The rental audio market is evolving fast as event hosts demand more than just loudspeakers and microphones. Today’s clients want immersive experiences, seamless tech integration, and flexible setups that adapt to hybrid formats and sustainability goals. Below I outline the biggest trends shaping rental of audio sound systems for conferences, concerts, corporate gatherings and private events — and what event planners should expect from professional rental providers.

1. Immersive and spatial audio is mainstreaming

Spatial audio — formats that place sound in three-dimensional space rather than left/right channels — is moving from a niche concert feature into mainstream event design. From Dolby Atmos-style deployments to beam-steering speaker arrays, organisers are using object-based sound to create clearer speech intelligibility, powerful musical impact and more engaging audience experiences. Rentals increasingly include configurable speaker clusters and sub-arrays that deliver an immersive soundstage tailored to venue geometry.

2. Audio-over-IP and networked systems (Dante /