Audio Visual Equipment Hire

Mainline Show Productions offer Audio Visual, Lighting and Staging Hire in Manchester and the North West. They've offered up some great points to remember when hiring audio visual equipment, plus a little on how they got started in the industry.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

In order to quote correctly, we need as much detail as possible about the event. As a minimum we need date, location (if in a venue then a room name helps us find size details online), type of event (a 21st birthday is different to a 60th), number of guests, if outdoors is there weather protection? What power is available?
If the event has a theme or style (particularly for weddings) this can help us integrate with what is already planned.

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Ask for brand details. This is particularly important for PA speakers. The sound quality from a speaker of 500watts costing £200 will be far inferior to a speaker of 500 watts costing £2000. If you have some technical knowledge, asking for technical details will give a very good indication of the quality and reliability of the equipment offered.
Ask about additions and enhancements, can anything be added that would enhance the offering. E.g. if looking for disco lighting ask about lasers or smoke machines.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

Mainline Show Productions was started in 2009 by three friends determined to improve the audience experience for small and medium-sized events. As music lovers, we were all fed up of seeing quality acts let down by inferior equipment. Too often it seemed that production costs were the last to be considered and this let down what should have been a great event.
We took an early decision to invest in quality British equipment. This means that we have an immediate backup from manufacturers should there ever be a technical issue, insuring against potential non-performance

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

In a little over a month of signing up we have had 3 confirmed bookings and lots of interest. Our first completed booking was a simple PA for a birthday. A quick discussion ensured we supplied exactly what was needed and the client was very impressed with product and service. We hope that Add to Event will become a prime source of future work.