Video Projector

[Lee Brennan]

My experience with video projectors is very minimal but have been given a budget to purchase one for a tour.

 

In total I have £6000.00 to purchase a projector, laptop and a screen. The performance projects images from a laptop from a distance of 6 - 10 metres, so I guessing a wide lense will be required.

 

The only brief I have is that it has to be of a very good quality.

 

Any advise on products would be gratefully received.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Lee

 

P.S. It will have to be in a flightcase.

[Andrew C]

6 - 10m is quite a long throw. What size screen are you envisaging? Can you rear-project? Good plan if possible! It gets the projector & laptop "on-stage" rather than FoH, which should be more secure and will help with noise issues.

 

Fastfold type screens can have either front or rear surfaces, and can be bought in a variety of sizes Quite quick to set up, but a mare to get back in the case!! (Can't workout how the case shrinks during the show :-( )

 

The latest DLP projectors are very bright, and small, but as to longevity, who knows. I have a couple of Sony projectors which are nice, the CX5 is about 2k lumens.

[Lee Brennan]

If I go down the rear projection the distance will be greatly reduced to approx 2m, but I agree would tidy up the elements of the production.

[pumphouse]

If I go down the rear projection the distance will be greatly reduced to approx 2m, but I agree would tidy up the elements of the production.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The screen size will drive the projection distance and lens choice. Beware of using very short throw with standard diffusion rear projection screens as you will get a nasty hot-spot with this combination.

 

You may be pushing your luck to get good images of a large size with £6k, including projector, lens and screen. It will all depend on the screen size you are after really.

[Lee Brennan]

Don't know if this helps that the funding came from this quote, which I have got from the grants officer.

 

1 x Sanyo XP55 XGA LCD Projector

1 x Wide Angle Lens

1 x Flight Case to suit

 

1 x 3m x 4m Dual Vision Fast Fold Screen with carry case

 

Any thoughts???????

[Andrew C]

With a wide angle lens, and a 6m throw, you're stuffed! You need to check the angle vs throw for the available lenses.

 

If you can get it in the price, get a spare lamp. They are 'king expensive, and you don't want a squabble over who pays for one a year down the line on the day before 1st night in the middle of nowhere!

[Dave]

Also think about how you are going to rig the projector - will you need a floor stand or a flying cradle? Likewise, how will the screen fit into the set?

 

It's important to consider the vertical relationship between projector and screen as this varies between makes.

 

Then there's the blackout problem, although I don't know how much of an issue this is with DLP projectors as their contrast ratio is greater. I've only used LCDs myself.

[Pete McCrea]

The Christie Digital website has a handy Throw/Image Size Calculator.

 

You'll be struggling to get the above mentioned kit for £6K and a laptop. I've sent you a PM.

[noodles2000]

Hi Lee,

 

I have to say that in the budget that you have you can only afford to be looking at LCD projectors.

Whilst DLP projectors have a much higher contrast ratio (blacks are blacker and whites are whiter) they also have a much higher price tag for a decent machine.

 

Be careful ! When you are looking around there are a lot of "Cheap" DLP projectors around but they have 1 reason why they are cheap - they only have 1 imaging device.

 

In a high quality projector the red, green and blue images are created using 3 seperate imaging devices (LCD panels or DLP chips) and then these three images are combined using a prism. This is exactly the same way (but opposite) that TV cameras work.

 

This gives you the best possible resolution, screen refresh rate and most importantly the best quality picture.

 

The cheap DLP projectors use a single chip with a small round dichroic disc in front that spins round very quickly, it has 3 filters on the disc - red, green and blue - basically the green filter gois in front of the dlp chip and the blue picture is projected, then the red filter is placed in front and the red image is projected and then finally the green - the only reason that you see a colour image at all is because or persistence of vision - ie when looking at the red picture you still remember the blue one and the green one - basically trickery of the mind.

 

The XP55 projector that you were quoted is an excellent projector for the price and simply cannot be beaten for price/brightness/size and as a result there are many on big shows - I have just used 2 on the Starlight Express tour and 4 on Mary Poppins so they are great - but as you might expect with a powerful projector in such a small box - it is very noisy as it needs a powerfull fan to keep it cool.

 

Let me know if you find anything else that competes as I would be very interested.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel.

 

;)

[slim_mcslim]

the kit you listed for £6k is a good price, certainly not one I could beat, or other sanyo dealers (its the short throw lens that costs so much) well anything other than the standard 1.8 lens is costly... all having a list price of around £1800. but you need to add in the cost of an extra lamp at £350 and a unicol flying bracket is about £250 -

 

I wouldn't say that the xp-55's are that noisy, a lot less noisy than a moving light. but as a pile of kit would probably do the job you want it to, dependent on the lens, screen situation but that will vary from venue to venue, and depending on the size of theatres you are using you may find a slightly smaller screen 3m x 2.2m (10' x 7.5') more practical than the 12 x 9 that you listed.

 

paul..

[QED]

The XP55 is indeed an excellent projector and I can totally recommend it. It is also about to be replaced by the XP56 at 5,000 ANSI. We have sold a massive number of XP 55's though, they are one of the most popular projectors around today.

 

I totally agree with the person talking about "hot-spotting". You will need to be careful.

 

Regarding lens throw, you just need to divide the throw distance by the screen width to get the lens ratio.

 

Be aware that different lenses give different light outputs too.

 

Give me a call if you need any more help.