Stand and rigging hire — microphone, speaker and lighting stands
Every microphone, speaker and light needs something to hold it, and this page is that something. Microphone and speaker stands hire at a pound or two a day, wind-up lighting stands at £5, and the clamps, shackles and weights that fix everything in place cost pennies. None of it is glamorous, and all of it is the difference between a rig that stays where it was put and one that worries you all night. Hire it by the piece alongside the rest of the kit, or tell us the rig and we will add the right hardware to the case.
The microphone stands cover the jobs that come up on every show. Tall boom stands are the general worker: vocals, speeches and instruments at standing or seated height, with the boom reaching over music stands and drum kits. Short boom and kick stands do the low work — kick drums, guitar amps and anything at floor level. Straight stands suit podium and choir microphones that do not need to reach, and the table-top stand, at 25p a day, puts a microphone on a lectern or a panel desk.
Speaker stands are the quickest way to get sound over the heads of a seated audience, which is most of the job of being heard clearly. The tripod stands take our Alto and EV tops at head height and above; the speaker poles mount a top box on a subwoofer instead, which keeps the footprint small and the cabling short where floor space is tight.
For lighting there are two families. Wind-up stands crank a T-bar of fixtures up to height without any lifting and carry 40kg safely — they are what we send when a venue has no lighting bars of its own. Fixed stands suit lighter loads and smaller rooms, and the T-bars come in three widths to put up to four fixtures across the top of either. Where a stand is wrong for the job, a scaffold pole in a tank trap base makes a low-level side-light boom — which is how dance actually gets lit.
The rigging hardware is the small stuff done properly. Steel hook clamps hang a fixture on a 48mm bar and are rated at 40kg, with a larger pattern rated at 50kg. Hanging clamps and bow shackles take speakers and heavier hardware, wire rope drifts rated at 250kg bridge the gap between a bar and an awkward hanging point, and boom arms put a fixture out to the side of a vertical boom. Anything that hangs above people gets a safety bond as its second, independent attachment, and 12.5kg stage weights stop stands walking and keep booms honest. If you are hiring fixtures or speakers from us, say where they are going and the right clamps, bonds and spares arrive in the same crate.
The folding trestle tables are the backstage catch-all: a props table in the wings, a merch desk in the foyer, somewhere for the tea urn. And if working out stands and rigging feels like guesswork, it is our job, not yours — tell us the rig, the room and what it hangs on, and we will send the hardware to match, tested and counted.
What you get
Microphone stands in tall boom, short boom, straight, kick and table-top patterns
Tripod speaker stands and sub-mount speaker poles for our Alto and EV boxes
Wind-up and fixed lighting stands rated at 40kg, with T-bars in 1m, 1.5m and 2m widths
Tank trap bases and 2m scaffold poles for low-level side-light booms
Tall boom for vocals, speeches and most instruments; short boom or kick for drums, amps and anything at floor level; straight for podium and choir microphones; table-top for a lectern or a panel. If you are not sure, tell us what is being miked and we will pick — the stands are cheap enough that a spare in the case costs almost nothing.
Yes — that is exactly what the wind-up stands are for. A stand with a T-bar carries up to four fixtures a side, cranks to height without lifting, and touches nothing but the floor, so there is no fixing to the building and nothing to make good afterwards. For dance, a scaffold pole in a tank trap base puts side light exactly where moving bodies need it.
Yes. The hook clamps are rated at 40kg and 50kg, the drifts at 250kg working load limit, and the bonds at 20kg, and the ratings are marked on the hardware itself. The rule we work to is simple: anything above someone’s head hangs on a rated clamp and a separate safety bond. Tell us what is going up and we will confirm the hardware suits the weight.
No, and it is deliberate. The hardware on this page hires dry quite happily, but working at height is a job we do rather than a thing we lend. When a rig needs someone up a ladder or a tower, we send a technician with the right access equipment and the training to use it, and we quote that as part of the job.
