Looking for projector recomendations for outdoor show

[ecin]

I'm pretty new top this world but am leraning quickly thanx to this board and vjcentral.

I'm doing visuals for an outdoor music festival on the Danbury, CT green in september and I'm looking for recommendations on the best projector to use for the job. Normally this would be a simple selection but because it is on a town green, I'm competing with street lights and other misc lighting coming from the local bars and restaraunts. The last 2 years I've used 1200 and 1500 lumens projectors (don't remember what I rented) but they just didn't cut it.

Any thoughts? Need something bright that won't kill my budget when I go to rent.

Also, I'm using two projectors each on a 12' x 9' screen, one getting the main feed and the other from the thru on the 1st projector. Should I be using a video distribution amp to boost the power?

[dronkie]

well, If you want to go higher than the 1200 lumens, i'd say up to 5000 or so, i'd rather take for example the Eiki, Sharp or Sanyo projectors. That's a range of identical lcd-projectors that go up to 7700 lumen. Given the fact that thei're LCD, makes them cheaper than the DLP-cannons from barco, christie or digital projection. they manage quite well on stage. And if you go up to your rental guy, and ask him if you can have one for 500 euros, he'd rather give you an lcd which you can put up yourself, instead of a 100000 euro DLP that is way to fragile. A 5000 lumen LCD 'only' costs about 15000 euro's, so if they don't have 'em rented out the weekend, your 500 ? come in handy for those guys.
I know, it sound a little weird, but I've done it many times. A 'NO' is what you have for sure, a 'YES' is what you can get if ask it...

If you get your projector, you still need a lens. Those LCD's have interchangeable lenses. If you can choose, pick a fixed lens, not a zoom. Those have a better light-output, and every bit of light is welcome. For instance : a wide-angle lens is mostly factor 1.2.

The fact that it is in september might make it a little difficult though : high-season in the rental-bussiness.

For the video-amp : I'd rather make sure that you have a hum-killer than an amp : a ground loop rolling over the screen is more anoying, and pops up much faster than a normal CVBS signal that's not being reinforced. Composite is okay, just don't try S-video on long distances ...

Hope this helped ya out a bit ...

Dronkie (belgium) ;)

[murph]

I'd think if 1500 doesn't quite cut it, but wasn't horribly washed out, 2500-3000 might be a good alternative to 5000. Just ask around your local A/V rental places, see what you can get for what price, stress that it's not for a corporate thing, it's for video.

[dronkie]

The stacking of two projectors is indeed a good thing to resolve your problem of not having enough light. But if you ,take for example two 200 ansilumen projectors, you're better of if you hire as said a 3500 ansilumen Sanyo for example. IT'll cost you the same. If you have access to those kind of machines, try to get two off'em. They're great if you want to stack those !
The image is perfectly matchable.
And about the Barco's : they're indeed great to stack, bur they cost a fortune...

Wouter (Dronkie)

[murph]

oh yeah, and if projector rates are similar there to what they are here, keep in mind that things go up a lot as you get past 3000-3500 lumens, it starts to get real expensive for rental. A pair of 2500's might be cheaper than a 4000, and do the stacking like ***** mentioned.

We're considering this setup ourselves for a large outdoor gig of our own, with a 50 foot screen and a low budget, we'll see what we end up doing, 3000 might be enough for this.