Events That Look and Sound better
about st | av
Who Would You Be Working With?
I founded ST | AV many years ago, to make sure that at every event we helped, people could ALWAYS see and hear the content, right the back.
I’d worked as a freelance AV technician for 15 + years prior to that, and had acquired a refined set of AV skills.
But at that stage, I knew that if I had to go into an office or venue, and if the equipment already in there wasn’t well considered for that task…then I couldn’t always offer a guarantee.
So I sought to put that right, by reflecting on my experience, and a putting together an audio visual hire inventory, that my clients could hire from.
And that was in addition to my on site technical support.
So… no more squinting from the back!
Now, any screen we hire is ALWAYS carefully considered, so that it’s going to be both high, and big enough for people to see easily.
And we ALWAYS set the sound up, so that the people at the back have the same chance to hear the words, as the people at the front.
Written by the owner, Steven Thompson
Your Team
Especially since the event world reopened after the pandemic, ST | AV grew in a steady & predictable way. To the point that now, there are now three of us audio visual technicians, regularly supporting the business interests of organisations who are holding events across Lancashire, and Greater Manchester. As well as the love, fun and family interests of our private clients, for weddings and private events involving speakers, lighting, stage and screens.
And so you catch us now at desirable position, in terms of size and number of clients we can effectively help.
When asking us to help, you can rest assured that you’re never reliant on one person. (That was always one of the challenges to being a freelance AV tech…if I was to book work, what would happen if I really was ill!? Wait…ah… that’s why freelancers can never get ill! Well obviously everyone does from time to time so…)
I’m really glad that I’ve got these two handsome chaps work alongside me now.
And they are way more than just “cover”.
As you will know if you’ve experience managing a small team…the right colleagues bring offerings to the table, that the leader would never have been capable of on their own.
James Byrom’s experience for example, includes formerly being Head Of AV at Imperial War Museum North. And so he brought incredibly professional insight into medium – high budget event productions, across corporate, history, arts and culture.
James Bridges on the other hand is the person you ask help from when something doesn’t sound right. Pretty much the most astute pair of ears around. He’s mixed live sound across speech and music, for audiences up to 15,000 people. And is an extremely experienced sound number 1.
Actually, perhaps the important thing about thing both of my colleagues, is simply: that when I check in with our clients who they’ve looked after at an event that I didn’t attend, our clients have so far always feedback that they were supportive, or gave great insight, and genuinely yet to hear a single complaint. That is outstanding and a testament to both their professionalism. But also to be fair, it’s also testament to the establishment of repeatable systems and methods for the delivering the audio visual services listed on this site.
FAQ
Where is ST | AV Located?
ST | AV is now in a pretty cool position to help more event organisers, across both Lancashire and Greater Manchester. In the Hodder Valley near Clitheroe | North Lancashire.
And from our original base in Salford.
To be clear, we’re not operating as a shop, so please don’t just rock up any time!
However each week, we schedule tens of appointments with our dry hire customers who collect from one of our bases.
And of course we use these two location to send equipment out in vans from, so you’ll find delivery mileage will be quoted from your nearest site. Contact us to discuss your requirements.
Safe to say though, we’re now located no more than 1.5 hours away from you if you’ve an event in the Northwest UK. And in the Audio Visual Hire company / events industry world, we’d consider that as relatively local!
Can I Come And Hear It?
Yes, absolutely. We offer free speaker hire demos. You can book that now (subject to availability) on a Calendly link. In fact, I would go as far as saying, I would much rather you do come and listen to the speakers, before you hire them. Especially if you’ve got any doubts about whether they’re going to be right for your event. Obviously, if you’ve got a bit more event organising experience, and you know what you’re hiring, then a demo probably isn’t required, and you should apply your time to organising other aspects of the event…or just enjoy life! There is no doubt though, that many of our customers are quite new to organising events. Often in the case of private hires, for family functions and weddings, it’s the first time that some of our people have set up speakers. Rest assured in that case though, we’ve got you supported. There’s a YouTube channel with helpful explaining videos. As well as our Instagram.
Do You Hire Lighting?
Yes.