An LED wall hire quote should tell you what you are paying for, not just what you are paying. An LED wall hire quote is an itemised price for renting LED cabinets, processing, structure, power, transport and crew for a stated hire period. Most arrive as one number, or as a bundle that puts cabinets, freight, a processor and a technician on a single line, so the buyer cannot compare supplier A with supplier B, or judge whether the venue’s in-house AV quote is fair. This guide breaks a hire quote into its eleven parts, explains why “day rate”, “show day” and “hire period” are three different things, and gives you a brief to send to every supplier so the quotes come back comparable.
We hire out the DRE Series for LED wall rental, so we write from the supplier side of the table. We have kept prices out on purpose. Rates change with pitch, size, schedule and distance, and any figure printed here would be wrong for your job. The structure is what carries between quotes, so that is what we cover.
Key takeaways
- A complete LED wall hire quote has eleven components: cabinet hire, pixel pitch, processing, spare cabinets, structure, power distribution, cabling, transport, crew, show operation, and insurance and consumables. Fewer means something is bundled or missing.
- Build, rehearsal, show and de-rig days are often charged at different rates. Ask which days are which before you compare totals.
- Pitch and wall area move the number most. Indoor versus outdoor, rigged versus ground-stacked, distance from the depot and lead time come next.
- Separate the LED technician’s duties from show operation, even if one person ends up doing both.
- “An LED specialist may be required” is a cost the supplier has not priced. So is a quote with no processor named and no spare cabinets listed.
- Before going outside a venue’s in-house AV team, ask the venue in writing about its third-party AV surcharge. It can wipe out the saving.
At a glance: how each part of a hire quote is usually charged
| Component | Usually priced by | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinet hire | Square metre or cabinet count, per day or week | Finished dimensions and hire period |
| Pixel pitch | Sets the rate per square metre | Same pitch on every quote |
| Processing | Per unit, per hire | Model, input count, picture-in-picture |
| Spare cabinets | Inside the cabinet rate or a separate line | How many, where held, who fits them |
| Structure | Per hire, flown or ground-stacked | Who designs it, who obtains venue sign-off |
| Power distribution | Per hire | Expected draw, connector, handover point |
| Cabling | Per hire or bundled | Signal, data, power, cable ramps |
| Transport | Per trip from the depot | Access and timing assumptions |
| Crew | Per person, per day | Roles, numbers, attendance windows, de-rig |
| Show operation | Per operator, per show day | Whether it is included at all |
| Insurance and consumables | Per hire | Who covers what, and when |
What should an LED wall hire quote include?
A complete LED wall hire quote itemises eleven things: cabinet hire, pixel pitch, processing, spare cabinets, rigging or ground-support structure, power distribution, cabling, transport, crew for install, show days and de-rig, show operation, and insurance and consumables. The unit being hired is a cabinet, which some suppliers call a panel or a tile. We say cabinet throughout. Once you can name the eleven, you can find them in any supplier’s paperwork, or notice that they are not there.
Cabinet hire
The cabinets are the largest single line, priced either by square metre or by cabinet count. Both are fine, provided the quote states which and gives the finished dimensions. Our DRE cabinets are 496 mm square, so a wall quoted at eight cabinets by five is 3,968 mm wide by 2,480 mm high. If you asked for four metres by two and a half, that is the closest a fixed cabinet size can get, and a good quote says so rather than rounding. Our guide to event rental LED display panels covers what makes a rental cabinet different from a fixed-install one.
Pixel pitch
Pitch is the distance between LED centres. It sets the resolution of the wall, the minimum comfortable viewing distance and the cost per square metre, because a finer pitch means more LEDs, driver electronics and receiving-card capacity in the same area. Our DRE 1.29 mm cabinets suit conference stages, exhibition stands and studios where the front row is close. For a stage viewed from twenty metres, a coarser pitch does the same job for less. Quotes at different pitches are not comparable, so fix the pitch before you ask anyone for a number.
Processor, switcher or media server
The processor takes your HDMI, SDI or DisplayPort source, scales it to the wall’s native pixel count and distributes it to the receiving cards in each cabinet. We run Novastar processors on hire jobs, sized to the pixel count the wall needs, and the processor is its own line on our quote. If a quote does not name the processor, ask. You need its input count and whether it supports picture-in-picture for a presenter feed over a branded backplate.
Processing is not switching or playback. Feeding a prepared loop to the wall is one job. Switching between laptops, cameras and video during a live programme needs a switcher or media server upstream of the processor, which is a separate hire line, and someone has to run it.
Spare cabinets
Cabinets fail. A rental cabinet is trucked, stacked, rigged, handled by several pairs of hands and trucked again, so a responsible supplier carries spares to site and prices them in. A quote with no spares line either has them hidden inside the cabinet rate or has none. Ask which, and where they are held. Spares two hours away at a depot are not the same as spares in the truck. For our own fleet, module-level spares and spare power boxes are held against the DRE stock at our depot in Watlington, Oxfordshire. Ask us what travels with your wall and we will put it on the quote.
Rigging or ground-support structure
The wall has to hang from something or stand on something. Flown walls need trussing, motors or fixed points, and a venue sign-off on the loading. Ground-stacked walls need a stacking frame, ballast and a floor that will take the point loads. Our stacking frame sits about 496 mm deep behind the cabinet face, which is the first thing we check against any stage or stand footprint. The structure line should say who supplies the structural information, who checks it and who obtains venue acceptance. Temporary structures at events fall under the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on temporary demountable structures, and someone has to own that.
Power distribution
LED walls draw real current, and the datasheet peak is not what you will see in practice. Our DRE cabinets are rated at 600 W/m² peak. Typical running draw on normal content is roughly a third of that. A quote should state the supply it expects from the venue, the connector, the handover point, and whether distribution boards, RCD protection and cable runs are included. “Power supplied by client” is not a plan unless the connection point is named. HSE guidance on electrical safety at events sets out who is responsible for what, and our post on LED screen hire power requirements for events works through the calculation.
Cabling
Signal cable from the processor to the wall, data links between cabinets, power looms, cable ramps where the public walk, and the source cable from your laptop or playback system. It is not a large line, but it should be there.
Transport
Cabinets travel in flight cases, and a wall of any size is a van or a truck, priced from the supplier’s depot to your venue and back. Distance, loading-bay access, congestion charges and out-of-hours windows all change it. So does a lift that will not take a flight case, a flight of stairs, or a long push through public areas. If the quote says “delivery included”, ask what it assumes about access and timing.
Crew
Three jobs sit here. Install crew build and commission the wall. An LED technician stays on show days to run the processor, handle source changes and fix a cabinet if one fails. De-rig crew take it down. Some suppliers price all three as one line. Others quote install and leave de-rig off, the most common gap we see. At Dynamo, de-rig is included in the installation line, and the quote says so. Our crew are CSCS-carded, with IPAF and PASMA held for work at height, and in a confined room we allow a full build day whatever the client’s half-day plan says. Whoever you use, ask for crew numbers, roles and attendance windows for each stage.
Show operation
Someone cueing content, switching between presenters and running playback is an operator, not the LED technician. The duties can overlap, but they should not be assumed to belong to whoever assembled the screen. Ask whether the quote includes an operator, a technician, both or neither.
Insurance and consumables
Who insures the kit in transit, during the build, the show and de-rig? Our quotes state that we insure in transit and while our crew are installing or de-rigging. On site, damage from the client side is handled through the damage deposit, covered below. Public liability cover and cover for damage to hired equipment are different things, so check both. Consumables such as gaffer tape and cable ties should also appear on the quote.
Is an LED wall day rate the same as a show day?
In LED wall hire, a day rate is the charge for kit on any calendar day. A show-day rate is a live day with an LED technician on site. The hire period is the full span from delivery to collection. Build, rehearsal, show and de-rig days are often charged at different rates, so totals only compare once each supplier has mapped its charges to the same schedule.
A build day is a day the wall is going up. A rehearsal day is powered and crewed without an audience. A de-rig day is the day it comes down. Cabinet hire might run for the whole period at a flat weekly rate, while crew is charged per day and the technician only on show days, so a one-day conference can cover four calendar days of kit and three of labour. If supplier A quotes “one show day” and supplier B quotes “three days”, they may be describing the same event. Ask each to map their charges against the same schedule:
| Stage | Equipment question | Labour question |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery and build | When does chargeable hire begin? | Who unloads, builds and tests the wall? |
| Rehearsal | Is this inside the quoted hire period? | Are the technician and operator attending? |
| Show days | Does the package cover the full programme? | What hours and duties are included? |
| Overnight or idle days | How is kit left on site charged? | Is any standby attendance required? |
| De-rig and return | When does chargeable hire end? | Who packs, loads and collects, and when? |
Longer hires are usually cheaper per day, because transport, build and de-rig are spread across more days, which is why we price cabinet hire by the week. A longer kit booking does not automatically include more technician days, so check the crew line separately. If your hire runs to many weeks, the maths starts to favour buying, and our rent versus buy decision tree walks through the crossover.
Dry hire means cabinets and processing only. No crew, no transport, no structure unless stated. It is not a cheaper version of the same service. It is a different service, and a dry-hire quote only compares with a full-service one after you have added the people needed to deliver the same event.
What changes an LED wall hire price most?
Five factors move an LED wall hire price, in order of effect: pixel pitch, wall area, indoor versus outdoor rating, rigged versus ground-stacked support, and distance from the depot combined with lead time. Our own hire fleet is indoor 1.29 mm only, so the outdoor and coarse-pitch points below apply when you are comparing other suppliers or weighing up a different kind of wall.
Pitch first. Going coarser at the same wall size is the largest saving available, and if the audience is far enough away it costs nothing in picture quality. Specify the nearest viewing position and the smallest text the audience must read, and let that decide the pitch rather than habit.
Size second. Cost scales with area, so trimming one row of cabinets removes that row from cabinets, structure, power and transport at once. Going the other way, from four by two metres to six by three, takes the area from eight to eighteen square metres, and structure, transport, power and handling all need reassessing. If the wall will only ever show a static logo, ask whether printed scenery would do the job.
Indoor versus outdoor is next. Outdoor-rated cabinets carry weather protection and far higher brightness, which means heavier cabinets, more power and often more structure for wind loading. Rigged versus ground-stacked changes the structure line and the crew count: ground support keeps you off the venue’s rigging points but takes floor space and needs load checks, while flying frees the floor but needs venue sign-off.
Distance from the depot sets transport and, beyond a certain radius, crew accommodation. Short lead times cost more because kit may need to be sub-hired and crew rescheduled, and a provisional option is not a confirmed booking until the deposit lands. Our fixed-install LED display cost guide covers the same levers from the purchase side.
Red flags in an LED wall hire quote
Seven gaps come up again and again in LED wall hire quotes: an unpriced technician, no spare cabinets, no named processor, no structure line, no de-rig, power not addressed, and delivery with no stated access assumptions. An eighth, the single line reading “LED wall package”, usually contains all seven at once.
- “An LED specialist may be required.” An unpriced cost sitting in the quote as a maybe. Whoever supplies the wall should be pricing the technician, not flagging one.
- No spare cabinets listed, and no statement that spares sit inside the cabinet rate.
- No processor named. You cannot check inputs or picture-in-picture support against an unnamed box.
- No structural or rigging line. Either the wall is standing on nothing, or the structure is coming from someone else and has not been priced.
- No de-rig. The wall goes up, the show happens, and the quote stops.
- Power not addressed. No expected draw, no connector, no handover point.
- “Delivery included” with no access assumptions.
In September 2026 we saw an event planner ask whether a hotel’s in-house AV quote for a 2.5 mm wall over three show days was fair. What stood out was not the total but the note underneath: “an LED specialist may be required”. The first red flag above, on a quote the buyer was about to accept.
None of these means the supplier is being dishonest. It usually means the quote was written quickly. But every one of them is a cost that will appear later, on a variation or on the venue’s invoice. Get the answers in writing and have them written into the quote before you accept it, so the booked scope is the scope everyone turns up to deliver.
How to compare LED wall hire suppliers like-for-like
To compare LED wall hire suppliers like-for-like, send each one the same brief, with the same pitch, finished dimensions, environment, schedule and venue access, and ask each to itemise against the same headings and list exclusions. Totals only compare once the scope behind them is identical. Here is the brief as a block you can paste into an email. Line one comes straight from the LED screen configurator, which turns a target size into a cabinet count.
Screen: __ m wide x __ m high, indoor / outdoor. Cabinet count: __
Nearest viewer: __ m. Content: slides / video / camera feed / branding
Pitch: __ mm (or please propose)
Venue and position: __. Flown or ground-stacked: __
Dates: build __ / rehearsal __ / show __ / de-rig __
Access: loading slot __, lift or stairs __, distance to position __ m
Power: venue supply __ A at __ (connector), __ m from the wall
Please itemise: cabinets, pitch, processor by model, spare cabinets,
structure and sign-off, power distribution, cabling, transport,
crew by day, de-rig, show operation, insurance, exclusions
That block is what our LED screen hire page asks for. Send it through our contact page and we will return a video wall hire quote itemised against every heading in this guide, so you can set it beside whatever the venue or another supplier has sent.
Then compare the following before you look at the difference between totals:
- Match the screen. Same pitch, same finished dimensions, same environment. If a supplier proposes an alternative, record it as a separate option.
- Match the calendar. Identical delivery, rehearsal, show and removal windows, checked against the schedule table above.
- Match responsibilities. Name the party providing power, structural sign-off, playback and show operation.
- Reconcile exclusions. A supplier who lists exclusions is telling you the truth about the total. Get a price for anything missing, or get it in writing that it is out of scope.
- Compare the whole cost. Add venue charges, check everyone is quoting the same way on VAT, and keep the refundable deposit out of the event cost but in your cash flow.
Check the venue’s position before you go outside. Many venues, hotels especially, apply a surcharge or supervision fee when an external AV supplier is brought in, and some restrict rigging or electrical work to their in-house team. If the saving from going outside is smaller than the surcharge, the in-house quote is the better deal even if its LED line looks high. Our post on buying LED direct versus through an AV integrator covers the wider question of who should sit between you and the kit.
If a bundled supplier will not disclose individual charges, ask for a written inclusion schedule against your headings instead. A package can be assessed when equipment, attendance and exclusions are explicit. An unexplained total cannot. Then run the same due diligence you would on any supplier taking a deposit. Our checklist for checking an LED display supplier before you pay a deposit applies to hire as much as to purchase.
Deposits and cancellation
Two deposits appear on a Dynamo hire quote, and they do different jobs.
The booking deposit is 30% of the order, paid at order. It confirms the kit for your dates, and the quote states that stock is available at the time of writing and held on receipt of the deposit. The balance is payable before the event.
The damage deposit is separate and refundable. We introduced it as a standing line after a trade-show build at ExCeL in September 2026 where a client’s contractors painted the stand around our cabinets and got paint on the screens before the show opened. The deposit covers damage to the equipment from arrival on site until collection, including damage caused by the client’s own staff, contractors or other trades. Kit is inspected at de-rig, cleaning or repair is charged against the deposit at our replacement values, and the remainder is refunded.
Every hire quote also states a cancellation window. Cancel within seven days of the event and the booking deposit is retained. Cancel further out and half is returned. Postponement, a smaller wall or fewer show days are not the same as cancellation, so ask how each is treated. Any supplier’s quote should state its own terms. If it does not, ask before you pay.
What a Dynamo hire quote lists
| Item | What we quote |
|---|---|
| Hire fleet | DRE Series, 1.29 mm pixel pitch, indoor cabinets |
| Cabinet | 496 × 496 mm, 384 × 384 pixels, about 9.2 kg |
| Cabinet hire basis | By display area, per hire week |
| Structure | Hanging or ground-stacked; stacking frame about 496 mm deep behind the cabinet face |
| Processing | Novastar processors, sized to the wall’s pixel count |
| Spares | Module-level spares and spare power boxes held against the fleet at Watlington, Oxfordshire |
| Power | Datasheet peak 600 W/m²; typical running draw roughly a third of peak |
| Crew | Install, show-day LED technician, de-rig; CSCS-carded, IPAF and PASMA held |
| De-rig | Included in the installation line |
| Deposits | 30% booking deposit at order, plus a separate refundable damage deposit |
| Cancellation | Written cancellation window stated on every quote |
From the field
Daniel, Dynamo LED Displays:
The paint incident is the reason I now insist on a damage deposit on every hire. We had handed over a wall of our DRE 1.29 mm cabinets on an exhibition stand at ExCeL in September 2026. The build around them carried on after we left, and by the time the show opened there was paint on the cabinets. Nobody had done anything malicious. It was a busy build with several trades working over each other, and nobody had thought to cover the screens. Our insurance covered the kit in transit and while my crew were installing it. It did not cover somebody else’s roller.
The lesson I took from it is the one I would give any buyer reading a hire quote. Every gap in a quote is a conversation you will have later, under pressure, with less choice. If the technician is a maybe, the structure is unpriced, or the damage question is unanswered, you have not saved money. I would rather send a longer quote and have that conversation now.
LED Wall Hire Quote: Frequently Asked Questions
What should an LED wall hire quote include?
A complete quote itemises eleven things: cabinet hire by area or cabinet count, pixel pitch, the processor by name, spare cabinets, the rigging or ground-support structure and its sign-off, power distribution, cabling, transport, crew for install, show days and de-rig, show operation, and insurance and consumables. If any is missing, ask whether it is bundled into another line or excluded.
Is a day rate the same as a show-day rate?
No. A day rate usually covers kit hire for any calendar day, while a show-day rate covers a live day with a technician on site. Build, rehearsal and de-rig days are often charged differently again. Ask every supplier to show which days on your schedule are charged at which rate before comparing totals.
Does the day rate include setup and removal?
Do not assume so. A day rate may refer only to equipment, with build and de-rig as separate labour and transport lines, or de-rig left off altogether. Ask for the full hire period and each crew attendance window, and check whether a late finish changes the removal arrangements or adds a collection charge.
What does dry hire exclude?
Dry hire normally covers cabinets and processing only. Transport, crew, structure, power distribution and a show-day technician are excluded unless the quote says otherwise. It suits production companies with their own technicians and trucks. Check the inventory too, because dry hire does not automatically include every cable and spare you need.
Should I use the venue’s in-house AV supplier or go outside?
Ask the venue in writing about its third-party AV surcharge and any rigging or electrical restrictions before you decide. If the surcharge is larger than the saving from an outside supplier, the in-house quote is the better deal. If you do go outside, ask both parties for the same itemised split so you are comparing the same scope.
What is the difference between a booking deposit and a damage deposit?
A booking deposit is paid at order to confirm the kit for your dates, with the balance due before the event. A damage deposit is a separate refundable sum held against damage to the equipment while it is on site, including damage caused by the client’s own contractors. It is refunded after the de-rig inspection, less any cleaning or repair.
Getting a quote you can compare
Hire quotes are hard to compare because suppliers bundle differently, charge different days at different rates and leave different things out. None of that is fixed by asking for a lower number. It is fixed by asking every supplier the same questions, at the same pitch, over the same schedule, and reading the exclusions as carefully as the total.
If you would like an LED wall hire quote built the way this guide describes, with cabinets, processing, structure, power, transport, crew, de-rig and both deposits shown as separate lines, tell us your wall size, viewing distance, venue and dates through our contact page or call +44 (0)203 489 9878. Our LED screen hire page lists what else helps us price accurately. We quote the DRE Series fleet itemised as standard, so the LED wall hire quote you receive from us can be set beside any other supplier’s and compared line by line.
