Video Department Expansion Question

[coasterboard]

Hello,

I own a small production company, and we are in the process of expanding from only audio/lighting into full production. I have experience working for a full-scale company and know some about video production, but I think my knowledge may be a little outdated. I am hoping the wise folk of the forum could suggest more up to date/ digital equivalents for what I am currently pricing out:

2x Sanyo PLC-XF45 projector
2x Draper UFS screen (front and rear projection, HD legs)
2x JVC-KY19u camera
1x Panasonic AW-HS50 switcher
Also, all applicable cables and converters (obviously, part of what I need help with is what cabling and converters/DAs to get with this new system.

I'm going to also try getting some advice from our JVC/Panasonic dealer, but I never know whether to take that advice with a grain of salt, since they're selling us something

[MNicolai]

Hello,

I own a small production company, and we are in the process of expanding from only audio/lighting into full production. I have experience working for a full-scale company and know some about video production, but I think my knowledge may be a little outdated. I am hoping the wise folk of the forum could suggest more up to date/ digital equivalents for what I am currently pricing out:

2x Sanyo PLC-XF45 projector
2x Draper UFS screen (front and rear projection, HD legs)
2x JVC-KY19u camera
1x Panasonic AW-HS50 switcher
Also, all applicable cables and converters (obviously, part of what I need help with is what cabling and converters/DAs to get with this new system.

I'm going to also try getting some advice from our JVC/Panasonic dealer, but I never know whether to take that advice with a grain of salt, since they're selling us something

A lot depends on what you're trying to do and how you intend to try to make money off of it. My initial reactions though are that if you're going to buy projectors these days, don't waste money on anything that isn't 1920x1080. As for the screens, we had the Draper rep in last week and he told us the same thing you'll hear from a lot of people -- trying to do front projection on a rear projection will result in a loss in lumens because the surface inherently lets light through instead of capturing it all on the surface. That said -- if you're trying to blend multiple projectors together on the same surface, rear projection screens work well because they soften the edges.

If you're getting into video, don't forget that you need sources. That means a DVD player, a Blu-Ray player, at least a few DVI and HDMI inputs into your system. Speaking of which, the switcher you've shown only has one DVI input and no native HDMI inputs. I anticipate that will quickly become a problem for you.

Before we get too far into model numbers and quantities though, tell us a little more about what you want to be able to do with your video system and what you're currently doing (if anything) for video.

[coasterboard]

A lot depends on what you're trying to do and how you intend to try to make money off of it. My initial reactions though are that if you're going to buy projectors these days, don't waste money on anything that isn't 1920x1080. As for the screens, we had the Draper rep in last week and he told us the same thing you'll hear from a lot of people -- trying to do front projection on a rear projection will result in a loss in lumens because the surface inherently lets light through instead of capturing it all on the surface. That said -- if you're trying to blend multiple projectors together on the same surface, rear projection screens work well because they soften the edges.

If you're getting into video, don't forget that you need sources. That means a DVD player, a Blu-Ray player, at least a few DVI and HDMI inputs into your system. Speaking of which, the switcher you've shown only has one DVI input and no native HDMI inputs. I anticipate that will quickly become a problem for you.

Before we get too far into model numbers and quantities though, tell us a little more about what you want to be able to do with your video system and what you're currently doing (if anything) for video.

Thanks for the quick response. Right now, we are sub-renting a package similar to what I just listed from another company. I have a pretty good handle on what I'd want to do for screens. Mostly, I'm way behind on switchers projectors and cameras. When we have a bigger package we get the HS400 switcher. I'm looking to be able to run a multi-source show from PowerPoint, DVD, and live camera with 2 screens at at least 10k lumens

[derekleffew]

... As for the screens, we had the Draper rep in last week and he told us the same thing you'll hear from a lot of people -- trying to do front projection on a rear projection will result in a loss in lumens because the surface inherently lets light through instead of capturing it all on the surface. ...

Easily solved by buying both a front and a rear surface for each fast-fold / E-Z fold frame. When I worked for an AV house, I don't think we ever bought a frame without buying both surfaces for it.

[museav]

I finding that with consumer products now greatly driving the presentation world, it can be challenging when you have applications that bridge traditional production and presentation worlds. In particular, production oriented products tend to be rather limited in how they address common computer resolutions, HDCP, EDID, etc. while consumer products don't address the now common SD/HD-SDI signals. And content protection can make it difficult to go between them. So it can be very important to identify just what you are trying to do and what sources and destinations you are trying to accommodate.

Also consider that if you are envisioning i-mag then you may need to consider latency and multiple conversions and steps of processing may not be viable.

The Panasonic AV-HS400A or AV-HS410 are very common for switchers, although the AG-HMX100 may be fine for smaller systems. The Grass Valley Indigo and Roland Systems Group products are similar to the AG-HMX100. Many people are looking at the Blacmagic ATEM products, but they can be rather limited for mixed production/presentation applications and you also find many production companies using Extron, Analog Way, FSR, Barco, etc. for more presentation oriented applications.

I don't think you can be pricing out a Sanyo projector as they no longer exist, having been merged into Panasonic. One of the things you may want to consider is the lens options and prices as for production purposes it is often necessary to have more than one lens to support different physical setups.