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[eric lenasbunt]

Hello all. I have a small production company mostly specializing in Backline and small sound systems. I do some lighting and have a lot of video experience as well. I am noticing lately that there seems I be a bit of a void in my area of projection options and I am thinking about adding it to my offerings.
  My thoughts to start are:

(2) ~2-3k lumen projectors for general events/rentals, movie nights, board room, etc. multi purpose low end use.
I have used a partners Epson Powerlight 850 (I think?) several times, which works fine but has been around a while and seems to be on its way out soon.
Any suggestions? Looking in the sub $2k market each.
  Thinking 10 or 12' fast folds


Second setup in the 5-7k lumen range with a single 16-20' fast fold for bigger events and productions. Probably just one to start.
Any suggestions here? Budget is a little vague, as the smaller rig will come first.

Thanks in advance!

[Gareth Marsh]

Hello all. I have a small production company mostly specializing in Backline and small sound systems. I do some lighting and have a lot of video experience as well. I am noticing lately that there seems I be a bit of a void in my area of projection options and I am thinking about adding it to my offerings.
  My thoughts to start are:

(2) ~2-3k lumen projectors for general events/rentals, movie nights, board room, etc. multi purpose low end use.
I have used a partners Epson Powerlight 850 (I think?) several times, which works fine but has been around a while and seems to be on its way out soon.
Any suggestions? Looking in the sub $2k market each.
  Thinking 10 or 12' fast folds


Second setup in the 5-7k lumen range with a single 16-20' fast fold for bigger events and productions. Probably just one to start.
Any suggestions here? Budget is a little vague, as the smaller rig will come first.

Thanks in advance!

Before getting into brands, I have a couple of thoughts.

Personally I wouldn't go any larger than a 10ft for a 3k projector, and to be honest I would generally only use a 3k on an 8ft screen, with a 5k or brighter for 10-14ft, and then 16ft would be 8k minimum.

Of course if you are intending to use them in very dark environments then you can use lower brightness projectors, but for general event use this is approximately what I aim for.

In the sub $2k range, I have been using Vivitek 3.5K full HD units with good results. They perform very well for their size and their colour performance seems nicer than a lot of units in this price bracket.


HTH

Gareth

[Gerry Seymour]

Hello all. I have a small production company mostly specializing in Backline and small sound systems. I do some lighting and have a lot of video experience as well. I am noticing lately that there seems I be a bit of a void in my area of projection options and I am thinking about adding it to my offerings.
  My thoughts to start are:

(2) ~2-3k lumen projectors for general events/rentals, movie nights, board room, etc. multi purpose low end use.
I have used a partners Epson Powerlight 850 (I think?) several times, which works fine but has been around a while and seems to be on its way out soon.
Any suggestions? Looking in the sub $2k market each.
  Thinking 10 or 12' fast folds


Second setup in the 5-7k lumen range with a single 16-20' fast fold for bigger events and productions. Probably just one to start.
Any suggestions here? Budget is a little vague, as the smaller rig will come first.

Thanks in advance!

If you're expecting a fair amount of small-screen usage (board room, smaller conference rooms, etc.), I like the Casio slimline hybrid projectors (LED/laser). I know a lot of trainers that use them and are well-pleased. These folks are heavy road warriors who use them 10 days or more a month, for several hours at a time, and none have had any kind of failure even with all the bumps of air travel.

They are not as bright as some of the other options in that space, so I'd be cautious about recommending them for larger screens, but in those smaller rooms these would be excellent. The lamp life (20K hours) and durability would keep your TCO down. The slim profile will keep the users happier (it just looks better in small-room situations).

In my estimation, the 2500 lumen models are about as bright (in my perception) as my much older 2500 lumen DLP projector, but maybe a bit less so than newer projectors rated about the same. That may be a color issue, though, and I've admittedly seen these used in sub-optimal conditions (poor screens, irregular lighting, no screen at all, etc.).

One note as a user: if you're trying to equip for the boardroom-type users, be sure to get short-throw projectors. Otherwise, they'll be stuck putting the projector far down the table.

[eric lenasbunt]

Before getting into brands, I have a couple of thoughts.

Personally I wouldn't go any larger than a 10ft for a 3k projector, and to be honest I would generally only use a 3k on an 8ft screen, with a 5k or brighter for 10-14ft, and then 16ft would be 8k minimum.

Thanks, that guideline resonates with past experience. That's a good starting point. I will check on the Vivitek as well.

[eric lenasbunt]

If you're expecting a fair amount of small-screen usage (board room, smaller conference rooms, etc.), I like the Casio slimline hybrid projectors (LED/laser). I know a lot of trainers that use them and are well-pleased. These folks are heavy road warriors who use them 10 days or more a month, for several hours at a time, and none have had any kind of failure even with all the bumps of air travel.

They are not as bright as some of the other options in that space, so I'd be cautious about recommending them for larger screens, but in those smaller rooms these would be excellent. The lamp life (20K hours) and durability would keep your TCO down. The slim profile will keep the users happier (it just looks better in small-room situations).



One note as a user: if you're trying to equip for the boardroom-type users, be sure to get short-throw projectors. Otherwise, they'll be stuck putting the projector far down the table.

I am thinking less boardroom and more 'small events'. I'm in a college town, so a lot of small scale movie nights, meetings, etc.
 I may end up doing one or 2 short throws will 6 or 8' roll ups as well though, depending on if the market calls for it.

[Bob L. Wilson]

Second setup in the 5-7k lumen range with a single 16-20' fast fold for bigger events and productions.

I am keen to hear what people recommend for this application I am helping a local Boys and Girls Club get geared up for movie nights this summer. They have a 18' screen and more less total flexibility on projection distance as the screenings take place in part of a three court gymnasium partioned off with curtains. They had a Sanyo PLV-WF10 that a University donated but it committed suicide last fall in a spectacular manner that ended up involving a manlift and fire extinguishers. The Sanyo wasplenty bright with both bulbs running but the picture was not very sharp and lacked contrast. Money is always tight for them. Would be nice if the replacement would fit in their existing Peerless cage but since it needs to be blasted and repainted anyway a trip to the machine shop for modification before refinishing would not be the end of the world.

[Christopher Young]

I am keen to hear what people recommend for this application I am helping a local Boys and Girls Club get geared up for movie nights this summer. They have a 18' screen and more less total flexibility on projection distance as the screenings take place in part of a three court gymnasium partioned off with curtains. They had a Sanyo PLV-WF10 that a University donated but it committed suicide last fall in a spectacular manner that ended up involving a manlift and fire extinguishers. The Sanyo wasplenty bright with both bulbs running but the picture was not very sharp and lacked contrast. Money is always tight for them. Would be nice if the replacement would fit in their existing Peerless cage but since it needs to be blasted and repainted anyway a trip to the machine shop for modification before refinishing would not be the end of the world.

I'll put out the Christie LW555 as a contender, maybe a bit dim, but it's in the wheelhouse.  I've got about 50 or more of them in use all day long (actually the original Sanyo WM5500 which is the same projector), on a university campus and they've been pretty much trouble free.

On the ultra portable front, one thing that you need to look at when you assess possible candidates is focus.  I've had to put up with less than stellar performance with a pile of ultra portables (again, mostly Sanyo) where when you get the image in focus in the top right corner, it's out of focus in the bottom left.

[Jordan Wolf]

Eric,

For a ~3,000 Lumen projector, I'd look at the NEC M311x.  They are small, the image is impressively bright and "crisp" with house lights on, it has HDMI on it (futureproofness) and it powers down very quickly.

If you're looking to regularly hit 8ft.-10ft. (horizontal meas.) screens, you're really better off getting a 5,000 lumen or higher.

[Brad Weber]

Seems like I always end up bringing this up but we are long past the days when a single diagonal dimension defines an image or the related projector.  Image format and resolution can vary with the same image diagonal and thus may have to be defined.  In addition inputs, single or multiple lamps (the latter often saving having to run out with a replacement projector or wait until the lamp cools down to replace it), throw distance, lens shift, field changeable lenses, noise levels, size and so on are common factors in projector selection along with budget.

[Christopher Young]

Agreed.  I've never liked diagonal as a number any ways In my neck of the woods, we've defined our image size by screen width from the beginning.  Even though image height is what we design to.  Since we're really only concerned with computer resolutions, we size our screens so that 16:10 is full width, but the height must be sized for 4:3.  Thus when upgrading a projector to wide screen, we have to install larger screens to accommodate the additional width in order not to loose height. 

. 

Seems like I always end up bringing this up but we are long past the days when a single diagonal dimension defines an image or the related projector.  Image format and resolution can vary with the same image diagonal and thus may have to be defined.  In addition inputs, single or multiple lamps (the latter often saving having to run out with a replacement projector or wait until the lamp cools down to replace it), throw distance, lens shift, field changeable lenses, noise levels, size and so on are common factors in projector selection along with budget.

[ProSoundWeb Community]