Projector for drive-in in Haiti

Your options are limited. You could look to the used market for a cinema pj that might fit your budget. I think Sharp might have a XGA or WXGA high lumen pj to fit your budget. Another option, which might be hard to find, is an used JVC light valve pj. They were made in the late 90s and put out lots of lumens. They are huge and would be lots of work, but it could fit your budget.

Wouldn't good black levels in an outdoor environment be a somewhat elusive goal anyway (moonlight, starlight, etc.)?

For what you are doing, I wouldn't buy a LCD pj. I would go with a DLP even if it was only XGA.

I am not going to say it will degrade quicker, but it can. I just think DLP will hold up better in your environment.

As for the Panny, it looks ok, but I have never seen it. You might want to call one of the advertisers up above and ask them which high lumen pj has the least problems.

Just a quick calculation. If you were to create a 50 ft. diagonal, 1.78:1 aspect ratio screen and by using a very white paint have gain of 1.0, then you would need nearly 11,000 lumens to produce an image with 10 ft. lamberts of brightness. Commercial movie theaters typically have 12 to 16 ft. lamberts. Given that, unless you can find a good price for a used commercial cinema projector (e.g, one with perhaps 12,000 lumens), then using a pair of business class projectors each with 5,000 lumens (or so) would proabably be your best bet. I suggest you check reviews on business projectors at projectorreviews.com and projectorcental.com.

Why not try and give Christie a call. Tell them your story and see if they respond with a used projector of a retrofit that might work out for you. Maybe offer a lease or percentag of the movie run until its paid off. This would make a great story for any projector company to work out a solution that works out for you. Try a screen goo solution for a screen that will be outdoors. Would like to see the cashflow of the requirements of a drivein which will mean that people without cars can't go to a movie and further the denisity population would be more spread out requiring a larger screen to work which makes an extra burden for the audio as well. Maybe a large tent that holds 7500 people with a sloping seating area where people can bring their own chairs.

The area to put 7500 people in cars vs 7500 under a canopy is massively different. The screen requirements therefore dramatically change as well as the audio solutions become much more manageable unless you were going to broadcast via radio for the audio.

I would think that the audio will be a bigger challenge. What are you doing with this part of the equation.

Sounds like a great project though.

He mentioned he was going to use an FM transmitter for the audio. That's probably the easiest part of this project.

Screen Goo! I thought MississippiMan said MMud was better. Maybe he will come down and paint it for them. Inside joke with Mandarax.

In this case, most satin white paints should work well if you have very little ambient light like you say do. Goo would probably work better, but not sure if it will fit your budget.

I agree with Mandarax as well about contacting some cinema pj companies. Christie turned you down, but there is Barco, DPI and Sim2. DPI has their headquarters in Atlanta, so they aren't to far. Sim has their US location in South Florida (Weston?). I realize they aren't a cinema company, but they may have a solution for you.

Sony and JVC also make projectors for digital cinema.

Do you have an electrical system capable of handling a 12,000 Lumen projector? They will draw a LOT of wattage. Make sure your electrical system can handle it, and that you can afford the bill if you are running the shows very often. Not sure what electrical costs are in Haiti but that might be significant.

Lamp costs are not insignificant for these things either, although the lamp should last 1000 - 1800 hours or so.

Figure about 2500-3500W for a projector capable of that much light, and you need to have a way to keep it cool as well, they put out a TON of heat.

For a 50 foot wide screen you need 1080 resolution and a hell of allot of lumens. I would suggest you forget about digital and look for a used high output 35mm film projector. For 10K you are not going to get anything worth watching in digital projectors.

Not unless you are willing to pay him.


Looking at this again. Is this a for-profit or non-profit venture?

Ericglo.. How you doin bud. Drop me a line sometime. I don't get on AVS too much any more. sorry back to the topic at hand.

Good to hear that you will provide some seating in front for people. This will be important for people to know. I am sure Clinton could talk his alabama voice into getting any projector he wants for you. Its a great Idea. I might not hilight it as a drivein and just call it an outdoor theater.

Should make for a great bug zapper in haiti.

If one person says no to your request from a company like Christie then I wouldnt throw in the towel right away. Go over the persons head first. You gotta sell it. You arent going to do a 50 ft screen with a normal ht projector and your best bet is to figure out a way for people to want to give you something they would be proud to give.

I havent seen Ken from Goo since the Montreal Show years ago when he had a pair of speakers. He had two pair in the room one pair painted orange and another painted blue. Some blind guy comes in the room and asked ken .. what pair am I listening too and Ken says ... the orange pair. lol... some memories stick with you a long time.

Well good luck. I guess I assumed you were some registered charity.

My suggestion is still to start smaller with the lawn chairs and therefore the screen and work your way up insize. Getting to 50 feet is gonna take some serious projector to do properly.

Lawn chairs and a 20-foot picture should be pretty good. Cars sort of allow viewing on cold and drizzly nights, but you might have enough dry nights in Haiti.

I already pointed you in the direction of the drive in workshop site at another site, It is the most knowledgeable source regarding setting up a drive in the world today. It explains screen construction and the advantages of different paints and surfaces.. As your not planning on having ramps, sight lines are your biggest concern, ie how high to put the screen so that people in the back seats can see the screen without either the roof of the car you are in effecting the top of the image and the car or worse the suv/ van infront which effects the bottom of the screen image.

As for the need for an expensive projector, never before have great quality and super bright projectors been cheaper! Don't waste your time with second hand!!!! Drive in theatres due to their large screen sizes only average between 4-10 ft lamberts as required by the SMPTE (who set the standards for commercial cinemas and television).A cheap and cheerful sub $2000 4000-6000 lumen 720p projector will stun your audience. A 40ft screen is probably ample to start with and you can always enlarge it later when you understand the importence of sight lines. Don't waste your time with 35mm as if there are no cinemas there will be no prints........ FM radio transmitters and blu ray is the way to go. I would suggest that you possibly look into very short throw projectors ,so that the projector and all power is safely well infront of your audience.

The only other suggestion would be to sheild all the field lights so that the ambient light does not hit the screen, so people will be able to see where they are going and still see a quality image.

Best of luck with your venture.
Edited by cinepro1 - 6/6/12 at 10:31pm