Projector for Hall

[Katy]

I'm thinking about replacing the hall projector when we get new lighting rigs (so I can hang it off the front truss) but no idea what to get. Currently got a Sony VPL-FX40 with the insanely-long-throw lens on it, sat in a projection room at the back of the hall. Pros are it's easy to get to, cons are the throw is almost 30m so it's not too bright, and you have to stand on one leg in a specific spot on the floor to get the remote to work.

 

We're 100% Casio LED everywhere else in the school, but willing to go with something else for the hall.

 

Main thing I want is the focus and zoom to be done via the remote control rather than by manually twisting bits of the lens - so we can focus it without ladders once it's in the air - but looking at 4-5000 lumens. (The Casio Green Slim have a great zoom and do zoom/focus via the remote but they only go up to 3000 lumens)

 

Probably looking at (really wild guess here) 8m wide image, and the projector is going to need to be about 10m away from the screen.

 

Does anyone have anything they'd recommend?

[AlanD]

..well I'd be making sure its was networkable to start with...to avoid the problem with the remote control.

 

And yes - I'd be looking at 5000lumens or more. We have an Hitachi model.....

[Katy]

I'd have thought most hall style projectors were networked these days? Although the current one is networked but it's too complicated to expect a teacher to use that as a means of turning it on/off.

 

The current one is 4000 lumens from 30m and it's bright enough with the lights off, so 5000 from 10m should be fine (image is projected onto the back of the stage so there's no windows anywhere near it)

[victory2015]

you need one of these

https://www.avpartsmaster.co.uk/p-64692-vision-tc3-ctl-universal-control.aspx

[Andrew_C]

If I were looking for a proper hall projector, I would start by looking at Christie or Barco. If you can't afford them then look at the other offerings.

[Katy]

you need one of these

https://www.avpartsmaster.co.uk/p-64692-vision-tc3-ctl-universal-control.aspx

 

Was thinking along those lines, one of those plus a projector with a serial port.

If I were looking for a proper hall projector, I would start by looking at Christie or Barco. If you can't afford them then look at the other offerings.

Hahahaha. Budget is £1000 max, so might struggle as we spent about £4000 last time. Hoping by moving the projector to a 10m throw instead of 30m we can get into more of a budget category without needing to buy long throw lenses. Really all I want is something with remote controlled zoom and focus, as we don't have ladders long enough to reach the truss, but no projector manufacturers seem to specify if they have this or not (besides casio).

[crc-ict]

I'd be wary of mounting a projector on the lighting truss, depending what sort of lights you are going to be using, and if the projector is needed at the same time as the lights.

 

We have moving-head lights on our new-ish rig, and they cause enough vibration through the bar that it would seriously blur a projected image from the same bar.

 

That might just be our rig, but I would certainly want to test it before committing.

[dhicks]

Probably looking at (really wild guess here) 8m wide image, and the projector is going to need to be about 10m away from the screen. Does anyone have anything they'd recommend?

 

Me, too - we're refurbishing the church hall next door to be used as more of an events / assembly space for the school, and I'm wondering what sort of projector system to put in there. Projection area's going to be about the same size, maybe 8m wide. Similar to the above, there'll be a lighting grid of some sort on the ceiling, but that will only extend maybe 3 metres from the wall we plan to use as a projection surface. I'm getting quotes for a 4-projector system, with the idea that two projected images next to each other should cover the 8 metres, and two projectors projecting on the same area should double the brightness. I've not got any extperience with multi-projector setups, and I imagine the quote is going to be fairly expensive, but this is part of a larger building project so the funds might be available. Does anyone have such a setup, are they reasonably simple to run, and does the whole multi-image stitching thing actually work?

[Katy]

I've seen a 3 projector wide multi image one before, the problem is if you get people in who don't need them all on and one gets more lamp usage and ends up being less bright than the others, when you have all three on it becomes obvious. As for stacking them I'd imagine the slightest movement might push them out of alignment though.

[Andrew_C]

does the whole multi-image stitching thing actually work?

Yes, but... Don't try to set it up yourself unless you want an aneurysm. You also need to buy projectors designed with this level of $ophistication in mind.

[PotNoodleTech]

Use Casio in classroom but use a £2000 Epson EB-G7800 in the hall 8000 lumens and has made a massive difference compared to the old 4000 lumens "classroom" projector we used to have. Can see it right from the back of the hall clear as day and no longer need to close all the curtains etc if it's sunny.

[Andycat]

We're on this. HDMI over Cat5, with Crestron controller from a lectern. NEC PA 653U

 

https://www.nec-display-solutions.com/p/uk/en/products/details/t/Projectors/Installation-Projectors/rp/PA653U.xhtml

[robyholmes]

We've just installed a Hitachi 5000 LED lumen projector, with a rear projection screen (4 meters wide). We're using it for Drama backdrops etc as well as normal hall use. It has built in HDBase-T which means you just need a transmitter to get your signal too it. Tested this over rubbish old network cables across school and it worked perfectly. Installed new CAT6 cables in the hall and its never failed.

[SamanthaD]

We're installing a few Epson EB-L1000U projectors over the summer - 5000 lumens WUXGA laser with HDBaseT connectivity. You'd have to mount it around 12m from the screen to get an 8m wide image, but echo the point on mounting this away from the lighting bar as it will get moved whenever the lighting rig gets changed, or a cable will get trashed etc. Just set it on it's own mount and basically forget about it.

 

Also echo the point on RS232 control (as I always do) - we have control panels in over 250 rooms and never have to change any batteries or replace lost remotes, they just work. Just a simple panel would work for you - something like this would give you On / Off, 2 inputs and volume control. (You'd have to extract the audio from the projector though, or perhaps change the volume buttons to a blank and auto image?)

 

Happy to chat about RS232 if you want.

[chazzy2501]

I can't recommend a brand but the last hall projector I purchased 5 years ago has 3 amazing features that no other projector has (or needs)

 

1. is a fully motorized lens, it can pan in all four directions (meaning you don't need scaffold should the image shift a little) 2. is has a filter cartridge (it's like a toilet roll, it even auto advances, so again no scaffold) 3. a shutter, yes a mechanical shutter so a speaker can stop the light without being dazzled or having to wait for shutdown then start-up.

[Steve21]

I can't recommend a brand but the last hall projector I purchased 5 years ago has 3 amazing features that no other projector has (or needs)

 

1. is a fully motorized lens, it can pan in all four directions (meaning you don't need scaffold should the image shift a little) 2. is has a filter cartridge (it's like a toilet roll, it even auto advances, so again no scaffold) 3. a shutter, yes a mechanical shutter so a speaker can stop the light without being dazzled or having to wait for shutdown then start-up.

 

Ha yes that reminds me of one of the projectors we hired for an event before, all the singing features but damn the price if it was bought outright!

 

Panasonic PT-RZ12K WUXGA 3 DLP Laser Projector is what we hired and it's about £47k~ "without lens" etc to buy >.< like damn I want one to keep!

 

Steve

[Katy]

We're installing a few Epson EB-L1000U projectors over the summer - 5000 lumens WUXGA laser with HDBaseT connectivity. You'd have to mount it around 12m from the screen to get an 8m wide image, but echo the point on mounting this away from the lighting bar as it will get moved whenever the lighting rig gets changed, or a cable will get trashed etc. Just set it on it's own mount and basically forget about it.

Going to have to go on a lighting truss, if we were to drop a pole for the projector it'd have to be about 5m long, bolted to an arched ceiling... however the only people who will be messing with lighting are us so it should be safe enough.

[Andrew_C]

so it should be safe enough.

Safe, yes. But if you ever get moving lights, it WILL wobble all over the place.

[SamanthaD]

If it absolutely has to go on the truss make sure you get a proper half coupler bracket for it - the standard Unicol ones are the hook over type which IMO are useless! At least with a half coupler it can be tightened to 2 white knuckles if needs be... (Proper torque figures are preferred of course!)

 

Lens shift, mechanical shutters and cartridge filters are standard features on most pro projectors. However these things are just more things to go wrong - Our Christie's shutter used to fail closed occasionally - the only way we could get it open was to open the case and manually do it. About once a year it happened!

 

As for edge blended projection (multi projector setups) they're a complete waste of time unless you are doing custom sized content, or using 4 to maintain the 16:9 ratio (I've done corporate events where we've used 8 or so projectors in a line!) Stacking is a good way of achieving a brighter image (and pro projectors have stacking frames to maintain perfect alignment) but again a lot more effort (and usually expensive) than buying the right kit first time!

[Katy]

Well the options are mount on the truss or like for like replacement of the existing one which is a 30m throw plus a very long cable to RS232 it. Think we're just getting LED PAR cans, if we do get moving lights they won't be moving whilst we are projecting and the movement feature will mostly be used as a way to change where they point without getting the ladder and stick out. Anyway I'll just be buying the projector and handing it to the specialist who is doing all the rigging/lighting/sound stuff.

[SamanthaD]

RS232 will do that in a heartbeat, but focusing from 30m isn't fun. Truss is definitely the lesser of 2 evils here.

 

If you want a sanity check on your lighting / sound install give me a shout - is your specialist a school employee or a contractor?

[duzzie]

We bought an Epson EBL1300U projector for our hall last year and its fantastic (8000 Lumens). Image is crisp and bright, our hall is large with lots of windows. We had a control box at the side of the stage so no need for a remote along with the electric screen it all looks and works perfectly. We have some excellent installers which make it all a nice smooth process.

[SamanthaD]

We have a 1300U, about to buy another. You running it at constant brightness or full pelt?

[Katy]

RS232 will do that in a heartbeat, but focusing from 30m isn't fun. Truss is definitely the lesser of 2 evils here.

 

If you want a sanity check on your lighting / sound install give me a shout - is your specialist a school employee or a contractor?

 

Specialist is whichever contractor wins the tender to rip the existing truss and lighting out and install new, this time they are all from companies who only do stage/lighting/sound stuff (last time out of my control we got a general building contractor so it was a complete mess hence why it's being ripped out only 10 years later)

[habz99]

I can't recommend a brand but the last hall projector I purchased 5 years ago has 3 amazing features that no other projector has (or needs)

 

1. is a fully motorized lens, it can pan in all four directions (meaning you don't need scaffold should the image shift a little) 2. is has a filter cartridge (it's like a toilet roll, it even auto advances, so again no scaffold) 3. a shutter, yes a mechanical shutter so a speaker can stop the light without being dazzled or having to wait for shutdown then start-up.

 

do you know what model it was? Sounds just like what i'm looking for..