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Virtual Event Planning & Event Production Hire Services

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Virtual Event Planning & Event Production Hire Services With The Sound & Light Hire Company (A short story)

Meet Jack… Jack works for a great company. Jack’s company values its employees, and the employees are able to work remotely. Jack reports to one of the C-Suite leaders in his company, and is asked to put together a virtual event for their team. They used to do this even in person, and want to do the event virtually, but not lose the energy and excitement, and they want to keep everyone engaged.

Jack needs to find a local audio visual hire company in or near Guildford

Jack starts to research how to put on the event, while maintaining participation, and keeping it fun. The problem is, he doesn’t know what platform to use, and doesn’t have access to a studio or the right equipment in order for the event to appear professional. Jack just wants the virtual event to be smooth, seamless, and engaging for his team. Jack needs to find a local audio visual hire company in or near Guildford, Surrey as that is where they are based.

After Jack does some research online & read reviews about some of the local lighting & speaker hire company in Surrey, he calls The Sound & Light Hire Company to produce a fun, engaging, and motivational event to help connect their team virtually. First, The Sound & Light Hire Company listens to what Jack wants to accomplish, and how they can help deliver the content and positive energy to his team. The Sound & Light Hire Company works with Jack to design and plan the event, making sure that Jack feels confident, his boss is on board, and no details have been missed. Once the virtual event is designed, Jack gives The Sound & Light Hire Company great feedback, and gives The Sound & Light Hire Company the go-ahead to proceed to the last step, producing the event. Based on what Jack & the company needs to hire they have the options of LED screens, custom built stage sets to just simple wireless LED uplighters to back the whole virtual event feel a little more special

The Sound & Light Hire Company helps Jack and his team go live

On the day of the event, The Sound & Light Hire Company helps Jack and his team go live to create a welcoming environment and an engaging atmosphere that carries on throughout the whole event in included a stage set with LED backdrop, a small PA speaker setup, some wireless LED uplighters & a large 5m wide x 3m LED video wall screen acting as a large TV screen at the back of the stage. Jack and his co-workers really enjoy the experience happening on their screen, and they love seeing their leaders and the The Sound & Light Hire Company moderator having a good time, sharing important information, and engaging with them through chat, poll, and other interactive ways. The chat is flooded with entertained employees, and they are all engaged. The participation rate is through the roof.

At the end of the virtual experience, Jack feels grateful for The Sound & Light Hire Company. He is thankful that his team feels more connected, even from home. Jack’s company raves about the virtual event, and tells their peers how easy The Sound & Light Hire Company made this experience for their team.

The Sound & Light Hire Company is a local lighting, staging & PA hire company based in Guildford

So if you’re like Jack, and you don’t know how to create an engaging virtual event for your company or your organization, give us a call. We’d love to help you and your team. The Sound & Light Hire Company is a local lighting, staging & PA hire company based in Guildford, Surrey. You can hire small & simple ipod party speakers to large outdoor festival stages or even indoor / outdoor LED screens for conference work. One you can be sure of tho is that The Sound & Light Hire Company delivers an amazing services at a cost effective price point.

The Sound & Light Hire Company

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

+44 800 861 1136

10 Hillspur Close

Guildford

Surrey

GU2 8HF

22nd February 2021/by Tim Maysh

Surrey’s Premium Sound, Lighting & Stage Hire Company

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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

1st February 2021/by Tim Maysh

Popular Sound & Lighting Packages & Whats On Offer

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The Sound & Light Hire Company Discuss Our Most Popular Dry Hire Products Which Are Suitable For All Types Of Smaller Functions:

This may be useful for those looking to do something fun over the festive period all from the comfort of your own home!

So, it looks like Christmas parties and New Years Eve will be spent inside, at home, rather than going on a pub crawl or watching a pantomime performance over the festive period & we will all miss the outdoor Christmas light switch on’s !We normally would be out building our outdoor stages.

Well what can we say, most people stay at home with their loved ones for Christmas anyway, it is just the lead up where the parties will be put on hold this winter. Don’t fret! You can still have as much fun at home with your own party set up rather than spending lots of money elsewhere then trying to get home late into the evening.

The most popular speakers we do are:

Our popular EV active 12” speakers on stands which work perfectly for house parties & smaller gatherings of up to 70 people. We call it our ‘small ipod system’ don’t be fooled by the name it doesn’t just connect to an ipod or come compact in size. This system is 2 x speakers on stands and we provide a cable which will connect to anything with a headphone output. This system is absolutely perfect for letting your hair down in your own 4 walls and dancing the night away. The speakers are not huge but a decent size, they fit easily into any car as with most our customers they prefer the option of collecting this themselves rather than opting for a delivery service, as this is such an easy thing to set up.

If you are after something with a little bit of extra punch then add a subwoofer to give the ultimate bass experience. The sub is a 12” active sub so no external amplification has to be added it is prebuilt inside. This goes for the top speakers as well. That is another reason why these systems are so popular, they are so easy to set up and low hassle, no fiddly connection of amplifiers which can be quite daunting when you are a novice at setting up anything audio related.

MEDIUM IPOD Speaker Hire Package

The 2 x top speakers with a sub we call our ‘medium ipod system’.

Of course, you can add 2 subs to the top speakers to make it an even distribution of bass. You may think that this is all going to cost an arm and a leg but on the contrary, the small system is £45, medium is £75 and finally the large ipod system is £90.

Any of the above set ups we would suggest for use at home that is why these systems are the perfect solution for all the in-house party festivities which will be going on this winter.

When you turn up at our unit we set the system up for you to run through how it works and to show you it in working order before you take it away. This gives complete confidence and reassurance that you will be perfectly competent when you get the speakers the other end to set up!

Most customers are after the full shebang and require lighting in addition to the sound requirements to really enhance that party vibe. Not a problem we have lots of disco lighting products in stock, again they are the perfect accompaniment to the speaker systems mentioned above.

Our sound to light activated disco lights are sent out in pairs, and we provide a lighting t bar stand for them to hang from as well. They are the Equinox Revolution lighting effect, which are so easy to use and noticeably light in weight indeed. The lights just require a standard power plug in the back, turn your music up loud and away they go they do their own thing. You don’t require any lighting desk or a special assistant to press play, stop etc. they are just a plug and play solution for your house party. They offer different colours and patterns thrown out from the lighting fixture, which remains static but the patterns move.

Perhaps you are having a marquee in the garden or hiring a hall in the New Year for a birthday celebration

And are just after some form of moving light to give a party atmosphere, well these lights are perfect for exactly that. If you would prefer to not hang them on the lighting t bar stand then that is absolutely fine they have a bracket on the top so they can sit on that and adjusted in the direction you want the light to shine. It is advised though to use the stand as this gives a much better spread of light across your party room.

Special Effects Hire Surrey

Another great enhancer of the light is one of our smoke machines. These smoke machines are so effective and so easy to operate. It is just a case of pressing a button to start then pressing another to stop it with the controller. Should the controller not be with it then you will need to manually hold the ‘go’ button then release to stop. The smoke fills up a room really quickly and doesn’t use that much fluid at all. We guarantee you will not use all the fluid that is provided with the smoke machine for your party. Yes, that is right the smoke fluid is also provided as well at no extra cost!

Don’t get this smoke machine mixed up with dry ice/ low lying fog effect that is something different which remains low to the ground without rising whereas the smoke machine rises and fills up a room, depending on how much you want to fill it up of course! We do also stock the low-lying fog machine, but we will discuss that product another time, as the blog is really about all the popular hire items we get requests for that are easy to use. We do get asked a lot will the smoke machine set off my smoke alarm. Well the truthful answer is possibly yes! If you are using the smoke machine in the same room as your smoke alarm or close proximity, then yes it will do. It is best to use it in spurts and away from the smoke alarms.

Thinking ahead to New Years Eve at home, why not try our 30mw green lasers? These are just the most fun solution to a party at home. Add these to the disco lighting set up and a smoke machine and you really do have your own club experience in your living room! They offer green beams of light which are sound to light activated making them an automatic laser system which means they are incredibly easy to use, just plug and play the same as the disco lights. We do suggest using the smoke machine alongside the lasers to really get the most from the lasers, it is quite impressive how much more impactful the lasers are in amongst the midst of the smoke.

Something we decided to invest in earlier this year which is something we were asked for a lot is a battery powered speaker system. This is a great choice for more compact party areas especially in the home environment or outside where no power is nearby. The Bose Pro1 system is a battery powered high impact speaker with clear sounding audio, lightweight and versatile usability. It can connect to your phone/ laptop through a cable we would provide but it also has Bluetooth capability which is another popular request from our customers. Just connect your Bluetooth and play your music from a distance- this is suitable for garden or marquee parties. This speaker we would recommend using for up to around 50 people as a rough guideline. It has a battery life of up to 12 hours of use, so this gives you plenty of time to dance the night away!

This takes us onto another battery powered product we stock

That again is high in demand for all types of events, our wireless LED up lighters. These are a fail-safe solution to adding subtle or vibrant ambient lighting to any venue environment. They can be placed up against dull walls, in marquees, against buildings or outside against trees. We do always advise the more up lighters used the better as the greater the lighting result and as a general rule of thumb one light every 2 meters. The battery life on these lights are between 8-10 hours and the colour can be set to your choice or have the colours fade from one to another via the in built colour reel.

A lot of people hiring disco lighting also enquire about these wireless up lighters which are normally placed at the opposite side of the room to the disco lights, one end becomes the dance area the other is a more chill out area but still adds to the party atmosphere. Not only can these be used for house parties & garden parties they are very popular for weddings, product launches and Christmas productions. We can provide some charging cables for you if you would like, especially for those people hiring for longer than a 1 day rental, they will come in quite handy.

Another battery powered item we do is our LED furniture range. The smaller items are fine for dry hire, whereby the customer collects from us, the larger items though would require delivery and collection an additional service we offer within Surrey, Hampshire & Berkshire. We have LED cubes which come with a black padded top for extra comfort and can also be used as a small table, the top can be lifted off so these make great versatile units.

Our LED poseur tables are either rectangular or circular, these alongside the cubes are great for garden parties where some additional seating/ tables are required or just used as another form of lighting- they are very cool products.

For larger gatherings we do LED curved benches and an LED curved bar. If you are after more bespoke LED furniture such as a straight LED bar just let us know and we can help with this as well.

Being based in Guildford, Surrey we are in a great location for people looking to hire locally within Hampshire and Surrey towns.

We are also closely linked to London as we are just off the main road which leads to the motorway so you can get to south London within 45 mins (on a good day!) If you are not convinced about having to collect, set up and then return after your event that is not a problem we do offer a delivery service.

One of our team would be happy to set up the equipment for you and return at an agreed time the following day to collect. You don’t even have to pack it away they will take it apart for you as part of the service. We do try and advise people to collect themselves for smaller hires as this keeps it extremely cost efficient for you, but the option is there for you to decide. This is based on our availability of course!

As mentioned, this article was focusing on the hire items which are used everyday and our most popular products people ask for. We do cater for all types of events so if you are having a larger outdoor production, festival, wedding or product launch in the New Year once the current Covid restrictions are lifted, please do contact us and we would be more than happy to assist you with your staging, LED video screen, sound and lighting requirements.

https://www.truesoundhire.co.uk

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

17th November 2020/by Tim Maysh

The Sound & Light Hire Company reflects over the past 12 years of serving as a production company in Surrey, Hampshire & London areas.

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Well where do we being! I suppose from the start is a good place….

The last 12 years have gone past so quickly, and we have grown as a company in so many ways since we first started. Things have changed hugely within the events industry, the most significant change being the current pandemic situation we are all experiencing.

It all began back in 2008 when we decided to make a go of offering some sound services to club promoters and event organisers within the Berkshire and Hampshire areas. Reading was a popular town for us as we knew several up and comping promoters who were keen to start their career in the same industry. As young people we grew up around music and have a great passion for it and the acoustic spectrum, so we were keen to delve into this as a career.

The first few events we offered our services free of charge to just get our name out there as a starting point for the business venture. The events we were involved with back then were late night raves so the hours we worked were extremely long for not much profit! It didn’t matter too much though as we were so keen to make it work we kept pushing through. We used too supply an Opus sound system (Opus CS750 & CS1200 with SB218 & HB415 & even the Opus Audio SB221) which was extremely heavy to load in /out of the van and get into venues. At the time this sound system was just what the promoters had asked for, a lot of bottom end and a lot of noise came out!

Once we had conquered Reading’s busy nightlife, we found we were getting a lot of requests for London areas as well, so we were slowly branching out. The hours were the same, long and tiresome at unsociable times of the evening/morning dealing with a lot of inebriated individuals!

Whilst we maintained supplying club/ bar and pub venues, we also wanted to expand being able to offer some form of lighting as well. It took a while to save up enough funding to then stock some basic disco lighting to accompany the sound, but we got there eventually, and it worked well for what it was intended for.

In order for us to try and break into the wedding and private party sector we decided,

It would be a good idea to offer a DJ mobile disco service for Hampshire, Surrey and London areas. After a couple of gigs, we utilized our small car to transport the equipment, obviously the current bulky Opus system did not. This meant we had to re-invest in a different PA system.

In fact, the very first mobile disco gig we got we had to use a van to transport the top speakers and subs to a pub in Surrey. Arriving there we were greeted with a steep staircase into the venue which held about 100 people! The PA system we had brought would have done a mini festival; it was quite funny looking back.

Needless to say, the client was absolutely gobsmacked and over the moon by the undercharged PA system we rocked up with. Luckily it just managed to fit, and I say luckily as it took 3 of us to get it up the stairs! We didn’t have that long to set it up either but the guys were pros at this by now after the club events so that wasn’t too much of an issue.

I believe we supplied them with some sound to light activated disco lighting effects on a lighting t bar stand. A more appropriate set up for the room it was being held in.

Going back to our choice of PA for this type of service, we knew then we had to invest in a more suitable system for smaller parties so we had a pair of Mackie SRM speakers on stands which seemed a more sensible option for mobile discos. Back then there was no downloadable music to your phone / laptop we had to supply a mixing console and download music in advance of each party onto a CD using different software applications around at the time which took absolutely ages! We would spend hours and hours just waiting for songs to download onto CDs.

We used to advertise our services in the local paper and Yellow Pages, social media was extremely new at that point, it sounds very old fashioned now, but this is how businesses put themselves out there back then. I think we only just managed to land a considerably basic mobile disco website on the internet.

The majority of enquiries we used to get through were for weddings, and with this the requirements were becoming slightly more variable than just a couple of disco lights and couple of speakers.

We then invested in some more speakers and subs for additional bass sound,

As well as a professional wired microphone to attach to our compact CD mix unit for speeches and announcements. As mentioned before we couldn’t use a laptop with downloaded music already on there, so we would transport cases of CDs all labelled with a variety of genres of music to adhere to all ages of party goers for each event.

We decided to try and get our own speakers made for the larger events as we weren’t completely satisfied with the current speaker’s sound they produced. The project took a few months but eventually when they were ready, we took them on a few club events which turned out to be highly successful! We still had our large PA system for the club events but the demand for the mobile DJ service was becoming more and more so we really needed some more smaller speakers with subs to suit that type of function. EV ZLX active speakers were suggested to us, and we were impressed with the sound quality as well as them being robust units we decided to invest in these.

Suddenly our inventory was growing and we could now cater for club events for 400-500 people as well as run mobile disco parties for 70-200 people. I should mention at this point that all the equipment was stored inside our house which was fun and games when mixing this with everyday family life.

Once we had done a few mobile disco events word got around that we were a company to rely on so more and more enquiries came in for private functions, birthdays, Christening celebrations and corporate functions. We had never not turned up for an event and the equipment we used to supply for the parties was of a very reasonable quality which made a huge impact to how the night would go, the sound and lighting had to be adequate enough to create a real party atmosphere, which I believe it did.

Now we had smaller PA systems, lighting and the larger PA, we wanted some other type of product to offer people, so we started to supply smoke machines and lasers as extras. These became really popular especially for younger people- birthday parties or Halloween events.

The club / bar events we supplied PA for also requested lasers and laser shows became a popular option for certain promoters we worked with. We thought about just becoming a laser hire company but decided against that as our passion was more for the sound then special effects.

New Years Eve parties were a big thing, we would have large PA systems out for club hires and smaller sound & lighting packages out for mobile discos but this would be our limit for supplying any services as we didn’t have a huge hire stock inventory just enough to cover 2 different scaled events at the same time.

The time had come to change up the PA again as more time passed,

We became friendly with different people within the industry who demonstrated other brands of speakers to us such as OHM and RCF. We have stocked both brands and during that time we had to make a very big decision on whether we continue to store equipment at our home premises or try and rent a unit nearby. Not only did we have to make this decision we also were becoming inundated with enquires for disco services, so we then had another conversation about the direction we saw the business going. With this in mind we decided to take the plunge and rent a warehouse unit and with that start offering a hire service where not only can we deliver and setup the equipment but people were able to hire the equipment from us to take away.

It started small we only had a few sets of speakers and lighting effects. In time the club/ bar events we used to supply equipment for had subsided and the hire enquiries had become more and more.

We started to slow down offering mobile disco services and concentrate on the hire/ rental side of the business.

It was a good thing we did as our stock grew to multiple sets of speakers, subs, sound to light disco lighting effects, smoke machines, moving head lighting effects, wireless battery powered up lighters and LED tourcans. All these items were and still are easy to set up once taken home, so the essential party pack was something people loved and love to hire from us.

Being set up in Guildford we were in a prime location between Surrey, Hampshire and London,

And people were happy to travel to us. For those slightly further away or limited to transporting the equipment back for their party, we offered a delivery service at a very reasonable rate, just charging fuel at cost. A couple of unit changes over the years, we are still located in Guildford and happy to still offer the same hire service for dry hire or delivery.

To appeal to other types of events and those after a supplier who will deliver and setup for birthday, corporate and wedding functions we went on to stock white LED dance floors, backdrops, LED furniture, AV equipment and more. This broadening out allowed us to cover all party & events.

Finally, we moved over to the popular and versatile brand of d&b Audiotechnik sound which until this day remains our favourite, reliable PA system. We use this for all our outdoor events, as well as indoor events for events/ parties where a very slick coherent sound is required.

The next thing on the ever-growing list was staging…

It became apparent that a lot of people enquiring for outdoor productions required some sort of staging as well as sound and lighting. We wanted to be the company people could rely on as supplying everything in house without adding on hidden charges for hiring in equipment from 3^rd parties. So that is what we did, started to supply outdoor covered stages.

We were thrilled with our 10m x 8m covered outdoor stage so shortly after this we invested in a 6m x 4m covered stage. The smaller stage is incredibly popular for all types of events such as Christmas light switch ons, school fetes/ productions, small festivals and weddings.

Lastly and the most recent addition to our hire stock just before the horrendous pandemic hit our industry, we are able to supply outdoor and indoor LED video screens. The cinema experience is currently one of the more popular choices for event organisers at this moment in time so we are very lucky to be stockists of LED video screen offering this to customers looking to put on a socially distanced functions.

Now we are a production company, going from small supplier of PA hire for clubs, mobile DJ services, dry hire party equipment rental to a production hire company. All this being run as a small family business after all these years. We are proud to still be running and are trying to press on forward through this difficult time for the events industry but are confident summer of 2021 will be one to remember. Here is to another 12 years!

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

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

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

30th October 2020/by Tim Maysh

The Sound & Light Hire Company Talks Christmas Parties & Event Production

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Normally at this time of year The Sound & Light Hire Company is busy planning Christmas parties…

Corporate Christmas dos, light switch ons and we would be talking to brides finalizing their winter weddings. This year however will be slightly different for a lot of us! This article will explain how you can still put on an event, plan a party and enjoy Christmas.

This year we have seen an increase in the demand for outdoor covered mobile stages. As all events are basically taking place outside due to Covid regulations, The Sound & Light Hire Company have been busy talking to local councils and event promoters about supplying outdoor stages for Christmas fairs, fetes, and light switch ons. Let us discuss a couple of the most popular packages that event organisers/ companies hire when they are looking for an outdoor stage package.

We will start with our 6m x 4m arce’d roof festival stage which is the perfect size stage for local fetes, fairs and Christmas town productions. We won’t go over all the technical details about this stage but some of the key points about this stage and why this seems to be the more popular choice is the low hire cost point. To give you an example to hire this stage in the Surrey/ Hampshire area for a day would be £1200. That cost includes the crew to build and de rig after the event, as well as the transportation cost. Not only does this come in at a very reasonable price point it is also very quick to set up ideal for those who have limited restrictions on set up time/ get out times.

We can set this stage at the standard height of 1.5ft but we can raise it on higher legs if this is preferred to 1m. We have noticed that during the Covid time more people are opting for a higher stage height due to the audience being more spread out for distancing reasons.

The 6m stage will comfortably hold a 6-8 piece band and at Christmas it is common for councils to organise performances from rock choirs where you can have a large group of people performing. We suggest 10-20 people on the stage at one given time as the limitation is roughly between 18-20 people. However, with the current regulations in place we would recommend halving that so people can distance from one another.

Most event companies / planners come to us for the sound and stage lighting as well. This is because we stock a vast range of sound systems, lighting and special effects all in house. We can put together packages of all different sizes enabling us to meet the most basic or more demanding of technical requirements. Not only do we cover the production side we offer LED video screen as well which we will come onto further into this blog.

For those putting on slightly bigger outdoor Christmas show that have more live music or bigger bands or perhaps they just require more space on stage to run the event in line with current Covid regulations our 8x6m covered stage will comfortably hold up to 30 people giving you that extra needed room. To give an example of the price point for this stage you would be looking at £2000 which covers the crew costs and transportation within Surrey & Hampshire areas. Again, most people opt for an all-inclusive package which caters for stage, sound and lighting. Not only do we supply this, but we provide a professional technician to remain onsite throughout the event to ensure it runs without a hiccup. What Is quite common with this stage is adding on LED outdoor screen and this year more than ever promoters and local councils are all looking to hire some form of outdoor digital signage. Promoting things like local events, Christmas performances and local awareness messages about current restrictions and lockdowns.

Continuing This Topic of Outdoor LED Screen

We can supply screens either side of your stage ground supported or flown, or we can supply one large screen at the back of your stage. We have some newly released renders on our Instagram page to show this, as well as our previous jobs displaying the stages setup.

Perhaps you are after one big outdoor LED screen to watch Christmas films on for example or outdoor winter wonderland cinema nights, we stock a vast amount of LED video wall and with a competitive price point of just £75 per square meter we are one of the leading screen hire companies in the Surrey, Hampshire, London and Berkshire areas.

We would say the more popular choice of hire item during the Covid crisis which has turned into a newfound form of entertainment for people is hiring the LED video screens for outdoor films to become a cinema experience. This can be achieved with ease as people can remain in their cars and we can tune the sound to their car radio, enabling them to stay comfortably seated inside. This has worked well over the last few months and we foresee this will continue to be popular over Christmas into the New Year.

Moving onto lighting, what lighting do we have on offer this Christmas and what lighting packages do we recommend getting you through this Christmas without having to spend lots of money?

An old-time favourite are our LED wireless up lighters, why are they popular and why do we still recommend using them after all these years? Well they are battery operated which makes them handy units to dot around and spread some festive light. The battery life lasts between 8-10 hours having said that though if they are left in really cold environments this drains the battery quicker which many people don’t know so a little tip there for you! We ensure they are fully charged before they are sent out on hire so don’t worry about that. The fact they are wireless means no messy looking cables, so not only is this great if you don’t have access to power but also if you are trying to keep it looking slick you don’t have to worry about reels of cables around the room/ marquee.

We can provide you with covers for them so they can be placed outside safely without worrying about them getting wet/ damp as the covers are IP rated.

So perhaps uplighters aren’t your thing and you are planning on a small intimate gathering at home we have more vibrant lighting suitable for disco lighting. Packages start from £20 and can turn any home into a dance floor! They can be hung form lighting t bars which we provide and just plug into the mains, extremely easy to use and just do the job. Sending out lots of colours and patterns for a great festive party atmosphere. We stock a vast range of different lighting options so if you have more bespoke lighting requirements with a custom light set up in mind then no problem we can help with that. This article is not covering everything we stock/ offer it is just to give you an idea of popular hire choices over the festive season.

What better piece of equipment to hire at Christmas with or without Covid, is our snow machine. This highly professional machine will enable you to spray fake snow in your garden, over your house, on your stairs or in the lounge! These machines are cheap to run and amazingly effective at covering a small area which is what we have found customers want. With this machine you can project your fake snow up to 15-20m away. Whenever you hire a snow machine, we suggest raising above head height which adds to the effect with the spectacular falling foam but please make sure this is put in a secure safe place, the last thing we want is for any accidents to occur. We must also note that although the snow fluid is not hazardous it should not be sprayed into peoples face or rubbed in people’s eyes as it will sting it can also potentially stain hard surfaces and carpet so an outdoor grassed area with adult supervision is recommended.

One Big Announcement

Is the fact that we are moving our forever popular speaker hire packages to wireless battery powered PA systems. One of out latest additions is our Bose Pro1 battery powered portable speaker. This wireless speaker will give you clear thunderous, powerful sound at your house party or outdoor event in a small slick package. Weighing only a few kilos the performance from this Bose powered speaker system is nothing but exceptional. Stream your favourite music from your iPhone/ laptop or iPad or plug in directly to the back of the speaker and for £65 you will get up to 12 hours of music. It also has the ability to connect to your device via Bluetooth which is definitely a plus point for those not wanting any cabling whatsoever.

We would suggest this speaker to cover a party of up to about 50 people, so if you are having a larger gathering or want that extra punch of bass don’t worry we still have our popular systems which include top speakers and subs requiring power.

All these systems are super easy to use, do it yourself set up packages which give you great sound at a very reasonable hire price.

Recently we have not been delivering as much due to the demand being much less, but we are still able to offer delivery should this be something you really require, within the Surrey & Hampshire areas.

Another firm favourite at Christmas is our large white LED light up sparkly dance floor. This twinkling dance floor is suitable for all size parties as we can offer this in several sizes from compact intimate spaces for your house party to a large 20ft x 20ft dance floor in a marquee. Please ensure the flooring we lay the dance floor onto is flat and level, this is important to keep the panels safely firmly together! White is definitely a colour of choice for the Christmas season, but we can also offer this in black if this is preferred!

What goes well with the dance floor at Christmas time? A low-level fog effect! Add this low-lying fog effect to your Christmas party to really enhance the Christmas vibe, like you are dancing on the clouds without a care in the world.

To sum up on everything we have discussed in this blog, we have all had to adapt and make changes to our lives during this dire time, but don’t let it stop you having fun especially at Christmas time. Whether you attend any outdoor events that are put on by local councils or you are making sure you stay at home, The Sound & Light Hire Company really do have sound, lighting, special effects, and production equipment to suit all eventualities so give us a call to see all the deals we have to offer.

So what are you waiting for? Call us on 0800 8611136 or send us an email to tell us all about your plans, we can’t wait to help you turn them into a reality!

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

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

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

28th October 2020/by Tim Maysh

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

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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

8th October 2020/by Tim Maysh

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