Ask the Experts – Sound and Lighting at Your Wedding with True Sound Hire

Many of you who read the Blog will be planning your wedding in a dry venue, a venue where you have to hire in everything your self. From catering, tables and chairs to PA systems,  lighting and sound. You could be in a marquee, you could be in a village hall, a warehouse or a loft style urban venue. If you are then I’m sure the subject of sound, lighting, and PAs haves come up, and f it hasn’t it will do at some point in your planning.

So today I have enlisted the expert advice from the guys at True Sound Hire to tell you all about the different options open to you, what you will need, what you wont need and some of the tings you need to look out for! I hope you find it useful!

I’ll pass the Blog over to Kerry from True Sound Hire………………

Weddings can be incredibly stressful to organise and fund. It’s the biggest day of your life and you want everything to be perfect. Once the initial nerves have gone after you have said ‘I DO’ you can relax and enjoy the best bit ….. the reception!!
Everyone looks forward to letting their hair down and getting Granny up and dancing to her old favourite track. There’s nothing like getting the whole family together on the happiest day of your life. That’s why it’s important to get it right with having a reliable, clear sounding PA system and lighting that makes people feel like dancing, it adds to the mood and creates a party atmosphere.

There are so many different sound systems and lights to choose from it’s difficult to know what would sound and look best, especially if this is the first time you have looked into hiring this type of equipment. And it’s also key that you can rely on the company you are potentially booking with, especially if you opt for delivery and collection of the hired kit.

Where to start

How do you determine what you need, if you are really stuck and don’t even know where to start?!! Well firstly an email or phone call to Surrey & London’s premier sound & lighting hire company True Sound Hire is a great start. If you explain what the occasion is (obviously a wedding) the date, the venue and how many guests you are likely to be accommodating for. If you have the room dimensions this also comes in pretty handy. This is the key info that we require to aid you in finding the best match for your special occasion. It is also essential to note whether you have a DJ playing, playing the music yourselves via an iPod / laptop or perhaps maybe you have hired a band.
This then helps us assess what you would need and best suit your requirements. If you have booked a band find out from them how many are in the band, whether they supply all of their own kit for example PA system, monitors, microphones and all the necessary bits and pieces they may need to function or whether they will require to hire some bits in. Find out what it is they require and we can help you by putting a quote together to give you an idea on cost. We are always happy to liaise directly with the band to ensure we have the right information and it also makes life easier for you!

DJs

If it’s a DJ that you have hired speak to him / her and ask them whether they supply their own equipment or whether they need some equipment to hire in. If so ask them for their specification, we understand that DJ’s require pro DJ equipment such as Pioneer CDJ 2000 record decks and Pioneer DJM 900 mixers which we have, and not many companies stock these pieces of kit. If they are after a DJ table for example, not a problem we can accommodate for this to.

Sound Systems

Different sound systems. Well yes there are different systems available, and it comes down to budget, what look you are trying to create, if there are sound restrictors in place or whether you want a full on rave! How many people are attending is an important piece of info we need to know as mentioned before, this can allow us to judge the space you will be using and what would work best. Again please let us know any specific bits of info such as ‘there is a sound restrictor in the venue’ or ‘it’s a white themed wedding so preferably we would like white speakers’. This all helps determine what is fit for your personalised wedding.

If you are on a tight budget (which most of us are) don’t worry there are systems available which are no way restricted on quality but are very reasonably priced to hire, such as our iPod packages. These can range from small – medium – large dependant on the size of the venue in question. Easy to use functional, reliable systems. You just plug the cable from the speaker into your iPod / laptop or any ‘I’ application and away you go. There is no need for any amplifiers or fiddly bits as the systems are powered which basically means the bass is already in built in the speaker which is one less thing to worry about! All the cables required are supplied by us at no extra cost. Don’t be fooled by the price, these systems are also used as individual monitors which DJ’s and bands use at their gigs. These are the speakers we supply to DJ’s and bands.

We also cater for larger scaled weddings from 3-400 people whereby you need that extra umph. Our professional RCF PA systems are best suited for outdoor use and perhaps have been specifically asked to be supplied by the band or DJ hired. It’s not something that we would recommend on a smaller scale as the system would be too overpowering. Thats why the iPod systems are perfect for intimate – medium receptions.
Everybody’s preferences are different and that’s why each wedding is special and unique as no 2 weddings are the same. Which is great, you can put a stamp on yours with your personal taste.

Lighting

Lighting is fun and there are lots of avenues to explore. People often call us without much of an idea as to what they want and just ask for advice on what generally works well. On the other hand some people are quite specific with what they want and the look they are trying to create, which is great as it’s less of a headache for you to choose! Don’t forget, if your venue permits it, smoke machines look fantastic against any type of lighting to enhance what the lights are projecting.
For those who are unsure, or who have a slight inkling but nothing concrete. Let us help you. To break it down simply, there are traditional ‘ disco’ effect lighting known as our Saturn 6 LED disco lights which move to the beat of the music projecting different images onto the dance area. These lights look great in pairs and can be placed on a lighting stand to give them the height they need to project the light around the area needing to be covered. You can also sit them on the floor if you are tight on space which is really handy.

If you wanted something slightly different we have what’s known as intelligent lighting – I Solution I Move Moving heads. These lights project beams of light which can be positioned into the middle of the dance floor for example when the bride and groom take to the floor for their first dance, or you can hang them from a truss system or place them on our truss podium stand and let them rotate around the room. They produce different colours, images and gobo effects which can look incredibly effective. If you wanted to go all out you can have personalised gobos made (something we don’t do) for example, an image of the couples names, or a heart shape, or the date of the wedding etc which can then be inserted into our lights and projected onto the dance floor for all to see. This is a great idea although it can be slightly dear, and you have to wait a while for the gobo to be specially made so don’t leave that to the last minute.

A very popular choice for weddings, and what most of our customers opt for is LED uplighters. Again there are several types of uplighters to choose from. We have an LED par 64 can which produces the primary colours red, blue and green. Alternatively we have a high powered LED par 64 which can produce pretty much any colour you want! Apart from gold and black as this isn’t at all possible with lighting, no matter how much you want to spend it’s impossible. Please note that the LED uplighters require individual power sockets so ensure the venue has ample power. We can supply the extension cable where needed, so don’t worry about that. LED uplighters look incredibly chic and add an elegant mood lit feel to any venue. They literally colour wash a room, so this option works really well with those looking to spill their colour scheme into the reception. Or if you think this may be a bit much you can set the lights to fade in and out of different colours which also looks incredibly pretty.

We offer free demonstrations at our unit, which can really help you decide which type of lighting would work best for you. 95% of the time when we show the 2 types of LED uplighters next to each other people choose the high powered units due to their colour range and generally you don’t require as many of them to uplight a room due to their high output.

Added Extras

Other options to add the finishing touches include, bubble machines, flame machines, lasers or UV lights. As I have said before each wedding is different so that’s why it is great to add little extras such as the above. All great fun and can accommodate for different themes where needed.

Just to finish off, we understand that an added stress is having to collect the equipment, set it all up and then return when you are deflated. We can help here as we offer delivery, setup and collection. This allows you to sit back and worry about the ‘I DO’ part instead! It’s peace of mind being able to let someone else who knows what they are doing set up the sound and lighting to a high standard, sound checking and ensuring everything is in working order for the big day. It’s something else you can tick off your list.

Don’t forget there is plenty of advice, pictures and videos on our website to make choosing the look you want a bit easier. Don’t worry and panic, we are happy to provide a free demo on different lighting and sound equipment to help you decide what is for you.

True Sound Hire | Surrey & London based sound & light hire company
www.truesoundhire.co.uk
[email protected]
01483 564438
07908 732936

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