How to set up karaoke in your bar and venue – An AV specialist’s advice

Gemma Stenberg -

If you are thinking about karaoke as an entertainment option for your venue, either in a karaoke room or in an open space but you aren’t sure where to begin, then this blog post is for you. To answer all the questions about what you need to consider before putting karaoke into your venue, we spoke to Tom Duffy at Audio Visual Technologies – a specialist in full-service karaoke set up. We will cover what you might need for a professional karaoke setup and how to ensure the best experience for your customers – from the idea of karaoke in your bar, pub or entertainment venue, right through to happy singing customers.

Before you put karaoke into your venue, there are a few things that need to be considered.

Step 1: Do you want a karaoke room or a live stage karaoke?


Depending on the type of venue you run, a karaoke room setup could be a great option for you. This works well if you are a venue that offers multiple entertainment options, who don’t want to disrupt the rest of the venues with noise (great for restaurants, for example). Karaoke rooms are a general all-round good idea for entertaining small groups, which fit nicely into a pre-booking process that you might have existing.

There are some things you need to think about if you are considering a karaoke room:

Considerations for a karaoke room:

  • Do you have an existing room that you will be using, or do you need to build a new room?
  • If you have an existing space, they can be harder to soundproof but it’s important to remember, they do not need to be completely soundproof. Venues are noisy atmospheres at the best of times and some level of noise is okay for grabbing attention as long as it is not disrupting other customers, it’s a fine balance to strike.
  • If you are building a new room, AVT often speaks to the builders early on about using acoustic materials such as acoustic foam and plasterboards, it’s much more cost-effective this way than trying to soundproof the room at a later date, planning is everything.
  • Your karaoke room can be designed to suit your venue but depending on the size of your room, you can install things like seating or a small stage and you may want to think about a small amount of furniture for food and drinks.

Of course, you don’t need a room to run karaoke and could run your karaoke as an open mic activity. This is often the way in a more traditional pub setup that runs karaoke nights or has customers that enjoy spontaneous entertainment.


Either way, once you have decided on your space, you need to think about the hardware and software that you need to run your karaoke.

Step 2: The basics of karaoke hardware – what you need for a professional karaoke setup

Here is a list of the basics you will need to get your karaoke party started:

  • Screens to display the lyrics – for example a TV, projector screen or monitor, you might want to consider multiple screens if you have a big venue.
  • Good speakers for karaoke – you may be able to use the ones you already have in venue but otherwise you’ll need something like the JBL Pro PSB-1 soundbar or Ohm speakers.
  • Karaoke microphones – A good dynamic microphone to start with is for example the industry standard Shure SM58 microphone. You could also consider wireless microphones but need to think about taking a deposit for those for security.
  • A karaoke mixer – usually a simple one does the job well. For example, a 4 to 6 channel mixer with inbuilt effects does the job perfectly. Brands you might want to consider include Mackie, Yamaha and Behringer, to name a few.
  • Cables/adaptors – to connect everything together, usually with HDMI depending on the screen/mixer you are using.

To create a great atmosphere you can also add disco lights, a smoke machine or a wind machine depending on how extra you’d like to be – the more the better we say.

Disclaimer: contact your local AV integrator for a customised setup or advice.

Tom Duffy advises:

Almost all venues have audio and video in place already and therefore, we always start with what is already in place and what can be used for karaoke, such as the screens in the venue. One point to note is that if your audio system in place is a background audio system, it isn’t going to be powerful enough for karaoke and it is almost always cheaper to purchase an independent system than it is to upgrade/change the one you have in place.

Step 3: Choose a commercial karaoke software – Singa Business refreshes everyone’s karaoke experience

Lots of people associate karaoke with the 80’s and rightly so. Remember all those CD’s you needed to look through just to choose a song with the hope that the one you selected wasn’t scratched! Singa karaoke was born with one mission: to modernise the karaoke experience and that’s exactly what we have done.

Singa is the Spotify of the karaoke world, your customers will be able to use the iPad-driven software like all the other streaming services they are familiar with, browse over tens of thousands of karaoke songs and use our singlists for singing inspiration. We have cool singlists like: Ultimate karaoke classics, Time to party, and more. All Singa Business options come with background music services. With the Singa Pro software, you will be able to take advantage of digital advertising display, too.

Read more about different Singa’s solutions for commercial karaoke here.

Don’t have time to figure it all out? Check out the all-in-one karaoke solution with AVT UK


If you are in the UK, feel free to contact AVT for help in setting up a show-stopping professional karaoke setup for your venue. At AVT, they have made it as easy as possible to install karaoke and have created an all-in-one karaoke solution, which includes all the hardware and software you will need in one package: speakers, cables, a TV, a mixer, and Singa’s karaoke software, an iPad and iPad case and LED lighting for full effect.

Singa is very cost effective for venues, the price of the license in one month is approximately 50% cheaper than having a karaoke host or DJ for one night and you can run as many karaoke sessions as you like.

“We chose to bundle Singa karaoke software with our all in one package because it’s simply so easy to use. Venues are looking at self-sufficient, modern entertainment options for their customers, more so than ever right now and karaoke doesn’t need to be left behind. Singa is very cost effective for venues, the price of the license in one month is approximately 50% cheaper than having a karaoke host or DJ for one night and you can run as many karaoke sessions as you like. Singa is always up to date with the latest tracks and so you don’t need to worry about constantly refreshing content. There are no other karaoke options on the market like it.” Tom Duffy, AVT.

Even better than that, you can pay a monthly fee to rent the equipment rather than buying it all with an upfront investment. The option of loaning equipment also takes the hassle out of maintenance, AVT takes back your equipment and updates and takes care of it for you, as needed to remove the hassle and expense away from you. A great way to trial whether karaoke is for you and giving you a return on investment for your venue, you can read more about how karaoke increases customer spend and dwell time in our blog here.

Hopefully this answers all your questions on how to go about setting up karaoke in your venue but if it doesn’t, Singa or AVT would be happy to answer any of your questions or help you through the decision-making process for your venue. After all, we know all venues are different and we love a good chat. Contact Singa here or visit the AVT website here.

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