DJ VJ advise on what projectors to use at your gigs

0:00 Long throw projector or short throw projector

Alright ladies and gentlemen, just going to give you a bit of info on projectors, what I use, and projectors let's say for VJing purposes. First of all, you have to consider whether you want long throw or short throw. Long throw projector or short throw projector. What does this mean? Well, you turn up at a venue and all of a sudden you are limited on space. You will probably have to have a short throw projector. Alternatively, if you're in a huge room, space isn't an issue, then you can have a long throw projector. This one here is long throw, this one here is short throw. This one here, it's an Optima, is cheap and cheerful, does the job. This one here, I bought these second hand for about £350, they're over £500 new, but these are the dogs.

OK, so short throw is pretty much means what it says, says what it means. You can have the projector very close to where the screen is. This one here, anything from sort of 1.5 metres and it will do a massive area. So if you are limited on space, it doesn't matter. Also, what you can do with pretty much every good quality projector is, if you're in a huge room, you can have a long throw projector. If you're in a huge room, you can have a long throw projector. If you have it forward facing, you can turn, flip the whole image around. So it's the right way around if it was originally the wrong way around or vice versa. So for example, if you need it facing against a wall, you can flip it. Alternatively, if you're using a screen and you have the projector behind the screen, then you can flip it.

2:28 Your delving into the realms

Now also, you have to remember or think of a lot of things. If you're using short throw and the dance floor is over there and the public are over there, your projector is here and the screen's there, there's a good chance of people bashing into it. So it's not a good idea. Ideally, you need your projector, short throw projectors behind the screen away from general public. The difference there with the long throw is these guys here can be held quite high up. They can be quite a considerable distance away from your screen. And they will need to be because if they're too close, the image will be really small. Now, here's an idea for you as well. It's, you know, when you look at your delving into the realms of VJing and projectors,

You have to be very careful about what you buy. You've got to look at lumens as well. And that's the light intensity of the bulb itself. The higher the lumen, the better, the more light you'll get. The trouble is though with projectors is the bulbs are exceedingly expensive. You may find it's a little bit but like buying a printer, brand new printer could be 30 quid, 40 quid, $50. But you may find once the inks run out, the ink will pretty much cost round about the same price as the printer. It's not exactly the same with projectors. But for example, the projector here, the bulb I think is around about 180 pounds. Now that's hell of a lot of money. So take that into consideration. Bulbs cost a lot. Now, a tip with a projector.

Let's say you finish the night, you turn it off and that's it. Don't pull the plug out straight away. The projector needs to cool down. If you pull the plug out straight away, the fan stops and the bulb is still very hot. So possibly the slightest knock, bulb's knackered, it's going to cost you a lot of money. Alright, there are different ways of plugging your projector in. You have on this one, you have VGA. We have Component, which is pretty much RCA. We've got HDMI, we've got a video in, we've got an S-video in. And we can link as well. So this one here, right, this is the, I'll get the model number for you because people were asking about the models. This is the Vivitek DS81ST. Now this one here, it's not a top of the range projector.

4:44 One projector on your laptop, you've probably got one VGA output

But it's mid-priced. You know, cheat and chill. It's really cheerful. £40, £30, really cheat and cheerful. Mid-price, good quality mid-price. You're looking around the £400 to £500, £600 mark. But then you can go up to thousands of pounds. Again, it's entirely up to you. If you have a look at the back, you can see on this one, you have got lots of plug-in bits. And I would recommend you get projectors like this because you've got lots of options. But then again, if you are a viewer, and you know your setup, then you probably only need one which is VGA because you're not going to turn up to a night and think, oh what should I plug in? Where shall I plug it in? You should know what you're doing even before you turn up.

Now, one projector on your laptop, you've probably got one VGA output. You can buy bits of hardware. I should have it right there now but I haven't got it. A bit of hardware that will let you go into the hardware from your laptop and then connect one or two or three or four out. So it's like a booster so then you can go then to numerous projectors projecting the same image. If you're going to do VGAing, the best way of doing your setup is have a stereo image either side. It looks absolutely stunning and the bigger the images you can get, the better quality projector you can get. Of course, the better quality image. I would go for HD if possible. Now this one here is 3D ready as well. It's DLP, it's the Vivitek like I said the D871ST

And this one here is short throw like I said. The lens is very big and if you could look at the lens what happens is the image does not go forward like that. If I just do it this way, forward it actually shoots up at an angle. So, if you are very close to the screen then of course it's going to hit here up sort of here if you imagine. It's not going to go down there it's going to hit upwards whereas this one is pretty much forward facing wherever you face it that's where the image will go whereas this one it seems to hit up which is what it's great for great for short throw. This one long throw but it's not far from as good a quality as the Vivitek alright. So, just a bit of I don't know random stuff on the kit I use

And if you are interested in actually having a VJ set then give me a call alright. Practice and enjoy thank you.

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