We make our kit available to artists at subsidised rates, either for use at home / in the field, or in our studio. In order to take advantage of these rates, our insurance requires that you are a current AHA member, so the cost of membership (£8/£5) is added to your first rental.

This subsidised service is available to bone fide professional artists, and is not intended for commercial use. If you are an artist who is undertaking commercial work, we will offer special "commercial work" rates, which are still significantly below market rate (add 25% to the prices below). This is intended to benefit you as a practicing artist, not to undermine the existing commercial studios and equipment hirers in the area.

These rates assume that you already know how to use the equipment, at least in principle. We can provide limited introductory training (no more than half an hour) to orient you to the studio, but otherwise you are on your own, with some support at the end of a telephone. However, we will provide one-to-one training for £200 per day.

We also offer PAT testing.

Equipment Rental
(prices from April 1, 2007)

* After four consecutive days, the weekly rate is charged.
** No training is included in these prices.  Inexperienced users must take a half-day training course before renting these systems.
*** for non-profit/non-commercial use ONLY. For professional rentals, please go to Stage Electrics (cost is £495 per day). This is a very bright projector with a medium-throw lens designed to be housed in a medium-sized auditorium (around 200-400 seats). The project is quite noisy, so if it can be housed in a projection booth it is ideal. The image quality is excellent. Look at this pdf for more information.

Insurance:  When renting AHA equipment, your AHA membership covers basic liability and accidental damage insurance.  Insurance against theft is only covered if the equipment is in a secure space and there is verified evidence of forced entry. A police report will be required.  If the equipment is in a vehicle, it is only covered against theft if the vehicle is equipped with an alarm system and there is verified evidence of forced entry.  Otherwise, the user is liable for full replacement cost of all stolen equipment.

PAT Testing

Health & Safety legislation now requires all businesses operating portable electronic equipment to have it regularly tested to ensure that it is safe. "Portable" includes everything that is not permanently wired in, which includes things like electric kettles, fridges, and computers.
For more information, look here.

If you're an artist who uses ANY kind of electronic equipment for exhibition, then many galleries will require you to have it PAT tested,
without necessarily being able to do the testing themselves.

AHA is now able to offer this service to artists. If you come to us, we will do it for around £2.50 per item (depends on how many items).
However, if you want us to come to you, then there's a call-out charge of £50 + travel costs (sorry!).