds are there will still be unforeseen hiccups along the way no matter how prepared you and your team are. It could be something as minor as the balloons being delivered late or perhaps something much bigger and worse like a technical issue with your lighting setup. We never know. These incidents are sometimes inevitable but when you work with people that are well-experienced and efficient in what they do, any hurdle can be rectified no matter how small or big.  

The Sound & Light Hire Company has been in the events industry for more than two decades and counting and have worked with top-tiered event organisers producing astounding events of all types across Surrey, Guildford and Berkshire. Our company is acknowledged in the industry for supplying a complete range of event equipment hire and not to mention our competitive rate of every package we offer that will surely be worth every penny.

If you are an event organiser yourself or someone who works in an events production team, keep reading and let us know if some of the things we will discuss are familiar or relatable. In this blog post, we have consolidated some common elements event planners tend to miss out on and how to utilise them to their full capacity in the future. 

Putting on duplicate and redundant event themes

One of the main responsibilities of an event creator is to come up with a creative theme that will match their client’s taste and style. Producing identical, repeated events is a common mistake most event organisers tend to commit without even realising it. While it may be convenient and safe to run recurring themes and set designs, your reputation as a creator will be at risk. You don’t want to be labelled as boring and monotonous, right? Every event you want your clients and their guests or attendees to have a unique experience. And this is a constant challenge for event organisers to add a touch of distinctive element that will set it apart from the rest of the events ever produced.

Believe it or not, there are actually a lot of ways to make every event exciting and special. You can change-up and mix different elements that will make each of it remarkable. You may opt for a convenient child care section for a wedding event, you may also have a celebrity appearance for a gala night, or work with an event production company that will take care of every aspect of the event space and utilise new technology to bring the event to life. 

That’s when The Sound & Light Hire Company comes in. Having us in your team can take off a huge burden on your end as we will bring in premium event equipment that will complete your entire setup. We have a wide array of lighting fixtures from LED uplighters, disco lighting effects, high-end intelligent DMX moving head fixtures among others https://www.truesoundhire.co.uk/lighting-hire/. Keep in mind that lighting is an important element to create a certain mood and bring your theme to life. You may also entrust your PA System to us as we can gauge the type of sound system needed for your event taking into consideration the number of attendees and the size and shape of the venue location. We offer a complete range of party equipment and have highly-experienced sound and light engineers working for us. To get to know more about our credentials, check out https://www.truesoundhire.co.uk/ for more details. 

Having a good set of AV Equipment are undervalued

Most event organizers who are not well-versed in the emerging technology may think that all types of AV equipment produce the same high-end quality they require for the event.  But good event organizers are well aware that they can never achieve their desired outcome if they resort to DIY or trust it in the venue’s in-house sound and visual system. A good quality AV system ensures your client that they deliver the message across their attendees and at the same time too, effectively stimulate the  attendees in any event whether in a birthday celebration, a wedding or a conference . The Sound & Light Hire Company offers a wide array of AV equipment from backline equipment hire packages, live mixing desks down to the basic microphones and amplifiers. 

Event production companies that specialize in AV equipment and services are extremely helpful on hybrid or live streaming events & The London based production company On Tour Events can provide the technical audio visual services required for your conference or streaming event.. 

Post-event meeting 

And lastly, following up on your clients and attendees after the event has taken place. Many event organizers usually discontinue communicating with their clients after the event has ended. They must realize that following up on their clients and holding a post-event meeting is essential in  the improvement of their services and knowing which part of it needs to be improved. This will serve as your survey. Ask questions that will help your company grow and improve on the future events. More so, this will keep a good working relationship with your clients and will potentially allow you to be rehired in the future. 

If you are a thriving event organizer, The Sound & Light Hire Company is your perfect partner in making your upcoming events a success! We are a full-service event production company that provides customizable and flexible packages that will suit every client’s requirements. Our in-house inventory is coming from different trusted brands in the industry that will surely deliver premium quality events. 

Feel free to contact us through The Sound & Light Hire Company and let’s make that dream event possible!

The Sound & Light Hire Company

https://www.google.com/maps?cid=177697462353676083 

+44 800 861 1136 

10 Hillspur Close

Guildford

Surrey AV

GU2 8HF

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Surrey’s Premium Sound, Lighting & Stage Hire Company

The Sound & Light Hire Company Logo

The Sound & Light Hire Company LogoSound Light Equipment Hire Surrey

Here at the Sound & Light Hire Company,

We’ve worked hard over the years to become Surrey’s leading provider of sound, lighting, stage, and LED screen hire to name but a few of our ever-growing arsenal of event services.

Whether you need to hire an outdoor stage for your festival event at Nonsuch Park, or you need some speakers for your summer garden party in Guildford, we have you covered! Better yet, not only do we provide our equipment with helpful, friendly advice and a smile, but we can also help to set everything up for you, should you wish.

We are proud of what we’ve managed to build over the last 20+ years, and we’re continually striving to add new event hire services to ensure we remain at the top of the pecking order when it comes to event equipment hire services in Surrey. 

But what if you’ve never heard of us before? Perhaps you’re organising your first event, or you’ve been living under a rock? Either way, we thought we would use this space to outline the massive number of services we can provide for your birthday party, wedding, corporate event, or music festival taking place in Surrey. 

Let’s start with our bread and butter, Surrey sound hire! 

Sound Hire Surrey 

Sound hire services are the first we offered way back when we helped DJs back in the nineties put on the best parties in town! Fast forward almost thirty years, and we still provide the best in the business concerning sound equipment hire for your events. 

Whether you need a PA system for your live DJ set, or you’ve booked the local band for your wedding reception we’ve got everything you need in stock to ensure the sound is nothing less than perfect. We can even include live sound engineer hire from as little as £125 per day should you wish to have a professional overseeing the sound mixing.

If you’re a little apprehensive about the fact that you’re not sure what you actually need, fear not! Our expert sound team is always on hand to listen to your requirements before providing a package that is a perfect match for your particular event. 

In this regard, we tend to stand out from competitors because we simply have more experience (sadly; we’re getting old!). On far too many occasions to recall, we’ve had to save the day when other equipment hire companies have supplied equipment not capable of even half the duties they were hired for. So always make sure you hire sound equipment such as speakers that are powerful enough for your event requirements.    

On a related note, we also differentiate ourselves as Surrey’s top sound hire company because we only stock industry-leading brands. We supply predominately d&b audiotechnik audio equipment, a company that is widely regarded as the best in the business and demanded by many leading international music artists such as Coldplay on their riders. 

Not only do we stock the best brands, but we also take good care of them too. We service all items in our inventory every six months, check each item as it comes in and when it leaves the warehouse, and we sell and subsequently replace any piece of equipment that is older than three years. How’s that for a commitment to quality?! 

It’s the main reason why we’ve never experienced any significant failures when hiring out our sound equipment, and that’s not a track record we intend on letting slip any time soon.  

But if you’re planning an event in Surrey, sound equipment will only get you so far. So let’s move on and take a look at some of other essential event equipment hire services. 

Event Lighting Hire Surrey 

Your event lighting is often just as important as your sound setup. As mentioned, when we first started, we were a sound-hire-only company. But as we quickly found out, what’s a party od a DJ set without any disco lights? Within a few months, we were a sound and lighting hire company, hence the new name! 

We didn’t waste any time assembling a lighting equipment inventory that puts many lighting hire specialists to shame. LED uplighters, “sound to light” disco lighting fixtures, and high-end intelligent moving head fixtures, we literally stock everything you could need regardless of the specific event you’re hosting. 

We specialise in providing the latest and greatest in LED technology. We passionately believe that LEDs represent the industry’s future and have therefore invested heavily in this particular type of versatile lighting equipment. They are kinder to the environment, they are easily programmed, and they don’t suffer from the heat-related issues that traditional lighting formats do. 

We know that if you plan and getting people up and dancing, excellent lighting can make the dance floor all the more enticing. For DJ performances, parties, and weddings, lighting setups are crucial to your event’s success. Whether you need disco lighting hire, or you want to hire some laser machines to add a touch of professionalism, we can provide you with demos of any of our lighting fixtures to ensure your completely wowed before making your investment.

We also supply all of the associated equipment such as lighting stands and cabling, just in case you wondered! 

With the crucial aspects of sound and lighting taken care, you might have what you need for your specific event. However, what if you need more? Don’t worry; we’re only just getting started with our range of services! 

Stage Hire Surrey

Some events, such as local community gatherings, fundraisers, outdoor music festivals, and even weddings, need a stage. Fortunately, we’ve been providing stage hire services to Surrey clients for almost a decade now, so we’ve developed a lot of expertise in this area too! 

If you’re hosting an outdoor event such as a music festival, then you’ll want to take a look at our selection of outdoor stage hire packages. The beauty of these packages is that they include our top of the range sound and lighting equipment, giving you a complete stage production. 

However, we’ve got indoor events covered too! Whether you need to hire a stage for the live band at your wedding or need an indoor stage for your club night DJ set in Farnham, we can supply a stage solution that works for you. Once again, these packages come with lighting and sound equipment included, making them unbeatable in terms of value for money.      

Also included in the price is the setup of these stages by our experienced stage crews. Of course, we’ll also have our lighting technicians and sound engineers on hand to set up their respective pieces of equipment too.

Therefore, if you need to hire a stage with all of the associated production for your event, you can count on us to deliver a turnkey solution for your event!

Thought we were done? No! We’ve still got more to cover! 

LED Screen Hire Surrey 

The 2020s so far have been the decade of the LED screens. Outdoor cinema events, in particular, have been making a comeback. We’ve invested heavily to create one of the largest LED screen inventories in the country.  

Our high-resolution LED video wall panels grab attention and can give your event that stand-out factor. They boast 3.9mm pixel pitch, 4500+ nits score (brightness rating), and they’re IP 56-rated, meaning even the most robust British shower won’t interfere with their operation. You can have your attendees just a few metres away, and they can drink in the crystal clear HD footage your broadcasting.   

We can build you want a solid wall, suspend them from truss structures, or provide separate screen areas depending on your event’s requirements. We have over 120 square metres of LED video panels in stock to meet even the most challenging of demands.  

While we have plenty of other equipment choices available such as special effects hire and LED furniture hire, we thought we should quickly cover our event production support services, which are available with all of our equipment hire packages.  

Event Production Support Services Surrey 

Whether you’re planning a wedding or organising your daughters’ 21st birthday bash, you might have enough on your plate as it is. The thought of setting up sound systems and lighting fixtures might seem like the last thing you want to be doing. 

To be clear, we feel all of the equipment we dry hire is incredibly accessible, and we spend as long as it takes for you to understand what you need to do when setting up and dismantling. However, sometimes you don’t want the hassle. You might want to focus on selling tickets to your event or decorating the venue. We get it. That’s why we offer our personnel should you want them there to oversee the technical side of your event.

You might need an experienced sound engineer to mix the sound levels for the live band you’ve booked for your party, or you may need a skilled lighting technician to choreograph and program a spectacular light display to accompany your bonfire night celebrations. Whatever you need from our technical support team, they can provide it for you. 

Which Areas of Surrey Does the Sound & Light Hire Cover?

We couldn’t let you go without answering our most commonly asked question. The truth is, if you or your event is based in Surrey, then we can help you. The truth is we actually cover a much larger area that includes all of London, Hampshire, and most of Hertfordshire and Berkshire too.  

However, if you want specifics, here are some of the most popular Surrey locations to which we provide our event hire services: 

  • Ashford
  • Camberley
  • Dorking
  • Epsom
  • Farnham
  • Godalming
  • Guildford
  • Haslemere
  • Horley
  • Leatherhead 
  • Oxted
  • Reigate 
  • Staines-upon-Thames
  • Sunbury-on-Thames
  • Weybridge
  • Woking
  • And everywhere in between! 

Why Choose The Sound & Light hire Company for Your Surrey Event Equipment Hire Services? 

Over the last several years, we have worked hard to establish our reputation as Surrey’s number one event equipment hire company. Our 7-days-a-week operation allows us to give our customers unrivalled support, and our straightforward hire packages will enable you to understand precisely what you’re getting for your money.

Unlike so many other companies, we cover the entire spectrum of event services. From small iPod/mobile phone speaker hire packages to the grandest of outdoor festival stage productions, there’s no Surrey event too big or too small for us to help out. With one of the biggest equipment inventories in Europe, we often serve dozens of customers simultaneously every single day.    

So if you have any further questions before hiring equipment from us, just give us a call on 0800 8611136, and we’ll be more than happy to chat about what you need for your event. We can’t wait to hear from you!

The Sound & Light Hire Company
https://www.google.com/maps?cid=177697462353676083
+44 800 861 1136

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The Sound & Light Hire Company Discuss The Past, Present & Future In The Events Industry

The Sound & Light Hire Company Logo

The Sound & Light Hire Company Logo

The Sound & Light Hire Company in the events industry as a event production hire company

The purpose of this article is to discuss & recap over the past 7 months in dealing with the Covid situation and how this has shifted a completely different change in the events industry.

We will also discuss some of the essential services we supply to the wedding, corporate and private event sectors. With this we will continue to improve each service and thus where we see our business heading in the future and some of the new hire products and services we will be offering moving forward.

Let’s go back to November, December 2019… our event diary was fully booked, we were finishing off some of our Christmas parties and we were getting ready to supply a production for The Novikov in London for New Years Eve. We were looking ahead to a stable, reliable fully booked 2020, with a happy customer base. January & February were booking up fast and we were already turning away work for May onwards. Then shit hit the fan!! If you are reading this thinking it is unprofessional to put it that bluntly then I apologize, but I think most people would agree that the events industry has been one of the worst hit with the Covid-19 saga. Within 12 weeks of the pandemic announcement our bookings had dropped nearly 80%. Most calls or emails were from clients asking about rescheduling or cancelling.

Let’s not dwell on what’s happened we need to be positive looking forward. It hasn’t been all doom and gloom. Once the government eased certain restrictions and regulations event promoters were keen to put on any form of event as this pandemic has not just hit suppliers but also the event planners & event organizers who have spent months planning events only to be held back and restricted whilst the world works out how to solve the crisis.

Now we have got the negative bit out the way let’s talk about the events we did work on this summer, what we have changed and new products we have brought into our hire stock as an outcome of the above.

What we have found as a company is anyone who was putting on an event quickly moved this to be an outdoors gathering, socially distanced of course but a huge shift to move events outside. This is where it comes in handy if you own a stage, outdoor screen and sound equipment…

Below we will talk about and explain the package we supplied to a local orchestral music event.

When Simon from Squarebox Events approached us with his idea of a socially distanced outdoor music festival, he was looking for a local event production company in Surrey who would be able to supply outdoor stage, sound, lighting and outdoor LED screen. Hence why he came to us!

”Surrey’s Leading Festival Stage Hire Company”

The events were to be spread across 10 weekends with the addition of 3 outdoor cinema nights across this time period as well. It was imperative to make sure that the artists were safely, socially distanced whilst on stage performing, so they opted for a 10m x 8m outdoor covered stage which gave them a minimum of 2m distance from one another, allowing licensing officers to sign the event off.

The event was capped at 350 per event where guests were to be separated and sectioned off into 3mx3m grass squares with the option of upgrading your ticket and hiring a raised stage platform for better viewing experience.

The events primarily took place in the daytime with all events finishing by the early evening. This meant that lighting acted more as eye candy rather than the need for a full-on lighting show. With this in mind we installed a comprehensive package of 24 B-eye moving head washes, 18 LED tourcans and a pair of 5m x 3m LED screens hung either side of the stage.

The screens allowed ticket holders to text and have their text displayed as digital signage on the large LED screens when artists were not performing, footage was not being played or they weren’t using the screens for the outdoor cinema.

The orchestral performances were stripped back so there was no need for lots of visuals as they are incredible talented people, gripping the attention of the audience with simple basic lighting and calming content displayed on the screens. The screens were really for interaction for the audience and for displaying the film.

When it came to the outdoor cinema events customers would be sectioned off into their area, lights would be turned off on the stage, sound system turned up and voila what do you have an incredibly sounding, amazing viewing experience.

It is at this point we must give you some more information about our LED video screen.

Previously event organisers would opt for a trailer style pop up mobile LED screen. These cheap inferior products don’t have the pixel density, the refresh rate or the overall quality to reproduce video content.  Mobile screens are great for events where you need logos or signage put up or messages displayed but when it comes to showing live event footage or films there is a vast difference between that an a modular screen like we use. Also most of these screens have a pixel pitch of 8mm or even 10 or 12 mm and when your audience is only 10-15m back this isn’t acceptable these days and event organisers / planners are looking for a company that can supply LED screens with superior HD quality.

Outdoor LED screen has a pixel pitch of 3.9mm with a refresh rate of over 4000hz and a maximum brightness of 5000 nitts. You can watch your film outside even in direct sunlight and with such a small pixel pitch you can stand just 2.5m back and watch a seamless video in incredible quality.

To accompany the LED screen they needed a decent sound system. Without a well-designed sound system the event would be nothing! As with any event it is nothing without good sound.

Hire Outdoor Screen Hire From The Sound & Light Hire Company

What did we provide for this orchestral music event…

The client wanted a flown PA system with the addition of distributed PA speakers around the site as the clientele at this event would be of a slightly older generation and to meet the regulations of the licensing a flown array of cardioid subs was put forward by the licensing officer. As well as this to minimize offsite noise a CSA sub array across the front helped with this.

Due to the restrictions on how many artists could be on stage at one time, any act that played were relatively small and compact. We opted to use the trusted Midas M32 digital mixing console for front of house with the smaller Midas M32r on stage monitor duty.

Shure, Sennheiser and DP mics were used on the production giving us a vast and professional choice for these incredibly talented musicians.

Stage monitoring was taken care of by an 8-way mix using the proven and reliable formula (the d&b Audiotechnik M4 stage wedge) while processing and system delay was the job of our XTA digital sound processors.

Lighting control was via the Chamsys MQ60 and although not supplied by us we instructed production company On Tour Events to install 1500m of festoon across the site lighting up walkways, entrances and exits and public toilets across the site. There were also some large trees that the client wanted lit up so outdoor lights were supplied by On Tour Event as we generally don’t deal with architectural lighting.

The events were highly successful with lots of positive feedback from audience goers. People were delighted they were able to get out and enjoy themselves again in a slightly different way to before. This allowed further events to be planned for summer 2021 in a socially distanced organized format, complying with the current state of affairs.

The next section to this blog leads us onto the future of our company and where we see our events going, We don’t see events going anywhere, but we foresee most event organisers planning on outdoor productions just like the above.

Although we have discussed stage, sound, screen and lighting nothing happens without one thing…..

Power!

When Simon first contacted us, it was made noticeably clear whoever the production company was they had to supply everything, under one contract and power was included in this. As we all know in this industry finding a reliable generator company can be tricky and it is common knowledge that unless you are hiring a lot of generators you are left with a very small number of suppliers.

With this in mind it was to be that we would invest in a brand-new state of the art road towable generator. So, what are the specs or skip this part if you are not into reading the technical jargon!

We invested in a 70KVA road towable generator, UK manufactured and UK built this generator has an overspecd alternator, deep sea control panel for power and load monitoring and we stock a vast and extensive range of rubber box power distribution enabling us to safely distribute power across your stage.

It must be noted we don’t currently, nor do we plan to offer full site power for festivals or catering power at events. We would rather leave that side of the industry to power companies who specialize in site power. A lot of our events are for 1 / 2 stages and the event organisers are looking for a company to supply everything within a package.

One of the reasons we invested in a road towable generator is even if you don’t need to hire a stage for your outdoor event most events for the next year or so are most likely going to be outside. Outdoor cinemas will become more popular and the want and need for showing content outside on large screens is becoming ever more popular. As with most locations or fields, or larger outdoor spaces there is no power on site. So before organisers can plan anything they need to source where the power is coming from.

If you are an event planner it is a lot easier when one production company can supply everything, If you are using that company because they have a very good reputation for delivering an exceptional sound & lighting production it makes sense they would need the power to come from the same company so although we aren’t the biggest power company in Surrey or London we plan on being one of the most reliable power companies.

If you are planning a festival or event outside, that requires lighting, sound, stage, LED screen or power you know you can turn to that long and well established sound & lighting hire company that started 15 years ago and that company morphed from True Sound Hire rebranded into the Sound & Light Hire company.

For more information on our event services / hire stock we would love to talk to you to understand more about what you are trying to achieve and in turn give you a competitive & comprehensive quote.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, and here is to a happy, malleable 2021!

Contact The Sound & Light Hire Company on the details below:

https://www.truesoundhire.co.uk/

https://www.google.com/maps?cid=177697462353676083

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Hire an Outdoor LED Screen or Projector & Screen for your Outdoor Cinema

Outdoor Cinema LED Screen Equipment Hire

There’s nothing quite like going to the cinema. Films transport us to another world and provide us all an escape from the mundane goings-on of day-to-day life. But when the warmer months roll around, it almost feels like a crime to shun the beautiful sunny outdoors to watch a film in a dark cavernous auditorium. What’s more, recent events have made sitting in close proximity to others indoors a severe health risk. Read more

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