Outdoor cinema!

[nofuse22]

With all the sport coming up this summer I want to make sure the kids still go outside, so planning on setting up a screen near the pool. Planning to buy a screen and projector but no idea what people would recommend brand wise, please help! Wife of nofuse22 (long ago forgotten my own log in!!)

[nofuse22]

Haha! I was hoping to put it against a hedge in shade but you may well be right

[nofuse22]

Haha! I was hoping to put it against a hedge in shade but you may well be right

[nofuse22]

Our road is called flood street 🤣

[nofuse22]

mikef said:

Can you set up a screen so it’s inside but visible from outside by the pool, maybe with outdoor speakers? That’s what I’ve done in our pool house for the summer of sport

It’s surrounded by 12ft hedges (so have plenty of areas that are extremely shaded) (and the pool shed is behind one!) I do have a spare shed which could be made nice, but maybe time to build a pool side pool house!

[nofuse22]

Lucid_AV said:

There are screens designed to reject ambient llght. Look up 'ALR screen'. They do work really well, and with a bright enough projector you can watch in the same sort of brightness level as a north facing room. Incidentally, British school children have had lessons delivered by projectors onto interactive whiteboards for the past couple of decades. I was involved with Philips when we were supplying 1,000~1,500 ANSI Lumen projectors to be used with 60" IWBs. It can be done.

A quick 101 on outdoor projection with ALR screens

1. You're not going to beat the power of the sun shining directly on your screen
2. ALR screens have a surface full of tiny lenses (a lenticular display). Touching them is a no-no. It'll wreck the display in those spots
3. The screens are also solid - you can't roll them away - and the good ones aren't cheap (120" for £1,300), so you have to think quite carefully what you're going to do with this in the off-season. They're an indoor product, and don't do well in damp conditions. Think mould and mildew, plus accidental bashings
4. Dust is the enemy of lenticular screens, and outside can get very dusty.
5. The biggest ALR screen is 120" commonly available is 120"
6. The sun beats any projection screen every time. You're going to need some sort of building over the screen for shade and weather protection. It can be open at the front and sides, just so long as it shades the screen from direct sunlight, including the low angle sun in the evenings
7. ALR screens work by turning the projected light through roughly 90 degrees. That's what the lenses are for. Ambient light is semi-absorbed which makes the projected light appear brighter. It requires an Ultra Short Throw (UST) projector. These sit virtually flush with the bottom of the screen
8. UST projectors come in a range of brightnesses, and in 1080p and 4K versions. Some have a lens with a small amount of zoom, so from the same position they can cope with a couple of different sizes of screen. Others have a fixed lens, so they'll need to be partnered with an ALR screen or other screen that's the correct size for the lens.
9. In general, projector illumination is provided by one of three light sources. There's a replaceable lamp, or the non-replaceable laser or LED light source. The upfront purchase cost for a lamped projector can be lower, and/or the projector brighter than its laser/LED competitors.
10. Replaceable lamps will last somewhere in the region of 5-6,000 hours and cost between £150 and £250 on average to replace. As they age they do get dimmer, but it's a gradual process. However, you might find it beneficial to renew the amp at say 4,000 hours to restore the punch. £200 isn't going to break the bank
11. Laser or LED illuminated projectors have a light source that lasts a lot longer - 20,000~30,000 hours. However, when it's done then the whole projector is disposed of and replaced.

General notes.

1. For outdoor use you don't need 4K resolution. Sport will look just as good on a 1080p projector. The key is brightness and good motion handling, not the absolute most resolution. No one will notice 4K, but they will notice a duller image with bad colour and juddery motion.
2. Think about how you'll get a source signal to the projector. A Sky Stream might work if you already run that system. (This doesn't apply to Sky Q customers). Ordinary streaming may be an option, but will it cover the range of channels that will carry the sports you want to watch, and in decent quality?
3. Long HDMI cables aren't so practical over 8m for 4K, and 1080p starts to get flaky running up to 20m. Active (amplified) cables can extend the range, or there's the option of going fibreoptic at a cost.
4. The alternative long cable solution is HD-BaseT and a couple of Cat5/Cat6 cables. Don't use long patch cables. They're rubbish. Stick with outdoor Cat cable. It's all copper, not aluminium. If you're pinching the picture from an indoor Sky or Virgin box, make sure to include an IR repeater so that you can change channels poolside.
5. Remember to plan for sound. Some projectors, especially the UST ones, come with speakers built in about as good as a £150 sound bar. That's okay indoors, but it'll be completely lost outside. You'll need something a lot beefier

If you're up for a bit of DIY, and bearing in mind the cost of a rigid ALR screen plus the hassle of looking after it, then have a look at eBay listing: 125848055180. If I was doing an outdoor sports bar as a summer pop-up, then this and at these prices is a disposable screen solution. I could help a customer sell a lot of beer with this.

Edited by Lucid_AV on Monday 10th June 23:32

Thank you, this is exactly what I needed! Amazing reply!

[nofuse22]

Martin315 said:

Have you considered the impact on your neighbours or do you not need to bother on the basis that a big screen in your garden is a bit council and they will probably all be doing the same?.

Don’t have any!