Projector Brightness Calculations for Your AV Design

[@vikasmodi7302]

Can you explain the Foot Lamberts value to be selected? I see some standards suggesting the range of 16-60 Foot Lamberts for various room types, mentioned below. If I use any of those values my lumens requirements would be too high. 16-26 Good for dark room - Home Theater Room 27-39 Good for low ambient light - Den, Man Cave, Darkened Conference Room 40-59 Good for medium ambient light - Living Room, Classroom, Office Meeting Room 60+ Good for high ambient light - Outdoor Movies, Convention Hall, Lecture Hall

[@karlhess2748]

Can you explain the contrast ratio of 15? I am used to seeing values orders of magnitude larger. If I use 150,000 : 1 then the formula says I need a projector with the power of the sun! What gives?

[@AVIXATV]

The 15:1 ratio comes from one of AVIXA's published standards on contrast ratio, ANSI/INFOCOMM 3M-2011 or Image System Contrast Ratio. 15 is the standard for the viewing category we define as Basic Decision Making. That viewing category is for things like classrooms, boardrooms, multipurpose rooms, and product illustrations. There are several viewing categories in the standard, but the highest contrast ratio you most likely need to go is 80:1 for Full Motion Video (think home theaters, etc.). Something like 150,000:1 would certainly burn some eyeballs.

[@AVIXATV]

You can find our peer-reviewed standard here: www.avixa.org/standards/image-system-contrast-ratio

[@michaelcornell8690]

The final examples in meters vs. feet, I thought were the same screen; I guess I missed that during the conversion moment. The video sort of makes it seem that using the metric system, you need a brighter projector... lol

[@LiveInStereodc]

Michael Cornell right, same size screen but different screen gain (.8 vs. 1) hence the brighter projector

[@michaelcornell5439]

@@LiveInStereodc Thanks for the reply. :)