What Equipment Do You Need to Hire for Your Own Gig?
If you are going to stage your own concert with a couple of different bands taking to the stage, then there are certain things you will need to consider before you start selling tickets. Doing everything yourself is often more rewarding than hiring a venue because you can run things your way. That said, putting on your own gig will often require a full AV hire from a staging event production company. What are the key elements of such a system that you need to know about?
Front of House PA
To begin with, you will need a public address (PA) system which is powerful enough so that your audience will be able to hear the bands when they perform. If you are going to have lots of different bands performing over the course of a day, then renting a backline for them as part of your full AV hire costs will be advisable since it means being able to move from one side to the next rapidly. Your front of house PA we need to include speaker cabinets and a mixing desk with enough channels to cope with the size of bands who will be performing. In most cases, between 12 and 20 channels should be sufficient unless you are going to mic up a huge orchestra. Remember that a drum kit will usually account for six channels of a PA system alone.
Stage Monitoring
As well as a front of house PA system, ask your staging event production company about a monitor system. This should be part of a full AV hire set up but many people who rent PAs don't know that they need one unless they have played in bands before. Essentially, a monitor system allows the performers to hear themselves properly when they are playing. Commonly, a separate mixing desk is used to control the monitor system but some can be run from a suitably sized main mixing desk console.
Lighting Rig
Another important element of any gig will be the lighting rig that you use. Even small, amateur bands will expect some sort of lighting effects during their performance. Bear in mind that if your concert will be staged outside, then you will require more lights and often brighter ones compared to an indoor event where less powerful ones tend to have a greater impact. Unless you have your own lighting engineer, use automated ones that respond to the music they detect of their own accord.