What Is a FOH Kit? A Pro AV Reference Guide (Also Used as a Camera Surround)
The clean line between
professional production
and an open AV mess.
Walk into a Sunday morning service at a 4,000-seat church, a corporate keynote, a televised concert, or a presidential debate, and you’ll see something most audience members never consciously notice: a clean, black, professional-looking drape enclosure around the audio, video, and lighting control area. That’s a FOH kit — short for Front of House. A versatile drape system that dresses up your AV control area, separates the crew from the patrons, and (when you’re shooting) doubles as a camera surround for broadcast and live-stream. This guide explains what it is, why every serious production uses one, and how to specify the right configuration for your venue.
TL;DR: FOH stands for "Front of House." A FOH kit is a portable, modular pipe-and-drape enclosure that dresses up the audio, video, and lighting control area at your event — separating the crew and gear from the patrons, adding a touch of class to a busy, complex space. The same kit also configures as a camera surround for broadcast and live-stream. The professional standard in the USA + Canada is the WENTEX FOH Drape Kit.
What FOH actually means
FOH = Front of House. In live event production, "front of house" refers to the working area where the audio mixing engineer, lighting console operator, video switcher, and live-stream technicians actually do their jobs. The name is borrowed from theatre — FOH is the part of the venue in front of the stage, where the audience sits, where the "house" runs.
In modern AV production, FOH is typically a 6×6 to 12×12 foot rectangular area set up in the middle of the audience, on a balcony, or on a raised platform — wherever the engineers can hear and see what the audience hears and sees. It’s populated with mixing consoles, lighting controllers, comms stations, monitors, headphones, intercom panels, and (depending on the show) a video switcher and live-stream encoder.
Why FOH needs to be dressed up
An exposed FOH position is the fastest way to make a polished production look amateur. Three reasons:
1. Audience perception. The patrons sit feet away from your FOH. Cables on the floor, console screens, water bottles, the engineer scratching his head — it reads as "under construction." A clean black drape reads as "professional." This is the everyday reason every serious production uses one, with or without cameras.
2. Camera framing (when applicable). If you’re broadcasting or live-streaming, every wide shot frames the audience — and the FOH platform behind them. The same kit that dresses up your AV control area now doubles as a camera surround. Illuminated console screens and blinking LEDs disappear from frame. Attention stays on the stage.
3. Light hygiene. Console screens throw enough light to ruin a darkened theatrical look. A drape enclosure contains that light spill and stops it from washing onto the audience or the stage.
What’s in a complete FOH kit
A professional FOH kit is a portable, modular drape system. Every WENTEX FOH Drape Kit includes:
Standard WENTEX FOH Kit Contents
- 12 × Base plates — black powder-coated steel, 12″ × 14″, stack flat
- 12 × Telescopic uprights — aluminum, 4′ to 6′ adjustable, tool-free locking
- 12 × Telescopic horizontal drape supports — mixed 3′–4′ and 4′–6′ spans
- 6 × Velvet Napoli drape panels — IFR 260 g/m², flat or pleated finish
- 1 × ATA-style flight case — rolling, fits in a standard SUV or sprinter
- Documentation — spec sheet, flame certificate, assembly diagram
Total drape coverage: up to 54 linear feet per kit. One technician can deploy the entire kit in under 15 minutes.
How to pick the right size
WENTEX FOH Drape Kits come in four standard sizes. Pick by working through two questions:
Question 1: How tall is what you need to hide? Most audio consoles are about 38″ tall on stands. Add the engineer’s standing/seated head height, plus a margin for the camera angle — you want the drape to clear the tallest thing visible. 4′ works for compact setups where the engineer is seated and the camera angle is shallow. 6′ is the touring + broadcast default; covers a standing engineer at a typical console.
Question 2: How wide is your enclosure? Measure the FOH area you need to enclose. A single-console + engineer position fits in 9′ wide; a full video village with audio, lighting, and switcher operators wants 11′ wide. Need bigger? Two kits combined cover 22+ linear feet.
All Four Sizes In Stock
4′×9′ Flat · 4′×11′ Pleated · 6′×9′ Flat · 6′×11′ Pleated. ATA flight case included. Ships next business day from Evans, GA.
Who uses FOH kits
Houses of worship. Megachurches use FOH kits to dress up their AV control platforms in the sanctuary — separating the engineers, lighting consoles, and live-stream operators from worshippers. The same kit serves as a camera surround for Sunday broadcast and live-stream. The 6′ × 11′ pleated kit is the dominant configuration in this market.
Touring & concert production. Every national tour and major festival ships with FOH drape. Front-of-house mix position enclosures, monitor world dress-up, video village setups. Built to survive 50+ shows per year and the abuse of truck loading.
Broadcast & live stream. When the kit is configured as a camera surround — sports coverage, news production, debate broadcasts, live event streaming. Hybrid event production (in-person + streamed) is a major growth segment.
Theatres & performing arts. Masking lighting control booths, video switcher positions, audio mix areas during shows. Theatrical productions are typically darker than corporate events, so the matte non-reflective Velvet Napoli matters even more.
Corporate AV & conferences. Clean, professional masking around AV teams during keynotes and breakouts. Camera surrounds for hybrid event production. Conference centers spec these in bulk for resale rental.
Schools & universities. Auditorium tech booth masking, broadcast journalism program camera surrounds, theater department control area drape.
Hotels & banquet venues. Banquet AV control masking, ballroom camera platform enclosures, event production support. Often part of the standard event package.
Why a real kit (not generic pipe & drape)
You can build a FOH enclosure out of generic pipe and drape, the kind you’d rent from a party-supply company. It will work for one event. Three reasons it won’t work for fifty:
1. Banjo cloth hot-spots under LED. Generic pipe and drape uses 8–12 oz Banjo cloth. It looks fine in a ballroom but bleeds light under modern LED fixtures. WENTEX uses Velvet Napoli at 260 g/m² — nearly three times the density. Stage light gets absorbed, not reflected.
2. Set screws strip and pins disappear. Generic hardware uses Allen-key set screws and loose pins. After 20 events you’ve stripped half of them and lost the rest. WENTEX uses tool-free compression brake locks — tighten the handle, the upright locks at height. No hex keys, no consumables, nothing to strip or lose.
3. Generic kits come in cardboard. One truck loading and it’s damaged. WENTEX ships in an ATA-style flight case at no extra cost — standard touring spec, rolls on heavy-duty casters, survives baggage handlers.
Compliance & venue requirements
Most US venues and fire marshals require NFPA 701 flame retardancy on any fabric used in public assembly; Canadian venues require CAN/ULC-S109. Velvet Napoli is Inherently Flame Retardant (IFR) and certified to both standards. Flame certificates for both ship with every order — bring them to the venue and walk-through is over in thirty seconds.
If your venue requires additional documentation (W-9, COI, fire treatment certificate), we provide those on request as part of the quote process.
Specifying for your show
Most production specifications call for the 6′ × 11′ Pleated WENTEX FOH Drape Kit. It covers the widest range of applications, looks the most premium under camera, and fits in a single transport case. If you’re building a fleet for resale rental or touring inventory, this is the default.
