How to set up and pack down an outdoor cinema in your backyard

With our Outdoor Cinema package, you can transform your next movie night into a unique outdoor experience.

These videos, and the below PDF, will give you a quick and easy-to-follow guide to show you how to set up and pack down an outdoor cinema in your backyard.

How To Set Up The Outdoor Cinema Up In Your Backyard

How To Pack Down The Outdoor Cinema Up In Your Backyard

How To Set Up and Pack Down The Outdoor Cinema Up In Your Backyard

Click here to download our Cinema Set Up and Pack Down Instructions PDF. This is best used after viewing the above videos.

If you have any questions about our DIY Outdoor Cinema Hire set up and pack down instructions please get in touch – we’d love to chat with you.

If you’d like to know more about our Outdoor Cinema Hire click here for information about our packages, FAQs and pricing.

Set Up Video Text:

This is Dave. He’s going to take us through how to set up our outdoor cinema. As you can see he’s selected a space that’s at least five meters wide, three meters deep and three and a half to four meters clearance above. You’ll need a large space like this to accommodate the screen size. We’re going to put down our tarp to protect the cinema from anything that could be on the ground. It’s a little bit windy today so we’re going to put some weights on it too. The next step is to get the frame of the cinema, lift it gently out of the tub and untangle it as much as you can to ensure that when it inflates it will go up smoothly. You want to put the white velcro parts at the front and then just try to get that triangle base towards the back. Then go to the back, above the fan, unzip and pull out the power cable, make sure you zip it back up otherwise when you turn the fan on all of the air will escape. Get the extension cord, plug onto end into the mains power, and plug the other end into a power board, because we’re going to also plug the speaker in here now there’s no on/off switch for the screen, so as soon as you plug it in it will start to inflate and as you can see you just need to guide it as it unfolds. Flip it back and we’re going to put the white screen into the frame this just velcros in. It’s best to start at the top and then do the sides go slow because you want it to be as straight and even as possible.

Be gentle as well we don’t want to get the screen dirty which is another reason why the tarp is helping in this situation. Once you get to the bottom you want to flip the inflatable screen up. Remember, it’s going to be a lot windier now it’s basically a massive sail, so you probably need someone to help you with this part. Once the air cinema is back up you want to use your guide ropes to secure the screen – so anchor them to whatever you can, if you don’t have anything to tie the giant screen’s guide ropes to you can use tent pegs – just drill into the grass. We also have extra guide ropes and extra tent pegs in case it’s a little bit windy. We’re just fixing up the bottom of the outdoor screen and now we’re going to put the speaker down it’s best at the front behind the screen – plug in a power extension cord for the speaker and just run it under the front of the cinema frame. Then there’s a power adapter for the speaker obviously a unique shape. All right then we’ve got our RCA to AUX cable so the red plug goes in the red spot the white plug goes in the white spot. This is how you adjust the volume, you can also adjust it on the device that you’re playing with – and this is the on/off switch. You don’t want to turn it on until everything is set up now we need to do the projector the first step is to connect it to power open the projector up and gently lift it out.

Find the power cable for the projector and plug it in. As you can see it just connects at the back here, now we’re going to put in an HDMI cable into the HDMI port this is how the video is going to get to the projector – We’re grabbing our HDMI audio extractor we also call this an HDMI splitter this box is going to take the video from your device and send the audio to the speaker and the video to the projectors. It’s very important to connect the HDMI cable from the projector into the splitter and then connect a micro USB cable in – we’re going to power this little box we have a phone charger in there and you know it’s working when the light turns on. Next, we’re getting the other end of the RCA to  AUX cable that’s plugged in the speaker and we’re plugging it into the splitter, as well this is an HDMI cable that is going to connect your device (the device you’ll play the movie from) to the splitter.

Now depending on what device you’re using will depend what adapter you need. This is a lightning adapter which is great for an iPhone or an iPad you simply connect it to your device and then put the HDMI cable into the other end.

If you have an android phone or another tablet this is a USBc adapter that will plug into most androids and tablets and then again you connect it to the HDMI cable which will plug your device into the projector and the speaker system if you have a MacBook this thunderbolt adapter should fit your computer it just clicks into the side and that will now get that plugged into the system a lot of game consoles and computers will just have an actual HDMI port in them and you don’t need an adapter you can connect the HDMI directly now we want to adjust the projector so that it’s pointing at the screen at the right angle you can adjust the arm at the front and the feet at the back, you can also put something underneath it like a book. We’re turning the projector on now and when it’s dark enough you’ll be able to adjust the settings so that it gets into focus at this point we can turn on your speaker and you should be able to hear audio and see the video playing and you’re ready to watch your movie.

Pack Down Video Text:

In this video, we’re going to take you through the pack up process for the backyard cinema. The first thing you want to do is turn off the projector because this will take a while to cool down and it can cool while we’re packing away the rest of the system.

Next, turn off the speaker and unplug all of the cords from the back, now we’re going to deflate the cinema this is going to take a while to come down so we want to do this early on as well. Undo the guide ropes and ensure all of the tent pegs are returned. You might need somebody to help you lay the cinema down. Gently remove the screen. The Velcro makes it easy to remove but we want to keep it clean and get it back in the bag as quickly as possible. When you unplug the backyard outdoor cinema it’s going to start to deflate straight away. Open up the zip at the back near the fan to let the air out faster and return the power cord in there so it’s safe and ready for the next use.

While that’s happening we’re going to unplug all of the electrical equipment and safely restore it back to the tub, make sure that you close the shutter on the projector to protect the lens everything needs to be re returned the way that it was originally stored. We’re going to put our HDMI audio extractor back in the box carefully with the micro USB cord that was in there and make sure that it’s all packed away for next time. Gently roll all of the leads just so they sit in the tub and nothing is broken or forced and make sure that everything that came out of the tub goes back into it. Next, we’re going to put the inflatable cinema back in the tub – you want to put the fan in first at the bottom and then just push the rest of the cinema in a little bit like you’re packing a sleeping bag, as you can see there’s still a little bit of air in the cinema so we’re just going to gently just massage that air out while we’re pushing it in and just be gentle not to rip anything.

Now we’re going to put the tarp away, if it has any dirt on it make sure that you shake it off before you fold it up.

Pack the projector away at the very end – open up the case and just gently place it inside, make sure that that lens is closed at the front and the front leg is put back in. Make sure that the clips are secured on the case so that when you pick it up nothing falls open. 

You can pack all of the power leads away with the extension cords ready for the cinema to be returned and that’s the completion of our pack up.