Very large scale projection

[Stuart91]

Just had an interesting conversation with someone who is planning a venue at a festival. The idea is that they have approx 3000 sq ft of floorspace, and it's going to be used for various art installation type things. Quite a few of them will involve video of some sort, which is why they got me involved.

 

The most ambitious of their ideas is to have some sort of large scale projection, across the entire ceiling and/or floor of the area. It'll be abstract material, so it's not essential that it's all perfectly in focus etc.

 

I'd expect that getting data projectors with enough grunt and the right lenses will be seriously expensive. I remember the occasional report of outdoor projection in LSI, although annoyingly I can't find any at the moment. I do remember, however, that for these kinds of applications high powered slide projectors are often used.

 

There's budget available, but not a daft amount. I'd be keen to hear from anyone who has experience of this kind of thing. Where's the best place to start?

[Ben]

Take a look at the DL2, it is a proector and media server in one unoit and has the option to "collage: or edge blend meaning you can get one massive single perfect image from multiple projectors.

 

These are available in Hire or to purchase throught the UK and the rest of the world

[lukemh]

something like this?

 

http://www.barco.com/entertainment/en/refe...es.asp?ref=3110

[Ellis]

Stuart,

 

It is going to be expensive. To achieve the area coverage, you can edge-blend several projectors. The edge blending can be done in the projector but is often done usign a media server. There are various media servers available and as Ben said, the High End DL2 will do the blending for you. In order to get the brightness you need, you would have two (or more) projectors projecting each image.

 

That will take a long time to set up and require a fair bit of kit (projectors, cables, Media Server(s) and distribution amplifiers).

 

One price I got for a project that did not go ahead was £900 per day for a single Sanyo XF45 15000 Lumen projector!

 

HTH

 

Ellis

[dbuckley]

You can get high powered slide projectors, made by Pani, and thres one other company with a two word name thats slipped off the memory.

 

Or.... you can see if you can still hire Carousels (or better yet, Ektapros). Biggest installation I know of for these was the West End early 90s Hunting of the Snark, which used about a hundred projectors. The advantage of the Ektapro over the Carousel is that the Ektapros are RS232 controlled and can be linked into groups of 16. If this appeals and you can actually find hires for the Ektapros, then I've written the software to control these things.

 

I mourn the passing of the Kodak projectors; as an artistic tool they were fabulous.

[Seano]

and thres one other company with a two word name thats slipped off the memory.

PIGI?

[Wuddy]

We've never been involved with anything as big as this but we have a couple of Simda 3462 slide projectors which we control via AV Stumpfl Wings Platinum.

 

We only have the basic free down load version but the full version does all the AV stuff, sound, lights etc.

 

Have a look here avstumpfl.com

[Stuart91]

PIGI?

 

I remember that name - now that I see it! (Couldn't recall it for the life of me earlier)

 

This (and PANI) looks like the kind of stuff that they'd need. Does anyone know if it's feasible on a non-West-end budget?

 

(There is money behind this event but not extravagant amounts)

[dbuckley]

Of course, the answer is "search the blue room", so, a search for Pani turned up this thread which mentions some alternatives. The two word name I was thinking of was Hardware for Xenon. In my defense to the crime of not being able to count, I did make the mistake of posting at 6:41am, having just got up...

[Stuart91]

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'll drop a quick enquiry to ETC later today.

 

Here's a pic of a U2 gig. This illustrates the overall concept of what I'm looking to achieve with this - fairly abstract, atmospheric material round the area. It wouldn't matter if the edges didn't blend perfectly, in fact it would probably be better if it didn't.

 

Now obviously I have a much smaller venue and a fraction of the budget, but hopefully it's a helpful illustration.

 

http://www.greatbigresources.co.uk/ebaypics/U2.jpg

[jhammar]

Dataton made systems for controlling multiple carousels a long time ago if you can find an AV-house that still has them they shouldn't be to expensive with the carousels.

 

I haven't seen them in quite a long time though, they were used in museums and large corporate events in the 90's.

 

Apparently their newer systems is quite capable but made for data projectors.

 

www.dataton.com

[Pete McCrea]

I could hire you a Barco CLM R10+ with built in edge blend and 10,000 lumen output for £850/day ex VAT. Several of these could cover a failry large area quite easily, especially if the light levels are lower. It depends on multiple options, but there is the kit out there as others have mentioned.

[ceecrb1]

Just to throw this into the conversation.

 

my dad has all his kodak projectors still in VERY working order, with controlers, selection of lenses the lot

also a MOUNTAIN of carousells (every time he did a big job, he bought new ones and left the slides in place "just incase")

(REFUSES to throw anything out!!! its a pain!!)

In better than you'd think condition as his company wasnt a large company with ware house, but one-man-band running from home and overseeing everything.

come to think of it, these projectors have litterally been round the world! did at least 3 or 4 fidelity investments world tours...

 

My brain is failing after a long overnight derig so I cant remeber the model of controler.

 

but if as an end result they are what your after .. they're in edinburgh!

 

oh and also a slide printer (scsi) from days gone by to make up all the slides you want...

 

oh and a film developer too!

 

(to be honest this list could go on for weeks)