Ok. Multiple things to think about. How long is your
throw? If its short, can you get together multiple smaller projectors and
network them all with
Watchout or a
media server of some sort? What material will you be trying to project through? Having multiple RP screens is going to cost a bundle. You cant just grab a piece of
muslin cyc material and expect it to function as a good projection
screen. You cant have any seams, and most material is not uniformly diffused, so you will need to consider cost of the screens higher than the cost of a normal soft good
drop. If you want to paint on it, count on the bean counters flipping. Also, you dont necessarily need 2 different lenses, especially if its more
practical to use an
array of projectors rather than just one. Now, a big 20k
projector will nicely project on a
screen of that size, but expect to pay loads of money for it, and also expect to have to run special
power (i think our
arena has 20ks with 30A? circuits to them). You then need to think of price, and you cant just say "I can afford to go to x price". You need to consider the punch you need. Our 20ks nicely punch on slightly smaller screens through game HIDs in an
arena. Not sure how lights pointed at the
screen will change this situation, but something to think about. Another thing to consider, 18x40 is not a standard
aspect ratio, so you'll need to customize your images to fit in a standard
aspect ratio and then
trim the excess
wash with opaque
masking. You will also need to consider a
shutter system, although I cant imagine this not being included in a very high end
projector. Also consider your control, if you put 20,000 into a
projector, a few thousand more into the
lens, and who knows how much into a
drop to project on, youll probably want to use it for a lot of stuff, so media servers and whatnot are going to be wanted, if not needed. Look at Isadora, Catalyst, Green Hippo and Axon for a few common ones. If you choose to use many smaller projectors,
Watchout is what I have seen used a lot to stitch all the images together, and that is a very expensive
system. Even if you choose to just use one large
projector, for theatrical grade projections,
powerpoint is not going to cut it. Consider using
Qlab or its windows based equivalents. Actually,
Qlab might be able to deal with the stitching of all the projectors together, but Im not sure. Another critical thing that your
producer has possibly not considered is that having projection in the show requires hiring an additional designer, an additional technician for the run, and a couple of people to tech the
system. Also, projection is a lot more than finding images online and sticking them on a
screen. At 18x40 feet, what looks good on your 1024 13" macbook looks like crap in 1080P on a 43
foot screen. You need to generate a lot of your own content, and consider that everyone can see the entire
image very well. Also, CNN or someone did a youtube debate last election cycle, tried to put the youtube quality images up on a video wall, looked like crap. Consider that. So if you want to make a video, get ready to buy or rent a HD digital video camera every time you need to use it, along with a software suite to edit it down. I have used iMovie, but it was a
bit rough. Wish I had finalcut pro. So youll need to have a designer, probably a graphic artist or content creative person in there as well as your running technician.
All this to say, your
system is going to be specific for you. Obviously, Im thinking you want a real projection
system, useful for showing movies and use during
theatre. If you just want to run slideshows, this is a different issue altogether, but still has some of the same issues involved, such as
powerpoint not making good pictures, and probably needing a
switcher. You need to decide what exactly you want to do, and then get distances from your back wall/projection position to the
drop, an exact
drop size, and other relevant dimensions. These will decide what type of
lens you need to buy. Then, Decide how bright it needs to be, possibly demo a
system to see how it works?
