Broadcast Rental Software – Software for camera, lighting & broadcast hire companies

Of all the rental business sectors, TV and equipment broadcast rental is one of the most challenging, with the most varied demands, workflows and feature requirements. With so many different different lines of stock, with different options for each piece of equipment, early returns, periodic invoicing, cross hires, equipment dispatch on different days, invoicing in multiple currencies, etc, to efficiently manage this huge complexity you need affordable, easy to use, powerful and feature rich broadcast rental software, built for your industry.

Broadcast Rental Software Specific Needs

camera rental software At HireHop we don’t want you to change your workflow, as it’s your business and you should run it the way you want to. This is why there are so many ways to do the same thing in HireHop, as well as the ability to customise it to make it look and work the way you want it to, not the other way round.

HireHop was built with the complexities of broadcast equipment rental in mind. Built with functionality to make your workflow more efficient and cost effective without breaking the bank, thus helping your business run more smoothly. This gives you more time and money to grow and invest into your business, instead of wasting time on administration or battling with overpriced and limited functionality software.

Camera, Grip and Lighting Rental Software

Whether a client is renting a small Red Head kit with optional scrims and barn doors, a daylight with header cable and PSU or a Red Dragon with optional lenses and accessories, your staff when processing the rental, need to see what needs to be included and what could be added to help upsell your services.

HireHop will show you when there are shortages, manage sub rentals and cross depot rental, as well as show you availability in real time.

When the warehouse is checking out equipment, you and use barcodes or not, you can even use a mixture of both, with every screen synchronised together in real time. So when one person checks an item out, every other person can see it on their screen instantaneously.

Software That Empowers Your Broadcast Rental Company

HireHop has the most advanced, yet easy to use document engine in the world, enabling you to produce amazing and professional looking quotes at the click of a mouse. Create documents that make you stand out from your competitors, as a basic or bad looking quote can severely damage your reputation and how clients perceive you. Prevent the disappointment of losing lucrative rental contracts due to basic quotes, and let HireHop give you that upper hand over your competitors.

With some of the largest companies in the world in various sectors now using HireHop, all switching from their old software, a testimony to how powerful and beneficial HireHop is and how beneficial it can be for you, no matter if you are a large or small company, let HireHop help you streamline your business.

Barcodes For Your Hire Software

Some companies barcode their products, others don’t. HireHop can work with or without barcodes, or even a mixture of both scenarios. HireHop can even generate barcodes for you, or you can use preexisting barcodes. HireHop also works with almost every barcode scanner, albeit on normal barcodes or QR codes, it even works with RFID labels.

Free Broadcast Rental Software

As our ethos is to deliver a product that helps broadcast hire and rental companies like yours, we even offer a free version of HireHop software for small single user companies to help them get off the ground.

Try HireHop today for free or contact us to arrange a free demo.

Posted on 16 March 202113 January 2023 by HireHop

Event Hire Software – Software for event, party and AV rental companies

Of all the hire and rental business sectors, event hire is the most challenging, with the most varied demands, workflows and feature requirements. With so many different different lines of stock to hire & rent out, as well as crew allocation, cross hires, and so many variants, to efficiently manage this huge complexity you need affordable, easy to use, powerful and feature rich event hire software, built for your industry.

Event Hire Software Specific Needs

At HireHop we don’t want you to change your workflow, after all, it’s your business and you should run it the way you want to, and not based on the limitations of other software. This is why there are numerous ways to do the same thing in HireHop, as well as the ability to customise it to make it work the way you want it to, and do what you want it to do, not the other way round.

HireHop was built with the complexities of event rental in mind. Built with functionality to make your workflow more efficient and cost effective without breaking the bank, thus helping your business run more smoothly. This gives you more time and money to grow your business, instead of wasting time on administration or battling with software to work around your workflows.

Create Amazing Looking Quotes

A basic or bad looking quote can severely damage your reputation and how clients perceive you. HireHop helps you stand out from the crowd, giving you that extra advantage by letting your customers see that your document presentation is as professional as the service you offer.

HireHop has the most advanced, yet easy to use document engine in the world, enabling you to produce amazing and professional looking quotes at the click of a mouse.

Prevent the disappointment of losing lucrative event hires due to basic quotes, and let HireHop give you that upper hand over your competitors.

Lighting, Sound, Rigging & AV Hire Software

AV, Lighting, rigging, furniture, catering and sound equipment rental software With some of the largest rigging, AV, lighting and sound hire companies in the world now using HireHop, all switching from their old software, a testimony to how powerful and beneficial HireHop is and how beneficial it can be for you.

HireHop not only manages your stock, it can record PAT tests, Loler tests, as well as print out certificates for all items on a job, by literally the press of a button. It has multi-depot functionality, with cross-depot hires, and even crew planning modules.

Catering & Furniture Hire Software

Furniture and catering hire companies have their own unique demands, from using product codes, to chair frames with different seat cushion options, something HireHop not only has, but also makes it easy for the user to manage. With some of the largest furniture hire companies now adopting HireHop, you can be assured that by switching to it, you have made the right decision.

Event Production Hire Software

Every event is different, some events, such as your own productions, will be based on a single day hire charge at a higher base price, others, such as rental to a theatre are based on a theatre week, or a dry hire maybe on a three day week, etc. HireHop is the only equipment rental software than can handle all of these different pricing demands with ease, as well as numerous ways to discount lines or entire jobs in order to accomplish your client’s budget, as well as enabling you to manage your profit margin.
Many of event hire companies are hindered with limitations in their software, such as not being able to send emails from their own email address, not being able to use different pricing structures dependent on the job type, not having fully functional purchase orders, no test logging or certificates, the inability to produce amazing looking quotes and proposals, not being able save and restore quotes, and not having the ability to change equipment lists after invoicing, etc., all of which are easily achievable in HireHop, as well as so much more.

Barcodes For Your Hire Stock

Some companies barcode their products, others don’t. HireHop can work with or without barcodes, or even a mixture of both scenarios. HireHop can even generate barcodes for you, or you can use pre-existing barcodes. HireHop also works with almost every barcode scanner, albeit on normal barcodes or QR codes, it even works with RFID labels.

Free Event Hire Software

As our ethos is to deliver a product that helps event hire and rental companies like yours, we even offer a free version of HireHop software for small single user companies to help them get off the ground.

Try HireHop today for free or contact us to arrange a free demo.

Posted on 30 September 20197 December 2022 by HireHop

Cloud based hire software, rental software with a difference

Cloud Hire Software for the rental industry

Cloud rental software & hire software — Rental Software

HireHop have developed a completely new cloud based hire and rental software for use by hire companies worldwide. The rumours are true that the system is ground-breaking and will set the standard for what hire software is supposed to be, beating all current and even forthcoming software in features, userbility and efficiency.

The HireHop cloud based rental management software has been built by hire companies, for hire companies. The software breaks new ground with new features not seen in any other hire software before, enabling efficiency while also minimising user mistakes, saving you time and money yet the system is always intuitive and easy to use, leaving complex tasks to the system to manage and not the users.

As the system is cloud based it runs on a PC, Mac, tablet or phone using Windows, Mac OS, iPad, Android, iOS, Linux, Blackberry, etc., basically, anything with a web browser. You don’t need to install any software, you don’t need a server, you don’t even need to backup your data, all you need to do is log on using a web browser like Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.

Features

The most advanced and comprehensive system available.
Easy to use with a very simple and intuitive user interface.
Manage jobs and projects.
Extensive stock management with features not found in other software.
Manage your consumables, stock and services with ease.
Multiple users with privileges.
Multiple depot locations.
Marketing and CRM tools.
Lightning fast interface, allowing users to process jobs quickly and efficiently.
Easy to use and comprehensive address book.
Create custom documents easily with our new simple to use document designer.
Integrates with Outlook, iPhone calendar, Android calendar and loads more.
Interfaces with accountancy software like Quick Books, Xero, etc.
Looks and feels like a native app.
Efficient processing and creation of jobs with unique features to prevent user mistakes.
+ loads more…

Posted on 11 February 2015 by HireHop

Top Ten reasons why you should be hiring not buying

Why should I hire and not buy, the Top Ten reasons why you should be hiring not buying.

Hiring is the obvious choice in many industries, but sometimes businesses or consumers don’t realise there is a great hiring and renting industry in the UK for multiple sectors. Here are the top ten reasons why you should be hiring and not buying.

You are able to try products before you buy – make sure you actually need them and they suit the required purpose.
Hire a variety different models so you know exactly what you want when you are ready to purchase (that is if you want to purchase).
Hiring is cheaper than buying – especially if the product is for minimum usage.
Afford the unaffordable! Why not hire a Porsche for the weekend? Or a classic car? Hiring allows you to indulge in products otherwise unaffordable.
Don’t hoard! You may only use some products once or rarely, and with the depreciation in value compared to how many times you used the item, it would have been more economical to hire.
Keep up with new technology and models. Hiring ensures you always have the very latest technology or even an older model that is no longer available to buy.
Hiring is very popular for businesses. Offer a greater variety of services to your clients by having the ability to hire stock when required rather than large capital investments.
Did you know cars depreciate 15%-20% when you drive them out the showroom? Depreciation affects all new products especially high value products and services. For hiring you also get a 100% tax benefit for its cost.
There are such a strong range of suppliers out there – so you can always ensure getting the best price, best service and the latest model.
Actually you might not want to keep something and may be something you only use once – so why spend money buying? For example Wedding Clothes only get worn once.

Hiring (and not buying!) is a growing and often understated industry in the UK. But there are a fantastic variety of hiring companies out there and so many different products available to hire. Hirehop provides a simple platform to choose from multiple suppliers to hire a wide range of products.

Some of the most popular categories include Diggers, Lighting and Wedding Services.

Start your hiring right now!

Posted on 4 November 2013 by HireHop

Rigging Weight Loading Calculations for Multipoint Suspension of a straight truss

HireHop is probably the best and most feature rich cloud rental Equipment software, however it also has a resource for users to market their products for free to potential customers on HireHop‘s equipment rental portal. As it has been a popular source for customers to source their hired rigging equipment, we decided to give some advice for when hiring motors and truss, as you need to know the rigging weight loading calculations involved.

Lets take an imaginary scenario that a rigger has suspended a truss on it’s two end points, each motor is rated at 500kg, however the evenly distributed load on the truss is 1,300kg, so the rigger attaches a third 500kg rated motor to pickup the centre of the truss. Thinking with 3 motors rated at 500kg each there would be no problem, to his dismay, the truss comes crashing down, centre point first.

The reason this didn’t work in our imaginary scenario is due to multi-point beam load calculations that he failed to account for. The rigger in this case incorrectly assumed that the three motors would share the load between them equally and didn’t take into account the Three Moment Theorem. This is a very complex formula, however to simplify matters, we have illustrated simplified various rigs below and shown the various loads as percentages of the entire load at each point.

As you can see from the top image with two points, each point carries 50% of the load. If you look at the one below with 3 points you will see that the centre point supports 62% of load and outer points only support 19% of the load. Applying that to what happened to our rigger:

Load = 1,300Kg
Each Outer Point = 0.19 x 1300 = 247Kg per point (19% of the load)
Centre Point = 0.62 x 1300 = 806Kg on centre point (62% of the load)

As you can see, the 500Kg centre point was overloaded at 806Kg and thus collapsed. What the rigger should have done is put up 2 extra motors:

Load = 1,300Kg
Each Outer Point = 0.13 x 1300 = 169Kg per point
Centre Points = 0.37 x 1300 = 481Kg per point

For our scenario, ideally the rigger should use 5 points to give himself a larger margin of error, as with 4 points there is only a 19Kg margin on the centre points.

IMPORTANT

It is very important to note that the above is for an evenly distributed load and that the motors are all moving at the same speed. If for example on a three point pickup the centre motor moved faster than the outer two motors, the entire weight would be taken up on the centre motor with the outer two going slack.
It is not advised to rely on the above when using manual chain blocks as these never climb at the same speed. For a manual chain block, each block should be able to support the entire load.
Please remember to include the weight of the truss and all fixtures when calculating the load.
If you are calculating the load on the points above the motor, remember to add the weight of the motor to each point.
The mathematics is theoretical in an ideal world and factors can be different in the real world, so always include an error margin and never get too close to the maximum loading.

For more in depth rigging calculations, see the Prolyte Black Book

Posted on 20 September 2013 by HireHop

A Wireless and Radio Mic Frequency Guide for the 2012 Digital Switchover

Some hire companies in the UK have been worried about the 2012 Digital Switchover and the loss of UHF channel 69 that was used by their radio equipment working on channels 69 and 70 (UHF frequency range 854-865 MHz), in particular, which radio mic frequency to use. To simplify things we will explain what you need to know and if you can use your equipment.

Radio Mic allowed Channels and frequencies

The UK Government has sold off the channel 69 UHF radio spectrum in 2012 for what was called the 2012 Digital Switchover. What this means is that all walkie talkies, radio mics, in ear monitors and other UHF radio equipment in the UK from 1st January 2013 can’t use channel 69 (UHF frequency range is 854-862 MHz), however channel 70 (UHF frequency range 863-865 MHz) is still usable and free to use without the need for a license!

If you are running channel 70 (UHF frequency range 863-865 MHz) on walkie talkies, radio microphones, in ear monitors (IEMs) or other radio equipment, you can carry on using them for free as the changes do not effect you. However, if your equipment uses channel 69 and does not use channel 70, you can not use it or hire it any more in the UK and must move to channels 38-40 (UHF frequency range 606-630 MHz).

The move only effects channel 69 users who must now use channels 38-40 (UHF frequency range 606-630 MHz). To use the new channels you must apply for a licence either online or by phone from JFMG which costs £75.00 for a 1 year multi-site licence, or £135.00 for a 2 year multi-site licence (these are their published online prices).

For some users, there is still one problem if you intend to use channel 70, in that it is not a very wide band which means that you are limited on how many different frequencies within the band you can use, you will be lucky to get 5, thus you can really only use upto 5 radio mics (or in-ear-monitors) together using only channel 70. Walkie talkies all need to share the same frequency, so for them it is not a problem, however if you need to run lots of different frequencies at the same time all on channel 70, for example more than 4 radio mics, you will run into problems.

Lastly, if you have a long term hire, like in a theatre or at a conference venue, you can apply for a coordinated fixed-site licence from JFMG. These licences are not shared, reduce the potential of interference from anybody else trying to use their own radio system on your frequency and are specific to a particular location, using a particular frequency. Coordinated site licences can be in a wider frequency range (depends on your location) to that of a multi-site license, and are available from JFMG, from £28.00 per license.

Posted on 19 September 2013 by HireHop