How to fill a HUGE venue

[DJ Jules]

I need to draw on the collective experience of the forum for a gig I've been asked to quote for.

It's in the biggest venue I know of in Bristol. It's 29m x 57m with a 9m (30ft) ceiling. They're expecting roughly 500-600 guests and the evening is to be a presentation evening followed by band followed by disco.

I'd expect my PA to be able to cater for the dance floor area in the venue without too much trouble (there's going to be a sit down meal earlier in the evening so I'd expect the dance floor to be roughly half the length of the venue at most), but the challenge is going to be that they want to be able to feed the bands into my PA as well, and also use it for speeches for the presentation segment of the evening.

For people to be able to hear clearly towards the back of the venue I'd expect to need to put in a few sets of speakers at 15m intervals down the length of the venue (3/4 sets in total?) Does this sound about right?

Does anyone have any experience/advice of rigging in a venue this size? They're not interested in uplighting either (probably a good thing given the number of fixtures required to light the room!) but does anyone have any advice about how to light a dance floor this length/width?

Julian

[Excalibur]

Julian, you need professional help. ;) That's a big ask, because it needs to be so many things. Sorry I can't offer any real help. :( :o

[DJ Jules]

Julian, you need professional help. ;) That's a big ask, because it needs to be so many things. Sorry I can't offer any real help. :( :o

That was my feeling - I suspect that if I put in a what I have, it's going to fulfil some of their requirements, but not all of them.

Typically, this requirement for a large PA and extra kit also comes at a time when I'm trying to scale back the amount of kit I have :(

[Excalibur]

That was my feeling - I suspect that if I put in a what I have, it's going to fulfil some of their requirements, but not all of them.

Typically, this requirement for a large PA and extra kit also comes at a time when I'm trying to scale back the amount of kit I have :(

But as Tony A1 would say, it's not just a matter of stacking up all the boxes you have at one end of the hall. You're going to need infill at various points,particularly for the speeches, and it's surely going to involve delay.

[DJ Jules]

But as Tony A1 would say, it's not just a matter of stacking up all the boxes you have at one end of the hall. You're going to need infill at various points,particularly for the speeches, and it's surely going to involve delay.

Now that's a question I was going to ask - when you infill down the room, do you put a delay line between each set so that the infill speakers sound in time with the main PA (i.e. you delay the signal to each set in line with the time it takes for the sound to get from the main PA to the infill speakers) or do you daisy chain them straight from the main PA (so you hear the speakers nearest to you instantly, and then likely hear the sound from the main PA as an echo if you're further down the room?)

Julian

[Paul S]

Hi Julian.

Is it the Passenger shed at the Empire and Commonwealth Museum per chance? If so I've just finished my Christmas season in there.

Paul

[NKR]

Julian, you need professional help. ;) That's a big ask, because it needs to be so many things. Sorry I can't offer any real help. :( :o

Yep I would be onto my mate to hire him in for sound on that. He carries a three box ssystem and charges £450 to hire himself and his gear in. That would probably be just about enough for that size room, JUST.

[TONYTIGER]

I need to draw on the collective experience of the forum for a gig I've been asked to quote for.

It's in the biggest venue I know of in Bristol. It's 29m x 57m with a 9m (30ft) ceiling. They're expecting roughly 500-600 guests and the evening is to be a presentation evening followed by band followed by disco.

I'd expect my PA to be able to cater for the dance floor area in the venue without too much trouble (there's going to be a sit down meal earlier in the evening so I'd expect the dance floor to be roughly half the length of the venue at most), but the challenge is going to be that they want to be able to feed the bands into my PA as well, and also use it for speeches for the presentation segment of the evening.

For people to be able to hear clearly towards the back of the venue I'd expect to need to put in a few sets of speakers at 15m intervals down the length of the venue (3/4 sets in total?) Does this sound about right?

Does anyone have any experience/advice of rigging in a venue this size? They're not interested in uplighting either (probably a good thing given the number of fixtures required to light the room!) but does anyone have any advice about how to light a dance floor this length/width?

Julian

Hi ,i have done this venue a few times for the university ,used a 10kw system into a A & H 20 channel mixer then just fed my dj playout out of this mixer,as for lighting used a couple of heavy Duty winch stands and some trussing at the back of the stage put the stage and dj effects all on the same span some good lasers work well in there had the rig about 5 m of the ground.I may be wrong as i am no authority on this subject but if you run smaller PA down the sides you may get delay problems.There are some good hire outfits in Bristol.Thunder Ridge is one i can think of.

[cjd]

You need delay units setting speakers at lengths along the hall. Sound travels at 330ms? so even 10m is noticable

[Danno13]

Hi Jules,

I could help you with the additional PA/processing, large lighting rig inc. truss and movers and also the kit needed to run the band through the PA too.

Drop me a PM or email if you're interested :)

[DJ Frankie]

Hi Jules if its the passenger shed then yes its a huge venue to fill.
Talk to Chris from Top Notch he is based in Exeter and should be able to help out, in fact I have some pics on my website when I dj'ed there for a corporate gig some years back although they hired in a massive PA system for it.

[Get Me A DJ]

Hi Jules,

I could help you with the additional PA/processing, large lighting rig inc. truss and movers and also the kit needed to run the band through the PA too.

Drop me a PM or email if you're interested :)

You do something this big!
I seem to remember you asking me how to put up a mirror ball in a marque not so long ago :D

Seriously though, if you want a hand Dan, give me a shout as I've been on the touring circuit doing the pretty lights

[Danno13]

There wasn't any issue with rigging it, it was simply the safety aspect of going up a ladder without anyone to hold it! :D

[TONYTIGER]

And of course i am a hour and a bit away and have done this venue before and much cheaper than the rest.;)

[Danno13]

How could you possibly know that?

[Get Me A DJ]

And of course i am a hour and a bit away and have done this venue before and much cheaper than the rest.;)

Yet another fifty quid Sid then :D



How could you possibly know that?

Well at least I can hang par 36 lamps straight and secure, unlike someone I could mention :D

Regarding the ladder, that's your excuse because you where going to kick the bottom of it whilst I was on it to see how hard I fell.

Sorry guys, off topic but Dan started it ;)

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

And of course i am a hour and a bit away


How could you possibly know that?

Sat nav? :D

[Get Me A DJ]

Sat nav? :D

Good call :D

[Andy Goodtimes]

Danno got there first and he's an old mate and will do you a good job and also he's closer than me but if it falls through then ring me.

I would personally put a stack in each corner, either turbo Sound or Function 1 with a control booth at the far end. I wouldn't put speakrs at intervals up the room. for delay its nothing to do with time taken for sound to travel between speakers, its to do with sound travelling from the speakers to people's ears and with speakers up the room its virtualy impossible to set delay properly. Personally as the room is big but not massive I might not use delay at all or I might just use it for the speeches when folk are seated...assuming the bulk of the seating is going to be prob confined to 2/3rds of the room beyond the dance floor.

Lighting is pretty easy when compared to sound, Wizards, movers and lasers and prob an arch out of about 12 visio bars and corner pieces.

Good that you are asking and obviously want to do it right, there are those that will go along and bluff it and even with a 4k rig at one end it wouldn't really do the job at all well and would prob not go down well as it sounds like the organiser wants a proper night out of it.

I did a couple of the same sounding type of jobs just before Christmas, the best being for Hut Group, we had over a thousand folk, brilliant 13 piece band called Spitting Feathers, awsum girl singer/pianist, me doing some MCing and stand-up and DJing, speeches and so on, I ran it all off one desk using pretty much the kit I described above and it looked and sounded superb.

[Get Me A DJ]

I ran it all off one desk using pretty much the kit I described above and it looked and sounded superb.

Ok then, where's the pictures to show us :D

[TONYTIGER]

How could you possibly know that?

Because i have seen your prices :eek: .

[Danno13]

Seeing as this would be a bespoke quote that can't possibly be true as I've never sent you a full hire price list, nor is it published on my website :confused:

[TONYTIGER]

Seeing as this would be a bespoke quote that can't possibly be true as I've never sent you a full hire price list, nor is it published on my website :confused:

Im afraid i have if you are Revolution Events .co.uk about 40-50% more than our prices.i just looked on your site £ 90 for a stand & 4 Par 56s with control.
bit steep,Karaoke system £115 double ours and so on.
But this op was about giving advice to a fellow member who was asking advice to do the the large hall by Temple Meads Station Bristol .Paul and myself have done this monster venue and it needs some serious kit which i see no sign of on your hire lists,so gave some advice of what i used and said we are very cheap which we are compared to other rental houses in the South West which by the way i have been running since before you were born it was you that got shirty with my post and i hope you can help him out its no skin of my nose,but i think you may be stretched because when i last did it i had to throw about £ 30.000 worth of kit at it to make any sort of impression.By the way i do like your site and no hard feelings.:)

[Danno13]

I didn't mean to come across as shirty, same as you probably don't mean to come across so patronising ;) I just had no idea how you could claim to be the cheapest without having a quote for this specific job, from every other operator. I have no idea why being the cheapest should be a good thing anyway!

I beleive the OP asked for fill-in for the seating area and additional lighting, which I could cope with quite happily.

The prices on my site need updating as they're actually way too cheap - you'll notice they include delivery/setup and VAT so definitley need to go up. Anyhow, they're only really a guide to put off the cheapskates that want a whole DIY DJ rig for £50 as they reckon £100 for a DJ is too expensive :D

[TONYTIGER]

I didn't mean to come across as shirty, same as you probably don't mean to come across so patronising ;) I just had no idea how you could claim to be the cheapest without having a quote for this specific job, from every other operator. I have no idea why being the cheapest should be a good thing anyway!

I beleive the OP asked for fill-in for the seating area and additional lighting, which I could cope with quite happily.

The prices on my site need updating as they're actually way too cheap - you'll notice they include delivery/setup and VAT so definitley need to go up. Anyhow, they're only really a guide to put off the cheapskates that want a whole DIY DJ rig for £50 as they reckon £100 for a DJ is too expensive :D

You wait to you see the size of this venue you could put a Jumbo Jet in there as for lighting you will need all discharge run of the mill disco lighting will not cut it as for PA i sub contracted that out 4 years ago cost £ 1200 + vat .

Take my word for it your prices are not cheap check out some real rental houses not mobiles offering extra services.
Example Par 56 with frame £ 3 lighting stand £ 6 up lighters Par 56 led £ 7
but if you can get more go for it.:)

And i thought you said there were no prices on your website :confused:

[Danno13]

You're quoting DRY hire prices there though and mine are actually exactly the same, well, £1 more for LED pars and a bit more for stands.

Again, the prices you've seen on my website INCLUDE SETUP, for which most real rental houses* will add at least £100+VAT to the dry hire rate, to cover the cost of an engineer.

I said there wasn't a full hire price list on my website, not that there weren't any prices at all :)

This is getting silly anyway, you're telling me that I couldn't cope with the job and then in the same breath telling us you subcontracted out most of the job out when you did it... Ok then!

*not that it's any of your business but I've taken twice as much in hire bookings as I have for DJing so far this (financial) year.

[TONYTIGER]

You're quoting DRY hire prices there though and mine are actually exactly the same, well, £1 more for LED pars and a bit more for stands.

Again, the prices you've seen on my website INCLUDE SETUP, for which most "real" (whatever that means) rental houses will add at least £100+VAT to the dry hire rate, to cover the cost of an engineer.

I said there wasn't a full hire price list on my website, not that there weren't any prices at all :)

This is getting silly anyway, you're telling me that I couldn't cope with the job and then in the same breath telling us you subcontracted out most of the job out when you did it... Ok then!
The reason ,i cant run a full live band rig and a 30 fixture double truss lighting rig,and again im trying to give you some good advice re the venue,i wont post again on this topic as you don,t seem to need advice from someone who has been doing this for a very long time.

[Danno13]

I'd be grateful if you just stuck to the advice then, rather than making remarks about my business based mostly on guesswork and your delusion that because you've been doing something a long time, you know everything :)

[cjd]

You could hire a line array stack of turbosound, logic audio... along those lines from a professional hire company. That would be around £200 for speakers to fill the room.

With lights, if you can get a rig up then a few hand chain hoists and a square section of rigging. Then you can hang some MHs and scanners + your lights and not have to carry them up a ladder. Would require some helpers. That or a goalpost truss. Once you add control this is where the cost starts mounting up and why a package deal from a hire company would be best.

It depends on their budget. If they arn't willing to pay to impress 600 people, then I guess they are expecting the normal disco type lighting but just on a larger scale IMO.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

The reason ,i cant run a full live band rig and a 30 fixture double truss lighting rig,and again im trying to give you some good advice re the venue,i wont post again on this topic as you don,t seem to need advice from someone who has been doing this for a very long time.

Where's your website and business details then, out of interest Tony? We hear a lot about how long you have been going and what you do, so it would be nice to see what you do or read a bit about it.

Also, how does it work with doing gigs abroad?

I have asked a few questions before as I am interested but never really got replies! What is the name of your rental business? :)

[SC Events]

Is this what you're after Darren?

http://www.tonyjamesdisco.co.uk/page_1192022238203.html

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Is this what you're after Darren?

http://www.tonyjamesdisco.co.uk/page_1192022238203.html

Yeah, nice one Scott. :)

[jamesh]

I need to draw on the collective experience of the forum for a gig I've been asked to quote for.

It's in the biggest venue I know of in Bristol. It's 29m x 57m with a 9m (30ft) ceiling. They're expecting roughly 500-600 guests and the evening is to be a presentation evening followed by band followed by disco.

I'd expect my PA to be able to cater for the dance floor area in the venue without too much trouble (there's going to be a sit down meal earlier in the evening so I'd expect the dance floor to be roughly half the length of the venue at most), but the challenge is going to be that they want to be able to feed the bands into my PA as well, and also use it for speeches for the presentation segment of the evening.

Julian

Hi Julian,

Going to ignore the stag fight between Dan and Tony as myself and dan have worked together on a number of jobs and have combined kit on more than one occasion but i know nothing of Tony or his work so will stay out of that...

But If you need a hand with this give me a ring or email or have a look at www.ukeventservices.co.uk .

We have delt with events of this size before and spent the silly season installing & running the Lighting and PA at 3 sites for corporate Christmas parties with the biggest being 1300 people each night (with a marquee bigger than the measurements you quote) and the smallest being 500 people so know we are able to cope with it.

(in fact Dan was doing one of the marquee's too!)

Within our hire stock we have a variety of Trussing, lighting effects and PA of various power including double 18" subs, Long throw tops, single 18", 15" and monitor speakers and have a good working relationship with a number of local companies when additional kit is needed...

Over the fireworks weekend we provided the PA, lighting and staging for the second year running for a fireworks event for 15,000 people and then the next night for 8,000 which all involved the joys of controlling the PA and lighting for the bands and the joys of delay stacks and making it sound nice over distances.

Now don't get me wrong we aren't the cheapest on the market (and if tony thinks Dan is expensive he might have a heart attack at some of the prices listed) but then as others have said i really don't see that as a selling point - you wouldn't want to risk hiring a £50 disco would you so why would you want to hire the cheapest PA and lighting company to do it for you...

Anyway if you need a hand or would like a quote get in contact and i'll see what i can do for you.

[Danno13]

Oi, bugger off you :D

[DJ Jules]

Blimey, turn your back for five minutes and it all kicks off ;)

Thanks to everyone for their responses and advice - I've learnt a fair bit just from the info on here and from talking to a few people about the kit needed to run this venue. However, in this case, I declined to quote for the gig as a) I don't really have the time to co-ordinate suppliers to run it and I'm well out of my depth with my own kit and b) I had another booking come in for the same night which was more "in my league". I ended up passing the details to Sounds Direct in Pilning, but the customer had already booked elsewhere by the time they contacted him.

Thanks again to Danno, Tony, James and Paul S for their advice and especially Paul S for taking the time to share his experience of the venue and putting me in contact with Sounds Direct.

Julian

[TONYTIGER]

Where's your website and business details then, out of interest Tony? We hear a lot about how long you have been going and what you do, so it would be nice to see what you do or read a bit about it.

Also, how does it work with doing gigs abroad?

I have asked a few questions before as I am interested but never really got replies! What is the name of your rental business? :)

Hi Darren,just caught up with your post,web site details on the forum in my profile.

T & T Sound & Light Hire the two Ts stand for Timmy & Tony so have my son as a partner to help me out plus my wife who is a fully qualified Lighting Designer and used to work for a well known broadcasting company,so its all family .Timmy produces our music releases (new EP out this Month) and does a lot of our oversea ,s work currently due to start the ski resorts big scene this time of year.our clubs have good managers in so look after themselves.
So have a finger in many pies,i just do a few mobiles now and then to keep my hand in and of course the ones that look interesting.