At any given time, equipment from the SLX warehouse can be found all over the country.
Our kit goes out on hire across the UK before coming back in to be checked and serviced regularly. In many cases, our equipment has found permanent or semi-permanent homes at venues that are in need of a house rig or large quantity of fixtures.
The London Palladium is one example of such a venue. Since 2016, SLX has hired out a full package of fixtures, cables, control and other equipment such as haze machines to the Palladium. They constitute the venue’s house rig, and are in use at all times except the Summer and Christmas seasons, when travelling shows take up residence there.
At the moment, the full list of fixtures we hire out to the Palladium includes Mac Encore performance warm whites, Ayrton Mistrals, Robe Superspikies, and Robe LEDB150s. These are complemented by a full-size Grand MA2 light control and a LumenX DMX 8 distribution.
Mat Rutter, Technical & Building Services Manager at the London Palladium, commented: “We tendered to a lot of rental houses, but no one offered the same level of investment, quality of service and support as SLX. The level of support we’ve received from Ruari and the team is excellent. They always do their best to fix or swap where needed.
“The beauty of SLX is they always push us to be as sustainable as possible, too. They’ll ask us – ‘have you considered these fixtures instead of these’, because they keep track of how energy efficient they are. They don’t just give sustainability lip service, they really push for it. Ultimately, the long term hire is great for them and great for us,” says Rutter.
The Rose Theatre in Kingston-Upon Thames is another venue which has made use of SLX equipment on long-term hire for the past three and a half years. Dan Rainsford, Head of Production at the Rose, said: “We have 34 units including spares which are used on every in-house and visiting show. Our space is such that using conventional lights would be an impossibility or require constant overnight calls to re-focus.
“I have been very happy with the fixtures and with the level of service from SLX. Ruari has as ever been very supportive and the advantage for us of a hire is that we can swap units out when faulty, freeing up countless hours in the department. SLX were also a great support during 2020’s enforced closure of the venue. Their flexible approach was a great help with regards to cashflow at a time when suppliers were struggling as much as venues.”
If long term hire sounds like something that could benefit your venue, get in touch with Ruari Cormack to find out more about how it can work. ruari.cormack@slx.co.uk
