We regularly hire DJ equipment cheap to clubs and events. The important thing for us is that we represent value to our customers. This means we only stock quality equipment but keep prices low for you the customer.

Cheap lighting hire is also available from Onion Audio. Again, the best option is to take a look at our lighting hire packages for the cheapest deals. We can provide bespoke packages which we always do at the cheapest rate possible but we only list out most popular deals. If you are looking for a cheap custom package then please contact us for a personal quote.

The number of festivals in the UK is growing. Despite a washout start to the season (Beat-hearder being the one that nearly made me cry by the Monday!) and various reports showing a possible down turn in the number attending festivals, you can’t deny the choice available has sky rocketed over the past few years. As a result, competition between festivals is getting greater each year. With lots of talk of festivals struggling to sell tickets, what can they do to counter that?

As competition rises within an industry, so does the quality of the service. At least from the better festivals. It is a simple lesson I learnt from Tim Harford in ‘The Under Cover Economist’. The festival goers will eventually gravitate to festivals that represent better value for them. Those that provide a better overall experience per pound spent on a ticket represent better value for the customer. If I spend £100 on a ticket and see five acts that I rate as grade A, I am more likely to return to that festival than a festival where I spent £110 and saw four grade A acts. Eventually those festivals representing the least value to the festival goers will go out of business or be forced to up there game (or drop the price!).

Competition has got so fierce within the festival market that its not possible to just book more and more ‘grade A’ acts for your audience to go and see. After all, there are only so many hours in the day that you can watch these acts and only so much energy you can expel doing so. The festivals that are selling tickets now are the ones that are providing festival goers with added extras. Extras that add value for them. Think of things like Arcadia, its the same acts but because they are playing on a stage that is breathing fire the experience for the festival goer is increased, which represents better value. An extreme example of this is Boom Town Fair, they create a whole world for their audience to discover. They focus on decor, secret areas, cool lighting effects and crazy moving stages. These added extra are so much a part of Boom Town Fair, a festival that traditionally hasn’t had many huge (“grade “A) acts, that they represent most of the value for festival goers.

So we are at a stage where the value of a festival is determined not just by the quality of its acts on the bill, but all the extra things that happen and effects the overall experience of the festival goer. The que and price for a beer, the walk from one stage to another (the distance and all the mental things that they could see along the way), the extra activities that wern’t on the website and you had no idea you would be doing at 3am. All of these things add value.

One quite extraordinary thing about Glastonbury Festival is that over 100k tickets get sold before the line up has even been announced. Thousands of people buy a ticket to what is primarily a music festival (Ok, thats an argument in itself) without knowing what music will be played. They buy for the experience, they buy because they trust the festival to provide them with a good line-up but also because they trust the overall experience of the festival will be amazing, no matter what the music is.

If a festival wants to sell tickets before the line-up is announced, it needs to have built up a reputation to provide a great all round experience. You have to know that regardless of the line-up, the experience will be a positive one. No longer can you put a gig on in a field with a few big bands and call yourself a festival. The benefit for you as a punter is that if festivals want your money, the added extras, such as decor, secret areas, extra activities, fire breathing stages, secret sets and more have to become a standard. As a punters, this is great news!

Big Chill was taken over by Festival Republic, who don’t have the best reputation of putting on added extras at their festivals (think Leeds & Reading festival). They had to cancel the festival last year after selling next to no tickets. The founders of the festival (who sold to Festival Republic) put on a new festival selling out early bird tickets for ‘Nova Festival’ which must have been based on their reputation to provide an excellent experience.

If we think of the panic surrounding the music festival industry & ticket sales, I can see clearly that there is a demand for festivals & the punters will ultimately decide with their hard earned cash which festivals will survive. The punters will go to the festivals providing them with the best value for money. If you look at it this way, I think the sellout success of lots of smaller festivals that focus on the overall experience and the demise of Leeds, Reading and other huge festivals that lack in this area, its clear to see what festivals goers desire and its certainly not just huge line-ups and a marquee in a field.

Do you think the increased competition within the festival scene is a good thing for festival goers in the long term?

The biggest feature in my opinion is the Sync button. This has been around for years on software such as Traktor, but it has never featured on a piece of hardware like this before! How good is it? Amazing. The CDJ2000 Nexus also lets you edit the beat grid manually, so it you are playing drum and bass, or something where the beat isn’t obvious, you can nudge the beat grid in the the correct place. This means the sync feature should always work, just as long as you are willing to put the time in to fine tuning.

The second one for me was actually available on the CDJ900, but I was so caught up in the release of the 2000 at the time (with the CDJ2000 set to become the new industry standard) that I missed the ‘Slip’ feature. Pressing this button, means that whenever you stop the track, re-load or hit a loop, as soon as you are finished, it continues to play where it would have done had you not touched it. Imagine spinning a tune back and then it jumping back to the place it would have been anyway! Madness.

The third big feature for me is the iPhone Rekord Box feature. You basically hook your iPhone up via USB and play the songs from an app on your phone. Now you don’t even need to remember a USB stick. Just your phone. And the special cable……

For me, they are the most impressive and most powerful features on the new CDJ2000 Nexus. If you want to find out more, I would watch this video as they run through all the new features!

On another note, I have just published a Hub on Hubpages called ‘What Is A Rider‘ please check it out!

Basic Stage Lighting Ideas

With sound equipment hire, the choice is usually quite simple. The larger the venue, the more
sound you need. But with lighting, it really does depend on how far you want to go. For a minimal cost you can hire a simple package that gives you a general wash of light over the stage so the audience can see the band, DJ or

performer. This will give you the option to change the colours on stage or light up certain parts of the stage a different colour to the rest. With a general wash of lights (usually provided by par cans) you don’t get any moving lights. This is why, as a basic lighting package the wash lights are great for band performing on a stage.

Advanced Stage Lighting Ideas.

A great DJ stage lighting idea would be to use a small number of par cans to light up the area in which the DJ is, and then have a number of moving lights and another small number of par cans pointing in to the audience. Some great budget moving lights that you could use are Martin Acrobat scanners. The Martin Acrobat scanner (or any Martin scanner) gives you a great effect for a reasonable price. When using moving lights of any kind, it’s always advised to use smoke or a haze machine. Without a smoke machine you loose the effect of the beams of light moving through the air, which is the main reason you use any moving lights.

Moving Heads

More advanced stage lighting ideas are the use of ‘moving heads’ rather than scanners for your moving light option. Moving head lights give you a more moveable, brighter light that can create better patterns and look more professional on the stage. Again, this lighting needs to be used in conjunction with smoke and usually requires a professionally programmed desk to operate.

Strobe

Strobe lights work particularly well with dance music and DJs. They are a great option to add to your lighting package hire as one strobe light will be sufficient to add a great effect to your event.

Blinders

Blinders add a great effect to any stage. Usually placed behind the DJ or band, when turned on they light up the audience and give the performers a chance to see who they are performing to as well as overwhelm the audience.

Led Battons

If you have lots of space to light on a small budget, LED battons could be a great way to give a big effect without breaking the bank. They can be used to uplight walls towards the back and sides of the stage, they can also be used to uplight performers from the front of the stage. They also give a classy finish to any conference.

Visit our lighting hire page to take a look at some of our popular hire packages!

With the summer events now drawing to a close most event managers are now concentrating on the office christmas party. Many companies opt for a standard mobile DJ set-up or function band but the more creative offices are finding it more cost effective & rewarding to do something slightly different. Budget cuts in event manager spending is causing a rise in the amount of companies that we are hearing from that are looking for a cheaper way to provide the same exciting nights that has normally been provided by an outside DJ or covers band.

Cheap Office Party

With creative companies come creative staff. Many of them have hidden talents that might be perfect for your cheap office party! At Onion Audio we provide London DJ equipment hire for christmas events where budding DJs are keen to show off their talents to the rest of the office! We provide professional quality equipment for DJs as well as all the sound and lighting hire support you could need to put on your own cheap office party.

As well as DJ equipment hire London, Onion Audio also supply for event managers looking to host bands as part of their cheap office party strategy. Hiring function bands can be hugely expensive and you don’t always get a quality band, or even what your guests want to hear. At the office parties we do, those with a band made up of office staff always have a great atmosphere as staff entertain staff on stage.

Office Party Ideas

What ever you decide to do at your office party, make sure your getting the best value for money, and your not over looking the talent that might be before your very eyes!

Sound & lighting hire is what Onion Audio specialise in. We also provide staging for smaller events. Its often wise to book your stage be

fore you acquire  sound and lighting hire quotes. This way, your sound and lighting hire company will be able to specify a system that uses the structure of your stage. This will give more accurate quotes and could save you money. If your stage is in a marquee structure, the same rule applies. Book your marquee, stage & then sound and lighting.

Both staging and marquee structures take many man hours to erect so make sure you plan plenty of time for these structures to be built. Your hire company will be able to advise on this. The other consideration is that no work can be started by any other companies until the marquee/stage has been built so its not unusual for a stage or marquee to be ready 4 – 5 days before the event and not taken down for 2 – 3 days later. Having enough time on site for all this

construction is essential for the smooth running of your event.

When acquiring  sound and lighting quotes its advisable to give as much detail of the event as possible. Audience size, location of the event, style of music & level of bands performing are all essential. Any riders you have received from acts booked should also be included to get the most accurate quotes. If your budget is tight, asking for two price structures is often advisable. This way you can get a quote for a smaller sound system and lighting rig and a larger package. This will help when comparing quotes from different companies. Always include a deadline in quote requests. Doing this guarantees you will be able to sit down at a certain date and look at all options.

Requesting all service providers do a site visit is also an excellent idea. Their experience in events will help them notice things you may have missed. The last thing you want is problems arising that jeopardise the event.

Personal recommendations from friends or business associates that have experience in putting on similar events is always a good idea. Working with a company that has worked on similar events is always reassuring. If you have time, try to go to events they are working at. See the equipment and staff in action and ask yourself if its what you have imagined for your event.

Interested in what the bands at your event might ask for? Check this post on what is a band rider.

The 900 looks like Pioneers effort at replacing the DJM800 as the industry standard for club DJs. I’m not really sure if they were trying to replace the djm800 with the DJM2000 last year, or in fact what they were thinking by bringing that out. The 900 really does look like its going to be a game changer though. Its Traktor certified so you can use it as a controller for Traktor. It also has a sound card built in, so for DJs using Serato or Traktor, there will be no need to bring one with you to the gig.

The DJM850 sticks with four effects on the colour wheel where as the 900 has six (Two taken from the 2000 I think). With the effects on the right, both the 900 & the 850 have added ‘The spiral’ which is looking like a DJ favorite already so look out for that one. The 900 also has an x-pad to trigger effects in a new, more intuitive way where as the 850 sticks with the same layout as the 800.

The 900 nexus is retailing at £1600.00 with the 850 looking like its going to be £1300. For the extra money, I would get the 900. The 850 looks like a really small upgrade to the 800 with the real star of the show being the 900. For a little inspiration, take a look at the promo video featuring James Zabiela on Youtube

For now, I think the Audio visual companies will be sticking with the 800 and see how the 900 is taken up over the summer festival period before making any decisions on purchases. I really like the look of the 900 though and really look forward to seeing what the DJs can do with it.

Festival Electricity

One thing you need to think about is the power you are supplying at the festival. The more facilities you have at the festival the more power you will need. Sound and lighting systems consume a huge amount of power. The fridges at the bar also draw heavily from the generators as well as a number of other facilities. Generators and distribution (getting power sockets from the generator to the correct places) are usually dealt with by one company but will need to know how much power you need. When dealing with your sound and lighting hire company, its a good idea to get an estimate on how much power they will need when compiling quotes, this way you can approach your power company with estimates of power consumption.

A great generator power calculation tool can be found here. When you know how many amperes (‘amps’) the sound and lighting company will need, you can calculate the Kva required ( Which is what the generator company will need to know). The distance beween your facilities also matters when you consider the cable runs your electricians will need to do. Having a stage separated by a public area from the bar for instance means you will need two generators as you can’t have cables running in public areas. Where as, if the two are connected, you may get away with one, depending on the size of the event. These decisions can substantially effect your costs. Its a good idea to get a rough site plan before approaching companies for solid quotes.

Toilets

For multi day festivals, the first thing you need to think about is the toilet cleaning facilities being able to gain access to the toilets during the festival. For private events such as weddings, there are a whole array of options open to you for ‘posh loo’s’. A quick search on Google and you will find portable toilets with better facilities than your home bathroom! For me personally, a well maintained festival toilet is the sign of good management!

Water

One thing thats really easy to over look is that at any public event your guests need access to free, drinking water on tap. A huge amount of water will need to be supplied for your guests, so don’t over look this cost. Some sites will also require you to take used water off site as well, again, this will add substantial costs to your event and something that needs to be factored in to your budget.

Refuge Collection

Another part of your infastructure budget will have to go on waste disposal. Look for a company with green credentials. There are lots of companies that will dispose of your waste in a green way. Recycling almost all of the waste you generate.

Thats all on utilities for now. Part three will be up soon where we will be looking at sound and lighting options for your event.

Within the next couple of weeks the team will be set up with the live sound equipment they need for live acts. We will be providing PA hire across London with the same punctual, polite service that we pride ourselves on at the Leeds base. For live and DJ based acts we will be providing sound for audiences from 50 to 5000 people with our range of Kv2 Audio EX and ES speakers.

We are working with a number of different companies in the Greater London area supplying DJ equipment hire to venues and events as well as supplying engineers to venues for live events with installed PA in the North London area.

For more information on what we can provide for your event in Leeds or London, please contact us from the contact page or fill in the form on this page.

In this first post I’m going to be looking at the location factors you need to consider when planning a festival. In furute posts I will be looking at sound & lighting, utilities and other factors you need to consider.

One of the most important factors is the location of your event. If this is a small private event such as a wedding or birthday, location isn’t so much an issue. If its a public event with a large amount of people attending, it will have a huge impact on the experience your ticket holders.

For larger events, transport links to the venue are key. Spending eight hours in a queue outside the festival is no ones idea of fun. Another consideration is parking, this is quite often an issue at small private functions and something people over look. Having a way to get people on and off site quickly is key. Private functions such as weddings should spare a thought for the needs of guests to get to and from the event. Are there local taxi firms in the area? Are there local hotels for the guests?

Is the area likely to flood or get very muddy? Sounds stupid but I worked a festival on a floodplain with a high probability of flooding and sure enough after heavy rain the ground became saturated and the area reserved for tents became a lake. Luckily this happened the day before the festival. Mud is part and parcel of a festival but not a private event. If you have a large amount of people in a small area its good to have solutions to deal with mud if there are no tracks laid down.

Space and access for your stage or marquee? You need a large enough space for your marquee or stage but you also need to think about access for the large lorries that will be arriving with the equipment. Difficult access that results in the companies crew carrying the equipment a large distance will result in higher costs and longer build times.

Theres lots more to think about regarding location and we will be dealing with these issues in future posts as they are more relevant to other subjects. Stay tuned.