Voile Screens - Material & Setup

[Liquidmetro]

Screen1-Front
Screen1-Side
Screen2-Front
Screen2-Side
Club-Overview Sorry pics are so crappy - made in Word!!!

I am in the process of trying to create a re-useable Legoman inspired screen setup. It is going to be fairly basic and consist of 2 layers (possibly 3) of Voile strips suspended from the ceiling. The positioning of the front and back layers will be staggered alternately so I will have to tinker a bit to get equal focus on the front and back layers.

I have attached some pics showing a basic overview of my initial ideas. The club where this will be setup has a quirky layout and is a long underground brick built tunnel.

As this is my first attempt, I have a few unanswered questions. I’m sure most of these will get answered during the setup, but if anyone can offer any suggestions then I’d be really grateful!!

My aim is to suspend the Voile strips using transparent fishing wire from hooks screwed into the ceiling. At each end of the Voile Strip there will be a short baton running the full width hang of the strip. The baton at the top will help me top hang it and the one at the bottom will act as a weight keeping the Voile straight.

1) Does anyone know whether black Voile would work or would I have to use white?
2) Is Voile easy to sew?
3) Will the edges fray easily?
4) Supplier near Bristol?

5) Also would you have 4 strips at the front and 3 at the back or vice versa? When sketching the overhead plan, it looks like it may produce a better effect having the most strips at the back rather than the front? Any recommendations? I’m starting to think that it would be better to have 3 layers too.

I am heading down tonight to measure up and mark up positions etc and if I can get a decent raw material sourced pretty soon then I may have time to setup a 3rd projector and set of screens near the other speaker stack.

Big thanks in advance for any input!

[PCProject]

i would strongly suggest speaking to the venue sound engineer to get him to ok your idea

reason

High Frequency sounds are easily reflected and the voile will happily do that job if you are going to be hanging it front of a stack as drawing 2 suggests

[SteveG]

I did it in Birmingham at the Custard Factory. Really effective and had about 5 layers, however.....the management made us cut around a foot off as it could be reached by a tall man jumping Kinda spoiled the effect to a degree. Make sure it's well out of reach and approved certified flame proof material to save yourself some headaches. Possibly think about increasing your projector strengths and your insurance too

[Liquidmetro]

Thanks guys,

PCProject - No problems there, I have discussed my plan with the owner and he is eager for me to go ahead. The venue is not very big and just had a whopping new rig installed and in this instance I doubt that the effect will be noticeable. When I install the screens prior to the night itself I will run a test to make sure. Thanks for the heads up on this - I am hoping to position the hooks to enable the screens to twist through 90degrees so hopefully the speaker stack will cause the sctrips to move slightly to the beat.

sjg707 - Tall man jumping! The strips will be about 6ft high and the clubs ceiling is only about 10ft, so will be about 4ft off the ground. Punters will be able to touch them and move between them so ensuring that they are fire proof is paramount!! If pulled down, they will be so light that it will only be an inconvenience to me if this happens. I'm going to be using 2-3 x 2000 lumen beamers that will not be more than about 10 ft from the screen.

Where did you source your material and did you use black or white? Planning to go to 'Fabric World' on saturday

[PCProject]

Originally Posted by Liquidmetro

whopping new rig installed and in this instance I doubt that the effect will be noticeable.

working with 16k of Opus there were a couple of 3' diameter dream catchers that were suspended from mirror ball rotators - the centres apprx 1' or so diameter had a circle of painted/decorated fabric and everytime they turned we could hear a raised TSSCHHH sound of the highhats being reflected back at us when they were 45 degrees to the rig and pointing at us

these pieces of decor were about 8'-10'' from the stacks and probaly 20'-30' from where we were positioned

dont be so sure

[robotfunk]

light cloth will only improve the acoustics by slightly absorbing high frequencies, you need something hard heavy and flat to cause reflections.

[PCProject]

ok then - dont believe me

[Liquidmetro]

This positioning is the only real option to achieve the scale I need. I will definately test this out and post back my findings for this specific setup.

Anyone have any info on material...? Of course I've scoured the forums already as others have done this sort of thing before and I have found this link posted by deepvisual, but no prices listed which usually translates as too expensive although it is inherently flame retardent which ticks that box. Google is not providing anything flame retardent in the UK. I have also called local fabric shops but none stocke anythin flame retardent.

Going to go for Voile and I would rather use black but unsure of whether a 2000 lumen beamer will be adequate, so am looking at a sourcing some dark grey instead. I do have a spare beamer so may double up for the main screen (1).

Does anyone know of a UK supplier around the Bristol/S.W area?

Also please let me know if there are any tips when detemining the distance between each layer etc.

Thanks for the help so far guys.

[SteveG]

We used white wedding dress veil material which is certified, however, it was as I say above peoples reach. I would advise seeking health and safety clearance for what you propose as I'll be surprised if you receive permission, lightweight material or not the man at health and safety will see it as a hazard. As for sourcing the material go into any material shop and the old women behind the counters are experts We used 2,500 lumen beamers but could have done with them being 3,500. That was in a very dark room with next to no lighting and around 50m between 1st layer and 5th. 1st layer around 10m from the projectors and the 5th at around 40m. There's some pics on the legoman install thread I think.

[SteveG]

Originally Posted by PCProject

ok then - dont believe me

You throwing your teddy bear about Dave