How to Price AV Jobs: A Guide for Freelancers and Small Companies

Pricing AV jobs is the part of the business almost nobody trains you on. You learn it by quoting too low, losing money, and adjusting until it works. This guide is what most freelancers and small AV companies in the UK wish someone had told them five years ago.

The four cost layers

Every AV job has four cost layers. If you miss any of them in your quote, your margin disappears.

1. Equipment hire (kit)
2. Crew time
3. Logistics (transport, parking, accommodation, sub-hires)
4. Margin and contingency

We will go through each.

1. Pricing equipment hire

The standard model in the UK live events industry is a daily hire rate, with discounts for multi-day jobs.

Common discount structure:

• Day 1: full rate
• Day 2: 50%
• Day 3 onwards: 25% per additional day (sometimes lower for long tours)
• A "weekly" rate is typically 2.5 to 3 day rates

Set day rates from one of two starting points:

• Replacement cost over expected life. A 12k laser projector at £25,000 with a 4-year working life and 100 hire days per year prices at roughly £62.50/day before margin.
• Market rate. What comparable companies in your region charge for the same kit. Useful as a sanity check, not as a primary input.

Build your kit list with one line per item, quantity, day count, unit price, line total. Group by department: Audio, Video, Lighting, Rigging, Crew.

2. Pricing crew

Day rates in the UK live events industry roughly band as follows:

• Junior tech: £150-£250 per 10-hour day
• Mid-level engineer (audio, lighting, video specialist): £300-£450
• Senior engineer or department head: £450-£650
• Project manager / show caller: £450-£700
• Specialist roles (LED tech, network engineer, video director): £500-£800

These are rough ranges, vary by region, and shift with experience and demand. Add 15-20% if the job is in central London. Add similar for outside-broadcast or touring crew.

Overtime: most crew expect overtime after 10 hours. Standard practice is 1.5x for hours 10-12 and 2x beyond 12.

Travel time: if the job is more than two hours from base, build travel into the day. Either bill a separate travel half-day or absorb it but flag it in your pricing.

3. Pricing logistics

The hidden costs that eat margin:

• Transport: van or truck hire if you do not own. Fuel. ULEZ. Congestion charge. Toll roads.
• Parking: city centre venues frequently charge £30-£60 per day per vehicle.
• Accommodation: crew hotels for multi-day jobs. Budget £80-£120 per night per crew member outside London, £150+ in London.
• Per diems: typical industry practice is £20-£30 per day per crew member when out of base.
• Sub-hire: kit you do not own that you hire in from another company. Add 15-25% to the sub-hire price to cover your time managing the relationship and the risk.

4. Margin and contingency

Margin is what is left after costs. Contingency is what you set aside for the things you cannot predict.

• Margin: small companies typically target 25-40% gross margin on equipment hire and 15-25% on crew. Some specialist services (live streaming, broadcast) can support higher margins because the technical risk is higher.
• Contingency: add 5-10% to the total for any job over £5,000. Add 10-15% for any job that involves new venues, new clients, or new kit you have not used in production before.

If you do not add contingency, you are absorbing every unexpected cost out of your margin.

How to present the total

Three rules:

1. Group by department. Audio, Video, Lighting, Rigging, Crew, Logistics. Each with a subtotal.
2. Show VAT separately. Never roll VAT into a single total. Procurement teams will question it.
3. Be clear about what is included. A simple "Included" and "Excluded" list at the bottom of the quote saves arguments.

What to charge for that small companies forget

A short list:

• Set-up days where the kit is on hire but the show has not started
• De-rig overtime if the show overruns
• Lost or damaged kit cover (build into the day rate, or charge for insurance)
• Additional crew if the brief expands after sign-off
• Standby kit (a spare desk, a backup engineer on call)
• Pre-production time for complex jobs
• Site visits to recce the venue
• Power distro if the venue does not provide it

When to quote at the bottom of your range

There are good reasons to quote tighter than usual:

• The job will open a door to a new client with multi-year potential
• It is a portfolio piece (a venue or sector you want case studies in)
• It fills a gap in your calendar

There are bad reasons:

• You are nervous about the price
• You think the client will not pay your normal rate
• You have not done a similar job before so you are guessing

If you find yourself nervous about pricing, the answer is not to drop the price. The answer is to add more detail, more reassurance, and a stronger team section, then hold the price.

A working pricing process

A repeatable process for any job:

1. Confirm the brief in writing. Get dates, venue, scope, deliverables, and any constraints.
2. Build the kit list against the brief.
3. Build the crew list with day count and rates.
4. Add logistics: transport, accommodation, per diems, parking.
5. Add sub-hires with markup.
6. Apply margin.
7. Add contingency.
8. Build the quote table grouped by department.
9. Sense-check the total against your gut. If it feels too high or too low, work out why.

The companies that do this every time consistently win more profitable jobs than the companies that price by feel.

pro-posal.io lets you build kit lists with grouped subtotals, pull live pricing from Current RMS, and apply your margin in one place. Start your free trial: pro-posal.io.