Plexi screen

[organicsound]

Hi,
I'm working on a small event that i need to design a screen for. So far i've looked around and i found the idea of using sheets of plastic to project onto. The idea is to be backwards projectable from about 15ft away. I still have to go take some precise measurements, but i'm curious to know if anyone here is familer with grades of plexi glass tranceparecy. I like the idea of using plexi because its clean cut and would look quite cool with my proections on them.

thanks

[Kyle]

Talk to VJ Solly from Barcelona. He did some plexi installations. Do a search for the username. good luck

[rickmaersk]

There are a couple of companies make rigid rear projection screens eg Reversascreen. Even if you do not want to buy an expensive commercial product it might be worth seeing one.

You could try making one with perspex and self adhesive window frosting. Probably give you problems with bubbles in the self adhesive film. Or you could try getting a sample sand blasted.

There is a frosted perspex available but it would be frosted both sides and for rear projection you need one side only.

rick

[WordVirus23]

if you spray down the plastic with water and a TINY bit of soap before trying to put any adhesive type stuff on it, you can simply squeegee the bubbles out, no problem... tricks of the sign/window tint trade.

..j...

Originally posted by rickmaersk
You could try making one with perspex and self adhesive window frosting. Probably give you problems with bubbles in the self adhesive film.

rick

[organicsound]

After some heavy research over the last two days i've come up with several options. Using strictly a plexiglass designed for projection it would come to about 300 dollars for a 4ft by 8ft section. Ouch :( what i did find out was a thing called roscoscreen, which might be an option. Its a type of transparent film, relativly cheap per yard. $15.70 about. Considering i have about 2 weeks to decide, test, purchase, and assemble, i might end up simply using the plastic sheet techniqie with the perspex.The normal plexi being ALOT cheaper.
You guys brought up an intersesting idea of sandblasting one side. OUt of curiousity, how well would that work, because i have accesss to sand blasting at my school, but that is usually meant for auto mechanics or the welding dept. well, its good to know i have a so many options. any further information would be AWESOME!

thanks a lot guys
organic sound

[Kyle]

Well whatever you decide to do it would be a good idea if you document and photograph all your steps. That way if it works out well you can post a tutorial for others. I for one wouldn?t mind to see what your end results are.

[rickmaersk]

Roscoscreen is just an off the shelf rear projection material. It's easy to make a timber frame and stretch/staple the surface onto it. That will work great but will not be as stylish as a rigid screen.
This also leaves you with a ready made screen which can be a pain if you don't have a van.
You might aswell just hire fastfold screens unless you need a particular non standard size. If you are going to make screens with timber frames then a white gauze will do pretty much the same job for much less expense.
OUt of curiousity, how well would that work, because i have accesss to sand blasting at my school

I just test sanded a mini DV tape box. It would make an OK rear projection surface. It's nowhere near as dense as grey roscoscreen, more like tracing paper. But tracing paper makes a nice projection surface. Hand sanding leaves marks which can been seen close up while sandblasting might give you a cleaner even surface. A hand sanded surface would be fine on a stage just not much good for commercial display use. You'd need a very fine grit ( 150 plus ) but i don't think it would be as tricky as spray painting- it's not going to run or look uneven, just the screen would get a little thinner in places!

Will you be blocking sound with the screen? I switched my rear screens from roscoscreen to fabric cos the sound guys said "the soundsystem in this venue is bad enough already without those screens sucking up even more sound" which was fair enough really.

Rick

[organicsound]

I checked out specially designed plexi glass for rear projecting. It costs a large amount for a small area surface. Therefore i decided to buy a lot of the cheaper regualer plexi glass and then mount the rosco screen fabric, which comes in yard rolls, onto the plexi glass....thereby giving me the rigid, paneled effect that i'm looking for at a siginifgant price drop. FRom there i might use aluminum to hold the panels together. that idea is a little complicated to explain right now..so i'll work out a draft and a picture for everyone.

vj rin
organicsound

[Amukidi]

Is the regular plexi flame retardant? Just wondering like - always have to be careful using home-made screens at a public event!

[FAZE005]

The sandblast idea is a nice option, also you can use vynil, there is one that has the sandblas effect, there are some manufacturers and cost, I can recommend you the one by 3MM, is more expensive (about 3 DLLS x mtr) but the grain is very fine, you can find it with a plotter or graphic material store.