A few years ago, I installed a really nice sound system in a church located in the South Bay area of Southern California. The church had been damaged by a fire 12 months earlier and they were having Wednesday and Sunday services in a large tent that had been set up in the church parking lot. A local audio company supplied the sound and lighting for the services. You may be wondering where I am going with this story, but read on. Anyway, the audio company was charging the church $2,000 a week to rent and operate the sound and lighting system.
While my crew was installing a new sound system in the main sanctuary, I checked out the system in the tent. It consists of two subs and two tops. The lighting was supplied by four 300W PAR cans mounted on a stand per side. The system was used to service 250 to 300 persons max per service. It was old and worn, and in my expert opinion, the sound and lighting, with operator, should have (and probably would have) rented for about $800 to $900 a week in any other venue. Especially as the gear was left set up from week to week.
If you do the math, the church spent over $100,000 on the rental of the system they used in their temporary tent. That is a lot of money, but it seems like even more when you take into account that the new sound and lighting system I installed in the main sanctuary cost about $55,000. So the moral of the story — and the subject of this month’s Sound Sanctuary column — is that you really have to know when it is better to rent or better to buy.
Back to the South Bay church. If it had been my call, I would have spent $12,000 to $15,000 on an equivalent audio and lighting system, paid a tech $300 a week to mix the Wednesday and Sunday services, and saved $70,000 — more than enough to pay for the new sanctuary system. But it wasn’t my call, and the church leaders who spent $100,000 on rental gear just didn’t think things through. Not only would the church have saved a pile of cash, they could have acquired another sound and lighting system. They could use the system for a variety of events, or just sell it when it was no longer needed. Any way you slice it, the church leaders were not being good stewards of the congregation’s money.
The Big Question
So, how do you know when to buy or when to rent? First, let’s look at the pros and cons of buying a sound system. You buy it, and it is yours to do whatever you want with. As obvious as that sounds, it is simply true that you will never have to rent gear you own. Somewhere in the future, you can sell the gear and recoup some of your investment. If you own the system, you will inevitably become familiar with every piece of gear and potentially become an expert at setting up and operating the equipment.
So what’s the downside of buying? For the short term, you will have to put out more money than you’d need to spend on rented gear. Once you own a sound system, you also need to have a place to store it when it is not in use. And, of course, you will be responsible for any losses arising from breakage of the gear, along with any maintenance costs.
Okay, how about the pluses and minuses of renting an audio system? Renting is much less expensive than buying. You will never have to store your rented gear, and if you hire a rental technician, you would have to set up or tear down the system. If you put on outreach shows, you can rent the size of system that meets the particular needs of any given event. Of course, that will include lighting, if needed. And you will never have to bear the responsibility of maintaining a rented system.
Having looked at some pros and cons, let me tell you my personal thoughts. It all comes down to use. How often will you use the gear you intend on purchasing or renting? Let’s say you put on one special event per year where you need additional equipment or a separate sound system. If that’s the case, I would advise just renting what you need every year — while also budgeting enough for a competent technician/operator. If you produce 10 events per year, by contrast, you should almost definitely buy the gear you will need.
As a rule of thumb, rental gear (including set-up and operation) usually cost about 10 percent of the purchase price. So a $10,000 sound system should cost you about $1,000 with delivery, setup and a technician. Simple math tells us that that about ten events would pay for the sound system. But what if you put on four or five or six events per year? With my formula, it would, in that case, take about two years to recoup the cost of the gear. However, keep in mind that if your house of worship produces five or six events, you can probably push it to six or seven if you own your gear instead of renting it. Either way, in this scenario, I’d advise that you buy your sound system. Keep in mind, however, you will still need to store and maintain your gear.
In actuality, I would only recommend renting gear if your church produces one, two or three events per year — especially if those events varied significantly in size, and a single purchased sound system would not be able to accommodate all of your events.
Lastly, if your house of worship simply may not have the money to purchase an entire sound system, a partial system purchase may still make sense. In this scenario, you would purchase some of your gear and rent the rest until you are able to purchase an entire system. You could, for example, buy a mixer and rent the rest of the gear, or purchase front of house speakers and rent everything else.
Whatever decisions you make, strive to be a good steward of your congregations money. Good luck!
