Can I projected from over 65' onto a screen? I'm trying to find a projector under $10,000

[jackatoth]

I work at a Young Life camp. I want to be able to move my projector to the back of our room, because we are updating all of our lights to LED stage lights. Right now, our projector sits almost in the middle between two light bars that are hanging. It seems counter intuitive to spend a lot of money on lighting and still have a projector preventing us from correct lighting.

1. Can I move a projector to the back of the room and project to a screen. The distance from screen to projector is about 65'-70'?

2. If it is possible, is it also possible to find something under $10,000? (might be a big ask, i don't know)

3. Here's what I know to pay attention to lumens, long throw lens, laser, and the throw ratio range. What else should I be paying attention to or know to make this happen?

Thanks
Jack

 

[shadyJ]

I work at a Young Life camp. I want to be able to move my projector to the back of our room, because we are updating all of our lights to LED stage lights. Right now, our projector sits almost in the middle between two light bars that are hanging. It seems counter intuitive to spend a lot of money on lighting and still have a projector preventing us from correct lighting.

1. Can I move a projector to the back of the room and project to a screen. The distance from screen to projector is about 65'-70'?

2. If it is possible, is it also possible to find something under $10,000? (might be a big ask, i don't know)

3. Here's what I know to pay attention to lumens, long throw lens, laser, and the throw ratio range. What else should I be paying attention to or know to make this happen?

Thanks
Jack

You need to talk to professional projector manufacturers and dealers for this. I know there are projectors that can do this, but they are not consumer projectors. This forum deals with home audio and video. The screen is going to have an impact here as well, so you need to be asking about the screen as well as the projector.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I work at a Young Life camp. I want to be able to move my projector to the back of our room, because we are updating all of our lights to LED stage lights. Right now, our projector sits almost in the middle between two light bars that are hanging. It seems counter intuitive to spend a lot of money on lighting and still have a projector preventing us from correct lighting.

1. Can I move a projector to the back of the room and project to a screen. The distance from screen to projector is about 65'-70'?

2. If it is possible, is it also possible to find something under $10,000? (might be a big ask, i don't know)

3. Here's what I know to pay attention to lumens, long throw lens, laser, and the throw ratio range. What else should I be paying attention to or know to make this happen?

Thanks
Jack

How big is the projected screen image?

https://www.projectorcentral.com/projection-calculator-pro.cfm
Check out this calculator and you can look at various models and try out which will be able to do what you want. The key is picking a model that either has the lens you need or has an optional lens that meets your need and is sufficiently bright for your image size and environment. Without knowing more I couldn't be much more help.

Brands like Optima, BenQ, and Epson all have large venue projects that might work to meet your needs and might be on the cheaper side of professional projectors.

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Epson-Pro_L1300U.htm
Here is an example of Epson. It's available with different lenses, 8000 lumens. Depending on your sreen size, one of the available lenses will work.

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Epson-Pro_L1200U.htm
also uses different lenses, 7000 lumens. Also might work and more in your price range. You should really talk to a dealer that caters to pros to give you the best advice. I've done some commercial projector installs, but mostly for conference rooms, meeting rooms, etc. Never anything like this.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Really, the key question is about usage and screen size. I do pro-AV for a living, and front projection is certainly my specialty. So, what matters most is your screen size as a factor of width to height. So, is it 20' wide, or 50' wide? What you have matters.

What projector are you currently using? Make/model? Are you happy with the image brightness that you currently achieve with the projector that you are currently using? This is a HUGE question, as it represents current light output vs. expectations of what something new will deliver vs. just getting a different lens on what you already own.

There are a lot of projectors under $10,000. But, it is impossible to say, without more information, what may be appropriate for your setup.

Typically a specified rating of no less than about 20 lumens per square foot is appropriate for a dim/dark environment. But, to maintain contrast, as room brightness increases, so much lumen output.

So - once again... How big is the screen?

For what it's worth, I'm a fan of Panasonic solid state projectors. They can be very bright and offer a wide array of lens options.

In addition, if you have a 8,000 lumen projector, and you think it needs to be a lot brighter, then you have to adjust your budget accordingly.
There are NO solid state projectors with a 1920x1200 resolution, which have 10,000+ lumens and are under $10,000.
https://www.projectorcentral.com/projectors.cfm?g=1&hide=0&st=1&exp1=1&r=16&br=10000-15000&c=&w=&db=&ar=&zr=&wt=&ltg=101&ll=&wr=&dt=&mfg=&p=&t=&pjl=0&pjw=0&pjh=0&td=&is=&i=d&tr=&tr2=&exp5=1&oop=2&sort=$&sz=15#top

There are quite a few which are between 7,000 - 10,000 though...
https://www.projectorcentral.com/projectors.cfm?g=1&hide=0&st=1&exp1=1&r=16&br=7000-10000&c=&w=&db=&ar=&zr=&wt=&ltg=101&ll=&wr=&dt=&mfg=&p=&t=&pjl=0&pjw=0&pjh=0&td=&is=&i=d&tr=&tr2=&exp5=1&oop=2&sort=$&sz=15#top

The Panasonic right at the top of this list is a solid option...
https://www.projectorcentral.com/Panasonic-PT-MZ770LBU.htm

It offers interchangeable lenses so you can buy the lens which is appropriate to your screen size and distance. But, if 8,000 lumens won't do it, then budget must move up.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

In my personal experience, trying to find a good projector for large conference room about a decade ago was quite challenging since it's very hard to estimate brightness required due to possible other sources of light in the room and secondary is many projector models overestimate actual light output. As BMX said - it also heavily depends on screen size and distance. Ideally, you should do a proof of concept with a projector you like in your space and see if you like the result.

In the end, I had success with a 6k lumens professional Hitachi projector, which I was able to purchase almost 1/2 MSRP after some serious VAR help.