Choose the right equipment
How do you choose the right Audio Visual equipment for your event?
We hope the following tips and some questions to maybe consider will help you make the right choice in selecting the right equipment for your event.
So whats the starting point…..
PRICES
Quite possibly your first thought but one of the most common questions you should be asking is exactly what am I getting for the initial online or phone quote.
Check that your supplier has included:
- Delivery charges.
- Will they charge you extra for setting up the equipment?
- Will they require a deposit
- Will they want you to pay extra for Insurance.
What exactly am I going to be getting for my money…. this covers such a wide range of questions but once you have got the price established you should be thinking about the quality of the equipment you would expect.
Just as no two different cars have the same spec or performance then you will probably find that no two sets of AV equipment are the same.
PROJECTORS
For example you want to hire a projector do you go for the one costing £40 or £50 they are the same right ? wrong !!
IS IT BRIGHT ENOUGH?
How powerful is your projector going to be ? a starting rating point can be 1500 lumens or less but a 2000 Lumen projector gives a much brighter image.
How many hours approx will your projector lamp have been used for before you get it.
If its over 1000 hours it might be be starting to get dimmer.
WILL IT WORK WITH MY DEVICE?
What connections does it provide you with ?
A lot of older projectors might not have an HDMI connection for example so this maybe points to it being an older type.
Also please check to see if it has the right connections for your PC or Mac or tablet to connect to. It might need an additional adaptor.
HOW DO I CONNECT IT?
What resolution do I need or how clear are the images going to be.
You might have the most expensive top of the range laptop capable of showing 4K content, but if you are connecting it to a 5 year old projector it won’t be capable of displaying the same high quality images you have produced but will scale it down to its native resolution or the best image it can project which might be way lower quality than you want.
WHAT SIZE IMAGE DO YOU NEED TO BE PROJECTED?
This really will determine what projector type size and power you will need.
If you have a good idea of your audience size check with your supplier what size screen they recommend, the size of the image desired will then allow your supplier to determine the the output of the projector.
Put simply the bigger the screen the more powerful projector you will need to ensure the image stays bright and clear.
DO YOU NEED SOUND ?
Please don’t forget to check if any audio is going to be required with your presentation.
Very few projectors in our experience have any decent speakers inbuilt so please ask if you need any additional sound reinforcement for your event.
Its normally a case of simply connecting any additional speakers to the source such as a mini jack connector to your laptop although beware…. things are just about to get more interesting as suppliers such as Apple start to move away from the good old mini jack connector.
If you still have any doubt please do not hesitate to contact us.