Farnham Rugby Union Football Club will be opening its doors for fans to watch the Rugby World Cup matches which will be bigger and brighter thanks to the club’s new Optoma projectors and 3.5m wide screens.
The club wanted to upgrade its old 50” LCD screens to larger projected images to enable hundreds of spectators, expected at the club for the Rugby World Cup, to watch the games.
Complete Audio Visual Equipment Ltd installed two bright 1080p Optoma EH501 projectors in the Dining Room and Main Bar with a CYP 8 x 8 Matrix Switcher to provide multi-room connectivity. New 3.5m wide blackout blinds for the clubhouse’s windows were installed to fulfil the dual purpose of also being projection screens.
Julian Frost from Farnham RUFC said: “We are absolutely delighted with the installation. It should be a real draw for rugby fans in the local area to come down and watch the game. It creates a great atmosphere in the clubhouse. My only regret is that we hadn’t done it sooner.”
Richard Nicholls, Director of Complete Audio Visual Equipment, said: “Rather than have a few people standing around large TVs in the club, they can now have hundreds of people seated and standing, eating and drinking, while watching the games on the two massive screens. Despite the size of the projection, the image quality is still brilliant – perfect for these major sporting events.”
The Rugby World Cup starts with England playing Fiji on Friday 18 September. That weekend Farnham RUFC is also hosting the European Veterans Rugby Festival (EVRA) 2015 with teams arriving from all over Europe (www.evra2015.com).
Julian explained: “The timing for installing the projectors and screens is deliberate so that all our guests and visitors can experience grassroots international rugby on the pitch and then watch the professionals play on the new giant screens.”
The RWC final takes place at Twickenham in London on Saturday 31 October 2015.
The club hires out all or part of the facilities for business meetings, weddings and other functions – so it was important to upgrade the AV system to be easy to use and compatible with a range of sources.
It was spending money on adding blackout blinds to all the windows, so it chose material for the 3.5m wide blinds that would be suitable to fulfil a dual purpose of becoming projection screens. Complete Audio Visual Equipment tested the image quality on the proposed material for the blinds and installed the two Optoma ProScene EH501 projectors in the Dining Room and Main Bar. These rooms have a movable partition wall to make one large space during major sporting events or private functions.
The bright Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) EH501 projector boasts a brightness of 5,000 ANSI lumens. Optoma projectors use DLP® technology, pioneered by Texas Instruments. This uses millions of mirrors to produce high quality imagery which does not suffer colour degradation over time, as sometimes experienced in other projector technologies. Optoma is so confident that colours will not degrade, it includes a five-year colour guarantee. And because there are no filters to remove and clean, the projector needs no maintenance.
Its 1.5x optical zoom makes installation easy when organisations are replacing their existing projectors and its vertical lens shift system simplifies installation further by adjusting the vertical position of the projected image.
The projector has a USB Reader which can project a JPEG presentation directly from a USB flash drive. It has energy saving features including Eco+ lamp power management, standby mode and auto power off. With full support for Crestron, Extron, AMX, PJ-Link and Telnet LAN commands, the projector can be controlled and monitored remotely over a LAN. This can provide email alerts if an error occurs, a lamp fails or needs to be replaced.
The Farnham-based AV company also installed a CYP 8 x 8 Matrix Switcher, which provides multi-room connectivity with its ability to switch and distribute up to eight HDMI sources. This matrix features eight HDMI outputs and each HDMI output is mirrored to provide a Twin CAT output which runs simultaneously. Installers can connect a PU-1106RX Receiver to each of the Twin CAT outputs to extend the HDMI signal up to 45m for multi-room connectivity.
The main source used for the games is Sky HD, but the system is compatible with a Blu-Ray player and laptop inputs from around the club house.
About Complete Audio Visual Equipment Ltd
Complete Audio Visual Equipment Ltd is a specialist audio visual company with decades of experience in domestic and commercial AV design, installation and maintenance. www.cave-ltd.co.uk
About Farnham Rugby Union Football Club
Established in 1975, Farnham RUFC has grown to become Farnham's largest charitable community sports club with over 1,000 members. Each weekend over 800 boys and girls, from as young as five years old, regularly play rugby at the club’s Wilkinson Way-grounds. The Club has produced a number of great players who have gone on to play for professional clubs and international honours - the most famous include Jonny Wilkinson and Peter Richards. www.farnhamrugby.org
About Optoma
Optoma is a world leading designer and manufacturer of projection and sound products for business, education, professional audio/video and home entertainment.
Optoma’s projection products combine superior image processing technologies with exceptional engineering and innovation to deliver stunning crystal clear images with ultimate reliability.
Optoma projectors use DLP® technology, pioneered by Texas Instruments. This uses millions of mirrors to produce high quality imagery which does not suffer colour degradation over time, as sometimes experienced in other projector technologies.
The Optoma NuForce sound range is designed for people that care about audio. They are built from premium quality components to deliver sleek design and exceptional sound.
The Optoma Group has continental headquarters in Europe, the USA and Asia; whilst Optoma Europe, based in London, covers Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Local services are delivered from regional offices in France, Germany, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands and sales representatives in the Czech Republic, Dubai, Italy, Poland, Russia, Romania and Saudi Arabia. www.optoma.com
