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Lighting & Sound Hire Pricing Guide UK (2026)

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Lighting & Sound Hire Pricing Guide UK (2026)

Pricing lighting and sound hire is more complex than most event services because your costs vary dramatically with rig size, crew requirements, and the technical sophistication of the event. A PA for a pub function room and a full production rig for a 500-person gala dinner are both "PA hire" to the client — but they're worlds apart in investment, skill, and price. This guide breaks down how UK lighting and sound engineers and hire companies are pricing across the full range in 2026.

Market Pricing Overview

Sound/PA Hire Pricing

Event Scale	Setup	Typical Price Range
Small function (up to 80 people)	Portable PA, 2–4 speakers	£200–£500
Medium event (80–200 people)	Line array or d&b/L-Acoustics rig	£500–£1,200
Large event (200–500 people)	Full production PA with monitoring	£1,200–£3,500
Festival / outdoor (500–2,000+)	Large format line array	£3,500–£15,000+
Conference / AV	Speech reinforcement, playback	£400–£2,000

Lighting Hire Pricing

Event Type	Setup	Typical Price Range
Wedding / function room	Uplighting package, 8–12 units	£300–£700
Wedding with dancefloor lighting	Moving heads, wash, intelligent	£700–£1,500
Corporate dinner or gala	Atmospheric and stage lighting	£800–£2,500
Theatre / live performance	Full stage rig	£1,500–£5,000
Festival stage (small)	Full production lighting	£2,000–£8,000

Combined PA and Lighting Packages

Most UK operators offer combined packages. Couples and event planners prefer single-supplier arrangements:

Package	Description	Typical Price Range
Wedding essentials	4–8 uplights + portable PA + DJ connection	£500–£900
Wedding full package	8–16 uplights + moving heads + quality PA	£900–£1,800
Corporate function	PA + speech system + atmospheric lighting	£1,000–£2,500
Large event production	Line array + full intelligent lighting	£3,000–£10,000+

What Drives Your Rate

Equipment Investment

Professional audio and lighting equipment is expensive. A mid-level professional PA rig might include:

Line array cabinets (d&b audiotechnik, L-Acoustics, Martin Audio): £5,000–£25,000 per side
Subwoofers: £3,000–£8,000 each
Drive racks and signal processing (Lake, Yamaha RIO, dbx): £2,000–£8,000
Amplifiers (where not self-powered): £1,000–£3,000

Lighting:

Moving head wash lights (Robe, Chauvet, Martin): £600–£2,000 each
Moving head spots: £800–£2,500 each
LED uplighters: £80–£200 each
Lighting desk (grandMA2, Chamsys, Avolites): £2,000–£12,000

Cable, cases, rigging hardware, and spares add further significant cost. A professional operation typically represents £50,000–£250,000+ in capital equipment.

Crew Requirements

Labour is often the largest variable cost for a larger event. Correctly staffing a production:

Rigger/flyman: £200–£400/day (for venues with aerial rigging points)
Sound engineer (FOH): £200–£450/day
Monitor engineer: £200–£400/day
Lighting operator / LD: £200–£450/day
Stage manager: £200–£350/day
Crew (general): £120–£200/day per person

Small events (function room DJ PA) can be operated solo. A 500-person gala dinner might require 5–8 crew on the rig day plus the event itself. Labour costs scale quickly — and must be reflected in your quotes.

Transport and Logistics

Calculate transport costs for each job:

Fuel and vehicle running costs
Multi-trip requirements for large rigs
Accommodation for overnight or destination events
Tolls, parking, and congestion charges (relevant for London events)

HMRC approved mileage rate for sole traders is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles, 25p thereafter. Build transport as a line item on every quote, not an afterthought.

How to Structure Your Pricing

Itemised Quotes vs Package Pricing

For events up to approximately £2,000, package pricing works well — "Wedding Package A includes X, Y and Z at £XXX." Simple to sell, easy to compare, minimal back-and-forth.

For events above £2,000, itemised quotes are standard practice in the UK events industry. Break down:

Equipment line items (PA, lighting, rigging, cables)
Labour line items (engineer day rates, crew)
Transport and logistics
Consumables (gaffer tape, cable ties, patch cables that don't come back)

Itemised quotes allow clients to understand where the money goes. They also make it easier to negotiate — "Can we save money by removing the second subwoofer?" — rather than trying to reduce a single opaque number.

Handling Deposits and Payment Terms

For private/wedding clients:

25–30% non-refundable booking deposit on signing
Balance due 4 weeks before the event

For corporate clients:

Quote acceptance + PO received = booking confirmed
50% on booking, 50% on completion (for mid-size events)
30-day net payment terms (standard commercial terms)
Late payment: 8% over Bank of England base rate (statutory under Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act 1998)

For agency clients (event agencies booking your services):

Same commercial terms as corporate, but build in agent margin awareness — you may need to price up for agent intermediary

Minimum Booking Fee

Set a minimum booking fee to ensure every job justifies the logistics. A typical minimum: £350–£600. Jobs below this threshold cost you in travel and logistics more than they return.

Quoting Accurately — Avoiding Common Mistakes

Common pricing mistakes that erode margin:

Not accounting for prep time. Checking and testing a rig before an event takes 2–4 hours. Include this in your labour cost.
Underestimating travel. 3-hour round trip for a small job at your minimum fee means your effective hourly rate is much lower than you think.
Not charging for extended hours. "Can you play until midnight instead of 11?" is a different job. Have a rate for extensions agreed in your contract.
Not budgeting for repairs. Equipment breaks in use. A 5–10% contingency in your pricing covers inevitable repair and replacement costs.
Undercharging crew. Experienced engineers are not cheap and should not be treated as if they are.

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