I am currently starting my own Karaoke business and i am looking at buying a projector that i can hook up to my laptop. My brother in law has an Epson projector but it does not work at all when the lights are on in the room? Is there any projector that works well in a bright area? I really appreciate any advice anyone can offer regarding this. Thanks in advance.

[1974stephen]

Whatever your budget is for the projetor you need the ANSI lumens value to be as high as possible. The contrast ratio value will all have a small efect on your perveived brightness of the image, but not as much as the lumens value.

When you say "lights on", in what environment are you talking about? Are yu just projecting words or images too?

Optoma seem to make some cost effective bright projectors such as here:

http://www.projectorpoint.co.uk/proj...oma_EP780.html

[inzaman]

More relevant to the PJ section.

[jacko5]

Originally Posted by ProjectorBoy25

I am currently starting my own Karaoke business and i am looking at buying a projector that i can hook up to my laptop. My brother in law has an Epson projector but it does not work at all when the lights are on in the room? Is there any projector that works well in a bright area? I really appreciate any advice anyone can offer regarding this. Thanks in advance.

Look at projection screens too to maximize brightness.
Something like the DaLite High Power screen has a gain of 2.8 ie. it produces an image 2.8 times as bright as a conventional screen. The only drawback is that it has a narrow viewing cone of 30 degrees to acheive this level of brightness. I bought mine from www.cvsmedia.co.uk

Originally Posted by 1974stephen

Whatever your budget is for the projetor you need the ANSI lumens value to be as high as possible. The contrast ratio value will all have a small efect on your perveived brightness of the image, but not as much as the lumens value.

When you say "lights on", in what environment are you talking about? Are yu just projecting words or images too?

Optoma seem to make some cost effective bright projectors such as here:

http://www.projectorpoint.co.uk/proj...oma_EP780.html

Hi Mate

I'll be doing the Karaoke events in all sorts of venues but mostly pubs and clubs. I will be projecting the karaoke words for the songs onto a screen or a wall. I just don't want to always have to ask the pub or club owner to turn the lights off wherever i go. Thanks for your input so far.. i really am stumped with what to buy here.

Originally Posted by jacko5

Look at projection screens too to maximize brightness.
Something like the DaLite High Power screen has a gain of 2.8 ie. it produces an image 2.8 times as bright as a conventional screen. The only drawback is that it has a narrow viewing cone of 30 degrees to acheive this level of brightness. I bought mine from www.cvsmedia.co.uk

Thanks for this idea mate, i hadn't thought of this. When u say a narrow viewing cone of 30 degrees. I'm not exactly sure what u mean. do u mean the projector can only be 30 degrees above or below the screen?

[AV Nik]

Hi ProjectorBoy25,
Optoma have 2 new projectors which would probably suit you well.
The EP752 @ 2800 Lumens and the EP761 @ 3200 Lumens. Both affordable and could be used with Matte White surfaces or maybe a couple of higher gain matte white surfaces.
I would not use a Glass Beaded screen in your environment as the viewing angle is too narrow. What this means: You cannot have a wide audience!
Have a look at Step 4 here: Projecta- the 4 Steps
You can see at step 4 there are 2 images which show viewing angles.

Hope this helps.

[LV426]

Originally Posted by ProjectorBoy25

When u say a narrow viewing cone of 30 degrees....do u mean the projector can only be 30 degrees above or below the screen?

It means the picture's brightness diminishes quickly when the viewer (audience) is more than 30 degrees off centre from the screen in any direction.

This is how screens with "gain" work; they reflect the light from the projector, not evenly, but "concentrated" towards a given direction.

What you have to realise, whatever you do, is that no projector can project "darkness"; they can't remove any light that's already falling on the screen from within the room; all they can do is add more light to what's already there. Any black parts of the image are simply handled by a projector by it emitting no extra light at that point. So, however bright the screen is, with the projector off, that's what colour "black" is going to be.

So, the only things you can hope to do, to get a useful image are:

- reduce ambient lighting
- or use as dark a corner as you can find
- and have a projector that emits LOTS of light for the bright areas, so as to give you as much contrast with the (not very) dark areas in your picture.