Renting a big screen for your Quad Cities festival

The Quad Cities does festivals well — riverfront concerts, the big summer fairs, street festivals from Davenport to Moline. A mobile LED screen is what lets the person at the back of the crowd actually see the stage, gives sponsors a moment they paid for, and keeps a schedule or score in front of everyone. But a screen only helps if the logistics are handled. Here's the checklist we walk every festival planner through.

What the screen actually does

Before logistics, get clear on the job. At a festival, a 17-by-10-foot daylight-readable screen typically earns its place doing one or more of these:

• IMAG — live cameras feeding the big screen so the back of the field sees faces and stage detail in real time, not a distant silhouette.
• Sponsor visibility — logos and spots between sets, the asset that often helps a screen pay for itself.
• Info and wayfinding — set times, the schedule, safety and weather messages everyone can read at a glance.
• Replays and content — highlights, hype reels, and crowd cams that keep energy up between acts.

Knowing which of these matters most shapes where the screen goes and how big a footprint it needs.

Power: the first question

The first thing most planners worry about is electricity, and it's usually the easiest to solve. Our screen is trailer-mounted with its own onboard generator, so it doesn't need to tap your venue's power or fight over a distribution panel with the food vendors and the sound system. That self-contained setup is a big deal at riverfront and park sites where reliable high-draw power is scarce. What we'll confirm with you: where the trailer can sit, and that there's clearance and access for it — not whether the site has an outlet big enough.

Placement and sightlines

Where the screen sits decides how well it works. Walk the site with these in mind:

• Sightlines — point of view from the back and the edges of the crowd, not just dead center. A daylight-readable LED stays sharp at a wide angle and from a few hundred feet back.
• Sun direction — the screen handles direct sun, but you still want it angled so the crowd isn't staring into the late-day glare behind it.
• Ground — the trailer needs firm, reasonably level ground and a path to get there. Soft riverfront turf after rain is worth flagging early.
• Crowd flow and safety — clear of fire lanes, exits, and the main pinch points.

The hydraulic lift raises the screen so it carries over heads to the back of the crowd — we'll dial that in on site.

Timeline and load-in

A trailer-mounted screen sets up fast — it arrives pre-assembled, so it's a matter of positioning, raising, and testing rather than building a structure. For a single-day festival we typically load in that morning; for a multi-day event, the screen can stay on site through the run with minimal reset between days. What we'll lock down with you: the load-in window, who's directing trailer placement on site, and a content cutoff so sponsor reels, schedules, and any live-camera plan are ready before doors. The earlier we have the run-of-show, the smoother event day is.

Why local matters here

Festival day is not the day to discover your screen vendor is driving in from three hours away. We're Quad Cities-based, we know these venues, and we run the screen ourselves — delivery, setup, an on-site tech through the event, and teardown. If the turf is soft or the schedule slips, we're already here. Tell us your date and site and we'll tell you exactly what's possible.