Rental shops abound for just about any type of gear needed for events of all kinds. Most entertainment technicians working in hotel event ballrooms will likely not have involment with the shops themselves. They will obviously be using the gear brought in by the production companies.
Some thoughts of what needs to be considered when using gear from rental houses.
- Almost all shows will have a copy of the “pull sheets” from the rental shop. If you can’t find something, check the sheets. Either you’ll find what box it might be in. Or, you’ll save a load of time looking when you find out it wasn’t pulled in the first place.
- You’ll garner a great reputation if you pack the gear like or better then you found it.
- Count everything when you pack it. They’ll count it all upon return and bill the production company for missing gear.
- There’ll almost always be spare gear, lamps, tools, etc. in some box.
- If you have the chance to do shop prep, take it. Shop time is much cheaper to the end client than “figuring it out on site.” You’ll save time and you’ll run much less risk of missing items during load in.
- Mark the empties. Don’t mark a box if there is anything in it. If there’s still something in it, write what it is on a strip of tape on the outside.