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Hello there. I'm helping out with an event at EMFCamp 2018, and we'd like to show off some demoscene work, possibly with some livecode, VJ, maybe outdoor as well as indoor. I've come to the conclusion I don't know enough about projectors, but I know there's some very talented folks at Revision (and I'm sure other parties, but Revision is the only one I know of) and in the scene generally, who know a lot more.

I'm wondering about the basics. I get that there are a couple of different technologies, throw distances, ratios and what not but I'm wondering a bit more about Lumen counts and the effectiveness of indoor and outdoor lighting and how that might effect the choices.

I remember there was a good guide for digital artists out there on the internets but I can't find it.
Cheers
Oni

The more lumens the better basically. especially if you're wanting to project during daylight outdoors (which i wouldn't recommend), in which case you need a projector with minimum 3500 lumens and with a good contrast ratio. If you're set on outdoors, aim for late afternoon and/or place your projection surface in the shadow from the sun somehow.

If you're projecting indoors you should still avoid placing lights next to, or pointing at, the projecting area.

Thanks! I should add, I'm also interested in projection surfaces. At the moment we are building an area mostly from shipping containers. My thinking was to use theatre scrim as oppose to grey/white projection material. Still unsure yet.

Also yes, outdoors - it'll most likely be at night, or late afternoon at the most. 3500 Lumens minimum is a good starting point. Cheers

Depending on your location you might be forced to do retro-projection, be aware that the projection surfaces that can handle retro-projection are slightly more expensive. Also beware that depending on the angle of projection people might be able to see the lamp spotlight through the projection surface itself, which is annoying.

Big demoparties tend to hang the projector on the ceiling, but we are talking about expensive to rent projectors that deliver high quality image on very large screens, the insurance to transport and hang from structures these kind of projectors is typically more expensive then the renting itself. You can find much more affordable solutions for smaller projection areas. So it really depends on how large of an effect you want to make with the projection area and what budget you have.

To avoid large expensive projectors some folks (for interactive installations and such, not demoparties) also buy/rent cheaper projectors that can do edge blend, and line them up together. That can be a more affordable middle ground solution aswell.

3500 lumen is nowhere near enough for projection in full daylight, unless you make the screen really really small. you really should give more information about your setup/plan/wishes because with this little information any answer you get is at best an assumption. first and foremost, exact lighting conditions (afternoon or night makes a huuuuge difference), desired screen size, and budget (to avoid useless advice/typing)

for reference, the sun at it's highest point is ~100000 lumen per m2. my 3500 lumen dell doesn't stand a fucking chance :)

there are no projectors that stand a chance against sun at it's highest point :D

here is a nice article on the subject: https://medium.com/@laserpilot/how-to-do-video-projection-in-full-daylight-52baef137115

you could use a Projektorbeschreibung.

I'd recommend consulting a hire company that specialises in this to be honest - I did and highly recommend it.

Another thing to watch out for is how quickly the projector will sync to new video modes. I've had trouble with sub-$1000 single DLP projectors having seconds of black between transitions, especially on obscure oldschool platforms. Either trying before you buy or going through a rental company could solve this problem.

Thanks all. I appreciate the answers.

To clarify, I'm working on spec-ing projectors for the Cybar area of EMFCamp2018 (https://www.emfcamp.org). Essentially, we'll have lots of shipping containers, in a field, and we'd like to project a few demos.

Likely, we'll do some inside the containers, using the short end as the projection surface, so that shouldn't require anything too special.

Outdoors, it'll be at night and we haven't really thought it through, but since we have DJs who might like live visuals, I need to think carefully about screens, lumens, mount points etc. This side of things is much trickier and less thought out as yet.