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Projectors: How bright is bright enough?
June 27, 2011
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Sony XG-PH70X, 5,000 ANSI lumens, 1024 x 768 and 32.9 lbs

By Ralph Niekamp

Event planners have a multitude of options when choosing a projector for an event. Often the first choice is to bring the portable company projector to save money. Sometimes this makes sense, but often it doesn’t. Imagine an audience of 1,000 people for a day-long conference and more than half of the audience can’t see the images on the screen. The “free” projector is not the best value in this situation. The first step is to set the criteria for the event and then choose the projector that is best suited.

How many people will attend the event? What room set up will be utilized? A room that is set up for a banquet will require more space than a theatre-style setting where the audience is directly in front of the screen. The larger the room and wider the viewing angle, the brighter the projector needs to be.

What is the purpose of the video system to the event? Will it be a five-minute video where the room lights can be dimmed or is it a four-hour presentation going over spreadsheets in detail and the audience expected to take copious notes?  Will the presentations include a mixture of both video and data? What is the resolution of the material?
 

  

Will the presentation take place at noon in a room that has floor to ceiling southern exposure windows? More ambient-room light levels require a brighter projector.

The choice of projection screen is also a factor. Front projection screens vary in their “gain” so a high-gain screen will require that room lighting  be dimmed but it will deliver a good image with a reasonable quality projector.

Dan Benjamin of Digital Projection Inc., based in  explains how they determine what the optimal projector brightness is for a client. “One of the things that we look at when suggesting a proper projector is how many foot lamberts of light will result off of the screen,” Benjamin says. “The resulting foot lambert measurement is determined by the overall foot-candle measurement hitting the screen from the projector, the area of the screen and the screen gain.”
A foot-candle is an English unit of measure expressing the intensity of light illuminating an object. The illumination from one candle falling on a surface of one square foot at a distance of one foot.

“The amount of ambient light in the room plays a role in setting the target for foot lamberts,” Benjamin says.  “We recommend having 20 to 50 times the amount of ambient light hitting the screen. As an example, in a higher ambient light environment such as a tradeshow or large venue presentation where 5 foot-candles of ambient light might be hitting the screen, we recommend using a projector that will result in 100 to 500 foot-candles of brightness on the screen.” 

A typical portable projector is about 2,000 ANSI lumens – a lumen is a measure of the light quantity emitted from a constant light source across one square metre. These projectors are suited to boardrooms and training rooms where the lighting can be turned off, the audiences are small and people are seated directly in front of the screen.

A 3,000 lumen projector is a good choice for boardrooms and small conference and training rooms. Lighting will need to be controlled but not turned off.

Projectors that deliver 4,500-12,000 lumens are generally referred to as staging projectors. The cost of staging projectors vary widely depending on the lumens rating as well as other features such as resolution and throw distance.

Choose your projector wisely (consult your AV firm for guidance) to ensure you really have the projector best suited for your event.

Ralph Niekamp, Inland AV Saskatoon General Manager, addresses audiovisual considerations important to event planners. As a branch manager, Ralph brings a unique perspective as he is involved in both permanent systems design and integration and AV rentals applications.

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