Nikko Ballroom
The main room, on the third floor: 145 feet long and 48 wide, with chandeliers. The hotel says it divides into four sections. In the reception photo, that's my rig beside the dance floor.
DJ and MC at Hotel Nikko
San Francisco's Nikko Ballroom is about three times as long as it is wide, so where the dance floor and the speakers go decides whether the far tables feel part of your gala, wedding or birthday. I plan that with you, then run the music, the microphone and the timeline so you can simply be there.
Union Square, San Francisco
A tower hotel,
A tower hotel,
one block off the square
Hotel Nikko (officially Hotel Nikko San Francisco) is a 28-story tower at 222 Mason Street, one block from Union Square in downtown San Francisco. It opened in October 1987. This is a city hotel event: a polished ballroom, elevators, skyline views. No garden. No vineyard.
Most events live on the third floor, where the Nikko Ballroom sits alongside smaller rooms. Higher up there's the Golden Gate Room on the 25th floor and an open-air terrace beside the glass-enclosed pool. So a day here can move vertically: a ceremony or a welcome in one room, cocktails on the roof, dinner and dancing back down on three. Every one of those moves is an elevator ride, and the music has to be waiting when the doors open.
There are guest rooms in the same tower, which is why I never guess at how late or how loud. I ask the hotel, then build the night around the answer.
The rooms
From the third floor
From the third floor
to the rooftop
Monterey, Carmel and Mendocino Rooms
Smaller rooms on the event floor. The hotel sets Monterey and Carmel for ceremonies, banquets and receptions. A ceremony here gets its own small setup, so the main rig never has to move.
Golden Gate Room
On the 25th floor, with large windows over the skyline. It's long and narrow too, 24 feet by 65, with a ceiling under nine feet, so it wants a compact rig and careful volume. Good for a rehearsal dinner, a small reception or a Selector Session.
Rooftop Pool Deck Terrace
An open-air terrace beside the glass-enclosed pool, with the skyline around it, used for cocktail receptions and small celebrations. A rooftop means wind, so a backup mic is already set up, and I confirm the amplified sound rules before I plan a note.
How I set up here
Built for a long room
Built for a long room
and a tall building
A long room, a second room to cover, a downtown load-in and the hotel's AV partner. Here's what I do about each.
Covering a long room
A ballroom this long can leave the back tables straining to hear a toast while the front tables wince. I find out where the dance floor and head table sit and plan the coverage around them, adding a sound zone in the estimate if the layout needs one. Dinner music stays easy to talk over, then builds as the plates clear.
A second setup, already live
Vows in the Monterey or Carmel Room? I don't wheel one system between rooms. Ceremony sound is its own setup: a speaker toward the guests, a wireless mic, the processional cued. A company welcome or terrace cocktails can add one in the estimate. My ceremony photo shows the speaker and sound table, set to the side.
Load-in through a city hotel
Downtown, nobody loads straight in through a ballroom door. The room is on the third floor of a tower, so I get the load-in route and time window from the hotel ahead of your date. Then I arrive early, with backup equipment, so the room is ready and quiet before the first guest steps off the elevator.
The hotel's AV and my rig
The hotel has its own audiovisual partner, and it lets outside audiovisual vendors in as long as they deal with the hotel directly. So I do that myself: I ask whether my system goes in as is or partly runs through their partner, where I set up, and what power is there. You don't relay messages between us.
From my own events here
Hotel Nikko,
Hotel Nikko,
as I set it up
No planner needed
You don't hold
You don't hold
the microphone
An event here can run on three levels: the third floor, the 25th and the roof. Someone has to make the music and the announcements fit all of it, and it shouldn't be you.
Before your date we go through a planning questionnaire and planning calls: must-plays, do-not-plays, the exact versions of the songs you love, who's speaking and when. On the day I'm the MC. I gather people for the entrance, cue the toasts or the speeches, call the first dance if there is one, and send guests from one room to the next so nobody's left wondering which elevator. The timeline is built back from whatever music cutoff the hotel gives me for your room, so the dance floor gets its full stretch and the last song is the one you chose.
Lighting, if you want it
Warm light for
Warm light for
a long room
In a ballroom this long, uplighting along the walls gives the room one color from end to end and makes the dance floor feel like the center instead of one end. A monogram or pattern projected on the floor or a wall tells people where the dancing is.
I can add dance-floor lighting, and pin spots for the centerpieces or the cake. You choose all of it in the instant estimate, and I check with the hotel on what can go where.
Beyond weddings
A downtown room
A downtown room
for any occasion
The Nikko hosts conferences, company meetings, banquets, social events and private celebrations as well as weddings, and wherever there's music and a microphone, that's my part. A company holiday party or gala in the ballroom. A milestone birthday or a mitzvah. A fundraiser where the microphone matters as much as the music. A cocktail reception on the terrace.
For a welcome party, a company dinner or a rehearsal dinner, the smaller rooms suit a Selector Session: my own programming, up to four hours, at a level made for conversation. And if you want something different inside a bigger event, The Journey is a live sound bath that flows into a facilitated ecstatic dance.
Good to Know
Questions about a DJ
Questions about a DJ
at Hotel Nikko
Can I bring my own DJ to Hotel Nikko?
The hotel has its own audiovisual partner and says outside audiovisual vendors are welcome when they deal with the hotel directly. It doesn't spell out the rule for a DJ bringing his own system, so that's the first thing I ask. I've played here, and I make that contact myself before your date so what I bring and where I set up are settled long before load-in.
How late can the music go at Hotel Nikko?
I confirm the cutoff with the hotel for your room and your date instead of quoting a time here, because the hotel doesn't publish one. Guest rooms share the tower, and an open-air terrace is usually the most sensitive space. Once I have the answer, I plan backwards from it so the dancing isn't cut short.
Can you do the ceremony and the reception in different rooms?
Yes. Weddings with me include ceremony sound as a second setup: a speaker aimed at your guests, a wireless mic for the officiant and the vows, and the processional cued. That setup stays where the vows happen, and the main system is already live where dinner and dancing are. If one room is flipped for both, I plan the changeover with the hotel.
Will guests at the back of the Nikko Ballroom hear the toasts?
Yes, when the sound is planned for the room. One loud pair of speakers at one end isn't the answer in a ballroom this long. I plan the coverage around where your tables and dance floor sit, and when the layout calls for it an additional sound zone can be added in the estimate. Toasts and speeches happen on a wireless microphone that I hand over and take back.
Do you play company events and parties at the Nikko, or only weddings?
Both. Corporate galas and holiday parties, birthdays and milestones, fundraisers, cocktail parties and brand launches, mitzvahs and quinceaneras. The sound is mine (Afro and tribal house, soulful electronic, hip-hop and the classics) or open format when the room calls for it: Latin, Motown, funk and soul, 80s and more.
More rooms
Other rooms I've played
Other rooms I've played
in San Francisco
- Asian Art MuseumSan Francisco
- Golden Gate ClubSan Francisco
- Julia Morgan BallroomSan Francisco
- Marines' Memorial ClubSan Francisco
- The Rotunda at Neiman MarcusSan Francisco
- St. Francis Yacht ClubSan Francisco
- Temple NightclubSan Francisco
Every room, from Napa Valley to the coast, is on the rooms list.
Your event
Tell me about your event at the Nikko
Your date, the room you're in and the feeling you want in it. The instant estimate gives you a price in a couple of minutes, or book a short call and we'll talk it through.