So you just bought a large screen HDTV and thinking you’re the cat’s meow. Or, maybe, it’s that 100" home theatre you’ve always wanted. Just as good as the local cinema, you’re thinking. Can’t get any better? It depends on how much money you have.

John DiLoreto
Analyst and Editor for
Insight Media

At InfoComm, Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation (E&S; Salt Lake City, UT; www.es.com) demonstrated its 32Mpixel laser projector for planetarium domes. This projector has been available for installation in planetarium domes for over a year, but E&S is now targeting the high-end of the broader AV market.

The InfoComm demonstration was in an 18′-diameter dome, with the projector at the center. The image filled an entire hemisphere, tilted slightly so it actually went below the horizon in front of the viewers. The makeshift demo was not quite as comfortable as a planetarium as neck strain was an unfortunate side effect.

After the demonstration, Insight Media’s Matt Brennesholtz and Chris Chinnock had a chance to talk to E&S Advanced Displays Group’s Bret Winkler, VP & GM and Jan Bjernfalk, Director, Sales & Marketing Director.

E&S has installed about 10 installations in planetariums, including a dual-projector installation in the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. The laser projector is so advanced and high contrast that it replaces the star-ball that’s historically been used in planetariums to simulate the heavens.

The system is available in a 5000-lumen version as well as the 2000-lumen version demonstrated at InfoComm. But these projectors are not cheap. Depending on configuration, they can cost from $1M to $1.5M, according to Winkler. The two biggest factors in the cost is first, the cost of the lasers and second, the cost of the optics to combine the three images and project them on the hemispherical dome. In addition to the 160° fish-eye lens configuration, the projection system can be configured with a lens for conventional flat projection, as well as 220° wrap-around that’s used in universities, visualization centers and control rooms.

In the Gen1 systems installed so far, E&S built their own lasers, and it is expensive. Gen2 is in the works using lasers provided by Arasor, which recently acquired Novalux. These systems will be aimed at high-end AV, although maybe a little higher end than most home theatres. Pricing for the new system has yet to be fully worked out, but Winkler says he expects the cost of lasers to come down which is one of the reasons E&S switched to Arasor. He also says the optics cost would be lower for projection on a flat screen, and this will come down as the volumes increase.

At InfoComm, the in-booth planetarium demo showed a 7-minute clip of ultra-HD content. Scenes were included from an IMAX movie, some computer-generated content, and some hi-res images of Van Gough paintings that were "panned and scanned." Obviously, there’s not a lot a content that exists that’s native to this kind of high-end projector, which may impact its acceptance in high-end AV installations. The availability of scaler to up-res 1080p content will, of course, help the matter. For the demo, E&S used eight PCs to create a single image frame to send to the projector.

Regardless, it’s a great matter of bragging rights to be able to say your installation has one of the first ultra-high-resolution laser projectors available. We look forward to hearing about more about these systems.