theaterscout,
As I have just posted in another thread here, rear-projection is the way to go, and if against
stage lights you'd definitely want a
projector from 2100 - 2500 and up lumens - the higher lumens the brighter, but just make sure that it's not SO bright that it distracts attention from whatever's going on under lights from the
stage. We recently had trouble with our 3500
lumen projector at church (front projection, beside a huge
house light = higher lumens) where even when it had no input, there was a distracting "glow" from the
screen that killed the darkness
effect.
Budget is the main factor in your decision making here. Video fades is an issue, unless you use either a production TV video
console ($$$) or a computer with presentation software (supporting live input) and a video card in the computer ($). There is a discussion on presentation software elsewhere on this board. There was a great production
console reviewed recently in Australian sound magazine AudioTechnology, which I get in addition to CX.
As for the actual camera...you can use any relatively decent normal video cam that has a
RCA video out that streams while using the camera. Simple and effective - just run an
RCA lead where ever you want it.
For the camera...we actually use a Canon
Network Camera VB-C50i that is actually designed for security, but has a 26x optical
zoom and amazing quality and comes in a roof-mountable version, although it will fit onto any standard video camera tripod. Controlled by one computer on a LAN with the Admin Client and password, can stream to any computer on the LAN running its Viewer Client. It has all sorts of built in functions...you can set it pointing at a certain area, use the software to make a selection within that area then if there is motion within that area you can set off an alarm connected to a little breakout box that we have.
We connect an
RCA lead to the output of the breakout box, run that to our
projector while controlling the camera via computer - I even setup a wireless
network with a laptop to do it. Helps being a CCNA student!
Amazing stuff - hope it helps.