How do you hang a golf simulator screen?
Take whatever interior width you have and subtract 2-3” for a gap on either side. This will leave the proper tension. You don't want the gap to be do be too small, because then you're going to be right up against the frame. If you are to wide, it is harder to fill the gap. Hang the two tops first they should sit evenly and most important flush with the floor. Use cable ties on the four corners first to get the screen tight. Hang the scree loosely on top and all the way to bottom of the floor. Ace screens have a pocket on the bottom threaded with shock cord that keeps the screen tight so if the screen lifts up, it snaps right back down. The shock cord pocket should sit about three inches in front of the screen and lay flat on the floor so the cord just holds the screen down. Then place bungee ties on the sides. This will automatically center the screen. We attach the 10” long bungee cord to the angle iron about 8” below the grommet and thread it through the grommet and attach it to the angle iron about 8” above the grommet. It is perfect tension for a nice smooth screen without ripples. When you're up against the screen, it should be somewhat lose and floppy. A lot of people like to use mattress behind their screen but it is not necessary if you hang it right. In all of our installations, we leave anywhere between 8 and 12 inches off the back wall, and we never have a problem. The screen should be just loose enough that when the ball hits, it will bounce down. If you tighten it too much, that's when you get the bounce back from the ball. To the fill in the gaps, we run velcro the length of the frame and attach what we call carbon pads that lay over the frame, the gap, and the screen. Then we attach 2” thick foam padding that velcros on top of the carpet pad to protect the angle iron, wood, and you. Because the carpet pad lays on top you get a nice, even picture with black all around it. So it can easily double as a movie screen if you want to.
For more information visit watch this video: https://youtu.be/swSkxY1UvvQ
How do I decide what projector to use?
People often start with a projector and say, “Hey, I've got a projector. Now. What screen?” We tell our customers the projector should actually be the second thing you actually worry about. First, you need to worry about, how big is your screens viewable image. Depending on the width and height of your screen, you'll either be at 4:3 aspect ratio which is like an older TV or the newer ones, which are all 16:10 or 16:9.
Once you figure out your viewable image, next thing you need to do is figure out where you're going to place your projector. All of our designs actually have a projector behind the Golf. I see a lot of people, you know, on the floor, I'm not a big fan of the formality, and although I understand that there are times you need to do it in that case, you're obviously going to have a short grow. But, typically, with a 9.5” or 9” foot ceiling and above, you can actually get behind the golfer.
One of the things we do is, we provide design prints, with a layout, the space, and exactly where the projector hangs. We use a model of a six foot golfer and then we have the projected image go on the screen. So you can always get, for the most part, behind the actual golfer, with a projector. Throw distance is one of the things a lot of people don't understand. And most of the projectors we use or we use a lot of Panasonic, laser projectors, throw distance is somewhere around 1.09 and above. What that means is if I have a viewable width of say100 inches and my throw distance is 1.09. So what I do is multiply the viewable width times the 1.09, which equals 109 inches, and that's where your projector lenses to be or further back to fill up the viewable image. Some of the other features that we like, on a projector are cornerstone capabilities because if it's offset or you're not dead straight on, you get a trapezoid effect and it's not dead square.
