Huge Advance in Projector Design (that means you want one)

Engadget lets us know about ProjectionDesign's new Remote Light Source projector. Basically this is a projector that can be ceiling mounted but the bulb is in a separate location connected by a light conducting cable (they call it liquid light guide) up to 30m long.

This means that when you need to replace the bulb, you don't have to climb a ladder and risk your neck. Just go to your rack mount and swap-a-dee-doo you're good to go.

I want one.

Projectors 101

You'll need to understand a few things when looking at projectors:
Aspect Ratio
Throw
Resolution and
Brightness (or lumens)

The Aspect Ratio is a number like 4:3 or 16:9 - but the easiest way to think about it is TV versus movie screen. All the old tube TV's were 4:3 (because of the limitations of a Cathode Ray Tube, but that's another discussion). Movies were presented in the widescreen format of 16:9. I would recommend getting a projector that supports both formats, but then pick one and stick with it. Fiddling with the aspect ratio can lead to some weird presentations. I personally like the 16:9, especially for movie clips.

Throw can be either short or long. This is the distance between the projector and the screen. Basically if you are going to have your projector close to the screen you want a short throw and if you are going to have your projector far away you want a long throw.

The resolution of your projector is closely tied to the aspect ratio. Basically the aspect ratio is the reduced fraction of the resolution. So a resolution of 800x600 is using the 4x3 aspect ratio. A resolution of 800x450 is using the 16:9 ratio. If you're wanting to use a lot of video clips, then you'll probably want a higher resolution projector. The problem is when you start throwing around letters and number that aren't related. There's VGA, XGA, UXGA, WUXGA, HD, 1080p, 720p and a slew of others. What you can do to same some sanity is to compare apples to apples - they should all have a number-by-number resolution (e.g. 1024x768). Compare those numbers (check out the whole story here).

Finally, brightness is measured in units called lumens. Basically the more lumens your projector can put out, the brighter it will be and the easier to see with ambient light in the room. You might think that you would want to max out on the lumens, but the higher lumen rigs are more expensive, heavier, and cost more to maintain. So there are some trade-offs to consider. For most portable applications you will want something in the 2000 lumen range - that should make it bright enough to handle significant ambient light, but still keep it small enough to move without a team of oxen.

Now it's time to shop. I usually start out looking at a bunch of reviews and see what matches up with my needs and my budget. Happy hunting.

Presentation Gear

This week I want to cover the gear that you need to present well. This won't be an exhaustive list, just some highlights of the things that might come in handy. If you need a full walk through of all the issues, there is a great series over at e-bibleteacher.com. There you can talk about lumens and signal to noise ratio and all that jazz. I'll say this, if you are a preacher and you don't get excited about this stuff and there is someone in your church that does - let them shine and ask for help. It's a recipe for disaster for you to try to do all this without help.

I do like what they say over at e-bibleteacher: "Start simple." Don't try to recreate the dual projector, fully integrated, professionally installed system that you saw at the mega church if your church is small. Keep it simple at first.

My heart is with church planting, so I'm thinking about projection systems that are portable. I know you can do some great things with a permanent install, but even if you have your own church building there are advantages to keeping it portable. When you start it will cost less money, which is good. And if there are any objections from the church you can let them know that you're just trying it out, not making any permanent decisions (usually they'll end up loving it after a few weeks). Also, if you need to do a conference or have a movie night, you can pack it all up and take it with you.

Tomorrow we'll talk a bit about projectors.