In short: Book by early October for a December Friday or Saturday. The first two weeks of December are the tightest fortnight of the year, and the rest of this checklist is the detail.
Every year, somewhere around the second week of November, I take a call that starts with the words "I've been told I'm running the Christmas do."
The person on the other end is usually a marketing manager or an office manager. They are good at their job. Their job is not audio-visual. And they have just been handed a room for two hundred people, a budget somebody else set, and a date that cannot move.
So this is the checklist I would give them. Not a brochure — an actual list of what to sort, in what order, with the costs and the lead times and the questions that catch people out. Work through it in August or September and the whole thing is dull and easy. Leave it to late November and your options narrow considerably.
Why Christmas Party AV Planning Starts In August
It feels absurd to think about a December party while it is still warm. But the diary maths is straightforward, and it is worth understanding rather than just being told to hurry up.
Manchester's corporate Christmas season compresses into roughly three weeks. The first two Fridays and Saturdays of December are the busiest dates of the entire year for event AV in this city — busier than any wedding weekend in July. Every AV company in the North West is working those nights, and there are only so many systems and so many crew.
Christmas Party AV Booking Timeline
- August–September — venue confirmed, headcount roughly known, AV recommendation requested. Everything is available.
- Early October — book. This is the sensible deadline for a December Friday or Saturday.
- November — still possible, but the choice narrows. Premium systems go first.
- Late November onwards — you are working with what is left, on the busiest nights of the year.
None of that is manufactured urgency. The date sets the deadline, not us. A Christmas party is the one event where the timeline genuinely is fixed.
The Christmas Party AV Checklist At A Glance
Here is the whole thing on one screen. The rest of this guide works through each row.
| Christmas Party AV Element | Do You Need It? | Settle It By |
|---|---|---|
| PA / sound system | Always | Early October |
| Microphones | If anyone speaks. They always do. | Early October |
| Lighting | Almost always worth it | Early October |
| Projector and screen | If there are awards, a video or a slideshow | Mid October |
| Stage | If there is a band, or awards in a big room | Mid October |
| On-site technician | If there is a running order to hit | Early October |
Christmas Party AV: PA And Sound System Requirements
Start with the room, not the guest list. A hundred people in a low-ceilinged hotel suite is a completely different sound problem to a hundred people in a converted mill with brick walls and a glass roof — and Manchester has a great deal of the second kind.
The usual mistake is buying on headline numbers. "It's rated for 300 people" means very little if the room is long and the speakers are all at one end. Placement beats power almost every time.
Christmas Party AV Sound: What To Match To Your Room
- Up to 100 guests, soft room — two speakers on stands will do it comfortably.
- 100–200 guests, or a hard room — two speakers plus a subwoofer, and consider splitting them down the room rather than stacking at one end.
- 200–400 guests — a premium system. This is where d&b audiotechnik earns its money, because it stays clear rather than just getting loud.
- Speeches and music in the same room — one system doing both, tuned so speech stays intelligible. That is a setup decision, not a kit decision.
The full range is on the sound system hire page, and if you would rather look at the individual pieces than a package, the sound equipment hire listings have everything priced openly.
One thing worth saying plainly, because it saves people money. A bigger system is not automatically a better one for a Christmas party. Most corporate parties are not short of volume — they are short of clarity, and clarity comes from putting the right box in the right place, not from adding another kilowatt. If somebody is quoting you a much larger rig than the room needs, ask them what problem it solves.
Christmas Party AV: The Five Mistakes We See Every December
After enough Decembers you stop being surprised. These five account for most of the evenings that do not go to plan, and every one of them is preventable in September.
- One microphone for the whole evening. It fails, or it forces pass-the-mic, or somebody wanders off with it during the meal.
- Nobody lit the speaker. The screen is bright, the room is dark, and the person talking is a silhouette.
- The get-in was ninety minutes, not three hours. A lunch in the same room overran and setup started late.
- The playlist lived on one person's phone. That person then got a call, or went to the bar, or their battery died.
- Nobody asked about the sound limiter until the DJ started and the power cut at 9:40pm.
The playlist one is worth a sentence of its own. If your evening is running from a laptop or a phone, put it on a dedicated device that nobody needs for anything else, turn off notifications, and plug it into mains power. A Teams call arriving mid-dance-floor over a full PA is a memorable way to end a song.
Christmas Party AV: Microphones For Speeches And Awards
This is where Christmas parties go wrong more than anywhere else, and it is entirely predictable.
At seven o'clock the room is civilised. By nine, when the managing director wants to say thank you to everyone, there are two hundred people mid-conversation with a drink in hand. A microphone that was perfectly adequate at seven is now fighting a wall of noise.
Plan for nine o'clock, not seven.
Microphone Planning For Christmas Party AV
- Two handheld radio mics minimum if there are speeches. One is a single point of failure and forces pass-the-mic.
- A lapel or headset for anyone hosting the whole evening — they need their hands free.
- An extra handheld for awards, so recipients can say a word without a handover fumble on stage.
- A lectern mic if there is a lectern. It anchors the speaker and keeps them on the mic.
Our microphone hire range covers all of these, and the minimum hire is £100, so it is more sensible to add the spare handheld than to save forty pounds and hope.
"Thanks so much to Steven and Elk for stepping in at short notice to help with our event. Great service that took the stress away from us and top quality AV. Would recommend 100%"
— RRH 25, Google review
Christmas Party AV: Lighting That Changes The Room
Most Christmas parties happen in rooms that were designed for conferences. Beige walls, bright ceiling lights, carpet chosen to hide stains. Lighting is what turns that into somewhere people want to stay until midnight, and pound for pound it changes a room more than anything else on this list.
Christmas Party AV: Projector And Screen Hire
Christmas Party AV Lighting, By Job
- Uplighters — wash the walls in your brand colour or a warm tone. The cheapest way to make a corporate room look intentional.
- Moving heads — dance floor. Nothing before 9pm; everything after.
- Stage wash — so the person speaking is lit, not a silhouette. Essential if you are filming or photographing awards.
- Haze — makes beams visible and the room look cinematic. Always clear it with the venue first; it will trip an unprepared fire panel.
If you only do one thing here, light the speaker. A managing director delivering the year's thank-you in the dark, against a bright screen, is the most common avoidable mistake at a corporate Christmas party. The stage lighting hire range covers that end, and party lighting packages cover the dance floor.
Colour is worth thinking about for about two minutes and then leaving alone. Warm amber and deep blue both photograph well and flatter people. Green and hard magenta do not — they make everybody look slightly unwell in the group photo that ends up on LinkedIn in January. If you want your brand colour on the walls, tell us the hex value and we will match it, but be aware that a strong brand colour is a bolder look than most people expect once it is on every wall.
You need a screen if there is a year-in-review video, an awards running order, a slideshow of the team, or sponsor logos to hold up between moments. You do not need one for background decoration.
Christmas Party AV: Stage Hire For Bands, DJs And Awards
Two practical points that decide the choice. First, screen size is set by the distance to the furthest guest, not by the size of the room — a rough rule is that the screen height should be about one sixth of the distance to the back row. Second, most Christmas party rooms cannot be made properly dark, so brightness matters more than resolution.
Sizes and pricing are on the projector rental page. One thing we do not do is outdoor projection — for a December evening in Manchester that is not a real option anyway.
A stage does one of two jobs at a Christmas party: it lifts a band so a standing crowd can see them, or it gives awards a defined place to happen.
For awards in particular, a low stage — one deck height — makes a real difference. It stops the presentation dissolving into a huddle, gives the photographer a clean line, and tells the room where to look. You do not need much. Modular decks mean you take the footprint the room can spare, and the options are on the stage hire page.
If your evening is awards-led rather than band-led, it is worth reading the awards and gala dinner sound hire page as well — the running-order side of it is a different discipline to a party.
Christmas Party AV: Planning The Running Order
This is the part that separates an evening that flows from one that stalls, and it costs nothing to get right.
A corporate Christmas party usually has four or five moments that have to land: guests arriving, the meal, someone welcoming everyone, possibly awards, then the room turning over to music. Each of those is a different AV state. Background music at a level people can talk over. Then quiet, with a microphone live. Then a video. Then the dance floor.
Nobody notices those changes when they happen cleanly. Everybody notices when the music is still playing under a speech, or when the room lights stay up for the first three songs.
A Christmas Party AV Running Order Worth Copying
- Arrival — background music, room lit warm, uplighters on.
- Meal — music down, no microphones live.
- Welcome and speeches — music off, two mics live, speaker lit.
- Awards or video — screen live, handheld mic ready for recipients.
- Turnover — house lights down, dance-floor lighting up, DJ or band on.
Send whoever is running your AV a copy of that with rough times against it. It takes five minutes and it is the single most useful document you can hand over. It is also the thing that decides whether you need someone on site — if there are five cues to hit, somebody should be there to hit them.
Got A Venue And A Date?
Send the headcount and what is happening on the night. We will tell you what the room needs — a recommendation, not a sales pitch.
Christmas Party AV Costs: What To Budget For A Manchester Corporate Event
Our prices are published on the site. You can price most of this yourself without waiting for anyone to come back to you.
| Christmas Party AV Scenario | Indicative Budget | Typically Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Small office party, up to 100 | from £118 inc. VAT | Two-speaker PA, stands, mixer, cables |
| Mid-size party with speeches, 100–200 | ~£300–£600 | PA, two or three radio mics, party lighting |
| Awards evening with a screen | ~£1,000 equipment only | Lectern, comfort monitor, screen, PA, four radio mics |
| The same, run by us on the night | ~£2,000 | As above, plus a technician on site all evening |
| Premium sound, 200–400 guests | from ~£500 for the system | d&b audiotechnik PA |
The step from equipment-only to operated is the one most people deliberate over. My honest view: if there is a running order — speeches at a set time, an awards sequence, a video that has to play on cue — have somebody there. If it is a PA and a playlist, you do not need us in the room.
Christmas Party AV Service Levels: Dry Hire, Delivered Or Operated
- Dry hire — you collect and set up. Orders up to £350. Fine for a small office party with a playlist.
- Delivered — over £350. We deliver, set up properly, get your sign-off, then leave and come back for it. Never a drop-off at the kerb.
- Operated — we stay for the evening. The right answer whenever there is a running order or more than two microphones live at once.
Standard delivery and collection runs in core hours, 10am to 8pm. Christmas parties often need a get-out after midnight, which falls into unsociable hours and carries a premium — worth factoring in early rather than discovering it in November.
Venue Questions To Settle Before You Book Christmas Party AV
Ask Your Venue These Ten Things
- Is there a sound limiter, and at what level does it cut?
- What time must the music stop, and what time must we be out?
- What is the get-in time? Is there another event in the room that day?
- Where does a van unload, and how far is the carry?
- Stairs or a lift?
- How much power is available near the stage or dance floor?
- Is haze permitted, or is the fire panel too sensitive?
- Does the venue have a house PA, and can we hear it before deciding?
- Can anything be rigged from the ceiling, or is it all floor-standing?
- Who is the on-site contact on the night?
The get-in time is the one that quietly ruins evenings. Hotels frequently have a lunch in the same room until four o'clock, which means an AV setup that wants three hours has ninety minutes. Better to know that in September than at four o'clock on the day.
"Steven and James at ST AV provided the audio visual technology and support for an event... a panel discussion with 4 people on wireless mics + a host with a lectern mic. They also provided the lighting, camera and set up the content to show on three screens. It was a technically smooth and successful event."
— Olivia White, Google review
Christmas Party AV FAQs
When Should I Book Christmas Party AV In Manchester?
How Much Does Christmas Party AV Hire Cost?
What AV Do I Need For A Corporate Christmas Party?
How Many Microphones Do I Need For Christmas Party Speeches?
Do I Need A Technician At My Christmas Party?
Can We Use The Hotel's Own AV System?
What Happens If Our Christmas Party Runs Past Midnight?
Do You Cover Christmas Party AV Outside Manchester City Centre?
Getting A Recommendation For Your Christmas Party AV
The useful version of this conversation takes about ten minutes. Tell me the venue, the date, the headcount and what is happening on the night — speeches, awards, band, DJ — and I will tell you what the room needs.
Sometimes that is less than you were expecting. If your venue's system genuinely covers the music and you only need microphones, I will say so. And whoever talks it through with you is the person who turns up in December, which is rather the point.
Planning A Manchester Corporate Christmas Party?
Send the venue, date and headcount. We will send a recommendation with the kit the room actually needs.
