We did a final round of testing with a clearer vinyl film by 3m. I think there was a general concensus that it was the best looking on the glass and the least intrusive in the space from the inside and outside. The projection showed some hotspots during the day and the colors were not perfect though. Over all though it the projection showed up good enough to be very impressive. Especially with bold black and white graphics. In the end I think everyone seemed to accept that the little loss in image quality was more than compensated for by the more subtle appreance of the film on the glass.
Now to install the film we hired some experts (i don’t know what company sorry). They came in and had to build these wooden platforms between the two window walls so they could reach the frosted area. It seemed slow going, they had to stop a few times to set up fans and cool down the window cavity. I guess they didn’t want the glass to crack from the temperature difference. Here are some picts of the scaffolding inside the windows.
We are looking to do nearly the same thing on a much smaller scale in a class window of a conference room. Could you please tell me what film you used and tested, and why you picked this 3M one? The windows we are working with aren’t frosted. Please help!
This website is a saviour right now.
–Chris–
Comment by Chris — 5/2/2005 @ 5:56 pm
Chris,
We chose the 3M product specifically for esthetic reasons during the day when the projection is off. This was a compromise between the projection looking the best and the screen not interfering with the existing architecture. The 3M film was good for what we are doing but I would not recommend it for doing anything besides projecting white shapes (letters in our case) on a black background. Even then there are some hotspots and uneven light distribution that we decided blended with the architecture and other lighting to create an effect we liked. The brightest film we tested was the Kimoto film but the most even light distribution was the Da-Lite rear projection material. The Da-Lite material comes in a rigid form on plexiglass that you can get cut to a window size. I think I had links to those two in a previous post.
One thing to consider is the Kimoto film has an adhesive so its applied right to a window. It’s probably the best deal and easiest to install. The Da-Lite fabric needs to be stretched on some sort of frame if you are not using the rigid screen on plexi.
Comment by eric — 5/4/2005 @ 11:06 am