Pulling off a successful conference is no mean feat. There are usually dozens of sessions to pack in across the day (and sometimes during the evening too), and you’ll need to make quick tweaks to sets and audio visual setups to accommodate the different types of activities.

From setting up equipment for an open Q&A session with a dozen panellists to rigging everything up for a one-on-one interview with an industry titan that will be simultaneously live-streamed on YouTube, you’ll need to have a crack support team on hand to handle your conference audio visual (AV) requirements.

Here at On Tour Events, we can provide everything you could possibly need when it comes to AV equipment hire for conferences in London and right across the UK. But before we run you through some of the AV hire services we can provide for your conference in more detail, let’s take a look at why you need to bring on board AV experts to ensure your conference is an unmitigated success.

Why You Need Conference Equipment Hire and Supporting Services from Industry Experts

If you’re hosting a London conference, there are plenty of purpose-built conference centres to choose from. Many of them even offer in-house AV options. But here’s where a lot of conference organisers go wrong.

We’ve spoken at length before about the dangers of hiring in-house AV providers, so there’s no need to go too in-depth into this subject. But let’s give you a few of the key points.

Many Conference Venues Lack AV Specialist Staff

First and foremost, many of these venues offer AV installations as more of an afterthought and an easy way to increase your booking value. The personnel in charge of rigging and setting up the equipment in conference centres based in hotels often hold other job functions, and this is one of many roles they perform for the organisation in question.

While they may well be competent in setting up their in-house equipment for you, they will lack the imagination or AV knowledge to make the best possible installation for your conference. If you are hosting a small event with a few dozen attendees, then this could work. However, if you’re going to be hosting a few hundred domestic and international delegates, this simply won’t do.

The Quality of In-House AV Equipment is Often Poor

Next, you’ve then got to consider the equipment itself. As mentioned, these are easy bolt-on services for many venues, and they do little concerning the upkeep or upgrading of equipment as times change. We’ve seen some conference centres offer to supply lights that are more than two decades old, while the rest of the events industry has moved onto high-performance LED technology.

The list really does go on in this regard. TV screens that aren’t even HD? Check. Old projectors that overheat within an hour of use and shut down? Double-check! When it comes to ensuring your conference is as seamless and professional as possible, you have to hire the best AV equipment in the business to ensure nothing goes horribly wrong on the day.

Benefit from the Expertise and Project Management Skills of AV Conference Hire Specialists

Finally, the other less tangible reason you need to work with a specialist conference AV supplier is the expertise and project management skills they bring to the table. You may well be an expert within your industry and able to attract some big names to your conference, but it’s unlikely that you knowing everything there is to know about AV installations.

For example, do you know the best solution for providing real-time translation to your international visitors’ earpieces? Do you know when is the right time to opt for project hire and when hiring an LED screen for your conference would provide a much better solution? We’re betting that you don’t.

Having said that, we have several relationships with conference organisers who know precisely what they need, and we spend very little time discussing the options that work perform the best. So why do they hire us, you ask? Well, in short, because we handle everything. From supplying the AV equipment itself to installation, equipment checks, run-throughs, and disassembly after the event.

In other words, we project-manage everything on the AV side for them. The reason they work with us is that, once they’ve handed us their list of requirements, we get to work to make it happen for them. They can relax in the knowledge that everything is being taken care of while working hard on travel, catering, and accommodation arrangements for their delegates.

In itself, that is worth its weight in gold for them, and one of the principal reasons we continue to win their custom.

Now we’ve made a case for hiring AV installation specialists such as ourselves, let’s take a closer look at what we can provide for your conference.

Projector and Screen Hire for London Conferences

Perhaps the best place to start is with the most commonly hired items, such as projectors and screens. We can supply a range of suitable options for your event. Whether you merely need a projector and screen combination, or you need something much more substantial for an international conference we’ve got you covered.

You may want to hire one of our Panasonic projectors for small conference events, which display content in full HD and boast 7000 lumens, delivering exceptional brightness and crystal-clear clarity. It’s ideal for boardrooms, offices, and small to medium-sized conference spaces where you require a high-quality and bright projector for your event.

For international conferences at large venues, hiring a projector makes much less sense. For events taking place on this scale, you’re going to need to hire LED screens. Fortunately for you, ours are some of the best in the business. We supply industry-leading 3.9mm pixel pitch LED video panels that will keep viewers engaged with delicious HD footage delivered with brightness scores of over 4,500+ nits.

With your visual media content devices taken care of, let’s look at your audio options.

Sound Equipment Hire for Conferences in London and Surrounding Areas

Much of your initial concern with audio options for your conference will revolve around microphone systems. Crystal clear accompanying presentation content will mean nothing if no one can hear your presenters and speakers. Once again, we’ve got a broad spectrum or wired and wireless microphone options from leading audio brands such as Shure.

Once you’ve spoken to us and chosen the best microphone system for your specific conference, you need to think about how you will project the sound coming from those speaking. For most conference events, you’re almost certainly going to need to hire a PA speaker system. The specific speakers you choose will be up to, but we only the stock the best brand around, d&b audiotechnik.

Finally, you’re going to want to invest in a headset solution if you’re hosting international guests. You can then either use an advanced software or app-based solution to translate or book some translators to speak into a mic fed directly into the headset via a receiver station and a transmitter. The choice is yours, and we can help you out either way.

Conference Event Lighting Hire for London

If having your presenters and keynote speakers heard is vital, ensuring your audience can see them is perhaps even more pivotal. This is especially true if you intend to film or live-stream some of your conference sessions (more on this later!).

Whether you’re in a London hotel or a vast conference space, you’re going to need to hire a full set of event lighting solutions appropriate for your specific occasion. If you’ve hired a stage or set (see below), then you’ll need stage lighting fixtures such as intelligent moving head lights, spotlights, and even LED uplighters to set the right ambience for your chosen venue.

London Conference Set Design and Hire From On Tour Events

Not technical AV services, but just as important, we can design and construct your conference set. Whether you need full-blown stage hire services or just a preset modular set design customised with your logo and branding, we can help you. We can also build completely custom designs from scratch should you need us to.

Our services include ALL elements of set and stage design, just to be clear. We can provide everything you need in terms of props, for instance, and supply equipment such as conference lecterns. If you want us to, we can even show you detailed 3D renders of your conference set before we even start to manufacture it (or assemble it if you prefer a preset modular option).

Hire Live Streaming Equipment for Your London Conference from On Tour Events

We’ve spoken a lot about live streaming recently, and not without good reason! Virtual and hybrid conferences are a trend that will dominate the 2020s, and they are an excellent method for increasing the reach of your event to a global audience. Of course, we can help with this increasing vital piece of the overall AV puzzle too!

And better yet, if you’re hosting a virtual conference, we can even supply you with a purpose-built live streaming studio too! Here you can read more our Event Streaming Services

Choose On Tour Events as Your AV Installation Partner for your London Conference

Hopefully, we’ve made a pretty solid case for you to consider us as a supplier of AV hire services for your conference. As you can see, what makes us unique is that we can supply EVERYTHING you need for a conference, regardless of whether it’s specifically related to audio or visual purposes.

We’ve got just as much experience with stage hire services in London as we do with supply projectors and screens. We can handle all technical event aspects of your London conference and better still, beam proceedings to the rest of the world with our industry-leading live streaming capabilities. There aren’t many, if any, London-based companies that can boast the same sheer depth and breadth of core competencies.

You’ll find that we are also already on preferred supplier lists for dozens of London conference venues and for those in surrounding areas such as Surrey, Berkshire, and Hertfordshire too. This will help to streamline the AV hire process since we’ll already know your venue inside and out. Are you planning a conference in an unusual location? No problem, we can also perform site visits to ascertain the best solutions for your event.

In other words, we can’t think of a reason you wouldn’t want to work with us, but then again, we a little biased! Not only do we excel right across the spectrum of AV hire services, but we provide that support at a price that can’t be beaten when you factor in the quality of equipment and personnel overseeing operations.

So why not give us a call to have a chat about what you’ve got planned for your conference? We can’t wait to hear all about it!

On Tour Events: Technical Audio Visual Event Services London
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