I have never purchased a projector before and am looking for some advice from anyone that has used the ETC with one. From my research, I’ve determined I likely need a short throw for my life shows.
It looks like the ETC has a 720p output. So is it pointless to get something that supports 1080p? If I’m dropping $600 on a short throw 720p projector I might as well go all the way to 1080p, but will this diminish the quality of the image?
I know this isn’t specific to the ETC and is just general advice, but any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Short throw are more expensive too, so you should check if you really need short throw. I guess if you have the projector on stage with you short throw is what you need, but the image really expands quickly as you move it from the screen. Short throw are like .5:1 and regular more like 2:1 (distance:size), I find this annoying cause I seem to always want 1:1 which isn’t available…
This is my stage for an upcoming show. I’d love to use the Eyesy.
I have a cheap projector (Dr J Professional) so I think I’ll need a different projector. Not sure what to get, and if I need a screen. Any input welcome!
If at night / darkness, what stage lighting will be there and how bright will it be?
The Dr J Professional projector is not suitable for this at all. The lighting brightness of a projector is measured in either “ANSI” or “Lumen”. ANSI is the (pretended) brightness on the screen (which typically requires a highly reflecting perfectly white screen), Lumen describes the actual brightness of the projector lamp.
This walmart projector claims to provide 200 ANSI, which corresponds to around 1000 Lumen . For a dark venue with low rest light I use a 3000 Lumen projector. Here is an example how it looks (you will recognize the critter ETC patterns beside other video snippets).
For an open air venue with some additional stagelights you may need a projector in the range of 4000 to 8000 Lumen. You may get some used projector on ebay. Since you don’t need high resolution for the EYESY, you can get away with some old 1020p beamer.
You will definitely need some kind of screen. A screen as wide as this stage will be expensive to rent. If you want to keep the financial effort low, then instead of a canvas, you could use several strips of white fabric or paper. It looks surprisingly good.
We had this (at a larger venue than yours): Pictures from that gig. I tried that on smaller stages, and it was quite satisfying (no pics, sorry).
I’m using an Eyesy with a ViewSonic PX706HD that I bought on eBay for less than $200. I blend signal between the Eyesy and a Sleepy Circuits Hypno and it comes out fabulous. I can cover 12 to 15 feet of wall space with the projector placed on a box roughly 8 or 10 feet from a wall.
That looks like a fun show. Is tuba guy your bass?
The show was while the covid shutdowns. The city of Munich offered an open air venue at the Olympic Park to the local clubs (you can see the tent like construction of the big stadium). Each club got one day, and the clubs could give slots of two hours to each of their favourite acts.
The tuba guy does not take the role of a bass player, but uses it for creating effects. There is a Doepfer MIDI ribbon controller mounted on the tuba, which he uses to control a Korg Kaoss Pad and some other FX device.
