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Canon / LX-MU800Z
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Panasonic / rz31k Present
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Digital Projection / HIGH-lite Laser
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Sony / Laser Projector
Church technical directors have witnessed the evolution of projection from a humble presentation tool into what is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful and critical technologies for modern worship services. The technology that first harnessed light and lenses to simply focus us on the Word has evolved into something much more. Realistic projection is rapidly becoming a key element in delivering an immersive worship experience that resonates with a new generation of churchgoers. To better understand how projection technology is evolving, let's look into what is happening with the most cutting-edge offerings at the top of the projection market.
Lasers Push the Boundaries
On the brightness frontier, Christie Digital, an innovator in laser projection technology, offers laser systems, like their CP42LH high frame rate 3DLP 4K RGB laser projector head, that are part of a scalable projection architecture. These are big laser systems that can deliver a brightness range of 10,000 to 60,000 lumens from a single projection head. If you feel your application might require more, any Christie laser projection head can be easily paired up with a second head to produce a 120,000 lumens system. Even more brightness is available with other techniques. The projector unit in this system is decoupled from the light-producing lasers that are connected via fiber and housed in an external rack that can hold up to 12 laser modules, a power distribution unit, and a laser system network switch. Cutting-edge laser systems like the CP42LH are big and, certainly, bigger than most common applications need. Lessons learned from these big laser systems, however, can help manufacturers to incorporate similar features elsewhere in their product lines.
Curtis Lingard is Christie’s product manager for high brightness projection in non-cinema applications. As his title implies, the company does research for high-end cinema projection, as well as more common high-brightness applications. According to Lingard, “Technical advances in one area can push advances in the other and what were once rare R&D solutions can become more mainstream.” With close to two decades in the projection industry, Lingard has observed that when boundaries are pushed with these large systems, the knowledge gained can be quickly repurposed and leveraged in other products. “This ‘trickle-down effect’ tends to help with integration and moves us towards full solutions that will ultimately find their way into houses of worship,” he says.
Advances in solid-state illuminator (SSI) technology at the high end have opened the door for a variety of laser- and LED-based solutions that offer benefits for more common applications. Perhaps their most important feature for the church market is that they can deliver high quality images and cost less. High-end laser systems, like the one we discussed above, employ multiple lasers to produce the components of white light and, as a result are the most costly. Hybrid projector designs can get you many of the benefits of solid-state laser technology, but at a reduced cost because they don't use all three colors of separate red, green and blue lasers. Instead, researchers have found innovative ways to use fewer lasers in combination with LEDs and phosphor components to create the other wavelengths of light.
"8K is the future, but 4K is close and may be closer than you think."
Andy McDonough
Craig Harper, national manager for Sony Faith, reports that innovations in image brightness are not just about the light source. “Sony has embraced higher brightness for projection with several factors, including laser light sources and advanced optical components that maximize the amount of light delivered to the LCD imagers to help achieve higher brightness,” he notes. Sony has also developed LCD imagers to reproduce natural and vivid color with a very high aperture ratio. When combined with improved optical components, this allows projectors, like Sony's VPL-FHZ65 6,000 lumens WUXGA laser projector, to offer a substantial increase in brightness. The availability of more solutions that can offer both increased Color Light Output (CLO) and color accuracy measurements are giving more venues a reason to choose three-chip technology (whether three-chip 3LCD or three-chip DLP) over older 1-DLP technology.
Hybrid laser projectors represent a powerful combination of SSI features, including increased brightness and installation flexibility. Coupled with the cost savings, hybrids put high-impact applications like projection mapping within reach of most churches. Michael Bridwell, Digital Projection’s vice president of marketing and home entertainment, has seen how this can help the worship experience. “More of today’s churches can now afford to transform worship with engaging AV experiences more akin to the live events and staging verticals than to yesterday's traditional sermons,” he observes. “Connecting with the congregation and pulling them into the message is the priority in these spaces, and laser-hybrid projection is becoming the tool of choice in many of these venues.” While hybrid laser projectors still come at a premium over projectors with bulbs, projectors such as DPI's HighLite 11,000 lumens unit, produces WUXGA resolution with a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and even has support for 3D. It can be aimed in positions that would negatively impact lamp-based projectors. That flexibility, Bridwell has observed, is giving content designers much more freedom when considering what type of imagery they can make and where they can put it.
Higher Resolution Plus Horsepower
Though some time in coming, 4K cameras and content are arriving now and projector manufacturers are providing solutions that work with today’s HD, 4K and higher. As is common with media evolution, while we are just getting accustomed to the jump to 4K quality, industry pundits are making noise about the next leap—to 8K. 8K is the future, but 4K is close and, maybe, closer than you think.
True 4K does make for a great experience, but getting past today’s embedded HD requires more than just a projector capable of high resolution. As it turns out, it requires much more. Gary Fuller, Barco’s vice president, venues and hospitality, pro AV, notes, “Technology in almost all segments of the projection market is moving to higher resolutions, solid-state illumination systems, simpler yet more powerful video connectivity, and much higher projector ‘intelligence.’” But that’s not all. Higher resolution, he points out, calls for higher frame rates and projectors that support more frames per second need more sophisticated electronics that can produce the “horsepower” needed to process big, high-bandwidth signals. For clean images and life-like engagement most 4K-capable projectors can handle 24 Hz-60 Hz up with some up into the 120 Hz range and higher. So, along with higher resolution, we will also be seeing systems that can not only dish it out at higher frame rates, but manipulate data to enhance and beautify the images.
Epson product manager, Phong Phanel, reminds us that, while 4K has been eagerly anticipated, the move has been slower than other historical shifts to higher resolution. “Real 4K,” he says, “ is still a little way off, but many are moving in that direction and want to be prepared for the true 4K content when it arrives.” For that audience, Epson has built additional processing power built into their Epson Laser Pro L series of 3LCD projectors. It can not only handle native 4K, but also enhance today’s more common 1080p input, effectively doubling the resolution. This feature subtly shifts each pixel diagonally by 0.5 pixels to take the resolution from 2.3 million to 4.6 million pixels. These types of enhancement features can be a huge advantage for congregants sitting close to a large screen where, up close, pixels could otherwise seem separated. Pro L series projectors also have a built in camera to help adjust for signal uniformity and balance. Tasks like white and color balancing, as well as the calibration between multiple projectors, are built in. This relieves technicians from the painful and time-consuming tasks of manual calibration. “We get better results in minutes than we used to get in hours,” Phanel says.
Another good example of the powerful processing behind the scenes can be found in projectors like Panasonic’s 10,000 lumens, three-chip DLP, PT-RQ13K, that are sporting a new generation of circuit technology to enhance images. The PT-RQ13K includes both a Frequency Analysis Engine and a Detail Analysis Engine to refine a vertical signal component. The circuits analyze individual images frame by frame to clarify areas containing fine details and textures. These powerful algorithms extract hidden information from the super-high, high, medium, and low-frequency video bands, sharpening outlines, correcting contours, and reducing “ringing noise” in order to improve the viewer’s sense of resolution. According to Karl De Manss, product manager for projectors for Panasonic, “The PT-RQ13K achieves better-than-4K resolution by employing a high-speed 2560 x 1600-pixel (WQXGA) DMD chip that shifts each pixel vertically and horizontally, effectively quadrupling the pixel count.” In addition, a Real Motion Processor boosts the frame rate to 240Hz and a Quad Pixel Drive pixel-quadrupling technology produces stunningly detailed 5120 x 3200-pixel (4K+, 16:10) images. “Images retain natural sharpness and clarity,” De Manss adds, “as well as producing liquid-smooth and accurate video.”
According to De Manss, even non-4K image content can benefit from the complex filters and frequency analysis processes. The added detail not only makes for a more realistic image, but also makes projected text and graphics clearly legible which can be an important feature for houses of worship.
Sony's VPL-FHZ65 6,000 lumens WUXGA laser projector, mentioned earlier, has similar software on-board to enhance picture quality. Sony’s “Reality Creation” and “Contrast Enhancer” technologies, up-scale input signals to refine detail, clarity and sharpness, as well as expand the perceived dynamic range. These strategies have evolved from Sony’s home theater projection systems.
