We send our customers a hire agreement to review and sign when they are placing a booking. Each hire agreement is specific to each event, so we don’t publish a generic one here on the site, (as that may actually lead to more confusion).

However, on this page you’ll find more detail to the key aspects on our hire agreement aka terms of hire. Please do call, text, email or whatsapp us though if you’re still unsure.

Firstly, you may be familiar with an alternate term for this, which is used in the property letting and vehicle hire industries for example, a “damage deposit”.

We don’t call it a damage deposit, because that’s perhaps giving the wrong connotation. As we’re not expecting things to be damaged when they return. We’re expecting to work with people who do take good care and look after the equipment. 

And so more likely, we’ll be refunding you this deposit that you’ve put down, hence the term refundable security deposit.

It exists so that you don’t have to take out your own insurance on the equipment whilst it’s in use by you.

And providing you take good care of the equipment, we will refund this once:

• You bring the equipment back to us, on the date given next to “IN BY” on the invoice.  
• And we’ve checked the equipment over and back in to our system
• Provided that the equipment is in the exact same condition and working order as when it was first collected by you.

A common question that customers ask us is is the equipment insured? And if so by who? Well it is insured by us, but there are terms to that insurance. 

Some of those times go beyond the scope of this writing, (if you’ve got further questions, please do call, email, text or Whatsapp and ask us).

But in a nutshell and in plain english, hopefully you are familiar with insurance excesses?

Our business excess is £800.

Meaning, in the very rare and unfortunate case that equipment is damaged while it is in use by a customer, and that damage to replace or repair comes to a value anywhere up to £800, if we hadn’t charged a refundable security deposit, then here at ST AV, we’d be putting ourselves in a risky position! (Frankly, with too much to lose to be able to properly offer you the great service we intend to). 

And so the refundable security deposit goes some way towards covering the excess.  

We are working on the basis that you and I have discussed the hire, and we both feel comfortable going ahead. On your side, we are expecting that you’re going to use the equipment with the best possible care.

And in which case, this deposit payment is going to reach back onto your card as a refund to you, usually within two weeks but anywhere up to 30 days. (At the time of booking you will see we do have a term in the hire agreement which says up to 1 month. That’s because at our most busy times, it can take longer to process things back in to our system). 

Finally another common question that we get asked is,  is this refundable deposit related to the payment of the hire itself.  Or other words some people (perhaps understandably because this is the case in other industries), have made a presumption that it has to do with the part payment for the job. I’m afraid not. This refundable deposit is not related to the hire payment at all. The hire payment that we receive for the equipment hire itself, i.e the price of the hire, is the amount that we make for providing the service.

If the refundable security deposit was in any way related to the hire payment of the equipment itself, then the protection outlined above, covering part of the excess, wouldn’t be there in the unlikely case that we need to do a repair or replacement on something which has got damaged while in your care. 

Within 30 days, but we’re working hard to shorten the amount of time it takes to turn this around for you, (without increasing the cost to you!) 

Here are the delivery options:

Firstly just to highlight that we’re not a delivery company like the national and international names, (I won’t list here but you know the big delivery companies!) Which does mean we are more expensive than ordering something for delivery from Amazon…but…those guys won’t set your equipment up nor support you 😉 We do, both of those things!

In office hours, that’s after 10am and before 8pm.

There are several options depending on location, for example:

Large van delivery in Manchester, in office hours, with set up

Small van Delivery in Manchester, in office hours, with set up

Out of office hours, that’s 8pm until 10am:

Large van delivery in Manchester, out of office hours, with set up

Small van delivery in Manchester, out of office hours, with set up

Here are the types of delivery and collection available. 

Standard. “During our opening hours“. This delivery window is from 10am – 10pm Monday to Friday, and then 12 midday – 10pm Saturday and Sunday.

1. Collection in office hours with large van

2. Collection in office hours with small van

Then there’s “Out of Hours Collection” premium collection service, is 10pm (at night) and 12 midday the follow day.

So for example, a Sunday morning collection is “out of hours” whereas, a Sunday afternoon delivery is “in office hours”.

3. Collection out of office hours with large van

4. Collection out of hours with Small van small van

5. “Specific timed delivery” Is our best premium service. This is our exact minute service. It’s chosen when there’s a specific window, e.g. at the end of night when the equipment needs to be out of the venue before the venue closes because there’s an event the next day. Because this choice is a bespoke service, speak to us to confirm what that looks like in terms of £.

There’s also a hybrid option, which some customers love. If you consider that getting everything set up and tested in time is perhaps the most high-pressure part of the day, then you may ask us to help with delivery and the set up. But, once the event finishes, things are a bit more relaxed. And so you may choose to return the equipment back to us in Salford, i.e. you don’t need collection by us, and you can make a saving on money here, (but at the cost of more of your time!)

Absolutely. organise an appointment with me .

We will make time for you to make sure you’re happy with the sound of the speaker’s you’re hiring. It’s very much our ethos to explain to you how you can get the most from your hire. We actually enjoy showing customer equipment. For example, see the video below.

Occasionally, we get asked this question. The reality is, that in (most markets) there’ll usually a company, or companies, whose strategy it is to price themselves lower than other people.

Affectionately known as under cutters 🙈 these business join the race to the bottom.

In my experience, (which crikey is more than 15 years now yikes that went quick!) many of those rock bottom cheap companies don’t last, or at least. With tiny margins, are we surprised that they renege on commitments and let people down!?

I wont bore you now with all our finances, (though sometimes to be honest I wish you knew), because then I’m sure if you knew what it actually cost to store and maintain an inventory of reliable audio visual equipment, that would explain why what we charge is reasonable.

But I totally get that you don’t care about that. You care about whether you feel you’re getting value for money, and how our service benefits you, is that right?

Allow me please to highlight some of the reasons why previous and current customers tell us, they’ve received great value for money from us. And I’ll do this by using customer’s own words:

“The gear was in perfect condition” (Theo Hanson, hired May 2025)

“Took the stress away” (Jonathon Moran hired April 2025)

“Always been incredibly helpful and accommodating” (Elika Najafi hired numerous times since 2023)

“Nothing was to much trouble and were even on call to help solve any issues with set up of gear”

“Showed me how to connect everything up and collected from my house to save me a journey” (Scott Halstead hired February 2025)

“Really easy pick up, collection and drop off using the secure locker” (Christian Morris hired May 2025)

And remember that locker is 24/7 access. If you can find another local rental company willing to offer you out of hours collection and returns, please do let us know.

(You can see more of what people have been saying about us on our google business profile)

So if you don’t feel like that level of reliability, service and support is worth it to you, and you’d rather take chances with your one off event, then maybe we’re not the best match.

What I would say to conclude is, if you can tick off that you’re getting all those benefits, from a cheaper supplier, then maybe, and that’s only if you’re comparing like for like in terms of equipment and service, then you’d be better going with them!

Otherwise if you still don’t trust me entirely, but think you might like to hire, then let’s discuss over a coffee and you can take a listen to some speakers in our demo room. You’re most welcome to organise an appointment with me

There is a £60 inc VAT minimum spent on hire. As much as we’d like to help everyone who is looking to hire sound equipment, in reality, it’s got to work for both parties.

Look after your equipment, so that your equipment looks after you

In order to clean, test and maintain a reliable inventory of trustworth sound equipment for hire, each time a piece of equipment goes out, and then comes back in, it’s likely to involve at least 1 hour of our engineer’s time. 

And we pay our people properly! You can rest assured that the equipment you are hiring has been diligently looked at, and listen to, by an experienced audio visual technician. 

There’s a maximum public dry hire amount of £260 inc VAT.

(If you order online without speaking to us, and have put more than £260 including VAT of dry hire into  basket and then checked out, we will get in touch with you to discuss how to get that equipment to your event.

For less than £260 inc VAT, you can hire a lot of equipment. For example this speaker package, with 2 mid / top speakers, 2 subs, a mixer, and the relevant cables.

That is a fair amount of equipment! It will fit in a car with the seats down. But much beyond that, you’re going to require a van.

And also, it’s a fact that many of our many of our dry hire customers, as wonderful a they are, haven’t got loads of experience setting up audio / visual  equipment for events before.

So to make sure that you’re not left in a pickle, trying to squeeze too much equipment into car, and then struggling to set up when you get to a venue, we’ve decided to protect you from that, by delivering and collecting all orders over £260, 

See above, “do you offer a delivery window” for more about deliveries. 

People have varying levels of technical conference but, here’s the answer in a nutshell: between July 2024 and July 2025, over 100 people dry hired 2 speaker PA systems from us. (That is they collected from us and set it up themselves). During that period, no one complained that they could get the equipment set up once they got to site. That’s in part because we support with:

1. A demo / teach of how to set the speakers up

2. Have a listed parts / an instruction manual printed out in the box that people collect,

3. Have various explainer videos on this site and on our ST AV YouTube Channel

4. Offer support over the phone.

Anyway to test how hard it is to set up a two speaker sound system, I asked my wife (a self proclaimed tech amateur), if she could do it. Here’s what happened…

Is It Hard To Set Up A Two Speaker Sound System? Video

A common question that I get asked is , do our speaker packages fit in a car?

Of course that depends which of the speaker systems, and which car. But in a nutshell, YES. Most of our two speaker PA system packages, that you will find on the hire shop here…

Hire Shop

…Fit in car. At least, any vehicle from a hatchback or larger.

(If you’re hiring multiple items from us beyond a simple speaker package, please do check with us).

This video will help visualise this question and answer:

Does a two speaker sound system fit in a car? Video on Insta

PLI stands for Public Liability Insurance.

The case of operated hire, we will provide your venue with a copy of our public liability insurance in PDF format. Operated hire is when we deliver the equipment, set it up, remain with the equipment for the duration of the event, and then pack it down and leave the venue with it.

In the case of delivered hire, that is where at your instruction we are not remaining on site for the duration of the event, the relevance of the public liability insurance is limited. The hirer’s PLI (that’s us ST AV aka www.pahireinmanchester.co.uk), is only relevant for the duration of time that we are loading into the building, setting up, and then later when we return to load out.

To be clear, ST AV’s Public Liability Insurance certificate is not relevant for the duration of your event where we are not in attendance.

In the case of dry hire, that is where you collect the equipment from us at our address, ST AV’s public liability insurance is not applicable. 
If your venue requires to see a public liability insurance, that’s something that you as the hiree, would have to set up. (Or more practically, go find yourself a venue that isn’t so obtuse and isn’t insisting on it.) 

Please note that our hire equipment is insured against fire, theft and accidental damage, which is separate to Public Liability Insurance.