Sound system rental in Singapore: sizing it

Headcount is the first number we are given and the least useful one on its own. Three hundred people listening to a panel and three hundred people at a dinner with a live band need different systems, in different positions, at different prices.

What actually decides the rig is the shape of the room and how many microphones will be open at once.

The room picks the speakers

Point source covers meeting rooms and ballrooms up to a few hundred people. Long rooms need a line array with delay fills, so that the back half hears the same thing as the front and hears it only slightly later. A room that is wide rather than deep has the opposite problem: coverage across the width, or the outside tables get a thin version of the event.

This is why a quote given over the phone is a guess. The same speaker count sounds like two different systems in a carpeted ballroom with a low ceiling and in a hall with hard floors and glass.

Channel count matters more than microphone count

Twelve microphones on a table with four open at a time is a smaller job than six radio microphones all live at once. Open channels are what the desk has to manage, what the radio frequency plan has to fit, and what decides whether one technician is enough.

The choice of microphone follows what people are doing, not preference:

• Wireless handhelds for roving question and answer, emcees and award presentations.
• Lavaliers and headsets for speakers who need both hands and for anyone being recorded. Headsets hold level when a presenter turns their head, which lavaliers do not.
• Lectern gooseneck and table microphones for panels, AGMs and board sessions.

Playback is its own job

A show laptop with a backup, audio from video handled at matched levels, and countdown and walk-in music are all part of the same desk. Video audio is the usual surprise: a clip mixed loud in an edit suite is jarring in a ballroom unless someone has checked it against the rest of the show beforehand.

How many people it takes

One audio technician minimum, and a second operator for panels running more than six microphones. Anything with live speech needs a technician for the whole event rather than a handover: levels change as a room fills, and radio microphones need channel management while the event is running. A playback-only setup in a small meeting room is the exception and can be handed over after a briefing.

If the event needs interpreters

Simultaneous translation booths are set up in the room for the interpreters, and they change the audio plan rather than sitting beside it. Worth raising early, because the booths need floor space and sightlines to the stage.

What moves the price

The number of open microphones, the room size and shape, the load-in window, and whether the venue's house system can carry part of the job. That last one is worth asking the venue directly: a house system that covers speech reinforcement can take a real cost out of the quote, and a house system that cannot has to be found out before the day rather than during it.

What to send us

The venue and room, the layout, how many people will speak and how, whether there is live music, and the running order in whatever state it exists. The corporate AV and sound page sets out what a standard rig includes, and the equipment list covers the microphones and speaker systems behind it.