Featured "Projector" People

Marco Ciavolino - Forest Hill, MD

Pool Party Planner

Goal: To celebrate his daughter Amy's 13th birthday in grand fashion.

Home Theater People recently received an email from one of our satisfied customers, sharing his story of a birthday party splash!

The projector works great. So far we've done a number of presentations and as you'll see attached, we had a very cool birthday party.

We took a white sheet and stretched it over a PVC frame and attached it to the pool rail.

Then I rear projected Finding Nemo. When it got darker (a few minutes after this picture) the image was perfect.

I just brought out the DVD and some speakers and we had an instant 'in pool' movie.

We asked Marco to tell us a little more about his setup:

• We took a twin-size sheet and sewed a three-inch loop on the top and bottom.
• We used PVC pipe to construct a frame with the sheet looped on the top and one straight piece on the bottom to hold the bottom down and allow for it to 'billow' when the wind blew (i.e., it could drift out and not act like a sail). We then attached to larger tubes to the pool railing so can we set it up again easily.
• The projector was placed about 15 feet back from the sheet, placed on a card table along with our DVD player and some computer speakers and sub-woofer.
• We ran power out and it all worked perfectly. The kids lounged in the pool and watched Finding Nemo.

Marco also had a few final tips:

• It was a bit humid, so aim for a dry night.
• Wait until it's dark, about five to 10 minutes past sunset.
• The sheet became an enormous target for flying insects. Perhaps we could have sprayed it with insect repellent?

Bottom line: it was lots of fun and this method can be used to create a cheap rear projection screen anywhere.

Total cost of materials: $40