Short Throw Projector Straight onto Wall?

[Jaymate]

Were looking into installing a short throw projector in our school dining hall so that it can be used as a teaching space during lesson time and a "anti social distraction" during lunch.

I was wondering if people have any experience of projecting directly onto a white glossed wall. What is the image like and do you get that horrible bright reflected light spot on the wall.

Have never really used a short throw projector so interested in your experiences.

Would like to avoid having a screen etc if possible as it would be vulnerable during the lunch times.

Thanks in advance

[matrixnet]

Hi Jaymate,

I would imagine a white glossed wall would be highly reflective with the Short throw projector, options avaialable could be to install a manual pull down screen or I have seen short throws projected onto magnolia coloured walls
you mention dining hall would this also be used for sports? if so damage might be a an issue as the short throw will be dificult to protect

cheers
Stef

[riffleman]

I can't imagine a painted wall being more reflective than a whiteboard. We've installed a couple of Epson short throw projectors over normal whiteboards without too much reflection from the lamp. Because the lamp is so close anyway, it hardly seems to create enough of a brightspot to make it an issue, and because the lamp isn't pointed directly at the board, it tends to be offset by the lens, there doesn't seem to be enough power to make an obvious brightspot.

See if you can get an eval of one to try out and see what you think.

[plexer]

Try the hitachi ed-a220nm mounts 50cm from the wall would be simple enough to protect.

Ben

[broc]

We have four ultra short-throw Epson EB-450Wi interactive projectors in breakout areas in our new building which are used to project onto walls with a white eggshell finish surface; we were advised to avoid gloss finish because of reflections, although on fairness this is because we also want to use the interactive pen too and a reflective surface confuses the projector.

You can use the projector with a local PC and interacrive pen, or Epson provide a network application which allows you to send a PC screen image across the LAN. It can handle something like BBC iPlayer reasonably well but I haven't figured out how to get audio yet.

Watch out for ceiling height though, if you decide to look at the Epson unit......

[DarrenC]

Weirdly the best colour to project onto is a shade of grey not white.

If you want a really good image I would paint the surface using goo paint Goo Systems Projection Screen Paint it is a paint specifically designed to be projected onto. We have used this in a number of installations and it produces a great image on a flat wall.