How to hook up my projector to audio/pa systems at events (weddings, etc)?

FiddlerMD

FiddlerMD

Well-known member
I am getting a projector that i'll be taking to various gigs with me to show the short films we make at wedding and other events. I was wondering how you normally go about getting the audio from it to the place's PA or the DJ/Band's system.
Should i just have a huge RCA -> 1/4" stereo cable or something with XLR or what?
Thanks
 
Well, first of all, as somebody who encounters this quite a bit in the A/V rental biz, I always recommend that you run your audio straight from the player (VCR, DVD, whatever) direct to the sound rather than through the projector first.

Second, your problem is going to be in the fact that every system you're going to be hooking into is going to be a little different. Line inputs could be either RCA or 1/4"--and there'll be some people who don't even have any line inputs, either because they're all being used or because the system didn't have any to start with. Then of course there's the mono/stereo issue...

Third, my experience has been that it's better to run your video the longer distance rather than the audio. I recommend that people put the player near the sound system and then run a long cable over to the projector.

So, first I'd recommend a good quality 50' RCA or BNC video cable (depending your player's output and your projector's input). Then, a 10' RCA stereo audio cable with a pair of RCA - 1/4" adapters. You might also want to look at an RCA "Y" cable to sum down to mono in a situation where there's only one line input available. Then, in the "just to be sure" scenario, you might consider a "direct box" or other line-to-mic conversion device (we use the ProCo DB-1; their AV-1 might also be a good option for you), and then a 10' XLR cable to go from the direct box to the mixer. All of that should cover you in most instances.
 
thanks - i WILL be running audio from the dvd player or camera - havent decided what i'm gonna be doing for that yet, but yeah - right from the source.
video will most likely be going via HDMI or DVI or some such.
Second, the prjector i'm getting (panasonic ax100u) has a shiftable zoom lens so i will have some wiggle room with projector placement.
as far as cables, what do you think of something like a stereo rca->1/4" run of 50' or so plus a myriad of connectors .. 1/4" -> rca 1/4" -> xlr etc... ?
 
You could try that, although 50' dual RCA cables might be tricky to find. You're still going to need something to convert that line-level output on your camera into mic-level for a board that only has XLR inputs, though--just converting to an XLR connector isn't enough. The ProCo direct boxes are the only thing I've found that works worth a darn--we had some little Shure in-line units that were supposed to convert line to mic and they never worked. Plus you're going to have the problem of summing to mono in that situation as well. I suppose you could sum it down on the other end of the 50' dual RCA and go into a direct box, with a short XLR to the board.

If you're sold on running HDMI, a long cable for that is going to be pretty expensive, so price-wise you are probably going to be better off with the audio being the longer run. Sound quality-wise, though, I'm still not convinced. It just seems like every time I try to make a long unbalanced audio run, I get a hum in it...
 
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