A must-have list
Send it a couple of weeks out. We check it against the book and tell you what is missing, rather than letting somebody find out on the night.
Gobo Studios · a DBA of Monterey Skates LLC · Monterey, CA · (831) 264-8797 · gobostudios.com
Hosted karaoke
Two mics, a screen, a live KJ, and the software underneath.
Guests scan a QR code, browse the songbook on their own phone, and put their name in. The rotation runs itself and shows on a screen, so nobody has to lean over a table to ask when they are up.
This page is the system and the gear: what arrives, who runs it, where the tracks come from, and what the room needs. The software underneath is ours. We wrote it.
Planning the night rather than sizing up the gear? Karaoke parties covers how an evening actually goes.
The night
Six steps, and five of them are the guest’s.
The whole point is that nobody has to be managed. Here is the entire flow.
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Scan.
QR codes on the tables and a big one on the screen. No app to download, no account with a password to invent. It opens in the phone’s browser.
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Browse.
The full songbook, searchable, filtered by genre, decade, language, or duets. Guests find the song themselves instead of asking whether you have it.
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Request.
Name and song, submitted from the phone. Key change up or down if the song sits wrong for their voice.
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Accepted.
The KJ sees the request and accepts it. The guest gets a notification on their phone.
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Wait, without asking.
The screen shows who is singing, who is next, and where everyone sits in the rotation. Fill music plays between singers, so the room never drops into silence while somebody walks up.
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Sing.
Name called, mic handed over, lyrics on the screen.
The rotation itself is round-robin with anti-back-to-back logic. Everybody gets a turn before anybody goes twice, and the person who submitted eight songs in the first ten minutes does not take over the night. The KJ can override any of it at any point, which is what you want when the birthday guest of honour should obviously go next.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Hosted KJ | Live for the booked hours. Running the rotation, calling names, and handling the room. |
| Wireless microphones | Two handhelds so duets work without passing one mic back and forth. |
| Microphone stands | Two, for the people who want their hands free. |
| Lyrics screen | TV or projector, positioned so the singer can read it and the room can see it. |
| Guest request system | QR code to a phone browser. No app install. |
| Rotation display | Now singing, up next, and the full rotation, on screen. |
| Fill music between singers | Curated, at conversation level, so the gaps are not silent. |
| Songbook | Licensed commercial karaoke tracks. See below. |
| Sound | PA sized to the room. Same standard as the audio page. |
The software
We did not buy the karaoke system. We wrote it.
The request flow, the rotation, the kiosk screen, and the playback all run on KaraokeFlow, a Gobo Studios product. Working KJs and venues pay for it monthly and run their own nights on it. When you book karaoke from us, you get it operated by the person who built it.
That is not a marketing arrangement, it is the whole reason this business has two halves. Two competitors sell karaoke on exactly the “guests queue songs by QR code” hook. We built that.
Practically, it means a few things you do not get from a vendor running someone else’s app. If something breaks at 9pm, the person holding the microphone is the person who can fix it. If your event needs something the software does not do yet, that is a feature request going to the developer, not a support ticket into a queue.
What the software does during your event
- Round-robin rotation with anti-back-to-back logic, overridable by the KJ at any time.
- Live search across the songbook, filtered by genre, decade, language, and duets.
- Key change on request, so a song in the wrong range is still singable.
- Notification to the singer’s phone when their request is accepted.
- Rotation, now-singing, and up-next on the screen, so nobody has to ask.
- Fill music between singers, with the level dropped for the room.
- Your branding on the screen for a corporate night: logo, colours, event name.
Karaoke tracks come from licensed commercial catalogues. Professional KJ subscription catalogues and per-track purchases from established publishers. No YouTube rips, no screen-recorded videos, nothing scraped.
There are two practical reasons that matters and neither of them is legal boilerplate. A ripped karaoke video sounds bad through a real PA, and it very often has a burned-in watermark or an ad in the middle of it, in front of your guests, at the moment somebody is standing up in front of a room to sing.
The same honesty applies here as everywhere else on this site: the public performance licence for your event is held by the venue or the organiser, not by us. Our claim is about where our files came from, which is the claim we can actually make.
Before the night
Send the list early, not on the night.
Everything here is cheap two weeks out and impossible at 9pm.
Bilingual catalogues
Bilingual and Spanish-language catalogues are available. Say so when you book, because it changes what gets loaded.
A straight answer
If a song your group needs is not in a licensed catalogue at all, we will tell you that plainly instead of promising it and hoping.
Setup
What the space needs.
Karaoke needs slightly different things than a DJ night, mostly because of the screen and because the singer has to be somewhere the room can see.
A screen the singer can read
We bring a display, or we can feed a venue TV or projector over HDMI. If you want us on your house screen, confirm the input and the cable run before the day.
A singing position
A stage is ideal. A clear corner with the screen in front of it works fine. What does not work is putting the singer with their back to half the room.
Wi-Fi is helpful, not required
Guests browse the songbook on their own phones over whatever connection they have. If your venue has weak cell service, tell us and we will plan for it rather than discover it.
Seating that faces the singer
Karaoke dies in a room where everybody has their back turned. Small change, big difference.
Power and load-in
Same requirements as the audio page. Two 20-amp circuits and a door that cases can roll through.
Plenty of events want an hour or two of karaoke inside a bigger night. A holiday party where the singing starts after dinner. A birthday where the dance floor comes later. A grad night with a karaoke room off the main hall.
That is a priced add-on to a DJ booking, not a second vendor and not a second load-in. Same operator, same PA, one contract. We bring the mics, the stands, and the screen, and we switch the room over when your timeline says to.
Before you book
The ones we get asked.
- Is this appropriate for a school event?
- Yes, and it is run the same way as a school DJ booking: clean and radio-edit tracks only, and the song list can be pre-approved by your advisor. Guest requests still route through the KJ before anything plays, so nothing reaches the screen without being accepted first.
- What if nobody sings?
- That is the first thirty minutes of every karaoke night and it is normal. The KJ starts it, the first brave person goes, and then it does not stop. Fill music covers the gap so the room never feels like it is waiting.
- Can two people sing together?
- Yes, that is why there are two wireless microphones and a duets filter in the songbook.
- What kinds of events book karaoke?
- School events, company parties, and private parties — birthdays, anniversaries, graduation parties, and nights where the singing is the whole point. If it is that last one, karaoke parties is the shorter read; this page is the equipment and the system behind it.
- Can guests bring their own track?
- Sometimes, depending on the venue and the file. Ask before the event rather than handing over a phone at 10pm.
- Can we get our logo on the screen?
- Yes. Corporate events can run venue branding: logo, colours, and the event name on the rotation display. Send artwork a week out.
Related
Next step
Put the QR codes on your tables.
Send the date, the venue, the head count, and how many hours of karaoke you want. You get a written quote back, and a straight answer on whether the date is open.
Or call. (831) 264-8797.