Video projector suitable for outdoor use

Re: Video projector suitable for outdoor use

Brad Weber said:
I wasn't aware that Epson offered projectors of that brightness but I didn't see the referenced projector in the page your link brought up and the only 25k projector it seemed to show is a bit over $94k. Are you sure that was not a 2500 or 2.5k lumen projector?
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:)

Last I checked, just the replacement lamp on a particular 18,000 lumen projector was $5000.
 
Re: Video projector suitable for outdoor use

While this is an old thread ironically I was asked for a quote for an outdoor projection system for a summer movie night. I don't have any experience with projection but how does one calculate what is an appropriate size image for a given area? THe area is roughly 75ft deep and 100ft wide and in the past it has filled up with people in lawn chairs/blankets etc. This is a summer event so expect dusk light for the beginning of the movie.

Just curious screen size that would be ideal.
 
Re: Video projector suitable for outdoor use

Jared Koopman said:
While this is an old thread ironically I was asked for a quote for an outdoor projection system for a summer movie night. I don't have any experience with projection but how does one calculate what is an appropriate size image for a given area? THe area is roughly 75ft deep and 100ft wide and in the past it has filled up with people in lawn chairs/blankets etc. This is a summer event so expect dusk light for the beginning of the movie.

Just curious screen size that would be ideal.
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Like audio, there are lots of possible right answers depending on your budget and expectations. If you're looking for drive-in movie experience, that's a lot different than "can people see it". A 12'x7' screen with >4000 lumens will be visible from 75' and people will be able to watch the movie passably, but it will be like watching a small TV from across the room. An 18'x10' would be significantly better, but you're going to want >8000 lumens, and both of these examples are going to be pretty washed out until it gets dark.
 
Re: Video projector suitable for outdoor use

One figure I've seen is the screen height should be at least 1/6 of the distance - so for 75 feet you'd want a screen at least 12.5 feet tall. That's 22.22 feet wide for a 16:9 .
 
Re: Video projector suitable for outdoor use

Ron Kimball said:
One figure I've seen is the screen height should be at least 1/6 of the distance - so for 75 feet you'd want a screen at least 12.5 feet tall. That's 22.22 feet wide for a 16:9 .
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The old rule of thumb I learned was to provide an image height 1/8 the distance to the furthest viewer for general video viewing, 1/6 for general data viewing and 1/4 for critical viewing (CAD drawings, spreadsheets, etc.). Many seem to use 1/10, 1/12 and even greater the distance to the furthest viewer where they are primarily viewing text and can use quite large fonts. For an outdoor screen for movie viewing I'd use 1/8 the distance to the furthest viewer and that may be where TJ got the 10' height he noted, although with a 75' deep and 100' wide audience area it's actually around 90'+ to the back corners and thus an 11' to 12' high image would be even better.
 
Re: Video projector suitable for outdoor use

TJ Cornish said:
Like audio, there are lots of possible right answers depending on your budget and expectations. If you're looking for drive-in movie experience, that's a lot different than "can people see it".
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I occasionally go to the one remaining drive-in theater in Chicagoland despite my lack of satisfaction with the brightness. Even well after the sun has gone down, dark action movies are rather difficult to view imo. Last year I saw an ad that they had updated their projection (but it wasn't clear when they had actually done it) so I went again. I couldn't tell a difference in brightness. So, the bar set by drive-in theaters isn't very high. Further, there are "standards" for indoor movie theaters that are relatively modest but those levels generally only work in a very well light controlled room. You might be able to achieve that level of ambient light outdoors in a hidden or rural setting when the moon is right but often just the light of street lights will require more lumens from your projection. If the movie can be started after sundown and not during dusk, you can probably get by with much less brightness. Projectorcentral.com has some projection calculators (connected to the info page for a given model projector) that might be of some assistance.
 
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