Angles of Reflection is a series of articles written by Da-Lite which reviews the best practices for designing and specifying visual displays coupled with application basics for today's challenging system designs.

In July 2007, Blake Brubaker wrote an article that discusses the fundamental causes of "hotspotting" in projection systems. In this article, Blake addresses:

Why does a hotspot exist?
Basic functions of front projection screens
Potential for hotspotting with various surfaces
Minimizing hotspotting in projection systems

Here's a summary of this issue of Angles of Reflection:

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Interestingly enough, I was recently posed a question about whether or not it was appropriate to use an extremely bright projector in a certain visual display system. The person who asked was concerned because they were using what they considered to be a moderately sized screen. The main focus of the question had to do with the potential of a “hotspot” with this extremely bright projector. My quick response to that question was to ask further questions about the project in order to help determine if we would, indeed, have a problem. After a bit of investigation, we determined that there were no significant issues or concerns which would point to the phenomena known as “hotspotting”. I think the one item that struck me most about this conversation was the fact that there seems to be a misunderstanding about why a hotspot exists and the fact that more light output from the projector triggers one to think that it could be present. Let us examine those concerns a bit more closely to see if there is merit in them.

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