Discover how Gobohub deployed a 150W high-power gobo projector to project a hotel logo onto a 12-story building facade. This case study covers throw distance, lumen output, gobo design, image sizing, and outdoor weather factors — with real-world results from a five-night grand opening activation.
When a luxury hotel group approached us about projecting their logo onto the facade of a 12-story building, the brief was straightforward: make it unmissable. What followed was a masterclass in large-scale architectural projection — and a real-world demonstration of what high-power gobo projectors can achieve in demanding outdoor environments.
The client, a five-star hotel property in a high-footfall urban district, wanted to project their brand logo onto the building's main facade as part of a grand opening campaign. The goal was maximum visual impact from street level — legible, sharp, and bright enough to compete with ambient city lighting after dark.
This type of installation sits at the intersection of architectural lighting design and brand activation. Getting it right requires more than pointing a projector at a wall.
The first engineering variable was throw distance. The projector was positioned on a rooftop across the street, approximately 35 meters from the target facade. At that distance, achieving a sharp, well-defined image requires a projector with a long-throw lens and precise optical alignment.
We selected a 150W high-power LED gobo projector (DGL200-700W series) with a custom long-throw lens optimized for the 30–50 meter range. The throw ratio was calculated to deliver an image width of approximately 8 meters on the facade — large enough to be read from 100+ meters down the street, yet contained within the architectural frame of the building's central bay.
Projection distance is one of the most misunderstood variables in building projection. Many buyers underestimate how dramatically lumen output degrades over distance. At 35 meters outdoors, you need a projector rated for outdoor use with a minimum of 12,000–15,000 lumens to maintain visible contrast against ambient light.
For building facade projection, wattage alone is not a reliable spec. What matters is the combination of lumen output, optical efficiency, and the quality of the gobo (the image slide inserted into the projector).
In this installation, the DGL200-700W unit delivered approximately 14,000 lumens at source. After accounting for lens transmission loss and the gobo's light absorption, the effective output at the facade surface was sufficient to render the hotel logo at a contrast ratio clearly visible to the naked eye — even with streetlights and signage competing for attention.
For reference:
The gobo itself was a custom stainless steel slide etched with the hotel's wordmark and logo icon. For building projection, gobo design follows different rules than standard signage:
The final projected image measured 7.2m wide × 4.8m tall, covering the equivalent of a three-story section of the building's central facade. At street level 80 meters away, the logo was clearly legible and photographically sharp.
Outdoor building projection introduces variables that indoor installations never face. This project was installed in a coastal city with high humidity, occasional fog, and seasonal rain.
Key environmental considerations included:
The hotel's grand opening projection ran for five consecutive nights. Guest and pedestrian feedback was immediate — the projection became an organic social media moment, with dozens of tagged posts appearing within the first hour of activation.
From a brand perspective, the projection delivered what no static signage could: scale, drama, and memorability — all without permanent modification to the building facade.
Gobohub supplies high-power gobo projectors for architectural, hospitality, and event applications worldwide. Contact us for a custom projection calculation for your building.
