The Sound & Light Hire Company Logo

Moving into 2021 for Local Events & Outdoor Cinemas in Surrey….

Well, we’ve certainly started the new year with a bang! First, we told you about the slightly unexpected but very welcome boom in demand for our outdoor stages this summer, and now we’ve won a council contract for several events planned for the spring and summer of 2021! 

Of course, we have worked with Guildford Borough Council before on numerous occasions over the years, and we have a great relationship with all of the fantastic team over there. Still, it’s really nice to win another contract when the world is more than a little topsy-turvy at the moment!

So without wasting any more of your time, let’s tell you all about it! 

The Sound & Light Hire Company Win a Contract to Supply Audio Visual and Event Production Services for 2021 Outdoor Events 

As mentioned, we’ve worked with Guildford Borough Council on numerous events over the last decade. However, this contract represents a change of tack, with many events that traditionally take place indoors now moving outdoors for fairly obvious reasons! What that means is that, for the first time ever, we will be supplying outdoor cinema hire services to this Surrey council.

So what are the events in question we hear you ask? Well, they are a range of family fun days (eight in total) that will have all kinds of attractions put on for kids and big kids (sorry, adults) to enjoy alike. The main attraction will be the enormous outdoor cinema, which will screen a family-friendly movie to bring the proceedings to a close.

Of course, as any of you that will have attended an outdoor cinema screening (which might be quite a lot of you since they’ve made quite the comeback in the 2020s) will know, we’ll be supplying far more than just the LED screen hire. We’ll also provide the Guildford Borough Council team with outdoor stage hire and a full range of audio visual (AV) services. 

So let’s take a look at those services in a little more detail.  

Outdoor Stage Hire for Surrey Council 

Of course, an outdoor cinema needs staging. There are a few ways you can use truss and staging structures to support an outdoor LED screen installation. You can choose to “fly” (suspend) an LED screen from a purpose-built truss structure. Or, instead, you can have the LED screen ground supported by the staging equipment.

In this instance, we will be supporting the LED screens from “the ground up,” as it were. The reason is that it gives the council event planners the option to have a versatile stage area for the day in addition to the outdoor cinema. So they, should they wish, could use the stage for live performances from children’s entertainers, or even a live band, should they want to. 

As is the case with all events at the moment, these fun days are all pending, so the finer details are yet to be worked out. Still, we’re at least 90% sure that we’ll provide this kind of set up from the point of view of versatility as much as anything else. 

So with the staging covered, let’s take a closer look at the LED video panels themselves. 

Surrey Outdoor Cinema Screen Hire for Local Authority Events  

Of course, an outdoor cinema experience wouldn’t amount to much with the screen! So let’s talk about the specifications of the LED screens we’ll be supplying in a little more detail. 

Perhaps the first thing to note about our screens is that they are 3.9mm pixel pitch, which is about as sharp as it gets in this industry. What that means in the real world is that those in attendance can be as little as a few metres away and still enjoy crystal-clear, stunning HD footage without seeing those tiny black spaces in between the LED nodes.

These screens also score very highly in terms of nits (a measure of brightness), so even if these events are blessed with copious amounts of sunshine, our LED video panels won’t struggle. They have a brightness output of over 4,000 nits, more than enough to deal with even the most dazzling of sunny days. 

Given that these screening will take place in the evening, the sun shouldn’t really be a factor, but it’s always good to let you know just how impressive our equipment is anyway 😉 These video panels are also IP 65-rated, meaning they’ll withstand the rain should the weather do it’s best to put a dampener on proceedings.   

Finally, in terms of the size of the screen we build, we’ve still yet to receive confirmation from the council, but we imagine it will be 5m x 3m as this size is one of the best configurations for 16:9 aspect ratio (HD) video content.

Staging and LED screen aside, there’s still plenty of our event equipment hire services that we’ll be supplying to these fun days, so let’s take a look at them. 

Event Lighting Hire for Local Surrey Borough Council  

Of course, any stage production needs accompanying event lighting equipment to bring it to life. In this case, we will be providing a relatively all-encompassing set of lighting fixtures to draw in attention to the stage and keep it focused there. 

We will have all of the usual suspects such as spotlights and moving head stage washes, but we will also install a few showstoppers to really create an immersive experience for audience members. We’ve already got a few OPSL laser systems lined up, along with a fog machine, but we’ll keep the rest close to our chest so as not to ruin the surprises in store!

More broadly speaking, we have also been tasked with providing atmospheric lighting for in and around the outdoor cinema area. For these purposes, we are going to be using our wireless LED uplighters. 

Since they are battery powered, there’s no need to worry about those attending the event tripping over cables. Better yet, the performance figures on these lights are just staggering. Thanks to their energy-efficient LEDs, these lights can run for around 20 hours off a full charge. Yes, that’s right, 20 hours! We could come back in the morning to pack everything away, and they would still be going! 

But enough about lighting, let’s tell you all about the sound options we’ve got in store for these events. 

Sound Equipment Hire Services For Surrey Council Funday Events 

Unless you’re in the business of showing screening silent films, then you’re going to need a sound system fit for totally immersing the audience in what they are watching. Whether it’s the Avengers or a Pixar movie, soundtracks carry the film every bit as much as the visuals do, which is why we are going to be supplying the best outdoor PA speaker system in the business. 

For those of you unfamiliar, there is one stand-out brand when it comes to outdoor (and indoor for that matter) PA speaker systems, and that’s d&b audiotechnik. This German company has been streets ahead in terms of audio quality and sheer power for quite some time now, which is obviously why we stock so much of their kit! 

We’re not 100% sure on the exact arrangement the council will opt for, but we know it’ll be d&b, as there’s no other solution that comes close. In terms of the equipment, we’ll be supplying line array speakers and accompanying subs. Depending on how the stage will be used for the rest of the day, we may provide additional sound equipment such as stage monitors and amps.

Surrey Audio Visual (AV) and Event Production Services Handled By The Sound & Light Hire Company Team

Of course, we couldn’t go without mentioning that none of these services can be provided without the help of our excellent team. Upon the award of the contract, the Guildford Borough Council noted the previous performance of our on-site staff members being a factor in securing the work. 

In case you’re wondering, we don’t just supply all of the equipment from our in-hour inventory. We have a team made up of some of the most experienced and highly-skilled technicians and engineers in the business. From the moment our stage crews arrive, to the final minutes of loading up the last van full of equipment to head back to the warehouse, our team members are friendly, polite, and the ultimate professionals. We couldn’t be any prouder of them!

In terms of these events specifically, our team will be taking care of stage and truss structure construction, the rigging of the lighting fixtures, the assembly and set up of the screen, and the installation and positioning all of the associated sound equipment. We’ll then keep a few engineers and technicians around for the duration to ensure that everything runs as planned. 

It’s another reason why The Sound & Light Hire is such a good fit for these types of events. Because we have the experienced team on hand, we can provide a turnkey solution whereby we handle all of the AV and associated technical aspects for you. All you (or in this case, the council) have to do is specify their requirements, and we’ll handle the rest. Yes; it really can be that simple! 

Choose the Sound & Light Hire Company for Your Outdoor Events This Summer 

If you’ve been smart and reading between the lines, you’ll have noticed that’s potentially eight dates whereby a decent chunk of our premium equipment is already reserved to go out on hire. While we are a large scale operation that serves multiple events every day, there is a limit to how much we equipment we can hire out (although we do have some pretty big warehouses!).

That’s why you need to act fast if you want to book in some equipment hire with us. Even if you only want to reserve a PA speaker hire package for a weekend in June to use with your phone or laptop, we’re anticipating one of the busiest summers on record. 

Most (if not all) of us are ready to celebrate the end of COVID-19’s grip on our lives, and so even the smaller equipment hire packages are going to even more popular this year. That’s without mentioning the sheer amount of cancelled, postponed, and brand new events lined up right across Surrey for this summer! 

Even if you just THINK you might need something from us or just want some friendly advice about putting together an outdoor event such as a garden party, give us a call on 0800 8611136 today. 

We are open seven days a week, and we can’t wait to hear about what you’ve got planned!

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

10 Hillspur Close, Guildford GU2 8HF, United Kingdom