My friend has a very large barn on his farm.He would like to project a picture in side this big ( 70'x39'). He was thinking about the upcoming superbowl.

He plans on using PA type monitors for a 7.1 surround system yet to be built.

20k guys have to know this:D

KG

unless the barn is some shade of white... good luck.

Projectors can be had that are bright enough... but they are pricey. And with a 70' wide image, the very best he can hope for is a throw distance of 56 feet. (.8 lens) more than likely he would need about 100'

He would likely want to contact a local rental AV company and rent the proj. they can supply screens as well, but not that large. 16 x 21 is the standard largest... bigger can be gotten, but are harder to find. They can also provide the audio rig.

What would pricey be ? Just to give him an idea.

I was thinking of painting the wall in the barn white. The wall is 70' wide.That doesn't mean he has to fill the whole thing, but it would be nice.

He would like it to be a permanent in stall for movies later.

What PJ were you thinking of ?

KG

the brightest projector out there is a barco at 30K lumens. it is in the 200K arena. (especially with lens, control, scaffolding, etc.) and it will give you MAX, 10 ft lamberts on that sized screen.

for reference sakes, that is the brightness that is shot for in a movie theatre. a BLACK CAVE movie theatre. so while i am not saying it can not work... it may be a little dissapointing even after spending 300K or so. (adding in commercial PA)

What are the overall dimensions of the barn? he may want to chop the screen down significantly (a 32 x 18' screen is REALLY effing big) then a 20K lumen proj (150K or so) gives you 35 ft lamberts... pretty darn nice provided you have some level of light control.

That would kick ass and have loads of room for games area and lots of seats. also thing of this... the old addage of bigger is better is flat out wrong. think of sitting in the front row of a movie theatre... you cannot see crap! your neck hurts from looking up and from side to side. i would not want to watch a football game on a three story HIGH screen unless i was a football field away! even 18' high is pretty damm big.

if your friend is well heeled and wants to have the ultimate sports barn/theatre, there are better ways to do it... think a smaller screen still, maybe only 20' wide x 11.25' high, then add three 70" RP tv's on either side. show all 7 games... have a touch panel to select the one you want and it goes big screen...

he can get way more bang for his buck than just going with a jumbotron sized tv.

I'll have to get out there in the day light hours as there were no lights last night. I would sure be happy with a 30' wide screen. I'll be passing all this along later today as i do a search for commercial projectors.Thanx for the input.

I really like the idea of hunting down PA gear again. I use to do sound reinforcement (on a very small scale) back years ago. The stuff on the used market can be had for peanuts.

Would a hometheater surround processor work in this situation ? The only thing that probably wouldn't match would be the seating delay.Hmm

KG

Come on..... who would ever spend $200k to show movies on the side of a barn??? I am sure they will opt for a cheap and bright 1 chip dlp and show a semi washed out version of the superbowl at 25 ft. wide and eveyone will be happy, drunk on Budweiser and the Patriots will win by 13.

Joey

People with lots of money who love sports

Sorry .....those guys get tickets and fly out to see the game in person. Not a science question and I'd wager my previous statement will be closer to to truth.

some may. but there are those who love nothing more than entertaining and having a big party for the game. So having the ultimate sports bar on their property is actually something they want.

While most of us do not and will never have that kind of moola, there are those who do.

maybe your right and I'm wrong or maybe I'm right and your wrong or maybe there will never be this barn theater, but I still take the Patriots and they win by 13 points!!!

Come on..... who would ever spend $200k to show movies on the side of a barn??? I am sure they will opt for a cheap and bright 1 chip dlp and show a semi washed out version of the superbowl at 25 ft. wide and eveyone will be happy, drunk on Budweiser and the Patriots will win by 13.

Joey

I am with Joey on this one.. This "theater" as WE on this forum tend to think of such will never happen.. This by far the most likely scenario..

Now lookie here y'all. After we's done watchin' 'Deliverance', there be some nice programs about 'guns n' ammo' and I here 'Overhaulin' will be trickin' out a pickup truck next week with dem large offroadin' tires and a nice gun rack.

After that we'll put the horses back in the barn and we'll throw in Black Velvet. Those critters can't seem to get enuff of that flick.

Maybe we could make it happen with more suggestions than "Nah-saying".

I think the industry guys would have better suggestions as they are in the business.Forums based on little home audio systems have a difficult time with things like this.

KG

I also can't imaging anyone shelling out $200k for a PJ to do something like this, but I'd think you could do something pretty impressive with a much more affordable stack of cheaper HT or even business PJs.

Maybe we could make it happen with more suggestions than "Nah-saying".

First, please provise a realistic budget for this project. This is the over 20k forum not the "What if " forum. If it was then I could ask something like this:

I am redoing my roof this year since I have had a couple of leaks and really do not want to miss any Sunday football games. I was wondering how could I project an image on my lawn that will be 55 feet wide, the viewing distance from the roof will be approx. 20 feet and I hope to get about 15 ft lamberts on the grass with decent contrast. I will be projecting from a 35 ft spruce tree.

Thanks Joey

I have a Rolls Royce that I only drive in the Walmart parking lot

I am with Joey on this one.. This "theater" as WE on this forum tend to think of such will never happen.. This by far the most likely scenario..

Isn't it easier to just say you have run out of idea's, good luck. No need to quish a nice idea because you have reached the end of your imagination.Boy.

Now on to the rest of the guys here that may come up with a more cost effective solution.I've got a bunch of PM's , but we're still way above 20k.

First, please provise a realistic budget for this project. This is the over 20k forum not the "What if " forum. If it was then I could ask something like this:

I am redoing my roof this year since I have had a couple of leaks and really do not want to miss any Sunday football games. I was wondering how could I project an image on my lawn that will be 55 feet wide, the viewing distance from the roof will be approx. 20 feet and I hope to get about 15 ft lamberts on the grass with decent contrast. I will be projecting from a 35 ft spruce tree.

Thanks Joey

Thanx Joey,
I see you have run out of idea's also, you can find your way out......unless you want to be nice and use your imagination.

I'm sure the screen size will have to come down to get the price to come down.

I have a Rolls Royce that I only drive in the Walmart parking lot


Don't make me repeat myself:)

there are many ways to do it. the only variables are what he wants to do, and the budget.

is he looking for a huge theatre, or a sports bar, or somewhere in the middle.

there are many ways to do it. the only variables are what he wants to do, and the budget.

is he looking for a huge theatre, or a sports bar, or somewhere in the middle.

I would say the 20k point would be about right.Seems it would be a party barn of sorts.I'm thinking a bunch of old couches for about thirty people or more.The size of the wall was a starting point.

The center of the barn about 30' back from the wall where the screen would be is a support that would be great to mount anything to.

He has more than enough juice in the barn next door.There are two CNC machines that are about the size of small houses (2000 sq ft colonials).

If there is an answer below 20k I'd be open to it.I just want to find the biggest screen size for the cheapest amount and start there.

Thanx for your continued interest....KG

with a 20K budget...

he could look at this proj, Sanyo PLC-XF46N which is 12K lumens. it is a 1024 x 768 business proj, but might be a good starting point for a pretty big screen.

The issue you face in trying to get suggestions here is that this is not a DIY thing. You need to budget the PA system, and the proj and screen and some simple elements of control.

You really need to sit down with some AV installation companies (likely a PRO AV company and not a HT company as you are looking for more options and not the best of the best.

I called a friend in the business and they use Christie 6k.Christie also makes a 25K (25,000 lumins)(sounds like a monster)They can be had on ebay for 3,000 . We are looking at a much smaller screen or a washed out big one.It looks to have BNC inputs which means a processor...hmmmm

Christie also makes a Roadie 30K, that can do 10K-30K, was under the impression it had replaced the 25K.

Depends on which 6K Christie, Wolfgang Mayer uses the HD series, but there are also SXGA+ models, the 8K has been around for years as well, both in a stationary and the more expensive rental & staging chassis. The HD series was launched a little over a year ago. The 6K model is officially slightly newer as it was the 5K model when initially launched. I was told that the yellow notch filter used in the 5C to extend the color range takes away some of the light, but they could get a bit more lumens out of the projector itself, so the C version remained 5K, and the regular filterless model was rebranded as HD 6K.

The 25K Roadie was indeed quite a monster (although for some nice staging you're probalbly looking at a blend or stack of two units), that's why it came in two parts, a seperate balast, that had two 'bull bars' on top to carry it around. That way you don't have to loose a rental day waiting for the room to be cleared for you to bring in the forklift to get the thing out of there.

It he is serious I would jump all over this deal.

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?homevdeo&1198800591


The Gurus here can definatley tell you if it has enough horsepower for your task I assume it might and what a deal!!!

Joey

At this point it is clear that the video system will cost at least $10,000 .

I'll bring that back to him as a price point and see what he says. I hope he remains interested as I would like to see this happen.

Thanx for the remaining interest and links (Joey). I never before gave a thought to projecting an image this big and what it would cost.Wish me well.


KG

If it does go ahead.. post a buncha pictures..:)

Well, was reading one of the staging mags online a while back. A lightning director wrote about how he dreamed big as he had no idea as to the pricing of large projection gear, and ended up with something less elaborate that fitted the university's 1500 usd budget. But he learned a lot and was offered an ex-rental, ex-broadway Christie at 5 or 6 k us, by one of the stagers he came into contact with, as it had a slight color abberation, and therefor wasn't fit for demanding rental clients. So you might want to look there as well, all depending on how critical the audience will be, you may even shave thousands of the video budget.