TonyMitchell

We bought the Radial Engineering BT-Pro v2 DI box for this purpose. Nice piece of kit, does the job well and seems to have a good range. So much better than fighting with different adaptors, phones that need to be shoe-horned out of their cases to connect a mini TRS. The best thing is being able to let the phone / tablet owner operate their own audio stops & starts. BT-Pro V2 - Radial Engineering

We have used CPL Felthams and found their products to be well made and very long lasting (we have some covers of theirs that are 12+ years old) Speaker Covers by CPL Felthams (prospeakercovers.co.uk)

I've always had great results with the A2003 antennae, achieving impressive distances outdoors, with little if any RF signal strength drop-off. The best tips I would give are; get them up as high as you can, at least a couple of metres apart and splayed circa 90 deg. to each other.

I'm still trying to get my head around how the OP's business has less than £200 overheads per month. Surely, just filling the van up even if only twice a month, paying the self storage and telephone bills uses that up? What about asset depreciation on the inventory, which the OP acknowledged he has to keep relatively up to date, TfL charges, insurance, marketing, HLP, etc. etc?

@Kerry - Post #18 above, you've quoted me, however it was Stuart's

Over the past few years, there's an increasing trend for Guest DJs to bring their own controller, so as a technician when setting up the booth you only need to run a pair of XLR for FOH and a pair of TRS for their monitors. You're right on the thing about riders demanding the very latest model, although as yet no-one has rejected our 6 year old CDJ2000 Nexus stock, because it's not the latest NXS2 version. As with live, so long as you agree substitutes in advance, there's no problem.

@Paul - the low bitrate MP3 rips I mentioned earlier do all of those things, without a button. @Sunray - there's another category, sure there'll be more... 5/ club djs booked to play at private/corporate events "because they are amazing as they play at <insert whatever club name>". They travel light with a single USB stick and subject a mixed age audience to whatever their niche genre is for four hours, completely oblivious to the fact that the dancefloor is empty, but still demanding more volume both at FOH and in their already stupidly loud monitors just a few inches from their head.

If you progress what you're thinking, give it a year and it will completely change your outlook in that you will love and respect the structured, corporate way of working more, whilst loathing and resenting the "casual/informal" approach that you currently think may be good. It won't be good. From your introduction, you're used to dealing with intelligent situations & people who are likely adhere to their side of the contract, are solvent and look after the rental/leased equipment. Welcome to dealing with the exact opposite. As others have already indicated, there's probably no real market to rent out "entry level" DJ equipment, when dave doubledecks can buy a secondhand pair of powered speakers, a laptop with 50,000 low bitrate MP3s and a few lights that flash coloured dots around the room for a few hundred quid from gumtree. So the next level up comprises those who will either trash your kit, fill up the decks with beer and leave cigarette burns on your mixer, or hire it with the outright intention of never returning it. Every one of these donkeys that phone or email you will be a "qualified sound engineer", whatever that means. Just accept it, it's a thing. Pioneer CDJs and DJMs are the most sought after items in these circles, as they can be converted into cash (weed) quickly, with no questions asked. We do hire out CDJs, DJMs and 1210s, but, and it's a big 'but' - only when also hired with a d&b audiotechnik sound system package, to corporate events and high end weddings where the technician arrives, sets up, stays with the kit to engineer/babysit and removes it at the end of the night. Never do we dry hire and never do we leave kit unattended. No exceptions, not for anybody. Which is why this only represents a very small part of our overall PA business.

8S is from the install series, I've no experience of these, compare the specs with an E8 and you'll see if they are suitable for your application.

The most cost effective 4-channel amplifier could be a Thomann t.amp TSA-4-700, which delivers 810W/4r, will set you back circa £330 and has plenty of good reviews At the same level, there is a Behringer NX4-6000, similar output, sub £300, good reviews but not so many. Then you step up to QSC/Crown/LabGruppen 4-channel offerings but the money goes into the thousands. There's not much in the middle ground if you're going the 4-ch route.

E8 would be better, since your floor to ceiling height is only 7'3". E8 mounted horizontally at ceiling height would come down 9", leaving 6'6" clearance Rotate the 90/50 horn to give 90deg horizontal pattern A single Q-SUB in one corner should suffice Be mindful /responsible re.potentially high SPLs at very close range, considering how small the space is and how close people could be to the loudspeakers

I tried rechargeables years ago and quickly reverted away from them. The sudden drop off rendered the meters on the RX useless and it was quite scary going from three bars to no bars within minutes. Ensuring there were always units charged up/charging is just another job you can do without. For the price and predictably of decent AAs when bought in bulk, IMO rechargeables aren't worth the hassle.

I have a 15 year old Dymo, which works well with most compatible cartridges. The only criticism would be the excess margin either side of the printed section when the tape is cut, particularly when using thin tapes, so they get manually trimmed.

On the subject of the H&H wedges, worth pointing out these shouldn't be confused with the much loved vintage H&H gear of the 70s/80s, from H&H of Bar Hill, Cambridge. Or for that matter, gear from the years after they were acquired by BLT Industries and were in the West Midlands at the Headstock/Laney stable - again all great stuff. H&H nowadays is just far east imports sporting the familiar badge, built lets say somewhat differently to the real deal (I know of original V800s still going strong that are pushing 50 years).

I'd add Leisuretec Distribution to your list.

We have about 20 K&M (non winch) stands and there's always a few in the corner broken. They travel in the proper k&M bags and are not rough handled, however this does not stop the sprung pin coming adrift and falling into the tubing. The only negative on the Powerdrives is a somewhat inadequate wing nut to tighten the base, which if over tightened tears and spins. A couple of ours therefore have a G-clamp attached to the base, which suffices.

Powerdrive "Midihoist" winch stand, with the appropriate spigot adaptor on top. We have eight of them, mostly for outdoor use, one pair we had black powder coated to make them look nice for indoor applications.

Will that be compatible with the OMFG400? It is when disco dave plugs his widowmaker into 13s on two different phases...

Paul, I've only ever seen tops semi-permanently attached and transported together in flown situations. I have seen VRX tops over ground stacked VRX subs using the pole mount on the top sub, however I imagine the tops are manhandled individually each time. Agree with Gary's point re the weld, perhaps Nid can advise on whether these have been stress tested and SWL rated by an engineer?

Braked wheels can easily become disengaged inadvertently, I'm often doing it when working around trunks in steel toecaps. Particularly on a raked stage, one brake released can cause a mass to shift forward and that little lot could end up on the floor, injuring someone on its way. Each to their own, but I would not allow it on my RAMS.

@Nid, digressing slightly and I appreciate it may not be your setup, but that loaded dolly is an accident waiting to happen. Just saying...

E5 / E6 ?

Unless looking to permanently install outdoors, I would forget about the IP rating of the enclosures themselves and look to use with acoustically transparent (e.g. Austronet 204FR) jackets. We use these on our E8 boxes and they are amazing, leaving a totally dry box inside, despite being subjected to hours of rainfall. When you say "active speakers", do you mean "powered speakers"? If so, then in one word, don't. An amplifier module built into a loudspeaker cabinet needs rear ventilation, as that's the only ventilation route. If you restrict this, you will quickly end up with thermal cutout (on a 'better' box) or possibly just a box on fire. Also, most powered boxes use an IEC60320-C14 connector or Powercon connector for the 230V, which is not suitably IP rated for outdoor use, where IP44 should be a minimum. Use unpowered boxes outdoors. Don't believe most of what you are told in "AV shops" and "disco shops". You will generally be told what you want to hear and what they want to sell you, because it's been in the shop for a long time, or because the manufacturer is replacing it with something new. Forget "arrays", the shop staff like the word because they think it sounds cool, however they don't know the meaning, nor the science. For the type of outdoor use you have described, your biggest battle for what you describe as the "loud setting" will be environmental. To be honest, you should get change from £4k on what really needs to be not much more than a mobile dj system, with some waterproof jackets. Perhaps a half decent single 18" sub and a pair of 12"+CD mid/tops, two reasonable amplifiers, cases & cables.

Keeping it simple, if you have a pair of 4Ω speakers rated at 250W and are selecting an amplifier to drive them, one loudspeaker per channel, with sufficient headroom, you should look for an amplifier that delivers between 375-500W RMS per channel at 4Ω. You are more likely to damage the loudspeakers with an under-powered amplifier pushed too hard, than with an over-powered amplifier. 1.5-2.0 x the RMS is a good match.

^^^ Stuart is bang on the money here. Although not what we do, I certainly can see how companies can still make money out of DRY HIRING (not delivering, collecting or operating) C series for very little. Anyone with C4 or C7 on P1200s has likely had the kit on inventory for around 20 years, possibly longer and as such, it has been fully depreciated for years, so whilst it carries on working, the TCO is no more than a lick of paint every couple of years and storage. Because it is so good, it just carries on as a workhorse and still sounds awesome. So, if the job entails no more than half an hour's work wheeling it out for someone to collect, and checking it back in on Monday + a couple of calls/admin, then carry on sweating the asset. Of course, for anything other than a 'dry hire' service, you need to be charging many times more than £150, unless sound is a hobby as opposed to a business. By that, I mean, would you rather take out say four E6 / E8 boxes on sticks, four channels of UHF and a Macbook Pro to a weekday financial seminar for £N, or would you prefer to take a 3.5tonne van fully loaded with kit to a rock & roll gig for 1/3 of £N ?