Auditorium Projector Setup

natr89 · August 12, 2024

Recently took over an old church and looking to upgrade tech. They have an old Vivitek D945VX projecting via an S Video cable (yes you read that right) converted to VGA onto a Daylite white 4:3 Cosmopolitan motorized screen.

Needless to say this needed an upgrade. We have already purchased an Optoma UHD38x ( https://www.amazon.com/Optoma-UHD38x-Projector-Response-Enhanced/dp/B0BGVGDB72 ). I made this choice vs a laser projector due to budget concerns as well as our usage should only be about 6 hours per week. This should allow me to get a few years from a bulb. Further, slower warm up/start up times are not a concern in our use case. My primary considerations for projector were price, lumens and resolution. I tried getting as high lumens as I could, but 5-6000 range just gets really expensive. Feel free to tell me that the projector purchase was a mistake, but not much I can change about that now I have also run CAT6 cabling to the projector (and stage facing TV) with HDMI converters on both ends OREI 4K HDMI over Ethernet https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08778V33N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 . We moved the existing projector to HDMI and are coping with the current setup.

The last piece is the screen and I am struggling a bit to make sure I get this right (church budgets are tight when you're small). Based on my research I really think an ALR screen would be best for this setup given the amount of ambient light from side doors and recessed lighting. The current screen is just completely washed out. I am worried about the viewing angle. I want a fixed screen as the current mechanical one (along with being in a 20 year old aspect ratio) sways constantly with wind/breeze. This is the screen I am currently looking at: https://www.amazon.com/Elite-Screens-Aeon-CineGrey-120-inch/dp/B00M3D21ZY?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1 . I understand a TV is probably the best option here. My long term goal is to go with a "TV wall" of sorts and essentially cover the back of the stage with a screen, but that's not an option right now both due to budget and the fact that much of what is there may be getting gutted for a renovation to bring the space out of the 1950s.

I am all ears for any/all advice you guys may have. Please tell me if ALR is a big mistake etc. Ideally I'd like to go with a video wall, but I don't see the budget for that right now and I desperately need to get them off of this white screen in a 4:3 ratio, it's awful.

Some other details on the space/situation:

Current old projector is mounted approximately 16 feet from the old screen. A fixed screen would mount directly in front of that baptismal opening and would be about 1 foot further back than the current screen.
I have purchased a proper mounting tile for the new projector to go in the drop ceiling to make sure we can keep things straight along with the drop ceiling adapter for tiles 2x4 > 2x2. Yes you do see zipties holding the current old projector in place, I literally had no other choice given the current mounting arm swings/spins/turns just by breathing on it wrong. Complete disaster of a setup.
The pictures shows the normal amount of ambient light we will get during standard use.
Auditorium size is about 75ft from front of stage to back. It is quite narrow, say about 40-50ft wide.
The content being projected is majority text based, mostly white text on black screen. Sometimes videos are shown, sometimes some graphics/images as well. Never used for movies or super high resolution intense imaging.