A guide to projectors: which is the right one for your event?
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When looking at the trends in events, participatory experiences, dynamic storytelling and interaction are some of the key words to remember. Events are growing with more elaborate visual content providing a higher level of immersion, engagement, and excitement. Projectors are a perfect and flexible solution to bring that extra dimension to the live experience. But which projector is the right one for the event industry?
3 factors to keep in mind when choosing an event projector
The expectations of audiences
Whether you’re talking about an extravagant music festival or a local corporate presentation, delivering the content as intended is the number one requirement. When it comes to creating the truly spectacular memorable experiences, image quality is perhaps the first thing an audience will judge. Being used to the high-quality visual content delivered by the displays in their homes, guests are increasingly demanding in their visual expectations for live events. Think brightness, resolution, and colors.
The characteristics of the event
Organizers of events typically rent their equipment from dry-hire or production companies. That’s different from the venue owners and producers of fixed entertainment installations, who own their units. Because of this specific business model in the rental and staging industry, versatility is one of the most important things. Each event, each customer, each set-up is different. If you have a flexible solution, it’s easier to serve a wide range of events productions and get more out of your investment.
The life of a roadie
Events are by definition temporary. It means that event equipment is often on the road moving from one location to another. Not every projector is suited for this nomad life. A projector built for life on the road is robust to handle, straightforward to install, and easy to pack up again. Also, in a live environment reliability is key – the show must go on... So choose a rugged solution that can take a beating and guarantees uptime.
The Barco UDX and UDM projectors are built on the DNA of the rental and staging industry. They go beyond all compromises and deliver a combination of technical superiority, astonishing versatility and maximum ease-of-use.
Image quality
With a range up to 45,000 lumens, these 3-chip DLP laser phosphor projectors enable rental companies and venue owners to provide stunning visuals and impactful experiences to every type of event. The resolution of the series reaches 4K UHD. They match the widest color spectrum compared to other similar projectors in the market outperforming the Rec. 709 color space. And the latest 2.1 software version introduced the DynaBlack feature which enhances the UDM/UDX projector contrast ratio up to 20.000:1 for content with deeper black levels and ultra-clear shadow details without any processing latency.
The beating heart of the UDM and UDX projectors? That’s the Barco Pulse processing! Barco Pulse is the powerful 4K electronics backbone that’s integrated in all our new projectors. It offers an intuitive interface and flexible, user-friendly, embedded control software. The proprietary Single Step Processing (SSP) technology enables our projectors to perform warping, scaling and 4K UHD processing in only one step. This results in sharper images, market leading lowest latency, and less dark time than comparable solutions.
Versatility
With their unique FLEX² settings you can tune and lock the UDM and UDX brightness to a specific show. The lumens level of a 40K projector can be adjusted to 22.000, 26.000, 32.000 lumens… or whatever is needed for the job. As you need less projectors to cover a wider range of brightness configurations, you’ll increase the utilization of your fleet. And with a subscription to the Projector Management Suite platform, you can manage the brightness settings of your projector fleet remotely. Because you don’t have to drive your lasers at 100% all the time, you’ll extend the units’ lifetimes.
The Barco portfolio also features a full suite of tools, smart peripherals, (motorized) frames and lenses specifically designed for our rental and staging partners to speed up set-ups and support creativity. More about these in our upcoming post.
Reliability
The Barco event projectors are built to handle the rigors of life on the road. The UDX and UDM ranges combine high long-lasting performances with a small footprint. The compact and light-weight models allow you to lower shipping and installation time and reduce related costs significantly. And thanks to their robust chassis and smart material choices, you can trust your investment to stand the test of time.
In addition, the UDM and UDX projectors are the first to be fully connected with IoT. The Barco Projector Management Suite dashboard and remote log file access enable faster and more effective troubleshooting. Trigger the creation of a diagnostics package and upload it to the cloud. Via a ‘shared link’ you can share this easily with other people in your company or with the Barco helpdesk without the troubles of having to send gigantic files. In addition, you can keep track of operating conditions from wherever you are through a secured cloud-based platform. It can help you get the most out of your rental fleet while saving time and money. Barco Projector Management Suite is based on a 3-level subscription model. Check out the leaflet on this page to see all the features and possibilities you can to benefit from.
Less is more
The UDM and UDX are perfectly suited for all your mid-sized to large events. However, we also have a range of budget-friendly 1DLP event projectors (G60, F80, G100) for smaller live environments or break-out rooms. WUXGA or 4K. Up to 22.000 lumens. And with most of the benefits of our rental portfolio.
No Barco, no show
Complete your live events set-up with state-of-the-art image processing portfolio. With performance second to none and ultra-low latency, the Event Masters are the benchmark in the rental and staging industry for image processing. Tap into advanced screen mapping, seamless switching, video effects and the integrated control of multiple screens with previews for live shows. The tools include presentation switchers, controllers, scalers and software. Their modular and future-proof architecture really makes them perfect for all event sizes and configurations. Find out more here.
Conclusion
Top 3 requirements to find the right rental projector:
- Performances that wow audiences and customers with outstanding image quality
- Versatility enabling low TCO and high ROI
- Rock-steady, road-ready units and great serviceability
Barco-powered immersive experiences
