What to look for in an AV Rental Company Partner for your event.

Searching for and AV rental company can be a daunting and sometimes perplexing undertaking. In the often accelerated world of audio-visual technologies, companies are often quick to claim they have the finest equipment money can buy. Many times the companies you find, claim to have the ability to support large-scale and elaborate events with very little in their own stock to do so. A little-known fact in the industry, is that many companies actually own vey little if any gear. The talk a big game, but have nothing in the warehouse to actually execute the event. This companies rely heavily and exclusively on other companies to rent them gear to execute their contracts. This obviously drives up pricing and that all gets passed along to you, the end client. I have seen several shows that are exorbitantly high for the amount of service, equipment and support being offered. It really is a shame to see such costs tied to events that often-times are struggling to have the budget needed in these COVID-times.

This short post is hopefully here to give you an informative look at different issues and factors and help point you in the right direction when picking an AV provider.

Some Important things to note in selecting Audio-Visual Rental Companies.

Use a process that establishes a consistent footing for all companies to respond. It is all too-important to your event to underhand how successful and dependable an audio visual company has been. This will often mean you need to do your due diligence and seek out reviews and references around the company. It is generally a good idea to schedule a tour of the facilities they are executing events and see how the present and managed their gear. Fro the the sound-systems and video systems to the lighting systems and scenic elements; all of those areas should be presented well. If you don’t feel right, and can’t get satisfactory answers as to why things might be a bit of a mess, it’s best to walk away.

TEAM

Your preferred rental company should have employees that can communicate and work well with the overall team. The event-planner and featured speakers as well as any financial sponsors should feel respected and clearly communicated to by the companies representatives. Everyone of these roles is highly important to a cohesively executed event.

Support

How is your chosen companies service? Do they respond in a reasonable amount of time to any questions or needs you have? Are you feeling like to get answers, you have to beat the bush too hard? It might not be the best fit if so.

When problems arise, do they respond to the matter quickly and effectively? Even the best in the industry can have a malfunction or issue, but a truly prepared company is ready and able to handle the challenge and move on to execute the corrective plan quickly.

Sound Rental Companies / Audio-Visual Rental Companies are everywhere.

Provide the partner you chose with a complete listing of what your event will need and require. Make sure they are fully prepared to meet the needs and demands of your event. If the company is having to cross-rent some of the equipment for your event, you will likely need to vet that company as well. This is also a great time to make sure the rental company is aware that you expect them to manage all equipment-related concerns and issues that spring up often at an event.

Audio-Visual Rental Terms:

Sound system rentals. LED wall or projector and screen rentals. Lighting rentals. All of these items should appear in your quote. They each will have a fee associated to them. Often times you will have a cabling package rental line-item as well. Bare in mind that any special microphone rental might have a shipping cost associated with it, as high-end mics are often times shared in a region, as they tend to no be rented often enough to have in inventory at each location.

Invoices / Quotes

When talking through the needs of your event with the audio-visual company, they will need to know the sorts of equipment you will require. This does not mean you need to know every single item that makes a sound system work and every component you will need to rent with the sound-system rental. It does mean you need to communicate room size, attendance size and needs. A sound-system for a mostly talking event will vary greatly with the needs of a full band etc.

There will be labor included in your quote. The estimated labor rates will be line-items typically per position. I would be highly skeptical of a all labor line item. It is too difficult to make out exactly what labor you can anticipate on site if there are not line items at least for the key-positions; i.e. Audio-Engineer, Video Engineer, Camera-Operator etc.

A quick word on labor rates:

The rental companies will divide labor-related items into two separate categories. Day-rates and Week rates. Day-rates typically account for a 10 hour run of day with a half-day being around 5 hours. You may be charged for travel days if the engineer is traveling into your event. Generally a travel rate will be a half-day rate unless the engineer is traveling a great distance to your event.

Load In and Load Out

Load in is the timeframe that will be required for the av rental company to deliver, setup and test all of the equipment at the event. Load out is the time is will take for the company to break-down “strike” the gear and load out to the trucks. You will need to ensure that the venue is away of the times needs to load in and strike the event. You often will need 24 hour holds on the day before you event or any rehearsals begin.

AUDIO-VISUAL RENTAL Company Expectations:

Reliable, Modern Equipment

Some equipment performs very well and lasts for years and years. Even so, you will want to ensure that the rental company stocks newer, more advanced equipment. It is a horrible idea to use any company that can only provide weathered and unreliable equipment.

Punctual

A big expectation for you AV provider should be that they arrive punctually at both load in and load out times. On-time or early arrival can be an absolute necessity for some venues with tight schedules and events back to back.

Prompt Response Times

The expectation for reaching and getting a response from your provider is critical. You generally should receive a response the same-day from your provider on a work-day and during normal business hours. The industry is very competitive, and it’s not that difficult to locate a company that can respond quickly and efficiently to your needs.

Knowledgeable Engineers and Employees

The project manager handling your event equipment rentals should know what the individual pieces of equipment do and what your event needs are. Certain items of the AV-Systems must be operated by properly and highly-capable engineers. Ensure that those tasked with executing the operation of the equipment can do so effectively and expeditiously.

When you’re ready to plan your next event, and need a trusted, reliable and establish audio-visual rental company to partner with, contact the team at IAV Events Group. We are experienced in all aspects of event production, from small gatherings to large corporate events and music venues.

If you are in the United States, our offices in Dallas, TX, Midland, TX, Las Vegas, NV, Orlando, FL and Detroit, MI are here to help.