New Years Eve
Karaoke Hire London
Professional Equipment Rental for Your Event

“Auld Lang Syne” is a Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in 1788. It became the traditional New Year’s Eve song after bandleader Guy Lombardo performed it during his US radio and TV broadcasts from the 1920s onwards. The phrase roughly means “old long since”, essentially remembering old friendships as the year changes.

Jools Holland’s Hootenanny is the BBC’s annual New Year’s Eve music special, presented as if it’s happening during the countdown. Despite how it’s framed, the show is not live. It’s broadcast on New Year’s Eve, but recorded earlier, so the performances and interviews you see aren’t happening in real time.

The entire programme is filmed in advance because it involves multiple artists, choreographed performances and a tightly planned running order. Producing that level of staging wouldn’t be possible on live TV during New Year’s Eve, when artists are touring, with families, or performing at other events. Pre-recording ensures the BBC has a polished, uninterrupted show ready for broadcast.

The first major populated place to celebrate the New Year is Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in Kiribati, in the Line Islands. They hit midnight before anyone else.

The last are usually Baker Island and Howland Island, two uninhabited US territories near the International Date Line. The last inhabited places include American Samoa.

The televised ten-second countdown became a global norm in the 20th century as radio and TV broadcasters synchronised to atomic time. It gives a shared moment for everyone, whether they’re in Times Square, Trafalgar Square, or a living room in Camden.

Big Ben’s chimes are the UK’s official time signal, which is why the BBC always uses it to mark the exact moment the New Year begins. The London fireworks are timed to the chimes, and most households switch to the BBC broadcast so everyone can sync their countdown properly. It’s become the country’s shared reference point for midnight.

Fireworks symbolise celebration and the marking of a fresh start. In the UK, they’re now tied strongly to the televised London display on the Thames, which has become one of the most-watched countdown visuals worldwide.

Central London gets extremely crowded, transport is limited, and returning home after midnight can take hours. Many people prefer hosting house parties or small gatherings instead, which is why private celebrations, including karaoke, are now more popular than going out for NYE.

The official viewing zones along the Thames are all ticket-only, so the safest and most common way to see the fireworks is on the BBC broadcast. Many households pause the party or karaoke for the ten-minute display, then get straight back into the celebrations afterwards. Primrose Hill has historically been a popular lookout point because of its height and clear skyline view, but recent years have seen additional restrictions and crowd management measures. Whether it’s open depends on the year’s safety rules, so the BBC broadcast is the most reliable way to watch without travelling into central London.

London’s official Thames fireworks began in 2003, originally organised by the Mayor of London as a televised public celebration centred around the London Eye. It quickly became one of the most recognised New Year countdown visuals worldwide and has grown into a massive annual production requiring ticketed viewing areas and coordinated road closures.

Transport for London adjusts bus services on New Year’s Eve because central London becomes heavily congested with road closures, crowds and safety cordons for the fireworks. Some routes are diverted or suspended, especially near Trafalgar Square, Westminster and the South Bank. Many people stay home or host their own celebrations partly because getting home after midnight can be difficult.

Yes. We can deliver to virtually any location in and around London. Our team has handled deliveries everywhere from private homes, schools and halls to the Houses of Parliament, planes at Stansted, the Queen Vic from EastEnders at Elstree Studios, narrowboats on the Thames and even the London Eye.

Delivery and setup are separate services. Standard hires are normally dry hire, where you collect and return the equipment yourself. When you choose our delivery option, the system is transported to your pre-agreed location and dropped off ready for you to set up.

Setup can also be booked as an additional service if you would like our team to install and test the system for you. All testing takes place in-house before dispatch, not on site, unless a setup service has been booked.

Transport fees are based on distance, travel time and delivery or collection slot, with an additional charge for late-night or out-of-hours times.

We cover all 32 boroughs and the City of London, North, South, East and West, including Camden, Hackney, Islington, Richmond, Croydon, Ealing and beyond.

Yes. You can connect your own Spotify or YouTube account to play music between singers or during breaks, giving you control over the background sound without needing extra equipment. It’s a simple way to keep the atmosphere going while guests get ready for their next song.

Yes. All of our systems rely on a stable Wi-Fi and internet connection with at least 10 Mbps dedicated to the karaoke unit. Wi-Fi signal strength and internet speed are not the same; even if the Wi-Fi shows full bars, the actual internet connection may still be too slow for smooth streaming.

We recommend checking your speed in advance using a free app such as Ookla Speedtest or Fast.com. Once the system is set up, you can also run the built-in Wi-Fi speed test on the touchscreen device to confirm the available bandwidth.

Public or shared Wi-Fi networks and mobile hotspots are not recommended, as they usually cause buffering or dropouts due to limited bandwidth.

Yes. All karaoke tracks we supply come from commercially licensed catalogues suitable for public performance in the UK. This ensures artists and rights-holders are compensated correctly.

Yes. We offer dedicated silent karaoke packages that use wireless headphones instead of speakers. This makes them ideal for locations with noise restrictions, shared spaces, or late-night parties where you need to keep sound levels low.

Each guest listens through their own headset, and we can run multiple audio channels at the same time for example, one with NYE karaoke tracks and another with background music.

The hire cost depends on the number of headphones required, so please confirm your guest numbers when booking.

Yes. We can provide as much or as little support as needed, from a single compère to host the karaoke, through to technicians, engineers and full project management for complex productions. Our team has decades of experience across the AV industry, covering staging, lighting, sound and video.

We’ve supported everything from festival video walls and hotel installations distributing video to multiple screens, to major British film shoots where our engineers operated karaoke equipment from just out of camera view on set.

Whether you need someone to run the karaoke smoothly at a private party or a full crew for an integrated production, we can supply the right people for the job. All staff work with professional-grade systems and we partner with leading brands including Shure, Bose, Chauvet, QSC, Martin Audio and Avolites.

Yes. All of our equipment is PAT tested and regularly serviced to ensure it meets current electrical safety standards. The system was specifically built and designed to be robust and adaptable for different environments, from family homes and flats to pubs, halls and studios.

We offer both desktop and stand versions of our karaoke systems, they operate in exactly the same way and provide identical access to the full song database. The speakers don’t have to be placed on poles if you prefer a lower setup, and the TV screens are built into protective flight cases so they can sit safely on a table or stand.

Everything is compact enough to fit comfortably in a living room but, because we use premium-grade components, the sound quality is professional-level and more powerful than typical consumer systems.

Setup time depends on the package. A basic system typically takes around 30–45 minutes, while larger or more complex setups can take longer.

We always recommend setting up well in advance of the event and, where possible, during office hours so our team can provide telephone support if needed.

If you would like our team to handle the setup, this must be booked in advance as additional logistics are planned around each delivery, it can’t be added on the day because it would affect other client schedules.

Please note that a stable Wi-Fi connection and adequate internet speed are required for the karaoke system to operate correctly.

Complex installations involving video or audio distribution, large screens or video walls can take several hours or up to a full day depending on venue access, location, and on-site health and safety requirements.

Yes. We hold full public liability insurance that covers our team when they are working on site at events we operate. This insurance applies only when our staff are present and managing the equipment. For dry hires, responsibility for the equipment rests with the hirer once it leaves our premises.

We strongly recommend completing your setup as early as possible and ideally during office hours so our team can provide direct technical support if needed. During opening hours, please call our main number on 020 3333 4444. Outside office hours, you can call our dedicated technical line on 020 3333 3344, which operates as an answerphone service. Leave your name, contact number and a brief description of the issue, and we’ll return your call as soon as possible.

You can cancel within 14 days of booking (admin fee applies unless you signed a start-sooner waiver). After that: fees already paid are non-refundable; within 14 days of the hire start the full hire charge applies. See our Terms & Conditions for the full policy.

London Karaoke Hire is the only company in the UK supplying premium touchscreen karaoke systems built entirely in-house. We designed and developed our systems from the ground up, commissioning the metalwork, graphics and electronics to create a robust, professional unit that no third-party supplier can match.

Thousands of hours and significant investment went into research and development to ensure reliability, usability and sound quality. Every system uses professional-grade components from leading audio brands, and the same engineering knowledge we’ve applied when working with major artists and production companies.

Since 2007, we’ve supplied thousands of karaoke hires across London with fully licensed music, experienced engineers and a genuine passion for the culture we support. We’re not a “disco-add-on” operation, we specialise solely in karaoke hire and have redefined what a premium karaoke system should be.