Project Scenery onto a stage

[ellisteph10]

Morning,

 

Our Drama department want to set up a projector to project scenery onto a stage (6m wide ideally!)

 

Most projectors dont seem to stretch an image this far. Does anyone know whats the best solution for this. Putting a front projector mounted would shine onto the actors and probably blind them from a long distance so was thinkign of short throw from the back of the scenery but again short throw projectors dont seem to have that capability.

 

Anyone have any experience of this?

 

Thanks

[DAZZD88]

Maybe multiple short throw projectors, like you would in a multi-monitor display for gaming etc...?

[Oaktech]

look at the matrox triple head 2 go box and look at doing it with 3 projectors.

[enjay]

Rear project it, getting it as wide as you can and tell them that is the best you can do, and they'll need to live with it or buy the kit which can do it. Not phrased quite so bluntly, but that is my typical response here. Projectors designed to sit a short distance in front of a screen and run PowerPoints are simply not up to the task of theatre-style projection.

[ellisteph10]

Thanks for your comments, much appreciated.

 

I was expecting to have to put more than one projector up but there was the the hope xProjector was available that projects 6m at short throw!

[enjay]

there was the the hope xProjector was available that projects 6m at short throw!

I imagine that would distort a lot. Of course, if such a thing did exist, the price may well put your Drama Department off buying it anyway!

[Oaktech]

what depth have you got behind your screen? there are projectors out there that will do it, but you are going to have to swallow a pretty hefty hire charge as a single projector to do that width is going to need some pretty serious glassware strapped to the front!

[K.C.Leblanc]

I've done something similar with 3 projector and 3 separate laptops all using Arkaos. It was a complete nighmare because I didn't have enough hands to change all the screens at once.

[ellisteph10]

what depth have you got behind your screen? there are projectors out there that will do it, but you are going to have to swallow a pretty hefty hire charge as a single projector to do that width is going to need some pretty serious glassware strapped to the front!

 

They are hoping to have 1m gap from back wall to the screen.

[Oaktech]

ah... except not at that distance. if you could get them to move screen forward maybe an extra 1.5m you might do it.

 

With that information I would be looking at the same projectors, but front projecting with the projectors rigged from a lighting bar at a steep angle to keep the worst of the light out of the eyes of the cast.

[ellisteph10]

ah... except not at that distance. if you could get them to move screen forward maybe an extra 1.5m you might do it.

 

With that information I would be looking at the same projectors, but front projecting with the projectors rigged from a lighting bar at a steep angle to keep the worst of the light out of the eyes of the cast.

 

We have a lighting bar 2m from the front of the screen. That was Plan B, have two short throws on that rig. Can you recommend a good projector for this?

[Oaktech]

right... at the extremes of it's zoom 2 of these projectors will do what you want, Mitsubishi EW230 they will do just under 4m wide each at 2m throw, so if you throttle the zoom back you will get 6m, at decent light levels.

[plexer]

Could you not rear project but with them hanging above shining down on to the back?

 

Ben

[Oaktech]

Could you not rear project but with them hanging above shining down on to the back?

 

Ben

 

at 1m throw distance you *might* get the width but you will run out of keystone adjustment well before you get a square image!

[ellisteph10]

Could you not rear project but with them hanging above shining down on to the back?

 

Ben

 

Issue with this which I didnt think about is they want the space at the back so cast can run behind to get to stage left! So same problem with silhouette will occur. DOh.

[john]

NEC have clever piece of software for use with some of the NEC projectors which allows you to combine them for increased brightness etc maybe that will help with the size issue as well?

 

As for that wide, I did a 5M wide projection last year using our 5000 Lumen NEC Projector (without fancy software). Our usual screen is 3M long, but I didn't use that just adjusted the layout and resolution on the projector and use the back wall of the stage and wow it was good and really effective. If its scenery you are likely not to need tiny fine details anyway so if its loosing some quality then it won't be a major loss.

[SYNACK]

NEC have clever piece of software for use with some of the NEC projectors which allows you to combine them for increased brightness etc maybe that will help with the size issue as well?

 

As for that wide, I did a 5M wide projection last year using our 5000 Lumen NEC Projector (without fancy software). Our usual screen is 3M long, but I didn't use that just adjusted the layout and resolution on the projector and use the back wall of the stage and wow it was good and really effective. If its scenery you are likely not to need tiny fine details anyway so if its loosing some quality then it won't be a major loss.

 

Interesting, you could probably do the same by carefully stacking them and using the PC out ports on the projectors to dasy chain them together. An interesting idea.

[Oaktech]

when the pros need to do this they use a thing called catalyst server Catalyst Software | Pro Systems Group and they use mad, mad spec apple products with 4 gazzillion display outputs.