I've been asked to look into purchasing a projector for our local small town hall/theatre. (Not a movie theatre, it's used for small concerts, events etc)

I have little idea about these, as my area of expertise is audio.

Basically, the hall fits about 250 people, and it will be projecting from the lighting bar in front of the stage to the white wall on the back of the stage. The distance from proctor to wall is approx 8 metres (25 feet), and the width of the "screen" would be about 5 metres (16 feet) max.

The hall cannot be completely darkened during the day, but there are black out curtains on the windows, so it is not bright light. Although it would be nice to compete with stage lighting that is pointing elsewhere, at someone speaking for instance..

We currently have a multi pin (not sure how many) cable installed going from the sound desk to the lighting bar that we have used for various projectors that people have bought in. It would be nice to use this cable again, but if technology requires something else, I'm open to that too.

It will need to be able to play footage mostly from laptops, but of course blue-ray and other sources will be used too. Maybe iPads if that is easy.

Audio will be dealt with separately.

Can anyone suggest a particular model, or range of models I should consider?

thanks
Matt