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uniman1

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I want to run two short 40 mins performance outside with no available AC. No lights and a smalll PA, however audio is via an LS9. I suspect a general rental style generator would not give out the quality of power needed for a digital desk - is this correct?. I am thinking about power spikes, what are your experiences? It is basically playback, so not sure desk is even needed. how do amps cope with a cheap hire generator power source? I am thinking it willl be 600-800W amp, and 4 speakers.
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What you want is a Honda eu10i or eu20i. I've had no issues with any equipment. Machine mart have a similar one at about 20% of the cost which I also own, I've also not had any issues with that apart from it takes a while to start and sounds like it has a tin full of marbled strapped to it.
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I want to run two short 40 mins performance outside with no available AC. No lights and a smalll PA, however audio is via an LS9. I suspect a general rental style generator would not give out the quality of power needed for a digital desk - is this correct?. I am thinking about power spikes, what are your experiences? It is basically playback, so not sure desk is even needed. how do amps cope with a cheap hire generator power source? I am thinking it willl be 600-800W amp, and 4 speakers.

 

They basically don't cope you need a generator with automatic voltage regulation. There are some relatively cheap Hondas that will do the job but nothing really cheap from a somewhere supplying the building industry will cope. In the best case it won't work in the probable case it will fry the power supply in your LS9 or amp.

 

The best thing to do is hire from a company that knows about the entertainment industry and can supply something appropriate it might be more expensive but it's less expensive than repairing or replacing your audio kit.

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I have used the Hondas for years and they will do the job superbly. There are now loads of models and makes of inverter generator that work more than adequately, many of which are near-silent. Even HSS hire them out these days at reasonable rates but check around where you live. In London there are a couple of Honda specialists that would sort you out.
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Pick a good name genset in excess of your electrical needs. Run it with about 10% fixed resistive load -tungsten lamps?

 

Many thanks to all. very useful. I was thinking of running a parcan in series, so good to know.

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As an alternative option, I recently did this using Sennheiser LSP500 Pro to do a wedding ceremony on top of a hill. Being battery based, this avoids the noise of the generator. You can run a pair of handhelds and a USB key for background music.

 

At the last minute the client wanted to mic up a chior, so I ended up running an LS9 off a pair of 8Ah lead acid batteries (one should in theory last 3 hours, so I went with two in parallel) using an inverter. Worked absolutely fine.

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From personal experience (on the gig), avoid Speedy Hire generators.

 

If were in to this line of thread I'd also avoid HSS, twice they have let us down.

 

The last gig they turned up with a generator half the size we booked and said that they would bring one out the correct size later, not ideal but we could live with it, when we called at 17:00 to ask where the new one is they said its on its way, then a call from the driver saying he'd ran out of time and would deliver tomorrow. Now far from ideal and borderline causing us issues we accepted this if it was here before 09:00. It never turned up, no call no message nothing. we dealt with the issue and on speaking with the shop on Monday the lady couldn’t understand why we didn't want to pay, it was delivered.

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It will be quite loud music, from a CD, but I was thinking of siting the generator at a bit of a distance - the cable run would be quite safe. I did think about batteries, but have never used them before, and not sure what to look for or where.
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From personal experience (on the gig), avoid Speedy Hire generators.

 

Can I add Power Electrics to the list?

 

A few years ago they came close to ruining a festival. (Sets arrived 2hrs late, driver got an artic completely bogged down for no good reason which wasted many more hours, one set threw a fuel line)

 

Similar to Pete's experiences with HSS, they seemed aghast that we were unwilling to pay for the diesel that had spilled (thankfully into a bund) and threatened court action rather than address the problem.

 

Then last year a new sales rep phoned us up, obliviously working his way down the customer list and wondering if we'd be interested in using them again. I gave him an earful, and to his credit he managed to wrangle us a free hire to get their foot back in the door. However by the time they added the transport cost, they were still more expensive than the local firm we use now.

 

PE are a national firm, and it might just be our local branch who are crap, but proceed with caution nonetheless.

 

It seems that most generator rental firms struggle with the demands of smaller events, especially one-day shows. The idea that the sets have to be delivered and collected outwith business hours comes as a huge shock to them. And trying to explain that you need sets with voltage regulators is difficult.

 

The organisers of one event that we worked on were trying to get HSS to supply generators. They could only deliver during business hours, which for an event on the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend meant that they would have to be removed and stored somewhere secure for the rest of the weekend. Given how attractive generators are for thefts, it's a bit of a risk. The event was in a public park so there was no way they could be left in place. And the icing on the cake was the fuel policy. They were only prepared to provide 20 gallon drums, as soon as a drum was opened it had to be paid for in its entirety, and they wouldn't transport the generators with any fuel in them.

 

The first and only time we used Speedy Hire for an event the generators turned up 90 mins late, two out of the three were caked with cement and had clearly come straight off a building site, and they were all only half full despite the contract saying they were brimmed.

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I regulally (a couple of times a year) run my rig and backline off my (£200 ebay special) Kipor iG2000 2kVA inverter generator. Run time is 3 hours + and it provides stable 230VAC at up to 7 or 8 amps. My rig comprises Mackie DL1608 EV sBa750 powered sub, 2 x QSC K12 powered tops, 3 x Yamaha DXR10 powered wedges, 18 watt valve combo and 500 watt Ashdown Superfly bass head. The audio watts adds up to 4.7kW (probably more like 3kW rms but who knows :)) but at full chat it draws less than 6A. Many would spec a 6kVA genny for that job but it really isn't necessary, we throw in a couple of LED PAR cans and away we go.

 

Pics of the 2013 event here that was the first I used the genny for but I've done two more since at that venue (we progressed to a 6 x 2 metre stage at the 2014 event) and a few acoustic outdoor events too using the Kipor genny. I'm doing an outdoor gig this weekend and I'm using a 6kVA diesel genny for it, run time is the issue as it's a 5 hour show and the council won't allow refuelling on site, my genny ran for 4 hours on that gig but with the sub (which was just an expensive speaker stand in 2013 as I left my only power con lead back in Manchester) I'd expect only around 3 hours making it a non-starter

 

The Honda gennys are very nice and would be on my wish list if I did more (with an LPG conversion for more run time and to satisfy the H&S people who sometimes won't allow petrol on their site). But the Kipor, a Honda clone, is fine for my needs, pretty quiet, pretty light and much less smelly than a diesel genset.

 

If you do hire you must get either an AVR genny specced for computer/sensitive equipment (not all are) or an inverter type (the biggest of which seem to be 3kVA these days though Honda used to do a 4kVA one). I have run off a 2.3kVA Clarke building site type genny with no proper voltage regulation, with a bigger rig too, and it went fine (I monitored the voltage and current for the whole event and both were remarkably stable) but I wouldn't do it from choice and would take my own next time.

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For all these people with bad experience, with no association other than being a customer I'd just chip in to recommend Gofer Power as a hire company who understand events. 6kVA - 200kVA in road tow format, so no hiabs getting stuck in mud etc.
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