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When a show needs its music and sound effects to land on cue, night after night, QLab is what most theatres use to do it. This hire saves you buying a Mac and a licence for one production: a Mac with QLab 5 licensed and installed, a multichannel audio interface, and everything tested before it leaves us. Load your files, build your cue list, press go. It hires at £37.25 per day, dry hire or with a technician.
QLab is the software most professional theatres use to play sound and video during a show, and version 5 is the current release. Made by Figure 53, it runs on a Mac and holds every sound effect, music track and video clip in one cue list, in running order. In performance the operator presses one key and the next cue fires with its levels, fades and loops already set.
This hire is a ready-built playback rig rather than a bare licence. You get a Mac with QLab 5 installed and its audio and video licences activated, plus a multichannel audio interface to feed your sound desk or powered speakers. The licences matter: without one QLab plays only two channels of audio, while the licensed copy routes up to 128 output channels, plays multitrack files and unlocks the fades and effects that make playback sound deliberate rather than abrupt.
Building a show is straightforward. Drag your audio files in, put them in order, set levels and fade times, and the spacebar becomes the go button. Cues can overlap, so rain keeps running under dialogue while a door knock fires on top. A track that has to duck for a scene change, or loop until the actors are ready, is programmed once and then behaves the same way every night, whoever is operating.
The same machine plays video. QLab sends full-screen video and stills to a projector or screen, with mapping, masking and edge blending built in for awkward surfaces. If your show has a projected backdrop or captions, they sit in the same cue list as the sound and go on the same key press.
The rig runs from one standard 13A socket and sits on a table at the operating position. It speaks MIDI and OSC, so it can work alongside sound desks and lighting consoles when a production grows in that direction. Hire by the day. If you would like a second machine standing by as a backup, or someone from us to build and run the cue list, ask when you book.
See whether this is free for your dates. This is an indication from our current bookings, not a reservation.
Macs and monitors — the plain playback machines and operator screens, when the show does not need cue software.
| Software | QLab 5, by Figure 53 |
|---|---|
| What it is | Show control software: sound, video, light and show control cues for live performance |
| Platform | Apple Mac; QLab 5 requires macOS 11 Big Sur or later |
| Supplied as | Mac with QLab 5 installed and licensed, plus a multichannel USB audio interface |
| Licences | Audio and video licences activated for the hire |
| Audio output | Up to 128 channels of audio output with the audio licence |
| Audio files | Up to 24 channels per audio file, with matrix routing to outputs |
| Audio tools | Per-cue levels, fades, loops, playback-rate control and effects chains |
| Video cues | Full-screen video and stills, projection mapping, masking, edge blending and warping |
| Video engine | Built on Apple's Metal framework; up to 1,000 video layers |
| Lighting | DMX cues over Art-Net or USB; 16 DMX addresses patchable as standard |
| Show control | OSC, MIDI and MIDI Show Control |
| Remote control | QLab Remote app for iPad and iPhone |
| Cue lists | Unlimited cue lists and cue carts |
| Power | UK 230V mains, one standard 13A socket |
QLab plays the common formats: WAV, AIFF, MP3 and most files that play on a Mac. Multitrack files work too, up to 24 channels each with the audio licence. Send us what you have and we will check it, and if anything needs converting we will do it before the hire starts.
Not usually. Running a finished cue list is one key press per cue, and most student operators pick it up inside one rehearsal. The programming is the part that takes learning, so tell us about the show and we will either build the cue list with you before the get-in or send an operator for the run.
Yes. The video licence is on the machine, so video and still-image cues sit in the same cue list as the sound and go out to a projector or screen. QLab handles mapping and edge blending for awkward surfaces. Tell us what you are projecting onto and we will confirm the connections, and a projector can be added to the hire if you need one.
For a concert with one track after another, a laptop is honestly fine. Shows are different: effects overlap, music has to fade on a spoken line rather than at a set time, and nobody wants a notification sound in a blackout. QLab is built to solve exactly that, and the operator always sees which cue is next. If the show has more than a handful of cues, it earns its place.
The school-hall standard: scene recall, iPad control, three sizes of the same desk.
from £40 / day
View & check dates
The step-up digital desk: Midas preamps, 40 channels, show-file ready.
from £90 / day
View & check dates
All your stage mics down one thin cable to the desk — no heavy multicore across the hall.
from £18 / day
View & check datesSee the rest of our sound desk hire stock, or browse everything available to hire.
Tell us the venue, the dates and what the show needs, and we will confirm availability.
Call 0333 404 0621, email sales@1stintheatre.co.uk, or send us the details of your production.
Related: Theatre production · Dance shows · Live events · Venue support · Production toolkit
