Sandbar "Tailgating" Equipment (Monitor)

[GATORB8]

Hey Guys,

Football is back, and the weather is still nice enough to spend Saturdays at the sandbar. Would be nice to have a way to watch from the water behind the swim platform. We have a bowrider, so no cozy cabin with built in TV. Now that we've cut the cord at the house, we are pretty well equipped to watch wirelessly on the boat. My phone has personal hotspot and unlimited data, our audio is bluetooth enabled, we have ESPN access, etc.

I have a couple old ipads that could work for the monitor portion, but they're small and prone to glare. A standard TV could work, but that would mean using a power hungry inverter, or a generator I have no interest in bringing out.

Does anyone have a solution that they've found? Maybe a decent sized 12V monitor? I assume all the small projectors are useless in the sun.

 

[Golfman25]

Go old school -- Radio?

 

[Stee6043]

I think you're going to find that brightness will be your biggest issue. Most higher end TV's will not perform well in full sun, let alone the more affordable options out there. When you see commercial applications of outdoor displays it's usually purpose built "ultra high brightness" ($$$'s), or the like, from a brand like Dynascan. And this may seem obvious, but the brighter the display the more power hungry it generally becomes.

DVR the games and enjoy the boating for the boating!

 

[bbwhitejr]

There are 12v TVs that use relatively few amps. As mentioned, the sun and glare will make it impossible...

I have one mounted under my bridge(top of cockpit) and have to put up part of the cockpit enclosure to block the sun.

Bennett

 

[GATORB8]

Thanks for the responses, this is our first season in NC after being in the Chicago area for the past 8 years, so we try to take advantage of all the time we can on the boat. This thought popped in my head after spending a big chunk of my time at a concert last Saturday staring at the gamecast of the UF-Miami game. We normally bring a 46" TV when we tailgate at games, so this seemed like a natural evolution. Although we do normally have to cover with a canopy for glare.

If I can find a good deal on a TV that uses 12V Input, maybe give it a try. Our sandbar here is basically a big tailgate scene, complete with volleyball net and built in grill, large area about 24" deep and can rotate the boat in the direction to help with the sun.

 

[ColoSR]

When I was in Africa, they were using solar power to watch the soccer game on a reasonably sized TV. They had a 100 ish watt panel, 400 watt inverter and could get 3-6 hours out of marine deep cycle when it was sunny.