Community Cinema Project - Advice Required

[nickers1969]

Hi,
I'm embarking on a community cinema project for our Village Hall. It's a small community and we're miles from a real cinema and relish the prospect of enjoying films as a community rather than separately in our own homes.
We've raised £1100 from a proportion of the income from a Village show. We already have a projector screen and are asking round locally for any "spare" speakers that can be "donated" with a view to upgrading in the next couple of years. The venue is a village hall of around 7m x 15m or so, with high ceilings and mainly glazed walls - (think primary school assembly hall!)
Question: We need a HD projector, AV Amp and Blu-Ray player for the £1100. Would anyone help with recommendations for kit and also comments about set up and requirements?
many thanks

 

[John Duncan]

My first advice would be to find out the cost of the license you're going to need to show films from here. Starts at £75 per performance (or 35% of ticket sales, whichever is greater) if you are charging. Make sure you're also PRS compliant...

 

[nickers1969]

Cheers John,

We've covered all the legal and rights aspects thanks.

Main concern is the size of my budget and maximising the experience for very little dosh!

Ta

Nick

 

[The_Lhc]

The AV amp and blu-ray shouldn't be too much money (although you'll need some welly from the amp and decent sized speakers to fill somewhere that big) but I think you're going to struggle to get an HD projector inside your budget, unless you go second-hand with the inherent risks involved.

 

[Anonymous]

Optoma HD20 DLP Projector = £850 at Richer

Sony BDP-S370 = £99 at play.com (I think) or £120 Richer

Pioneer VSX-520 AV Receiver = £250 at Richer

Ask for a discount

I do not work for them!!

 

[kinda]

Maybe you could go for a 720 projector rather than 1080 and save a bit more, and then maybe add a bit more power to the amp?

I suppose it depends what the speakers are, but it's a big room, with quite a few people in it. The harder reflective surfaces should help in terms of keeping the volume up, but you probably need to get a receiver that has some decent equalisation to compensate for any unevenness in the reflections.

Is it possible to try out some sound in the hall and get a feel for the power needed?

HD67 is £575 and can do 3D and at 1800 lumens should be bright enough if the room is fairly dark, and it's not miles from the screen. You really need to check where it will be mounted, and the size of image you need and check the throw distances as well to make sure.

If you got the S370 you'd then have about £400 or so for either a newer receiver or maybe one of last year's with a bit more power.