Video Projection Basics
How do we properly choose a screen size and projector for our auditoriums? It all comes down to some basic math. It begins with looking at our stage and figuring how tall a screen the room can permit. I add the stage height to the normal height of a person on top of that stage and then subtract that number from the overall ceiling height. For example: If my stage is 2 feet tall, my overall ceiling height is 16 feet, and my worship team averages 6 feet tall, then 16 feet minus 8 feet leaves 8 feet for a screen. I usually stay with a 16:9 HDTV format for screens. This gives me the remaining numbers for the screen, based on the 8 feet height. I can go online and find a calculator that will tell me that for a 96” high screen, the width would be 171” and have a diagonal of 196”. Now that I know my screen size, I can calculate the square footage of the screen. This will clue us in to how many lumens of brightness is necessary in our projector.
The 8 foot tall screen will have a surface area of 114 square feet. The brightness necessary for our projector depends on the surface area. You will need to take into account any ambient light that will impact the screen. The minimum value for screen brightness in a completely dark room would be 20 lumens per square foot. Most churches will have 20-80 lumens per square foot bouncing from the nearby surfaces onto the screen. I usually use 40 lumens per square foot in a normal auditorium. That means that our 8 foot tall screen will require a projector that can output 4560 lumens. Now we can get a quote for the best available pricing for a screen and a projector. Please call me and we can find you the best screen and projector for your stage.