AV Guide: Open air time

World Cup screening or barbecue? Latest technology means you could have both.

If June is hot, many pubs could be torn between putting on a barbecue or concentrating on the football. But just imagine if both could be combined - takings could really start to sizzle. The good news is World Cup 2006 is likely to see the emergence of a new kind of big screen experience in pubs. Technological advances now make it possible for licensees to consider installing an outdoor screen.

It will cost you, of course, but with a smoke ban driving many fans into the garden, you could find that it will pay its way.

Brian Pipe, chairman of the European Council of AV trade organisation InfoComm International, warns, though, that you may still need to create the right kind of environment for an outside screen to work properly.

"Most outdoor screens today are based on Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology," he explains. "The image is created by LEDs mounted in rows and columns to form the overall display. The secret to using outdoor LED displays effectively is to make sure viewers are far enough away so that the eye-brain processing system is fooled into seeing a smooth area of moving video and not the series of winking dots of light that it really is."

So you need to find out the "pixel pitch" of the screen in millimetres and multiply that by 2,000 to find out the minimum distance it is viewable from. The newer models will tend to have a finer pixel pitch so you can watch them from a shorter distance.

As an alternative to LED, Densitron Ferrograph has designed a giant plasma screen specially for outdoor use.

The 50-inch display, named the Terrace C, is described as "impervious to weather" and the latest flat screen technologies have been incorporated to provide a wide viewing angle, no distortion and bright picture quality. It even claims to be resistant to "bottle-throwing vandals", but you probably wouldn't want that anyway.

Another issue you need to consider is security. "The main worry for publicans is theft," says Mike Clayton of big screen distributor Medium. "Some cheaper brackets work on a rail system that enables the screen to be simply lifted off the backplate and taken away. Medium has a range of secure brackets that have locking screws to prevent the easy removal."

New products​

• Smaller pubs might struggle to give their customers a great spectator experience, and that's where Toshiba's new projector might help. The ET10's wide-angled lens and Super Close Projection technology allows it to project 0.65m images from just 20cm away from the wall, so you don't need a large open space, and it can also be inconspicuously installed on a ceiling without obstructing the view.
  
  For larger pubs that need the biggest possible image to maximise the number of customers watching one screen, it can also project images of up to 2.9m (diagonal) from 1.6m away.

New Panoview screens available through Blucat offer the
publican a number of advantages.

A stylish case design allows flush mounting to the ceiling or the wall (a far cry from from the days of bulky dangerous mountings and bumped heads), its wide viewing angle gives flexibility when you're organising the seating, and the surface is washable with soap and water, just in case the beer starts to fly.

Sky, BBC and Telewest are all starting to broadcast in High Definition (HD) in the summer, bringing clearer, sharper picture quality thanks to five times the amount of pixels than analogue, especially improving sports viewing.
You'll need HD-ready equipment to take advantage, such as the new Toshiba MT700 DLP projector. The company's assistant general marketing manager Olivier Van Wynendaele promises "you will notice each blade of grass".

Don't forget to visit Pub & Bar for more big screen ideas - www.pubandbar.co.uk​​

In brackets: don't forget to get your installation right​

Tales of plasma screens falling off a pub wall onto a customer's head are few and far between,thankfully. But you still need to take brackets, mountings, indeed, the whole installation, seriously.

Plasmas in particular can be quite heavy because of the amount of glass used to build them, and bracket quality is important. You should ask your supplier to what loads they have been tested and ask to see the certificate. You should also hire a professional to do the installation.

Bear in mind, too, that brackets, mountings, leads and so on all need to be compatible with the screens you are using.

One well-known specialist in the field is Vogels, which has a professional division to deal with pubs and other commercial clients. Its brackets are tested to five times the specified weight and "TUV-approved". But there are considerations other than safety that licensees might bear in mind, according to Vogels CEO Gordon Dutch.

"Of course, the top priority will always be for the publican to get the product in time for major events," he says. "But in a number of pubs we have done, choosing a bracket that turns and tilts can massively affect the number of people who can actually see the TV so where possible licensees should take this into account - if they can all see the TV, they all keep drinking!"

More surprisingly, Gordon also believes that the appearance of a bracket is important. "I think many people consider the look of the bracket now as well as the safety," he says. "Some can look quite agricultural and they don't suit the style of the bar. Vogels has a strong consumer division so this is one area we can score against the competition. "Also key is speed of installation," he adds. "In the event of the need to change the plasma, there is less cost to the pub in terms of loss of sales when the TV is down."

Security features may also be available if you're concerned about that expensive screen being stolen.