Equipment Rentals

1 Reply

Andrew Carter Andrew Carter

Equipment Rentals

Posted by Andrew Carter on Jul 21, 2018 12:01 am

Hello all! 

Before we start in on fall quarter my team and I have an opportunity to change how AV equipment (mics, speakers, projectors, sound consoles, truss) are checked out and I wanted to ask the group what different ways you all do it and what works and what doesn’t. 

Currently all of our reservations are made in 25Live. We support both on and off campus groups in our facility as well as across campus. We also rent equipment out directly to our clients for their own off campus events, much the same as any rental house would. 

However we do not have a very strong process on testing equipment before it goes out, or to make sure it is functional and has all its screws, knobs, and buttons when it gets back. 

We do pretty ok when it’s a completely outside rental. But for the events that our staff is setting up/tearing down in our building or across campus, they just grab what they need according to 25Live, set it up and break it down, with out any check in/check out process or equipment testing pre or post event. 

So so the questions that I have are:

1) Do any of you use an additional inventory management software with barcodes, RFID, QR codes? Do they intergrate with 25Live? 
2) What is your process for checking out and checking back in AV equipment? Does this process change for on campus events vs off campus clients?
3) Do you have a singular storage location for equipment used on events or multiple? How do you keep equipment inventory appropriately balanced if you do use multiple locations. 

Thanks in advance for all your help!
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Chance Haugen Chance Haugen

Re: Equipment Rentals

Posted by Chance Haugen on Jul 21, 2018 9:50 am

Good morning. Here at West Texas A&M we do check out some equipment but it is the stuff that is easily replaceable or it is for student organizations for on campus events. The student org equipment was purchased from student fees and was purchased for that specific reason. 

Our check process if that the client fills out a qualtrics survey and when they are done, they fill out the return survey. With the value of the equipment being low. I don’t much worry about it being bad. Maybe a little but I’m not losing sleep over it. 

As far as departments and non-university, we really don’t do rentals like you. We do provide tech services for them but they pay for the rental of the equipment and the  tech personnel to run the show. All of our gear is too complex to setup, run, and strike for a non-techie person to use. AND the equipment is so expensive that we can’t afford to buy new equipment when the customer breaks it. This service on our campus has created 6 AV Tech positions and generates about $25K in revenue. 

As far as off campus events, none of our equipment can be used off campus for non-university events. It literally is against the law. We do help with university events off-campus but draw the line for non-university groups. All of their events must be on campus. 

The last part that I’ll mention is safety. I would not be okay with a person who has no knowledge of safe rigging practices to use truss. They don’t know the weight distribution limits for any of their rigging points and that could be very dangerous. 

Id love to chat with you if you have any questions. 

Chance Haugen
chaugen@wtamu.edu
806-651-2394