Chris Fitzsimmons reports on the trends and technologies making waves in projection systems in auditorium spaces. When it comes to projecting in front of a couple of hundred guests or share holders it seems that reliability is paramount.
Spaces specially designed to deliver content to an audience of several hundred guests provide organisations with an opportunity to really distinguish themselves with a world class facility.
We posed the question as to what a sensible projection specification for a room catering for an audience of 200+ was. Answers ranged from 6,500 ANSI lumens, and XGA resolution to 14,000 lumens and WUXGA (1920 x 1200). But there is a very good reason for that.
You need to be incredibly specific about how an auditorium style space is to be used and, more importantly, lit. Something which might be normally used for cinema style video content or keynote presentations, with the audience in low or no lighting, might happily make use of a 6,500 lumens solution. But, where audiences are expecting to take notes, or read accompanying documentation such as company briefings, much stronger projection is going to be required.
This might well lead to compromises on other issues such as your choice of resolution or projection technology, but poor brightness will kill off the impact of a system faster than anything else.
Asking integrators what their primary concerns were when approaching auditorium systems resulted in a clear consensus: reliability is the most important factor.
Read the full feature in InAVate’s July/August issue to find out what integrators think, and learn about the latest new offerings from Panasonic, Christie, Vivitek, Sony, Barco and other key projector vendors.