Technology update


Installation projectors: the advance of laser


A recent report from Future- source reveals that the mar- ket for installation projectors (>5,000 ANSI Lumens) in 2020 will be 74% laser light- source-based. AV News drills down into this forecast.


From early personal models,


right through to the high-end of e-cinema, the potential of la- ser lightsources is exciting the projector market. This potential has started to crystallise, with Laser-LED, Laser-phosphor and pure Laser projectors popu- lating the mainstream in both volume and niche applications. While the well-documented LED-laser hybrid models make up a relatively small percentage of units sold into volume appli- cations offices and schools, the growth rate is truly impressive. Early adopters are attracted by the significantly lower To- tal Cost of Ownership (TCO) offered by mercury lamp-free models. TCO factors in the ad- ditional costs of replacement lamps (bulbs) and cleaning of


Migration


Moving up to the mid-range and even the foothills of the high-end, laser-phosphor will be the dominant technology for the foreseeable future. Gerd Kaiser, Product Line Manager – Large Venue Projectors at NEC Display Solutions, believes that: “We see a broad shift to laser in the very near future as the advantages that laser is providing are huge, and the cost efficiency in creating laser based models will increase.” For evidence that the mercury lamp / laser phosphor battle is in play right now, take a look at the increasing number of lamp replacement / lamp warranty deals currently on offer from- manufacturers of mercury lamp


solutions. Responding to these initiatives,


Kaiser argues the


offers can only be short-term: “Low cost lamps are just slow- ing down what is a clear trend towards laser. Cheap lamps can never outweigh the huge bene- fits offered by laser.”


End-user concerns


But we suspect that the issue is deeper than pure economics. The use of phosphors to trans- form the laser light has raised some concerns among end-us- ers about the quality and con- sistency of colour achievable with laser-phosphor. Could the architecture of Laser-phosphor adversely affect the colour? With both laser-phosphor and their mercury lamp equivalents in his range, Kaiser says that end-users need have no such worries:


“There is no need to be con- cerned at all! The brightness uniformity of laser is in fact much better than the unifor- mity of lamp-based projectors. Colour depends upon the laser source technology. Laser-phos- phor shares a similar colour space with mercury lamp light engines. At the high-end, RGB laser offers the best colour space achievable by projection -it’s almost equivalent to the Rec2020 standard.”


As for reports of ‘speckles’ present on pure laser created images, there has been enough development on management of these granular arrays of spots for them not be a significant issue. While an unregulated speckle pattern can be annoy- ing for the viewer, techniques based on superimposing un- correlated speckle patterns with equal average intensity are effective at dealing with the problem.


More than cost-savings


NEC’s PX803UL is an 8000 lumen 1920x1200 large venue projector. The PX803UL comes with a family of six optional lenses and sports edge blending, image warping, geometric correction.


filters which contribute to the overall cost of the projector over its lifetime.


with


Casio had led the charge here, other


vendors including


BenQ, Optoma and i3 also ac- tive. The arguments in favour of laser is definitely compelling: “Using a dual wheel laser light source, the i3Projector offers a lifetime of 20,000 hours and reduces brightness degrada- tion significantly. Even after 20 years, your presentations will still look natural and bright. 20,000 hours equals 20 years in a school environment, when using the projector 6 hours a day and 165 days a year!"


Speckles aside, laser projectors have more to offer than simple replacement lamp and mainte- nance cost savings. Some even talk about laser: “combating the flat panel advantage”. In applications like digital sig- nage, pure laser projectors and


Hitachi’s LP-WU9750B 1920x1200 installation projector is built for 24/7 duty cycles, can be installed 360 degrees or portrait orientation, and can be configured with any one of seven of Hitachi's 9000 series lenses. The WU9750B has edge blending and warping, geometry cor- rection, DICOM simulation, motorized zoom, focus and lens shift.


BenQ’s LU9715 BlueCore laser light source projector: At 8000 lumens, this is BenQ's brightest option for large venue applications including museums, houses of worship, entertainment, enterprise and education spaces. This 1920x1200 projector delivers 100,000:1 contrast, 360 degree and portrait installation and 24/7-operation.


laser phosphor offer the reli- ability, consistency and flexi- bility of installation to enable novel signage formats and en- vironments.


Laser projectors allow many


new applications that previous- ly weren’t even possible with lamp based systems. Laser is exceeding the range of projec- tion applications rather than just coping with any limita- tions. Examples include:


• 360-degree installation, in


any direction, means formats are no longer limited to land- scape orientation, making laser ideal for signage and unusual installations.


• Laser offers reliable and continuous (24/7) image play- back. thanks to a more stable light technology. This supports deployment in mission critical applications, such as control rooms. • Laser is supporting ultra-high brightness levels up to 60,000 Lumens. NEC’s new RGB laser model (the NC3540LS) pro- vides up to 70,000 Lumens in stacking mode.


New to the market


In recent months, we have seen progress at both ends of the laser lightsource spectrum. Pure Laser and Laser-phosphor projectors don’t suffer from the


limitations of brightness


and performance of Laser-LED models, but they are more ex- pensive at present. Fortunately, growth in demand from other sectors has driven down market prices for 1.6-watt blue lasers, which can be used with phos- phors to create a cost–effective alternative to pure laser mod- els.


As long ago as 2012, BenQ launched the Laser-phosphor LX60ST in which the BlueCore engine creates all three prima- ry colours using a laser with a phosphor wheel. This showed that it was entirely possible to produce a laser light engine without recourse to LEDs. At the high-end, pure laser projectors can go beyond the current


12K-lumen limit of


laser-phosphor models. As we have already seen, 60K Lumen products are already on the market and even higher bright-


ness levels are in development. These powerful, ultra-bright projectors have found an initial niche in digital cinema, but adoption of this technology is already moving into other sec- tors. Barco, for example. has made its digital cinema range of laser projectors available to rental and staging customers, large entertainment venues, live events, simulation and oth- er applications.


The Barco pure-laser models join Christie’s high-end laser models based on the Chris- tie Freedom laser illumina- tion system. The Christie laser projection system used in all models is based on a scalable laser light source with a choice of projection heads and a fibre cable that connects the laser light source with the projection head. The Laser Module con- sists of multiple RGB lasers, a cooling system and a fibre connection, which allows each module to be self-contained.


Colour balance


Among the 2016 launches, the D13WHU-HS is Christie’s new flagship laser phosphor projec- tor. This is described as Chris- tie’s most versatile projector, designed to serve both rental and fixed markets by combining super-bright 1DLP technology with huge functionality. The HS is compact, low profile, light- weight and at a mere 40db, ex- tremely quiet in operation. The HS clearly hits the spot with the company reporting that it has more back orders for the D13WHU-HS than any Christie 1DLP in recent memory. The appeal of the HS is due in no small part to its propri- etary Boldcolor technology. This incorporates a 2nd patent- ed optical chamber to produce improved colour balance and saturation


over typical laser


phosphor optics. Traditionally, 1DLP projectors have utilised blue diodes as a light source, which has meant that the co- lour balance has been difficult to balance accurately. Boldcol- or employs additional red laser diodes to supplement the reds, giving a significantly improved colour balance.


AV News August 2016 P13


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