Type of Projector needed

[cfmonk]

Hey,

 

I have never organised any type of large scale projection before. I am rigging a show in a sports hall. The lighting will be from a truss 14m x 6m suspended 5m above the stage. It's gonna be a whole load of Codas as the school don't know what they want yet and that's the easiest option. So far, so good! However they also want to suspend two 3m x 3m projector screens from the truss at the back and project onto them from two projectors on the audience beam of the truss.

 

How powerful would the projectors need to be in terms of lumens?

 

Thanks

 

Chris

[lightbulb789]

I don't know alot about projection but I would think it depends on the distance from the projector to the projection screen and the amount of light on the stage at the time of projecting.

 

Adam

[mac.calder]

It also depends on the surface, the image saturation (ie is it only bold colours being projected with high contrast) and the angle of lights. If you are using codas for everything (quite odd imo, but each to their own), chances are they will be pointing upstage at 45 degrees +/-15, meaning you will most likely have lights projecting straight onto the screen.

 

Light works by addition - you project an open white straight onto the screen and almost anything projected upon it will be next to invisible unless the projector is FAR more powerful.

[cfmonk]

That is what I was thinking.

 

I shall have to advise that they will only be able to use the screens during a blackout.

 

The projectors will be 6m from the screens.

 

I know the use of Codas is a strange idea but the school have no idea of what will actually be in the production until about a week before and I thought codas with warm gels in them to flood the stage (they don't want any beams / spots / effects) was a cost effective way of covering bases. What would you suggest?

 

Chris

[Pete McCrea]

It's perfectly possible. It requires a tight focus, and the correct brightness projectors.

 

With a good focus on the lights, then something like an Sanyo XF45 10,000 lumen projector should cut it with a good front project screen and the right source material and signal cabling. Expect to pay £750 plus VAT for an XF45, not including lense or rigging hardware. You need something like a 1.35-1.85:1 ratio Lense to do that screen size with 6m throw. To calculate the ratio, devide the length of throw, by the width of the screen- 6/4=1.5, which falls in the above lense range.

 

Video is usually run in 4:3 aspect ration images, so a 3m high screen by 4m wide. Sometimes 16:9. So it's likely that you'd want 4m x 3m screens.

 

Hope that helps.

[Stutwo]

If the projection is to be done in a blackout, you can manage with less than 10,000 lumens, we've done something similar with an XF10 which was lovely and bright with only 3,000 lumens. Just ask the local AV company what lenses and screens they have. If they're worth their salt they'll have everything you need. It just won't be cheap, expect to pay a fair few hundred pounds for a days hire.

[Pete McCrea]

Going by the Original post, then I'd stick with the 10k for use during the show, but if your going to scale down and only use in the blackouts, then upwards of 3k would work.

[Stutwo]

Going by the Original post, then I'd stick with the 10k for use during the show, but if your going to scale down and only use in the blackouts, then upwards of 3k would work.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Lets face it, if it's a blackout, less than 3k would work too. The Uni local to me does a regular night with two 1.5k small sanyos, and that's with various movers on. It's still perfectly visible 15ft up in the air. Budget will probably be your deciding factor.