So true about that stage floor reflecting lights back to the screen and it’s the worst offender because it is pretty much a light guy aimed at the screen, shooting your image contrast in half. We faced this vase expanse of a polished blond wood floor that made up an apron bowing out 25 feet in front of the screen. You might as well have put a mirror there instead. This was a gorgeous 2500 seat house, but that expanse of floor was a real challenge. We tried to do every thing under the sun with lights to lessen the impact on the projected image and nothing worked the way we needed it to work. In the end, the very best thing we could do in our multi-purpose auditorium (“multi-purpose” = intended to do everything, good for nothing), was to invest in black velour (cheapest we could find) and just lay it out over the apron. We gaffer-taped it down so the talent wouldn’t snag on it, and it was mostly professors giving running commentary so no dancing or anything like that, and it certainly made a massive improvement for projected image contrast..
Frank Angel
September 14, 2025
So true about that stage floor reflecting lights back to the screen and it’s the worst offender because it is pretty much a light guy aimed at the screen, shooting your image contrast in half. We faced this vase expanse of a polished blond wood floor that made up an apron bowing out 25 feet in front of the screen. You might as well have put a mirror there instead. This was a gorgeous 2500 seat house, but that expanse of floor was a real challenge. We tried to do every thing under the sun with lights to lessen the impact on the projected image and nothing worked the way we needed it to work. In the end, the very best thing we could do in our multi-purpose auditorium (“multi-purpose” = intended to do everything, good for nothing), was to invest in black velour (cheapest we could find) and just lay it out over the apron. We gaffer-taped it down so the talent wouldn’t snag on it, and it was mostly professors giving running commentary so no dancing or anything like that, and it certainly made a massive improvement for projected image contrast..