Awards banquet sound
in Fargo.

What the job actually is

Two microphones and a program that keeps moving.

An awards banquet is mostly one thing: people talking into microphones, for a long time, in a room where everyone is also eating. What makes it work is a podium microphone that does not feed back, a second microphone that can go to a presenter or a winner without anyone crossing the room to hand it over, and someone riding the levels so the quiet speaker and the loud speaker both land.

For most banquet rooms that is a pair of speakers on stands. Not a wall of gear, and not a concert rig with a drum sub.

The program

Music between awards.

Send us your award list ahead of time and we will cue music to play people up and off. It sounds like a small thing. In practice it is the difference between a program that moves and one that stalls for fifteen seconds after every name while somebody walks to the front.

Long programs

Three hours is not a problem.

We stay for the whole event and we bring backup gear, including spare batteries for the wireless microphones. A wireless microphone dying partway through a long awards program is the most common failure at these events, and it is completely preventable by someone who is watching for it.

Straight pricing

What awards banquet sound costs.

• Weekday events: from $400. Monday through Thursday. Most meetings, conferences, and weeknight banquets land here. Weeknights are already open on our calendar, so there is no wedding to turn down to take your event. You get the benefit of that.
• Friday, Sunday, and Saturday daytime: from $550. Car shows and daytime ceremonies fit here. These days start to compete with wedding work, so they run a little higher than a weeknight.
• Both rates buy up to 4 hours of event time. Event time only. Setup and teardown are free on top of your 4 hours, never counted inside them. Your clock starts when we start running sound for you and stops when we stop. We are usually on site 60 to 90 minutes before that to set up and test everything, and we stay afterward to pack out. You are not billed a cent for either, and neither one shortens your 4 hours.
• Longer events: $125 per additional hour. A six hour car show is the base rate plus two hours. We work the total out with you before you book. Past four hours we are into a long day, often ten hours door to door once load in and load out are counted. The hourly keeps a long event worth doing properly instead of rushed.
• Saturday evenings: usually booked for weddings. Ask and we will tell you honestly what is open. A Saturday night is a wedding reception for us, and those book up to a year ahead. If your date happens to be open we will say so.
• Announcing or MC work: add $200. Optional, and only if you want it. Running the microphone is a different job than running the sound. This is the part that four decades of doing it actually buys you.
• Travel: Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, and Dilworth are included. Anywhere farther is quoted plainly up front. Those four are our home metro, so there is no drive time worth passing along to you.

That is the whole list. You will know your full number before you sign anything, because we ask how long your event runs and quote the hours up front instead of adding them to the invoice afterward.

Banquets often land on weeknights, and weeknights are our lowest rate.

Announcing

We can run the microphone too.

If you want it, announcing is a flat $200 on top of the sound. Tyler has been on a microphone since 1980. If you would rather use your own emcee, we hand them the microphone and keep the levels right all night at no extra charge. See our MC services for what that looks like.