Projector advice?

[Pvapour]

Over the next few weeks we start a large renovation project, one of the buildings is a large barn that we're converting to a gym, in this we'd love a big screen at one end to show some motivational stuff on, aerobics sessions, Bodybuilding training, sparing, boxing, UFC, music videos etc etc

We are completely in the dark as to what's the best cost effective equipment to look at for this, ebay shows projectors advertising HD 1080 but I'm guessing these @ £180 will be woefully inadequate, maybe not?

I'm thinking as big a display as poss, something around 8-10ft wide, quality not massively important as it's just a gym.

also, the gym would be split level, soooo...

would it be possible to mount the projector in the floor of the 1st floor and aim it up or down? so you could project onto 2 different screens? ie one screen on the ground floor & one on 1st floor.

any ideas?

[HowMuchLonger]

At that price the quality will be rather poor unless your gym is in pitch black.

One thought would be to rear project onto a screen. Dont know to much about it, apart from it is listed as an option in my PJ manual.

You can adjust the PJ picture to straighten it out (keystone) so that you can mount it as high or as low as you like, but bear in mind this will degrade the picture.

For a more reasonable price you may be better off getting several monitors, atleast then you don't have to worry about light levels.

Edited by HowMuchLonger on Tuesday 29th March 16:44

[cjs]

It will very likely be too bright in a gym for projectors, unless you darken the screen area. How many hours a day will they be used for? Lamp life is around 2000 hours, lamps can be expensive (£200+) Budget around £600+ for any reasonable projector, look for a 2000 Lumen brightness minimum.

[Pvapour]

thanks, there are 2-3000 lumen on ebay, with spare bulb £280 and project to the size required, will only be used 10 hours a week absolute max. so maybe they would do?

[cjs]

OK so no problem if it's only 10 hours a week, thought it may be a commercial gym running 24/7! Just make sure you keep the light levels down. Also check your throw distance, usually around 1.5-2 times the screen width but check the projector spec.

[Pvapour]

thanks CJS, its only for us

my idea of mounting in the floor & tilting to different screens, is that possible? or is the adjustment on these things finite & fiddly?

I was thinking they'd be like the old cine projectors where its just one focus (which would probably be on the remote) which would be fairly simple when swapping floor to floor, I have a motorized mechanism that will remotely tilt the platform that the projector could sit on, hence my curiosity.

[cjs]

Most projectors have a zoom and a focus, however they will need to be mounted at the correct distance from the screen (throw distance). Most also have a option to invert the picture for ceiling or desk/floor mounting. Most also have a 'keystone' function, this squares up the picture when the projector is mounted at an acute angle, however this angle is not finite.