Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I have my doubts on a $200 projector putting out 5000 lumens. I seen reviews of similarly priced el-cheapo projectors before and they were more like 500 lumens at best.
Virtual Santa
- Thread starter grahami2006
- Start date
videoman3857
Full time elf
Ain't that the truth.
I am trying to convince my wife to let me have a white sheet, but........
I discovered the local Market has a seller that has secondhand white Kingsize sheets for next to nothing.
As I work Weekends, I have to get someone else to get a couple for me.
How many lumens is your projector ?
videoman3857
Full time elf
That's my gut feeling too David.
I don't know if there is a "Standard" that the projectors at tested to get the lumen rating, but knowing China they disregard everything.
The manufacturers handbook does quote 5000 lumes - but at what distance from the screen ? ? ?
I personally believe the 5000 lumens would be at the smallest focused image this unit can project. This brings the projector really close to the screen and too small to see it from a distance. Viewing the small image on the "Black Screen" it is sharp and quite bright but way too small.
I sat the projector in my theatre room and projected it onto the screen. It is not as bright or as sharp as my Epson projector, but then again its 1/6 of the price.
I just don't want to use my Epson out in the weather etc. even in my protective housing.
For the price I paid for the Epson, I could build a decent P10 matrix and use it instead.
I am trying to make my lights immersive, give people time to look around and play on things and then do a 3 min "Show" every 30 mins rather than music and blinky things going all the time.
I did have an idea for the finale of my "Show" to either project a video image onto water or smoke .
It was going to be an Angel quoting Luke 2:8 (Angel Gabriel talking to the shepherds)
Then I was going to have around 5 strands of pixels running a simultaneous burst of white light down the strands from the Projected image down to a garden arch frame that is our "barn" for our nativity area. Once the strand of light hit the "Barn", White flood lights would burst down illuminating the characters in the nativity scene, fade down, leaving a spot light on Baby Jesus and the star of Bethlehem would then illuminate over the Barn, fade everything to Black, then after a couple of seconds bring up the static display lights.
I gave that idea away as the smoke dissipates too quickly and I am on tank water and don't really have the water to spare.
Not only that, I need a high pressure pump to get the water droplets the right size and quick acting solenoids to control the water and a water re-circulation tank
Looks like I would really need a high lumen projector to do that too. Only experimenting would tell.
Seems my imagination and creativity far exceeds my Dollar Spending Limitations Factor (my Wife). Just need to win lotto
Looks like it might happen next year with a cutout pixel angel mounted on a 6 mtr pole.
Not as theatrical as my first thoughts, but I"ll probably get that one past the D.S.L.F
videoman3857
Full time elf
Finally getting back about this.
I decided to forget about putting the screen on the roof. Yes Santa flying by and landing on the roof would have been great.
It ended up being the right decision based on the storms we had over our display period.
I have a high set Queenslander with huge veranda area and decided to try my luck at projecting from the bedroom to a beige pull down shade cloth shade screen installed to reduce the western sun on that room.
Low and behold, the back projection looked absolutely marvelous.
The other fantastic bonus is the screen looks out over the driveway/carport area where we have a table and chairs area where people can relax, have a hot or cold drink and a sausage sizzle. So many people commented on how great the area was and it was great to look at the Christmas music clips and the virtual Santa doing his thing.
We had one little boy that was leaving with mum and dad and he turned around to say merry Christmas to us and the virtual Santa was running
(I had the virtual Santa set up so he was life size.) The little fella waved and yelled out Hello Santa - I've been a good boy. The virtual Santa looked in the little fella's direction , gave a big smile and wave !. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. That little fella was so excited.
His dad came back the next day and thanked us again for the display and told us that his son didn't stop talking about Santa waving to him all night
I somehow think I wont be making any changes to this part of the display
I decided to forget about putting the screen on the roof. Yes Santa flying by and landing on the roof would have been great.
It ended up being the right decision based on the storms we had over our display period.
I have a high set Queenslander with huge veranda area and decided to try my luck at projecting from the bedroom to a beige pull down shade cloth shade screen installed to reduce the western sun on that room.
Low and behold, the back projection looked absolutely marvelous.
The other fantastic bonus is the screen looks out over the driveway/carport area where we have a table and chairs area where people can relax, have a hot or cold drink and a sausage sizzle. So many people commented on how great the area was and it was great to look at the Christmas music clips and the virtual Santa doing his thing.
We had one little boy that was leaving with mum and dad and he turned around to say merry Christmas to us and the virtual Santa was running
(I had the virtual Santa set up so he was life size.) The little fella waved and yelled out Hello Santa - I've been a good boy. The virtual Santa looked in the little fella's direction , gave a big smile and wave !. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. That little fella was so excited.
His dad came back the next day and thanked us again for the display and told us that his son didn't stop talking about Santa waving to him all night
I somehow think I wont be making any changes to this part of the display