Big-Screen & AV Hire for Race Days, Origin & Functions on the Gold Coast

Big-screen hire isn't a one-off — it's a season. The same handful of dates drive demand every year, so booking early matters (peak dates like Cup day book out):

• Spring Racing & the Melbourne Cup (late October to early November) — the race that stops the nation. Corporate lunches, marquees, pubs and clubs all want screens and sound for the race and the fashions.
• State of Origin (May to July, three games) — enormous in Queensland. Clubs, workplaces and backyard functions.
• AFL & NRL Grand Finals (late September to early October).
• One-off blockbusters — World Cups, the Ashes, the Olympics, UFC and boxing pay-per-views.
• Function season — Christmas parties, New Year's Eve and Australia Day, often with a screen for slideshows, speeches or the cricket.

Because these repeat, the kit you book for the Cup is the same gear that covers Origin and the grand final — so it's worth getting your screen, signal and sound sorted once, with a supplier who delivers and sets it up.

The single biggest factor is how far the back of your crowd sits from the screen. Get it wrong and half the room squints; get it right and nobody moves. A rough guide:

• 55-inch to 65-inch TV — a boardroom, bar corner or office lunch (up to roughly 20-30 viewers).
• 75-inch to 85-inch TV — a function room, medium marquee or club lounge (around 30-80).
• Projector + screen — a large indoor room where you want a really big image on a budget; best in controlled lighting.
• LED screen / video wall — bright, seamless and huge; the premium option for big rooms, stages and anywhere with ambient light a projector can't fight.
• Mobile LED trailer — a self-contained giant screen on wheels for outdoor events, race-day marquees, festivals and car parks; no rigging, runs off its own power, and stays visible in daylight.

Indoor and small-to-medium? A TV is simplest. Outdoors, in daylight, or for a big crowd? That's LED or projector territory. We'll match the screen to your room rather than over- or under-spec it, and bring stands or mounts to suit the venue.

Here's the mistake that catches people out every Melbourne Cup: they hire a normal TV, set it up in an open marquee or out on a deck, and the moment the sun swings around in the afternoon the screen washes out — right as the big race is on. A standard TV is built for lounge rooms, at roughly 300 to 500 nits of brightness, and direct sunlight simply overpowers it. You end up with a crowd squinting at a grey rectangle.

An outdoor-rated, high-brightness screen is a different beast — 3,000-plus nits, so it stays crisp and watchable in direct sun. That's the difference between a packed room glued to the home straight and a flat afternoon where nobody can see the finish.

The simple rule of thumb:

• Indoors, or a fully covered marquee with the sun behind the screen — a standard TV is perfect, and cheaper.
• Direct sun, open-sided marquees, decks, lawns or any bright afternoon spot — go for an outdoor-rated, high-brightness screen (or LED for the bigger jobs).

Not sure how the light will fall on the day? Tell us the venue and the start time and we'll make the call — there's no saving in a screen nobody can watch.

A screen is only as good as the feed behind it — and 'we'll just use the venue WiFi' is exactly how the picture freezes on the final straight. There are two reliable ways to get the broadcast onto your screen, and we supply both:

• Free-to-air via antenna — for anything on a free channel (Channel 7's Melbourne Cup, the Origin on Nine, the cricket), a proper TV antenna gives you a rock-solid local broadcast with no internet involved. Simple and bulletproof.
• Online streaming via reliable event internet — for Kayo, Foxtel, Stan or anything not free-to-air, you need internet that won't buckle when a few hundred phones are also on it. This is where OnPoint's event internet comes in: bonded connections and Starlink, sized to the venue and the crowd, so the stream holds when it matters most.

The point is simple: don't leave the signal to chance. Tell us what you're watching and where, and we'll lock in the source — antenna, streaming, or both with one as a backup.

A muted big screen kills the atmosphere — you want the crowd to hear the commentary down the home straight and the music between races. For anything beyond a small room, a screen's built-in speakers won't carry over a crowd.

We pair screens with the right PA — from a single powered speaker for a bar corner through to a full system with microphones for an MC, presentations, sponsor announcements or a race-day calcutta. One supplier, one setup, one bill, and it's all tested before you go live.

To get you an accurate quote fast, have these handy:

1. The event and date — and whether your date is locked, since peak dates book out.
2. The venue, and whether it's indoor or outdoor — outdoor or daylight usually points to LED or a trailer.
3. Roughly how many people, and how far the back row sits from the screen.
4. What you're watching and on which channel — so we sort antenna vs streaming (and a backup if it's a must-not-miss).
5. Power and access — a standard power point is fine for a TV; LED, projector and outdoor setups we'll plan around.

We deliver, set up, test the picture and sound, and pack down across the Gold Coast and SE Queensland. As a working production company we also carry backup gear, so a single glitch doesn't end the party. Browse the lineup on our hire portal or the full catalogue, and tell us about your event to get a quote.