Advice on covering three screens with single projector

[MarkPAman]

For back projection a dowser can be simply a bit of card placed by crew.

[TomHoward]

Muslin?

 

Depending on the Mac used you may not need the TripleHead2Go - the newer MacBooks can output 3 different video sources - 1x inbuilt HDMI and 2x Thunderbolt ports which can support HDMI, VGA, DVI, composite, etc.

 

Black background is the way I've done for years with qlab projection - a black slide would cut out if the 'panic stop' was used.

Whether you need a dowser or not would depend on how bad the orb is and how much you can live with it - we've made some using servos and Milford Instruments DMX-servo control boards - £33 for the board, plus servo, case, etc - but should be under £50 max all in per unit.

[timsabre]

Thanks all. Just learned that the screens will actually be made of muslim, so back-projection possible. I guess this makes dowsers even more important, to avoid three glowing orbs throughout the show...?

 

Back projection will not work well through fabric, you'll get a hotspot where the projector lens is visible through the material, unless you can fix up the projection angle so that the projector is really low down or something and not visible to the audience. You'd really need proper rear projection material which you can buy in rolls from Rosco.

[AHYoung]

Forget trying to back project onto muslin, it will be unusable and most of the light will go straight into the eyes of the audience. The screens as important as the projector and proper back projection material off the roll doesnt actually cost much more than fireproof fabric, your lighting supplier can get you rosco material by the mm in widths up to 2.8m, or theres harkness , gerrietts etc etc

 

If it were me id use 3 xga or wxga 4~ 5000 lumen units fed from a matrox THTG, and if needs be fit three whalberg DMX shutters, as far as price goes from our stocks the whole lot will cost you less than a lone hd 7k unit and put more pixels and lumens onto the surfaces than a 20k unit, so its a no brainer really. remember that 3 lo res 800 / 600s is actually wider pixel wise than hd... I would however suggest that all your projectors are the same model ideally with the same usage as it can be almost impossible to get a match across different models

 

If youve got the skills to deal with multiple surfaces in qlab or similar you will always be better using multiple units as you can cover the areas of interest and minimise the wasteage as well as having unwanted "black" spill onto the set where you dont want it.

[drissa]

...suspect it is much more likely they will be made of muslin. Otherwise you'd have problems with Ramadan.

 

Oops, what an appropriately inappropriate typo... the show is about conflict in Gaza.

 

 

 

[mac.calder]

Many projectors these days in the 4-7000 lumen range have physical shutters when you hit the mute button - check your projectors. Many projectors also have a LANC or Control-S port which allows you to do a cabled remote to the projector (for example many panasonics and sony's have a 3.5mm TRS jack on the bottom which can be cabled (often over XLR) to the projector to hardwire the remote - this may be a very simple way to mute your projectors when not required.