How to Build a Home Golf Simulator With the Perfect Projector

Given the spatial limitations inherent in any indoor golf simulator, installing the projector properly is a challenge full of nuances that will help determine the success of the entire project. To ensure that your projector is at its most effective, make sure that you fulfill the following four criteria when choosing and installing a projector:

• Choose a projector with a high brightness level and long lifespan to reduce maintenance costs.
   
• Install the projector in a location that is far enough away from your swing radius and the flight path of the ball, so as avoid any damage.
   
• Install the projector within its projection range to ensure that the entire image is shown.
   
• Install the projector in a location that will prevent any projection-related shadows.
   

The light sources for the most commonly used projectors usually fall into three categories: traditional (either a high-pressure mercury or xenon) lamps, lasers, or LED lights. Traditional bulbs have the advantage of being a tried-and-true technology with low purchasing costs, but they come with the major disadvantage of a short-life span. Under normal conditions a traditional lamp gives you about 4,000 to 6,000 hours of light. Furthermore, in the span of those thousands of hours, the light from the lamp tends to deteriorate, becoming both darker and more yellow. This results in mounting maintenance costs.

With the costs associated with laser technology lowering in recent years, there has been a corresponding drop in the price of laser projectors. As lasers are able to produce a wider selection of wavelengths, they feature a larger colour spectrum allowing them to re-create over 90% of the colours visible to the human eye for near perfect colour representation. At the same time lasers feature ultra-high brightness and long lifespans of roughly 20,000 hours of use, thereby drastically reducing maintenance costs. With the benefit of such high-quality output and overall reliability, laser projectors are ideal candidates for golf simulators.

A projector’s throw ratio refers to the ratio of the throw distance (the distance from the projector to the screen) to the width of the projected image. Knowing a projector’s throw ratio lets you calculate the desired screen size and corresponding installation distance ahead of time.

Calculating a Projector’s Installation Distance:

Screen Width (in centimeters) x Throw Ratio = Installation Distance

Online Throw Distance Calculator

Based on research, the ideal screen size for a golf simulator is roughly 5.4 to 6 meters wide by 3 meters tall. An average long-throw projector most likely won’t be able to achieve this screen size in the limited footprint most golf simulators occupy. And even if they are able to, they might produce shadows due to the distance their installation requires in order to achieve that screen size. Ultra-short throw projectors, on the other hand, though they are, by definition, equipped to produce large images in a short distance, would probably need to be installed within the flight path of the ball to produce the ideal screen size mentioned above, leading to a high risk of damage. If you want the distance between the screen and the golfer to be about 3 meters, a projector with a throw ratio of roughly 0.8 will be able to accommodate a 100-inch image at a 4-meter throw distance. These conditions give you the most ideal and effective space without producing shadows.

BenQ has trained staff to help you find the perfect golf simulator projector – within your room size and budget. To help you make the best decision, you can reach out to one of our experts to set up anything from a chat to a complete online demo, to help you find the right projector for your needs.