Guide for events and event technology

Planning by occasion

Most questions depend less on the budget and more on the occasion. A wedding requires different lead times than a summer festival, and a Christmas party requires different equipment than a street fair.

Weddings. The complete process is outlined in our wedding planning guide, which includes a 12–18 month timeline and a checklist. If you want to know where the money goes first, start with the wedding budget. For the evening itself, the music is crucial: our guide to music and entertainment compares playlists, DJs, and live bands based on your guest count. The celebrations start early, so we also have a bachelor/bachelorette party guide. The Wedding section shows you what equipment you'll need on the big day.

Corporate and business. Company parties, Christmas parties, and summer festivals follow the same logic but differ in lead time. For company parties, the venue and date should be set 4–6 months in advance—even earlier for Advent events in large cities. A separate guide is available for seminars and workshops, including material and technical checklists. You can find the right equipment in the Corporate Event section.

Birthdays and parties. From milestone birthdays to themed parties: our birthday party guide covers venues, guest counts, and scheduling, while our collection of themed party ideas provides the concept. The Birthday section clarifies which sound system is right for your number of guests.

Seasonal. New Year's Eve, Halloween, and Carnival each have their own dedicated guides, complete with playlists, games, and a ready-to-use Christmas quiz with 40 questions.

School and graduation. Whether it's an Abiball in Germany or a Maturaball in Austria, both guides walk you through committee organization, ticket sales, event flow, and technical requirements.

Outdoors and neighborhood. We offer a guide for street and neighborhood parties that covers permit requirements, as well as a dedicated guide on licenses for public viewing events.

Legal, permits, and costs

This is the area most frequently left until too late. Music at a public event must be registered—with GEMA in Germany or AKM in Austria. Both articles explain when registration is necessary and how the fees are calculated. The GEMA registration guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough of the online portal.

Then there are the points that only become apparent when something goes wrong: the serving permit required as soon as drinks are sold, and event insurance for damage to equipment, the venue, and guests. The foundation for both is solid budget planning and a realistic schedule.

Technical knowledge and product tests

Here you will find the questions that usually arise just before setup. How do you combine a projector and sound for a movie night in the garden? How much power does a system draw and how long will a power station last? Which lighting creates the right mood without making the room feel like a gym?

In our product tests, we compare models that look similar on paper but differ significantly in practice. The comparison between the Soundboks 3 and Soundboks 4 is our most-read one. For the setup itself, our video tutorials are usually faster than text: Bluetooth pairing, stereo linking, and microphone settings take just a few minutes there.

Calculators, templates, and configurators

Where a number is needed, we provide a calculator instead of a rule of thumb. All of them run in your browser, free of charge and without registration:

• GEMA CalculatorandAKM Calculatorfor an initial estimate of fees
• Drink Calculatorfor quantity and purchasing per person
• Space requirement calculatorfor floor space based on seating arrangements
• Power consumption calculatorfor power protection and battery life
• PA Calculatorfor system size based on guest count and room
• Event Configuratorfor a complete setup in just a few steps

Where our content comes from

Renty equips several thousand events per year across 28 locations in Germany and Austria. The content of our articles is derived from these bookings and the conversations leading up to them. A question that comes up on the phone three times a week becomes a topic.

Where numbers are involved, we cite the source. The Event Report analyzes our own booking data and shows, among other things, that the median time between booking and the start of an event is just 7.09 days, and 25.5% of all events are equipped less than 48 hours in advance.

Where something cannot be verified, we state that clearly. A 5,200-lumen projector will not provide a usable image in full daylight, regardless of what the product description claims. Being open about such limitations saves more frustration than any sales copy.

‍

‍