Spring may be here, but for Ohioans and probably for other northerners it still feels like winter is upon us. Since you probably will not want to use a projector for fun-in-the-sun activities if there are four inches of snow on the ground and clouds blocking the sun, you’ll want to use your projector indoors until the weather gets nicer.

One of the most common uses of our rental projectors is playing movies. Whether you have a dvd projector which can play movies directly from their discs, or if you are planning on hooking up your projector to a laptop through an HDMI cord, you are still going to need to set up a space if you want to have the best experience during your movie night.

Step One: Find a surface to project on

While this is extremely common sense, finding a good surface to project your movie onto is crucial. If by some odd chance you happen to have the optimal projection equipment – a stretchable projection fabric screen – use that. If you don’t have the projection equipment laying around your house, which you probably don’t, consider hanging a clean thin white bedsheet or any other type of sheet to the wall.  If all else fails, projecting directly onto a wall might be a reasonable solution.

Step Two: Kill the lights

Dim the lights or turn them off entirely. A lot of projectors don’t have the lumens needed to display good quality images in very well lit rooms, and even tiny amounts of ambient light in the room can ruin the colors of the show or movie that you are watching.

Step Three: Get some speakers or a speaker bar

A lot of projectors do not have their own built in speakers, so you may need to invest in a few external speakers. If your projector doesn’t have its own audio system, I would highly recommend hooking it up to a soundbar, or if you don’t have one of those, any speakers you have in-house.

Step Four: Follow up measures

Now that you have all of the projector related stuff set up, do whatever you want. Invite friends, or don’t. The great thing about setting up a projector for movie night is that you don’t have to get weird looks for going to the movies alone – and you don’t have to pay seven dollars for a bucket of delicious but unhealthy popcorn.

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During many articles, I talk about how you can get a projector rental for outdoor movie nights. Normally during these articles I do not fully dive into the intricacies of movie nights, but since summer is finally upon us this article is fully dedicated to the art of hosting outdoor movie parties.

Preparing the Outdoor Theater Space

A general rule of thumb when it comes to party hosting is that you want your guests to have a good time. Although it is easy to buy bulk ammo from Palmetto State Armory but you can’t directly force people into having fun with it,\. There are two tactics which will help you increase the probability of your audience having a great night. These two tactics are:

1. Thinking about what could cause your guests to have a bad time

2. Thinking about what you could do to give your guests a better viewing experience

Pretty simple, right? Even though these two strategies easily fall into the category of common sense, as humans we have a tendency of doing things which do not make sense.

Planning for the Negatives

In order to have your party not feel haphazard, you need to think over the two strategies listed above. For the first strategy, all you have to do is ask yourself, “What would make my party suck?”. In the context of outdoor movie nights, I can easily think of two things which can make your party miserable: mosquitoes and bad weather. The former you can take care of, if you happen to have the best propane mosquito killer lying around. The latter, not really avoidable.

Of all of the life on this green earth, mosquitoes are easily my least favorite. Luckily, those little party-poopers can be stopped with the aid of bug spray, and if you want to go the extra mile you can set up Tiki torches with Citronella, Citronella candles, or if you are comfortable with killing off all of the insects in your yard, you can spray pesticides, however there are other methods of mosquito deterrent besides these three options that you may want to investigate before resorting to pesticides.

What you are not able to control when planning an outdoor party of any sort is the weather. Unless you move indoors, your party will be at the mercy of the weather. The ever-relevant, if not overused, Murphy’s law adage which says that, “anything that can go wrong will”, most certainly applies to your outdoor movie night plans. Pay attention to weather forecasts when planning a date and time for your outdoor movie night.

Improving the Experience

I said earlier that you cannot force people into having fun, but that does not mean that you can’t try to do it anyway. If you want people to have fun at your movie night, think about ways you can improve your movie night to make it an even more fun experience. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself which will get you on a train of thought from which you can improve your movie night:

1.How do I want my outdoor theater space to be set up?

2.Do I want to have a specific theme for my outdoor movie night?

3.What kind of snacks and drinks should I get?

4.Is there enough space for guests to sit comfortably?

Setting up the Gear:

Now that you’ve considered the non-technical aspects, let’s get into the nitty gritty of hosting an outdoor movie night. If you’re not just throwing a TV outside on your back porch, you can go big and go home with a projector rental. Buying a wall-sized TV screen would cost you an arm and a leg, but a projector rental can be used to project in the same wall-sized proportions without you needing to fork over an amount of cash somewhere in the quadruple digits. If you want better  image quality, you can also get a projector screen rental.

It is also important to note that a lot of projectors do not have good sound systems. If you are hosting a movie night you will want to have something, such as a soundbar or a bluetooth speaker, set aside for your audio needs.

A Final Tip and Common Courtesy:

A big issue with projectors is the amount of light they produce. This amount is measured in lumens, and depending on how big you want your projection to be, how far you want the projector to be from the screen, and how early you want to start watching your movie, the amount of lumens you will need can change. A good minimum for using a projector for an outdoor movie night would be 2,000 lumens, but you may want to go higher depending on any of the three things I mentioned above, or for other reasons.

One last thing, if you live in the city, before hosting your movie night invite your neighbors to attend, or at the very least let them know what you are doing. Movie nights can be a great way to build up your relationship with your neighbors.

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Easter came and went, which means that graduation is just around the corner. Even if you have your high school or college graduation party planned out, there is always room for improvement. One way you can improve your party is by getting a graduation party projector rental. Graduation parties signify a new phase in life and the end of another. Here are three projector-oriented tips which will help you ensure that your graduation party is a blast.   

1. Photo/Video Collage

Slideshows of photos from school-years provide a great way to reminisce with friends and family. This technique is especially effective if you are hosting a high school graduation, as your guests can see how the graduate grew as a person throughout the years. Make sure to include the most memorable pictures. Although we do not always capture our favorite moments in life on camera, we do have our own favorite pictures to choose from. If you decide to set up a picture slideshow, consider playing some accompanying music at a reasonable volume. You want your attendees to socialize and blaring music can make talking to others difficult.

Videos are also enjoyable to watch when put into montages. Of course, you have to have some good videos recorded beforehand for this method to work. If you do have some videos from the graduate’s school or college years, I would highly recommend including them, as videos can easily captivate an audience.

2. Movie Night

A graduation party is still a party, there should be some fun involved right? If a photo or video collage does not suite your party’s pace, or if you just want to use the projector for something else after awhile, watching movies is an entertaining alternative. Getting a movie projector rental allows you to watch movies both inside and outside, and can let more people watch movies more comfortably.

If you have a lot of people attending and you have nice weather for your party, you should definitely consider doing this outside so you don’t have a bunch of people crammed into one room, and you also have nature to take care of your party’s air conditioning. Stock up on popcorn and refreshments and you’ll be good to go.

3. Karaoke

It sounds like a horrible idea to use a projector for musical purposes doesn’t it? Well, you might actually be right depending on how good of a singer you are. Karaoke is often only really prevalent in clubs or bars, but a lot of projectors are compatible with karaoke machines. So, if you or any of your attendees aren’t embarrassed by their singing voices, cast some words onto a screen and start singing away!

Conclusion

Not all of these options will suit everyone’s party plans, and a lot of people already have their parties planned out, but hopefully you will be able to find some usefulness from these tips. And if you can’t implement any of these tips this time around, you can always get them next time!

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It is the beginning of February which means that Valentine’s Day is nigh upon us, and for those who are not in a relationship, discount chocolate day is just one more day of waiting. However, if you are in a relationship you’re probably currently experiencing the hardest part of Valentine’s Day: planning how to celebrate it. If you’re struggling to find some good ideas, here are three ideas for what you can do on Valentine’s Day by getting a Valentine’s Day Projector Rental.

1. Indoor/Outdoor Movie Night

The reason that this suggestion is both indoor and outdoor is because that it’s the middle of winter, and if you live in Ohio or any other more northern State, it’s not unrealistic to be putting up with 20° temperatures and snow on Valentine’s Day, and those aren’t pleasant conditions for an outdoor movie night.

Getting a movie night projector rental is a fun way to mix up a standard movie night, as it makes the experience more like watching a movie at a drive-in instead of just watching TV like normal, and it makes the experience much more memorable. If you decide to go this route, don’t forget to pick up your favorite popcorn and sodas!

2. Gaming/Dance Party

Typically when you see the word party, it’s referring to more than just two people, but not this time! If you and your partner are both into gaming, you can surprise them by hooking up a projector with a gaming device and having a good old fashioned game night. A lot of more modern games are diverting from their split-screen origins when it comes to multiplayer, but there are still a lot of good games out on the market that have this feature, and playing almost any game cooperatively adds a whole lot of fun.

Of course, if neither of you are that into gaming, you can pick up a dancing game, such as Dance Dance Revolution, and challenge each other to an ultimate dance off. If neither of these ideas float your boat you can always fall back to the movie night plan.

3. Experiment with Visuals

If you’re a huge fan of paintings, you may just want to turn your house into a living art piece. There are a lot of cool visual sites out on the internet, and with  a standard projector rental you can bring those sites to life in your living room. The great part is that there are both interactive and non-interactive sites that let you create and view amazing artwork, so if you want you can draw images to project with your partner, or you could both just enjoy a virtual art gallery brought to life in your home.

The best thing about these ideas is that they can all be reasonably executed on Valentine’s Day itself,  as all of these ideas can be a quick date night plan, that don’t require you to have an entire day without any schedule complications such as work. I hope these three ideas have helped you if you’ve been stuck in a planning rut.

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Christmas is in three days, which means that the majority of the people reading this already have their homes decked out for the holiday season. However, there’s not much of a point decking your halls unless you are going to be showing aforementioned halls off for all to see. If you don’t have a Christmas party or a New Year’s party planned we’re going to give you a few projector-related ideas to help you plan your own party. Not all of these ideas may be helpful for you, but if any of these are applicable for you, you may be well on your way to making the best Christmas or New Year’s Eve party you’ve had in years.

• Backyard Movie Night

Although highly nontraditional for a Christmas party, backyard movie night projector rentals are great for parties. To get a backyard movie night to be a blast though, you’ll want to set up a few things for and with your guests pre-party. You may not have a ton of chairs at your disposal, which means you will probably want your guests to help by bringing their own lawn chairs or other seats.

Your guests will also be much more on board with an outdoor movie night if they have plenty of snacks available, and popcorn is the go-to movie night snack. So pop a whole lot of popcorn in advance to get your movie night going.

If you live somewhere cold, you still may consider doing an outdoor movie night for your holiday party, just tell your guests to bring blankets and to bundle up before they get there. Rig up some teak lutyens benches if the the dewy grass feels too cold. 

• Indoor Movie Night

If you live in a colder area and you were reading the suggestion above, you probably were already thinking of this. A movie night projector rental is just as viable an option for indoor settings as it is for outdoors, except by choosing to watch your movie indoors it doesn’t necessarily have to be night to get the same great image.

Most of the tips suggested for backyard movie nights still apply here besides the blanket and coat thing. Meaning that you should still have a lot of popcorn and soda ready for the audience. Since you aren’t actually going to a movie theater, getting snacks shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg. If you have a lot of movies which are on DVD, get a DVD projector rental which will allow you and your audience to watch whatever you want on the bigscreen.

• Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

There’s probably going to be a point where you get tired of watching Christmas movies, and when that point comes you’ll be faced with a decision: will you start watching something else, or will you decide to truly rock around your Christmas tree? If you chose option number 2, you can start projecting Dance, Dance Revolution or any other dancing game alternative.

• Extreme Christmas Home Decoration

If you want your house to be the most festive looking house on the block for your party night, you can do some pretty impressive light displays through projectors. Although this is probably one of the least interactive things you can do with a projector rental, it can easily result in making your house look like the coolest thing on the block.

Hopefully some of these suggestions were helpful for you. These are just a few ways you can use a projector rental for your Christmas or New Year’s parties. Have a holly, jolly Christmas!

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