The Show Going On

And it MUST, you know...that is one of the traditions of the theatre. Also one of the traditions of the holiday camp or the back yard, it would seem. I wrote a piece in this column some months ago regarding small portable projectors that people could use to stream motion pictures from their mobile storage devices while far way from the lounge room or AC power supply. But until I watched the Nebula by Anker at the recent PhotoLive Expo 2022 at the Novetel, I was unaware how effective it might be. It wasn't the best environment in which to show a projected image - there was a high level of ambient light and a rising amount of background sound as the trade hall filled up. If projector systems are intended for a quiet and dark area, this wasn't it. The Nebula was set up on a small tripod stand in front of the table projecting the image onto a stretched white screen - also portable - and the sound turned up enough to register. That picture was taken with a flash, at 6400 ISO, with ambient light, and you can still see the image on the screen - a Dr Whatever Sci-Fi film. Sit out on the back porch in the twilight, centre it on the screen, lose the Chinese subtitles, and you'd have a decent-looking movie. Looks as if there are a number of options for mounting it. There's a 360º speaker inside, and the whole thing is the size and shape of a drink can. If you cannot bear to get a way from it all, you can probably haul the most entertaining part of it with you.