Power and Rigging Asks to Put in the Venue Contract

Venue contracts default to banquet power and house rigging that works for a wedding DJ — not a flown LED wall, a line array, and a stage deck with cable troughs. The gap shows up at load-in: circuits trip when the PA powers up, rigging points sit over columns instead of the stage, and the house electrician bills hourly because nobody specified tie-in locations in writing. This guide lists the power and rigging asks to put in the venue contract before you sign, so production can advance against real specs instead of a sales floor plan.

Why power and rigging belong in the contract, not the rider alone

Production riders tell your vendor what to build. Venue contracts tell the hotel or convention center what they must provide — access, infrastructure, labor rules, and who pays when reality differs from the brochure. If power locations and rigging capacity live only in a rider your production partner holds, the venue sales team never saw them. Banquet ops finds out when the truck is at the dock.

Split the documents deliberately. The venue contract (planner-owned) covers power tie-in locations and amperage, rigging point count and load ratings, load-in and strike windows, dock and freight elevator access, house labor jurisdiction, and fees for supplemental power or rigging. The production rider (production-owned) covers signal path, equipment inventory, crew roles, failover, and the technical plot that translates room geometry into gear specs. Shared advance deliverables — as-built rig plot, confirmed power plan, ceiling weight documentation, and a single load-in schedule both sides sign before cases move — belong in both workflows with named dates.

When both documents reference the same numbers — not "adequate power for AV" — you have something to enforce when the GM offers extension cords from the catering closet.

Power asks to specify before you sign

Banquet contracts often list "AV power included" without saying where, how much, or whether it shares a circuit with kitchen exhaust. Production needs dedicated distribution at defined locations, with enough headroom that a full show power-up does not trip the house.

Minimum power requirements to put in the contract:

1. 1.Tie-in locations — Name them: FOH position, stage lip left and right, upstage center for LED processor racks, camera positions, and stream encoder table. "Stage area" is not a location.
2. 2.Circuit count and amperage — Separate circuits for audio, lighting, and video where loads exceed 20 amps each. Specify 120V and 208V availability; touring kits often need both.
3. 3.Dedicated vs. shared — AV circuits must not share breakers with HVAC, dimmer racks, or kitchen loads. Require written confirmation from house engineering, not banquet sales.
4. 4.Distro ownership — Who provides cam-lock or Edison distro from the tie-in to your positions: venue house electrician, production vendor, or included in the AV package? Name it and cap hourly rates if house labor is mandatory.
5. 5.Grounding and bonding — Confirm venue grounding meets local code for production loads. Ground loops between house and touring gear are a contract problem when nobody tested tie-ins during advance.
6. 6.Backup path — For flagship segments, contract language should allow a second tie-in or generator tie-in location if the primary path fails. "We have backup power" without a location is theater.

Ask for a power one-line diagram during advance — before travel is booked for a touring program, before the deposit is non-refundable for a single-market show. Photos of panel locations beat verbal assurances from a sales tour taken before the room was built.

Rigging asks that prevent the plot from failing on site

Rigging is where venue marketing photos lie most quietly. The ceiling in the render has points. The as-built has a soffit, a sprinkler line, and three points that cannot take a flown PA because the load rating is for lighting fixtures, not a line array.

Rigging contract language to lock early:

• Point count and locations — Minimum number of rated points over the stage footprint, FOH mix position, and delay fill positions if applicable. Provide a rig plot template; require venue to mark actual points or explain gaps before contract final.
• Load ratings per point — Static and dynamic loads in writing. "House rigging available" without ratings means your production partner prices ground-stack fallback you did not budget.
• House vs. production labor — Who hangs production-provided truss and who hangs venue-owned points? Union jurisdiction and call times belong in the contract, not a hallway conversation at 6 a.m.
• Trim height and obstructions — Minimum trim at the downstage edge, clearance for IMAG sight lines, and documented obstructions ( chandeliers, HVAC baffles, acoustic clouds ) that affect flown weight limits.
• Insurance and certification — Require current rigging inspection documentation and named insured status for house rigging labor. Your production partner's insurance often requires this before their crew touches venue points.
• Ground-support fallback — If flown rigging is limited, contract should acknowledge ground-stack or ground-support LED and PA as an approved method without penalty fees or last-minute "no ground support" policy.

Ballrooms with limited points are not automatic disqualifiers — they are rooms that need ground-support specs in the contract so production does not design a flown show the ceiling cannot hold.

Contract clauses beyond amps and points

Power and rigging fail in the margins: access, timing, and fees that never made it into the signed document.

Beyond amps and points, power and rigging fail in the margins: access, timing, and fees that never made it into the signed document. Load-in and strike windows need start and end times, exclusive room access versus shared turnover with banquet, and clear ownership when a wedding reception compresses your rigging window — production cannot fly a wall in the same hour catering resets round tables unless the contract says who waits. Dock and freight elevator specs (dimensions, weight limits, booking windows, direct ballroom access) prevent a rigging plot that assumes truck-to-deck access from collapsing when everything must hand-cart through a service corridor.

Clarify house AV and exclusivity — whether outside production can tie house power and use house points, or whether "preferred vendor" clauses block your contracted partner from rigging. Cap supplemental fees for house electrician, rigging labor, overtime, and power overage in the contract. Set an advance timeline with deadlines for as-built rig plot, power one-line, and ceiling weight documentation; missing deliverables should trigger a documented fallback plan — ground support, revised PA deployment, or schedule adjustment with named approval authority.

These clauses protect the planner side of the house. Production fills in the technical plot; the contract guarantees the room can support what the plot requires.

Questions to ask the venue before the deposit is non-refundable

Bring these to the sales call and require written answers in the contract or technical addendum — not email promises that change when the banquet captain rotates.

1. 1.How many dedicated AV circuits serve the ballroom, and where are the panels? Follow up with: can house engineering confirm they are not shared with kitchen or HVAC loads?
2. 2.What is the rigging point count over the stage, and what is the rated load per point? Ask for a current rig plot, not a generic ceiling height figure.
3. 3.Who performs rigging labor — house staff, union riggers, or our production vendor — and what are the call rules? Misaligned jurisdiction adds a full day to load-in.
4. 4.What are load-in, rehearsal, and strike windows, and who has the room if we run long? Overlap with another group's flip is a schedule risk that belongs in the contract.
5. 5.Are there fees for supplemental power, after-hours electrician, or additional rigging points? Get rate caps or estimates attached to the agreement.
6. 6.What advance documents will you provide, and by what date? Rig plot, power diagram, floor load limits for stage deck, and freight elevator specs should have deadlines.
7. 7.What is the ground-support policy if flown rigging is unavailable or under-rated? You want approval in writing, not a day-of negotiation with the fire marshal watching.

Venues that answer with documents belong on the shortlist. Venues that answer with "we do hundreds of events a year" belong on the advance call with your production partner on the line.

From the floor: when "AV power included" meant one outlet

A corporate general session signed a hotel contract with "AV power included" and twelve house rigging points in the sales packet. Advance happened by phone. Production arrived to find one Edison circuit behind the bar and three rigging points rated for 250-pound fixtures — not the flown PA and 18-foot LED the show file required.

The house electrician was hourly. The rigging crew could not touch production truss without a union steward who was not on call until 10 a.m. Load-in was scheduled for 7. Ground-support LED saved the screen; subs on the deck saved the PA. The show worked. The invoice for labor and rush fees did not.

The next year's contract listed tie-in locations, circuit count, point ratings, load-in exclusivity, and advance deliverables with dates. Same hotel. Same ballroom. Different document — and a load-in that started on time instead of with a negotiation at the dock.

Power and rigging are not production details you discover at sound check. They are venue infrastructure questions that belong in the contract before anyone signs.

For stage design, rigging coordination, and load-in planning on corporate events, see our stage production services. Ready to review your venue contract against your production plot? Request a consultation.