The Complete AV Equipment Hire Checklist for Your Gold Coast Event (+ 8 Questions to Ask Any Hire Company)

The fastest way to an accurate quote — and the best way to avoid surprise costs later — is to brief your hire company properly the first time. Before you reach out, pin down the following:

• Date, bump-in and bump-out times. Not just the event time. AV needs setup and pack-down windows, and your venue's access hours dictate both.
• Venue and room. Name the space if you can. A company that has worked your venue before can anticipate ceiling height, power, loading access and acoustic quirks.
• Headcount and room layout. 40 people seated for a presentation is a different rig to 300 standing at a product launch.
• What actually has to happen. Speeches and slides? Live music? A panel with lapel mics? A hybrid session streamed to remote guests? Each adds specific gear.
• Indoor or outdoor. Outdoor events change everything: weather cover, power and generators, and brighter screens or projectors that survive daylight.
• Your budget range. Sharing a ballpark isn't weakness — it lets a good supplier spec the right solution instead of guessing.

If you're still scoping, browse our hire catalogue to see typical gear and pricing structures, or read our AV for events overview to understand what a full setup usually includes. The more of the above you can answer, the tighter and faster your quote will be.

Use this as your master list. You won't need every line for every event — tick what applies and ignore the rest.

Sound - PA and speakers sized to the room and headcount (under-powered audio is the most common complaint we're called to fix) - Microphones: handheld, lapel/lavalier, headset or podium — and how many - A mixing desk and, for anything beyond a couple of mics, a sound operator - Playback for music or video audio, plus the right cables and adapters for presenters' laptops

Vision - A screen or projector sized so the back row can read it — and bright enough for the room's lighting - The correct inputs (HDMI, USB-C) and adapters for every device that will present - A confidence monitor for speakers if it's a formal presentation - For multiple cameras, recording or remote guests, see our live streaming and multi-camera production options

Lighting - Stage or speaker lighting so faces aren't in shadow on camera or to the room - Ambient or feature lighting to set the mood (uplighting, festoon, wash)

Power and rigging - Enough circuits and outlets for the full rig (overloaded power trips shows mid-sentence) - Generators for outdoor or off-grid sites - Safe cable management, staging and rigging, and correct weight loading — non-negotiable in any public venue

Logistics - Delivery, setup, operation and pack-down — confirmed in writing, with who does what - A tech rehearsal window before doors open

Need a confident answer on audio specifically? Our sound engineering page explains how we spec systems to the room rather than to a price point.

These are the questions that reveal who you're really dealing with. Ask them of every supplier you're comparing — the answers matter more than the headline price.

1. Do you own the gear you're quoting, or are you sub-hiring it? Companies that own their kit know its exact condition and service history. Sub-hired gear can arrive untested, mismatched or substituted at the last minute. We own our equipment, so what we quote is what turns up.

2. What's your backup plan if something fails on the day? The right answer is specific: a hot spare ready to swap in on site, not a promise to drive back to the warehouse. Critical mics, mixers and outputs should have redundancy built in. We carry hot, redundant backup gear to events for exactly this reason.

3. Are you fully insured, and what's your public liability cover? Most reputable venues won't let an uninsured supplier load in, and the figure tells you how seriously a company takes risk. Ask for proof, not reassurance — OnPoint carries $20 million in public liability cover and can supply documentation venues require.

4. Can you supply the safety documentation my venue asks for? Larger venues request risk assessments, test-and-tag records and method statements. A supplier who can produce these without fuss has done it many times before.

5. Have you worked at my venue before? Familiarity saves time and prevents nasty surprises around power, access and acoustics.

6. What exactly is included — delivery, setup, operation and pack-down — and what's extra? Get it itemised. "AV from $X" often excludes the labour that makes it actually work. Comparing two quotes only means something when they include the same scope — our AV hire cost guide walks through the line items people forget.

7. How much time do you allow for setup and a tech rehearsal? Problems surface during setup, not during the show. A supplier who builds in buffer time is telling you they take it seriously.

8. Can one team handle everything, or am I coordinating multiple vendors? A single crew that covers sound, vision, lighting and operation means one point of contact and no finger-pointing if something goes wrong.

If a supplier gets defensive on any of these, that's your answer. We built OnPoint's AV service around exactly these criteria: we own our gear, carry hot backups, hold $20 million in public liability cover, and deliver the whole setup on one invoice.

Plenty of events fail not because any single supplier was bad, but because three of them didn't talk to each other. The sound company blames the lighting rig for the buzz; the screen hire blames the venue's power; nobody owns the problem and the clock keeps ticking.

The combination that actually protects your event is owned gear, genuine on-site redundancy, and a single team running sound, vision, lighting and operation together. Because we own our equipment rather than sub-hiring it, we know its condition and bring hot backups for the parts that can't fail. Because it's one brief, one setup plan and one crew rehearsing together, there's one number to call if anything needs adjusting — and one company that's accountable, fully insured to $20 million in public liability. It's also usually easier on the budget once you account for the separate delivery fees, minimum charges and coordination time that multiple vendors each add.

This is the core of how we work across the Gold Coast and South East Queensland. From a boardroom presentation to a 500-seat conference or an outdoor product launch, OnPoint brings the gear, the backups and the accountability under one roof. Explore the full AV for events service or browse the hire catalogue to start scoping your setup.

Outdoor and off-grid events add a layer the average checklist misses, and it's the one that catches people out. The moment you leave a venue with reliable mains power and wifi, three things become live issues:

• Power. No venue circuits means generators sized to the rig, with safe distribution and a margin for the load. Under-spec power is a show-stopper, literally.
• Connectivity. Hybrid sessions, live streaming, card payments and ticket scanning all need a stable connection. Patchy venue wifi or a single phone hotspot won't hold up. Depending on the venue and scale, we can provide bonded 4G/5G failover and managed guest wifi, and for genuinely remote sites our Starlink event internet keeps things online where there's no fixed line at all.
• Weather and daylight. Outdoor screens and projectors must survive sunlight, and everything needs weather cover and a wet-weather plan.

For large gatherings — think a few thousand people across a site — the connectivity question scales up too. Bonded failover and managed guest wifi for big crowds depend on the venue and scale, so it's quoted to the specific event rather than promised blanket. The principle stays the same as the rest of this checklist: scope it honestly up front, and pick a supplier who brings redundancy rather than crossing their fingers.

If social engagement matters at your event, we also run a hashtag and social-print station that prints guests' tagged photos live — a small addition that does a lot for the room. Browse the full range in the hire catalogue to see what fits.