What It Costs to Rent AV Gear for a St. Louis Event

Revised August 30, 2026

A daughter in Fenton is putting together a memorial slideshow for her father. The hall is booked, the photos are scanned, and the funeral director told her the room does not have a projector. She calls an audio visual company, describes the service in two sentences, and gets a quote back with nine lines on it. Three of those lines are abbreviations she has never seen before.

Across the river in Edwardsville, Illinois, a parent volunteer is running a school auction in a gym. She needs a microphone that carries to the back wall, a screen the whole room can read, and music between items. Two companies quote the job. The totals are nowhere near each other, and neither document explains why.

Those are the same problem. Neither quote was written for somebody who rents AV once. They were written for planners who already know what a fast-fold is, what strike means, and why a labor line can cost more than the gear line sitting above it.

So this piece skips the prices on purpose. There are no dollar figures here, and you should be suspicious of any article that hands you them, because AV pricing moves with the room, the date, the gear tier and the labor. What you can learn is how to read the quote, what gear your event actually needs, and what to send two companies so their numbers finally mean the same thing.

How much does it cost to rent a projector?

A projector rental is priced by what the room demands, not by the box. Brightness, screen size, cabling, delivery, setup, strike and whether a technician stays all move the number. Ask for the gear line, the labor line and the rental period separately, then compare two quotes on identical room details.

Notice what is missing from that list: the projector itself. On most small event quotes, the projector is not the expensive part. The expensive part is the hours. A driver loading a van, two people setting a screen and dressing cables, someone standing by during your program, and that same crew coming back at eleven at night to tear it all down are time. Time is what you are really buying.

That is why a company that quotes you over the phone in thirty seconds, before asking a single question about the room, is guessing. The right first questions are how big the room is, how high the ceiling is, how many people are coming, how much daylight gets in, where the power is, and when you can get in the door. If nobody asks those, the number is not a quote. It is a placeholder.

Dates matter too. Graduation weekends, gala season in the spring and fall, the run-up to the holidays and any Saturday in wedding season put the whole metro’s inventory and crews in play at once. Book late into a busy weekend and you are not just paying for gear, you are paying for the last available technician. Booking early is the cheapest thing you will do all month.

What is actually on an AV quote?

A real AV quote separates gear from labor from time. Read it in that order. Everything else on the page, delivery, damage waiver, power, rigging and overtime, is a modifier on one of those three. If a company hands you a single lump sum with no breakdown, ask for the itemized version before you compare it against anything.

The gear line

The gear line lists each item and how many of it. A projector, a screen, a stand or a rigging kit, a switcher, cables, speakers, a mixer, microphones, a laptop or a media player. Read for quantities, then read for spares. Ask directly whether a backup unit travels with the order, because a single lamp or a single wireless receiver is a single point of failure in front of your entire guest list.

Also ask what the gear is. Model names mean little to most of us, but the specs behind them do. You want the brightness figure for the projector, the screen size, the number of wireless channels and the speaker count written on the page. Those are the numbers you will use to check the second quote against the first.

The labor line

Labor is usually where two quotes diverge. It can cover a delivery driver, a setup crew, an on-site technician for the length of your program, and a strike crew afterward. Some companies bundle a short setup into the gear price and charge separately for anyone who stays. Others quote a technician by the hour with a minimum. Neither approach is wrong, but you cannot compare totals until you know which model each company used.

Ask one blunt question: will a person be in the room during my event, and for how long? For a slideshow that plays once on a loop, you may not need anyone. For a program with live microphones, a video that has to roll on cue, and a speaker who hands the mic to somebody else, a technician is the difference between a smooth night and a long one.

The rental period

Rental periods are not obvious. Some houses bill a day. Some bill an event day that spans your load-in through your strike even when that crosses midnight. Some price a weekend as one unit because the warehouse is closed Sunday anyway, and some quote weekly for a multi-day conference. It is the same clock you meet at the counter when renting tools and equipment in St. Louis, only with a crew attached to it. Get the start and the end written down.

Then ask what happens if the program runs long. Overtime is real, it is usually billed by the hour or the half hour per person on the crew, and it is the most common surprise on a final invoice. A reception that runs an extra hour is an extra hour of everybody standing in the back of the room.

Delivery, setup and strike

These are three separate events and each one carries a cost. Delivery is the truck and the driver. Setup is the crew building the system in your room. Strike is taking it back out, and it usually happens the moment your guests leave, which is late. Confirm whether the quote includes all three or only a drop-off. A drop-off price with a pickup you were supposed to arrange yourself is the classic reason two quotes look nothing alike.

Delivery windows matter as much as the fee. If the venue only unlocks at four and your program starts at six, say so before you book, because a tight window can require more crew rather than less. Ask what time they intend to arrive, and put that time in writing.

Damage waiver and insurance

Most quotes carry a damage waiver line, sometimes as a percentage of the gear subtotal, sometimes optional. Read what it actually covers. Waivers commonly exclude theft, water and damage from misuse, and a waiver is not the same thing as insurance. Separately, many venues require the AV company to carry liability coverage and to name the venue as an additional insured, and your own event policy may or may not extend to rented equipment sitting in a locked room overnight.

Power, rigging and the venue’s own rules

Power is a question, never an assumption. A gym, a tent, a barn and a historic hall can all run short of circuits, and putting a projector, a lighting package and a sound system on one household circuit is how you find that out in front of guests. Ask where the power is and whether distribution or a generator is needed. Rigging is the other one: hanging anything overhead, flying a speaker or using a lift usually requires a rated point, a trained crew and the venue’s written approval.

Then there are house rules. Hotels and conference centers frequently have an in-house AV provider, and some contracts restrict outside vendors or add a fee for bringing your own. Some venues require house labor for load-in or for touching power. None of that is a scam, but all of it belongs on the quote. Ask the venue for its AV and vendor rules in writing, then forward that same document to every company you ask to bid.

What gear does your event actually need?

Specify your event in units, not adjectives. Lumens for brightness, feet or inches for screen size, channels for wireless microphones, speaker count for the room. A company can price a specific unit. Nobody can price big screen and good sound. Deciding these before you call also keeps you from being sold a package built for a room twice the size of yours.

Projection and screens

Brightness is decided by the light in the room, not by the size of the crowd. A dark ballroom with the house lights down is forgiving. A gym with a wall of windows at ten in the morning, a tent, or a hall where people need light to eat and read a program will eat a dim projector alive. If you cannot control the light, you need a brighter projector or an LED wall instead of projection. Say the words ambient light on the phone and listen to what the company asks next.

Screen size follows your farthest viewer. The common planning habit is that the last row sits no more than about six screen heights back, and the front row no closer than roughly one and a half, which turns the length of your room into a screen height and then into a diagonal. Ceiling height caps you, since the bottom of the image has to sit high enough that heads do not block it. Match the aspect ratio to your content too, because a widescreen deck on a square screen wastes the screen you rented.

Then choose a screen type. A tripod screen is small and fast. A fast-fold in a frame is what most event rooms use, and it can be ordered with skirting so it looks like an event rather than a classroom. Rear projection hides the projector and the beam completely but needs open floor behind the screen. Ask which one the quote includes.

Sound and microphones

Count sound in channels and coverage. Every wireless microphone that can be live at the same moment is a channel, and channels have to be coordinated so they do not fight each other or the building’s own systems. A podium speech, a toast that moves around the room, an officiant who needs both hands free, and a band or a playlist are four different requirements. Write down how many people will be talking at once, then add one spare handheld. Somebody always needs it.

Speaker count is about coverage, not volume. A long narrow room, an L-shaped hall, a space with a hard ceiling and a tile floor, or a tent with no walls each need more than one point of sound so the back is not straining while the front gets blasted. Ask how many speakers the quote includes and where they will stand. Ask whether you also need a microphone for the audience during questions.

Lighting

Lighting is the easiest line to cut and the one people regret when the photos come back. The practical asks are simple: enough light on whoever is speaking, uplighting if you want the room to change character after dinner, and a look for the dance floor if there is dancing. Each of those needs power and somewhere to hide cable. If you are recording or streaming, light on the speaker’s face stops being decoration and becomes a requirement.

Streaming and recording

Streaming turns your event into a broadcast, and a broadcast needs its own gear and its own person. Decide how many cameras, whether anyone will switch between them live, and whether audio comes from the sound system rather than a camera microphone, which is the single biggest quality difference an online viewer will notice. Then check the room’s internet. A hardwired connection with a known upload speed beats guest wireless every time, and only the venue can tell you what exists. Recording with no live audience online is a much smaller ask.

Signing gear paperwork for the office too? Read the copier lease traps first.

Should you rent, buy or use the venue’s in-house AV?

Rent for a one-off, buy for a routine, and check the venue’s in-house team before you do either. The deciding factor is not price, it is how often the room and the requirements repeat. A church projecting lyrics every Sunday and a family holding one memorial are not solving the same problem, even though both of them need a projector and a screen.

In-house AV lives at hotels, conference centers and some larger banquet halls. It is convenient, and it already knows the building’s power, ceiling and quirks, which is worth real money on a complicated day. It may also be contractually exclusive. Ask before you sign the venue contract, not after, whether outside AV is allowed and what fee applies if you bring your own. That question belongs on the same checklist you use when comparing the best event venues in St. Louis for your next celebration.

General party and event rental companies sit in the middle. Many carry a projector, a screen, a portable sound system and a microphone right alongside the tents, tables and linens, which is genuinely handy when you are already renting from them. What they usually do not carry is a technician who stays. The questions are the same ones in our guide to what to ask before booking party rentals in St. Louis: what is included, who sets it up, and when it comes back.

Dedicated AV production companies are the other end of the range. They own deeper inventory, they carry spares, they send people who have solved your exact problem in your exact venue before, and they will walk the room with you. For a program where something has to work on cue in front of an audience, that is precisely what you are paying for. For a slideshow at a family gathering, it may be more than you need.

Two more categories are worth knowing about. Tool and equipment rental counters sometimes stock basic projection or portable PA gear as a sideline, usually pickup only and usually without support. Universities, public libraries and some community organizations lend or rent media equipment to students, members or nonprofit groups, which is a legitimate option for a small meeting if you qualify. Neither one puts a person in your room.

Buying only makes sense when the same need repeats. Run the math on frequency rather than on the sticker. A projector you use monthly for years is cheap. A projector you use twice is a box in a closet with a light source that ages whether or not you turn it on, plus the cables, the stand, the screen, the case, and the person who has to learn how to run it. Renting also means somebody else owns the failure at seven in the evening.

How do you get two quotes you can actually compare?

Send every company the same document. Not a phone call, a document. When the inputs are identical, the differences between the quotes become real information about scope and service instead of noise from two different conversations. This one habit protects your budget more than any negotiating you do afterward.

Include the room details: length, width and ceiling height; guest count and seating layout; how much daylight the room gets and whether it can be darkened; where the doors and the load-in path are, including stairs, elevators or a dock; where the power is and what circuits are available; and a timeline with your access time, program start, program end and the latest possible strike. Add whatever the venue already owns, because a house sound system or a mounted screen changes everything above it.

Then describe the program itself in plain sentences. A team lead in Union, Missouri, planning a company all-hands might write: ninety people in a rented hall, a laptop presentation for forty minutes, two people speaking with handheld microphones, a five-minute video with sound, then questions from the floor. That paragraph tells an AV company more than a gear list would, because it lets them tell you what you actually need.

Ask every bidder the same three closing questions. What is not included in this number? What happens if the program runs past the scheduled end? What happens if the venue changes the room or the layout after we book? The answers will differ, and those differences are usually the entire gap between the cheapest quote and the one that works.

Finally, compare the quotes line by line instead of total to total. Put them side by side and check gear against gear, labor against labor, period against period. Nine times out of ten the cheaper quote is cheaper because something is missing, and once you find the missing line you can ask for it to be added and priced honestly.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to hire a projector and screen?

Ask for it two ways. A package quote bundles the projector, the screen, the stand, the cables and often a short setup window into one number, which is easier to read and frequently cheaper than assembling the same items piece by piece. An a-la-carte quote prices each item and each hour of labor separately, which is what you want when the room is unusual or the program runs long. Neither format tells you the price by itself, because brightness, screen size, delivery, setup, strike and whether a technician stays are what move it. Ask the same company for both formats and read them together.

Is it cheaper to buy or rent a projector?

It comes down to how many times you will use it. Sketch a break-even by counting real events per year across the useful life of the gear, then add everything a rental quietly includes: the screen, the stand, the cables, the case, storage space, and somebody who knows how to set it all up. Light sources age on the calendar as well as on hours, and a projector bought for a big room this year may be wrong for the room you use next year. Frequent, repeating use favors buying. Occasional use, unfamiliar rooms and anything that has to work on cue favor renting.

Where can you rent a projector and screen?

Think in categories rather than brands. Dedicated AV production companies carry the deepest inventory, spares and technicians. General party and event rental companies often stock a projector, a screen and a basic sound system next to the tents and tables. Tool and equipment rental counters sometimes keep simple projection or PA gear as a sideline, usually pickup only. Hotels and conference centers have in-house AV, occasionally on an exclusive basis. Universities, libraries and some community organizations lend media equipment to students, members or nonprofits. Match the category to how much support you need on the day, not to the lowest published rate.

Can you rent projectors from Best Buy?

National consumer electronics retailers are built to sell hardware, not to rent it. Any rental-style or try-before-you-buy program they run tends to be limited, regional and subject to change, so treat that path as a purchase with a return window rather than as a rental house, and check the retailer’s current policy directly before you plan around it. The practical difference is support. A rental house delivers, sets up, brings the right cables and adapters, keeps a spare unit on the truck and can put a person in the room during your program. A return window does none of that at seven on a Saturday evening.

How much do projection screens cost?

The screen is its own line on the quote, priced by type and size rather than folded into the projector. A tripod screen is the small, fast, classroom-style option. A fast-fold screen in a frame is what most event rooms use, and it can be ordered with skirting and a dress kit so it looks finished in photos. Rear projection screens hide the projector and the beam but need open floor behind them. Size is driven by your farthest viewer and capped by ceiling height, and the aspect ratio should match your slides. Ask which type, what size, and whether dressing is included.

How much should I pay for a projector?

Judge the value, not the number. What is genuinely worth paying for is brightness that beats the light in your actual room, resolution that matches your content, a screen sized for your farthest viewer, and support: delivery, setup, the correct cables and adapters, a spare unit, and a technician in the room if anything has to happen on cue. What is not worth paying for is capability your room will never use, such as a projector specified for a ballroom when you are in a small meeting space. Ask each company to justify its recommendation in units, then pick the one that explains itself.

How much rate for projector rental?

Rates are quoted against a defined period, so pin the period down first. Common structures include a single day, an event day covering load-in through strike even when it crosses midnight, a weekend priced as one unit because the warehouse is closed, and a weekly rate for multi-day conferences. Delivery windows are part of that clock, since a narrow access window at the venue can require more crew and a late strike can trigger overtime billed by the hour per person. Get the start time, the end time, the overtime rule and the pickup arrangement in writing before you compare any two rates.

About the Author: The St Louis Near Me Directory Team
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.

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