Nobody applauds the power distribution. But every microphone, every light and every speaker in the building is at the end of a cable, and the difference between a calm get-in and a fraught one is usually whether those cables arrived tested, labelled and in the right lengths. This page covers our power distros, cable crates and long-run reels: the kit that turns a venue's supply into a safe, tidy rig. Everything hires by the day, dry hire or with a technician, and if you are not sure what your show needs, we will do the sums with you.
The arithmetic is simpler than it looks. Every fixture and amplifier has its wattage on the label. Add them up, divide by 230, and you have the current in amps. A modern LED lighting rig for a school stage often totals less than a two-bar heater, and a standard 13A wall socket gives you about 3kW to play with. Plenty of shows genuinely can run from the wall.
The catch is what sits behind the wall. Several sockets around a hall usually share one circuit, so six sockets is not six times the power, and the urn in the kitchen may be on the same ring as your amp racks. Older tungsten kit changes the sums quickly too: one 1kW fresnel draws as much as a dozen LED pars.
So count what you are actually plugging in, and send us the kit list and the venue. We will tell you honestly whether the wall will cope or the show needs a proper supply. If you do not need a distro, we will say so.
One supply in, six protected ways out
A power distro takes one big supply — a venue's 32A outlet, single phase or three phase — and breaks it into six 16A ways. Each way sits behind its own circuit breaker, so a fault on one line takes out that line and nothing else. RCD protection watches the whole unit and disconnects in a fraction of a second if current leaks where it should not, which is what protects people rather than fuses.
That is the real argument against the alternative, which is four-way blocks daisy-chained from distant wall sockets. A distro gives every part of the rig its own protected feed from one known point. Lighting and sound can sit on separate ways, so a lighting fault never silences a radio mic mid-scene, and when something does trip, the labelled breaker tells you where to look.
How many ways a show needs is our problem, not yours. One distro covers most school and church rigs; bigger productions take more, and when a job outgrows our own stock we bring kit in from trusted suppliers, tested to the same standard.
Why hired cable comes tested and labelled
A cable is the cheapest thing in a rig and the likeliest to stop a show. So every lead we send out is inspected and electrically tested between hires, then labelled with its length. When something fails at seven o'clock on show night, you swap it in thirty seconds, because the crate carries spares in the same length.
The crates are sorted by type: 13A for ordinary mains, 16A for stage lighting circuits, 3-pin XLR for microphones and DMX for lighting control. Each arrives with a sensible spread of lengths and more than the plan strictly requires, because plans change once you are in the room.
The labelling pays off twice. At the get-in, anyone on the crew can find a ten-metre XLR without asking. At the get-out, everything coils back into the crate it came from, the counts match, and you are home half an hour earlier.
The long runs: multicore and Tourcat
The sound desk belongs at the back of the room, where the operator hears what the audience hears. That makes the run between stage and desk the longest cable of the night, and there are two ways to make it. The traditional way is an analogue multicore: one heavy cable carrying many microphone lines, with a fan of connectors at each end. It still makes sense with an analogue desk or a simple rig.
Digital desks changed the job. A Tourcat reel — touring-grade Cat5e on a drum — carries every channel of a digital desk to a stagebox in one slim cable, so a run that once needed a copper python now needs something the thickness of a mic lead. Lighting takes its own run: DMX from the desk to the first fixture, then daisy-chained along the rig.
Two pieces of advice from long experience. Measure the run the way the cable will actually travel — along the wall and over the doorway, not the diagonal across the floor — then add some. And keep signal runs apart from mains runs where you can; where they must cross, cross at right angles rather than running side by side.
Safety, stated plainly
Most of this kit is as ordinary as a kettle lead. Anything with a 13A plug on it, you connect yourselves. The line we draw is at the venue's big outlets: connections to a 32A or three-phase supply should be made by a competent person — the venue's own electrician or technician, or ours — who can confirm the outlet is sound and the protection works before the rig goes live. A supply that size deserves one person who knows the installation saying yes.
On the floor, the rules are simple. Any cable crossed by feet or wheels goes under a rubber cable ramp. Runs on stage are dressed and taped with proper cloth tape. And nothing, ever, runs through a fire exit at floor level — go over the door frame instead. Ramps and tape can come on the same order.
Every distro we hire out is RCD protected, and the test button gets pressed before the show, not after a problem. If you would like us to look at your venue's supply before you book, ask. A photograph of the intake and the outlets usually answers most of it.
Rates are per day and exclude VAT. Ask us about multi-day and show-week rates, delivery, and hiring with a technician.
Common questions
Add up the wattages of everything you plan to plug in. An all-LED lighting rig with a small PA often totals under 3kW, which one 13A socket can supply. But wall sockets share circuits, so spreading across several sockets is not the same as spreading across several circuits, and tungsten fixtures or a big PA change the sums quickly. Send us the kit list and the venue and we will tell you which side of the line you are on.
The connector itself is a plug and socket, designed to be mated by hand. The point is what happens before that: someone competent should confirm the outlet is healthy, the breaker behind it is right and the RCD protection works. In practice that means the venue's electrician or a caretaker who knows the installation, or a technician we send with the kit. What nobody should do is open an intake cupboard and improvise. If your venue has no 32A outlet, tell us — many shows fit the wall sockets with the right planning.
One type of cable in a sensible spread of lengths, every lead tested and labelled, with spares beyond what your plan strictly needs. Crates come in 13A and 16A power, 3-pin XLR and DMX. Tell us your rig — how many mics, how many fixtures, how big the room — and we will pack to it rather than sending a standard box. If the plan grows mid-week, more cable can follow.
Route first, protect second. Run along walls and over door frames where you can; height is the best protection there is. Where a cable must cross the floor and people will walk on it, use a rubber cable ramp — the moulded kind that wheelchairs and trolleys roll over. Tape is for dressing cable on stage, not for protecting it in a walkway. And a fire exit is never crossed at floor level: go over the frame or find another way round. Ramps can be added to the same hire.
