For many years now there has been a great debate as to whether or not projectors are a dying viewing medium. I mean, we all know that today there are a lot of tv accessories like TV wall mount brackets which are more worth to have to help enhance your viewing experience. Even now, if you just go to your search engine, type “projectors”, and sort by news I am confident to say that you will see one or two articles that say something like: “Influencer’s Name can see the end of the projection industry”, or, “Projectors Still Shining Over Televisions – An Industry with a Bright Past and Brighter Future”. You might even see both of those opinions on the same search engine result page, I certainly have.

This article will be highlighting some of the key points in both sides of the argument to help you gain a better understanding of the future of projectors, and whether or not it’s likely for event planners to switch from projector rentals to TV solutions anytime soon.

Why People Believe Projectors are Dying:

LCD walls and LED television displays are becoming much easier to afford, and image quality on TV screens is better than it has ever been with most, if not all, television companies trying to produce more and more ultra-high definition 4K resolution displays. This is one of the two main areas where projectors have significantly fallen behind, and everyone who has made the argument that projectors will not be around ten years in the future knows this.

The second area where projectors have fallen behind in is light output. Simply put, if you have a television and a projector that are around the same price, the television will be able to produce more light than a projector in most scenarios. Dimming the lights when watching movies or shows on a television is an optional thing people do to set the mood, but dimming the lights for some projectors is just par the course for actually being able to see what is being projected.

The Case for Projectors:

Finally onto the positive, let’s start with the big one: getting a large venue projector rental (or even buying a projector) is far cheaper than renting a large amount of televisions or a dozen video walls. High-lumen projectors are still currently more cost efficient at creating an image over a large canvas-covered area than a large array of televisions occupying the same space.

Another factor to consider is that projectors still dominate a unique market familiar to performers and event planners. Projectors are still the most viable display option for images that require 3D mapping, such as the “hologram” of Tupac Shakur that appeared at Coachella in 2012. While 3D image production is a very niche market, it is still substantial enough that on its own this field could keep projectors alive and kicking for the foreseeable future.

Conclusion:

While televisions are getting higher quality resolutions and cheaper to produce, so too are projectors, and currently projectors are already the most affordable AV option for people who need large displays. Televisions may now be cutting into the market shares of projector companies, but projectors aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

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.

Want to share this story on social media? Use these hashtags! #MovieNight #Projectors

When you hear the term “virtual reality” you probably start thinking about virtual reality headsets. While virtual reality (VR for short) has certainly developed over the last few years, VR is a still growing technology field – a technology field in which projector rentals may soon become much more important.

Film director James Cameron has made quite a few hits throughout his career but his 2009 film Avatar was a massive success which preceded (or more likely caused) other filmmakers incorporating 3D into their works. While I am extremely hesitant to call 3D glasses VR technology, Cameron’s box office hit  has encouraged him to continue looking for ways to improve 3D movie viewing. 

James Cameron is planning on making several Avatar sequels, and with these sequels he has plans for improving 3D movie technology. Cameron says that he wants to make 3D movie viewing glasses-less through the use of projectors. Cameron’s production company has renewed its contract with the projection company Christie Digital Systems in order to make a new form of 3D movie viewing.

If you are not sure how projectors could possibly be used for making a 3D movie viewing experience, here’s a video demonstration.

This video was made by a VR company called BroomX using their MK Player 360 projector. Considering the fact that BroomX is a startup company, it will be interesting to see what Cameron and Christie Digital are able to cook up with their deeper pockets.

Want to share this story on social media? Use these hashtags! #MovieTime #Projectors

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.

Want to share this story on social media? Use these hashtags! #DateNight #ProjectorRental #ValentinesDay

It is the second time this year I have had the opportunity use the phrase, ” ‘Tis the Season”, and I would be Scrooge not to take it. December is finally upon us, which means it is time for hot chocolate, excessive blanket usage, and hoping for a white Christmas with a fire going in the fireplace depending on where you live. Christmas is also when you tell tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.

 
The truth is that you don’t neecessarily have to focus on telling Christmas stories, but the Christmas season is a great time for storytelling in general. Proof of this fact can be seen in the countless Christmas movies which litter television during the holiday season. For everyone living in regions which stay warm in December, this won’t apply but for anyone in our region (Southwest Ohio), most of us know that it’s not always pleasant to be out and about during the winter, which means we stay indoors and entertain ourselves with either stories from books, television, or games.

This Christmas you can mix things up, if you’re hosting a Christmas party, get a projector rental to display movies or games for your attendees. You can dedicate an entire wall to playing you and your guests’ favorite Christmas movies you have on DVD with a DVD projector rental. Everything is better on the big screen, and there aren’t many bigger screens than projector screens. Of course, if you don’t have a projector screen, you can also get a projector screen rental to get the most out of your projector.

 
Projectors can be rented for more than just throwing a Christmas party though. You can rent a projector for a much more work-related reason, such as putting on a Christmas play for your organization, you could get a large venue projector rental to provide a backdrop to make your play more captivating, or you could use your projector to project something instrumental to the play’s script itself.

 
Whether you need a Christmas projector rental for a Christmas party, Christmas play, or any other holiday or even non-festive reason, you can get a projector rental quote from us today. Happy holidays!

Want to share this story on social media? Use these hashtags! #HolidayProjectors #ChristmasPrep #ChristmasProjector

Modern educational programs are often empowered by technology. Many programs, such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel, are routinely used in training and educational courses. However; if you are running a training course, you may not have a projector at your disposal to adequately display essential information.

Getting a training course projector rental will increase your training program’s value, while also saving you time. Instead of writing down information on a whiteboard and erasing and writing information as the program progresses, you can switch between nicely formatted presentation slides.

Having a projector also allows you to display more accurate graph related information. Handwriting and graphing are ancient nemeses, but being able to display a computer generated graph saves you the hassle of becoming a part of that ancient feud, and allows you to concentrate on presenting information instead of staring at your own drawing skills.

One thing projectors can do that the mastering of penmanship will not allow you to do is displaying videos. There is a massive amount of instructional videos on the internet, and having just one of these in your presentation can greatly increase the presentations value. If you were learning to change a tire, it would be more helpful if you saw it being done so that you can repeat the process, instead of just reading about it. Displaying a video through your projector is a great way to get your audience’s attention, and add a new layer of depth to the material being taught.

If you are suddenly thrust into a scenario where you are giving a training presentation and you have a projector, but do not have a projector screen appropriate for your venue, you’ll be pleased to know we offer projector screen rentals. Projector screens are not compact or easily transportable, but if you rent a projector screen from RentOurProjectors.com, our tech agents can deliver it to your venue so you don’t have to worry about how you are getting your projector screen. 

One final word of advice, when renting a projector screen, try to find out the height of your venue’s ceiling, the distance from the screen to the audience, and the projector’s native resolution. Knowing these three things will make choosing the size of your projector screen a walk in the park.

Want to share this story on social media? Use these hashtags! #trainingprofs #projectors  

It’s about that time of the year again folks! That’s right, only 61 more days until Halloween at the time this post was published. Halloween is a tremendous time for decoration, and what better way to decorate than with projector rentals? Here at RentOurProjectors.com, we take Halloween very seriously. Get your pumpkins and crucifixes ready, it’s time for some serious Halloween preparation advice.

At this point you have already been thinking “there are much better ways to decorate my (insert environment here) than with a rented projector”, but you know what, you’re wrong! Props and pumpkins are all well and good, but to truly add a sense of dread and horror to your environment, you need to play with the element of lighting.

With the power of projectors, you can create a ghastly and dazzling display for the eyes of your fellow mortals. For residential use, projectors can be used to make your house the hottest haunt on the block. If you are a fan of Halloween parties, you can rent a projector to host the ultimate Halloween-themed movie party.

If you are on the business end of the spooktrum, there is almost no end to practical usage for projectors for haunted houses. If you run a haunted house/trail, you can use projectors to keep your clientele happy and entertained as they wait in line, or use projector rentals to scare your attendees as they wait, and give them a foreboding taste of what to expect in your house of horrors.

If you own a haunted house or just a regular property, if you want to be this season’s hot commodity, you should consider getting a quote from us at RentOurProjectors.com, or call us at 888-736-8301.

Want to share this spooktacular article on social media? Use these hashtags! #Halloween2016 #HalloweenPrep

Projectors can be one of the most useful tools in hosting any event. Sure, projectors can be used for normal functions like teaching classrooms or watching movies, but what other exciting things can you do with projectors? I don’t know, maybe make the coolest panorama projection ever to impress your fellow businessmen-in-arms?

1.) Panorama Wall Projection

The above video is from an open house event called “The Big Color Bang”. This amazing display was made possible through the use of eight ceiling-mounted LCD projectors rented through RentOurProjectors.com.

2.) Interactive Floor Displays

Projectors can be used for truly amazing things. For example, you can use projectors alongside a computer and a camera to display advanced, interactive floor “carpets” which your guests can interact with. The video below is from an art installation where guests would walk through the projection and the display would react to their presence.

3.) Laser & Music Light Shows

Another clever use of projectors would be to give life to your event by orchestrating a laser light show. Using software and a high-lumen projector, you can put on a very impressive laser light show to accompany whatever music you like.    

4.) Slideshows

One final reason to get a projector rental for your next event would be to display a slideshow. This is easily the least creative idea I have listed so far, but slideshows can be used in many scenarios. These scenarios include hosting graduation parties, family reunions, or business conventions. Whatever your event may be, if used with creativity, projectors can add a little, or a lot of, extra wow factor.

Epson’s newest projectors are the Home Cinema 1040 ($799) and the Home Cinema 1440 ($1,699), which respectively put out a rated light output of 3,000 and 4,400 lumens. Both are 1080p projectors with integrated speakers and MHL support, with the Home Cinema 1440 adding 1.6x optical zoom and Faroudja DCDi Cinema processing. You’ll be able to get your hands on these, this month!

The Home Cinema 1040 and Home Cinema 1440 feature up to 4,400 lumens of color brightness and 4,400 lumens of white brightness. Epson’s newest projectors feature widescreen, Full HD 1080p big-screen projections for your living rooms. They also feature advanced image quality technology, built-in sound and setup tools for placement, two HMDI ports and MHL support for connecting a Blu-ray player, Chromecast, Apple TV, gaming console, Roku Stick and more. It pretty much makes these projectors a home entertainment hub!

The marketing manager for Epson America, Jason Palmer says, “The new projectors offer today’s households a convenient, affordable and powerful big-screen experience. Beyond the flexibility, the Home Cinema 1440 is also one of the brightest home projectors available on the market–this is a flat-panel killer. Why settle for a 65-inch or 70-inch TV when you can have something four times bigger with bright, lifelike, sharp details, a portable design, and simple setup for a truly captivating experience even in large, well-lit environments.”

High-quality imaging needs high color brightness (color light output) and with the Epson projectors, they have up to 3X higher color brightness than any other projectors. They also feature 25% lower power consumption which lowers your energy cost. Both the Home Cinema 1040 and 440 use 3LCD, 3-chip technology for amazing images with vivid color, as well as featured with built-in color modes for top quality and color. This allows users to be able to enjoy their movie, video game or TV show projecting inside or even outside, with more possibility of color break-up or “rainbow effect.”

These projectors come in a compact design so you can easily install them on a ceiling, place them on a table, or easily put them up on a shelf. They also have a horizontal image correction with easy-slide control technology and an advanced home screen for easy navigation and set up. The Home Cinema 1440 has a split screen capability, so you can project two different videos or still images side by side.

The Home Cinema 1040 at $799 and Home Cinema 1440 at $1,699 will be out this month at specific stores and online sites nationwide. Both projectors come with Epson’s service and support, as well as a 2-year limited warranty with toll-free access to Epson’s PrivateLine tech support. They also come with a 90-day limited lamp warranty and free two-business-day exchange with Extra Care Home Service.

Content originally published here

When it comes to projectors, finding the right one can be a taxing situation. There are a lot of factors to consider, like lumen output, portability, projection distance, image projection size, connectivity, etc… Thankfully you have people like us who make nifty lists like this one that informs you about the current projectors sitting at the top of the market. You’re welcome.

ViewSonic PLED-W800

This is one of the least expensive ViewSonic projectors that still performs like a champion. The smaller price tag is probably mostly due t how small it is, but this means that it is super portable. it weighs just short of 2 pounds, and it is 13.1 x 10.4 x 4.3 inches. You can take it with you to all of your business meetings or events with little to no hassle. The lamp can reach up to 800 lumens. As long as you can control the lighting a little bit, you can use this projector in any room you want for any reason. It has an SD slot, an HDMI input, a USB slot, and a VGA output for laptops. You can connect just about anything to it that you could think of.

This is an great choice for presenting documents from Word, Excel, and Powerpoint presentations directly from a USB flash drive. It can also play video of course, but that isn’t a strong point. Either way, for the money, it’s really hard to beat. Especially with the portability.

Epson EB-X11

This is another super portable projector that is great at doing just about everything. It’s also a little cheaper than the ViewSonic PLED-W800, and if you shop around a little bit you can get it for a steal. It has a ton of amazing features, which is why it made it on the list. It measures 11.6 x 11.9 x3.0 inches and weighs about 5 pounds. So like the Viewsonic model, you can easily take the EB-X11 from place to place and take care of business anywhere you need to. One cool feature is the lens cap that automatically shuts off the lamp and the speakers when it is put on. The lamp has a really high brightness for this type of projector, with a rating of 2600 lumens. It does have USB slot, but for some reason you can only view photos with it and not videos. Other than that, this is a really great projector and the brightness and size make up for it’s little flaws. And even the flaws are pretty easy to get around.

Sony VPL-FHZ55

This model isn’t very portable at all, but that isn’t what it was made for. It weighs about 26 and a half pounds, so you probably wouldn’t want to move it anyway. It measures 15.3 x 19.8 x 5.8 inches. This model is also the first 3LCD projector, but the projection chip it uses was made popular by other companies. It does not use a lamp at all but instead uses a blue laser light source. This is very convenient, but we all know you pay a price for convenience. This bad boy is going to cost you an arm and a leg. It goes for about $11 grand if you’re planning on buying as opposed to renting. It has a brightness of 4,000 lumens and can last for up to 20,000 hours. This means you don’t have to change lamps as often. It also has a full set of BNC/component inputs, an RGB D-sub 15-pin slot, DV-D, monitor output and an HDMI input. On the other side of the projector it also has S-video, composite video, lots of analog audio ins and outs, an RS-232C control jack, the DC inlet, and wired LAN. With all of those features you would think that it would have built in Wi-Fi, but sadly it does not. This is a small price to pay for all of the other crazy features though.