Power Technology Inc. (Alexander, AR) has been in the laser business for over 45 years without making a splash in the display community. That’s about to change with its March 23 announcement of a public demonstration of its laser cinema system, scheduled for Monday, March 30.
Module for Power Technology’s Illumina Cinema Laser System
This demonstration will take place on the 32.5 feet (9.9M) wide screen in the historic Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock, Arkansas. The announcement intrigued me so I got in touch with Walter Burgess, VP of Sales & Engineering at Power Technology.
He said that this was not the first demonstration of Power Technology’s Illumina Cinema Laser System, but it will be the first one to be done without a NDA required. Burgess declined to say who had previously seen the Illumina demonstration. This demonstration is by invitation only but is intended to include “industry elite, press members, political leaders [and] cinema enthusiasts”. Anyone wishing to attend the demo must get in touch with Burgess first at +1-501-407-0712 x203 or email [email protected].
Burgess said that Power Technology has been working on lasers for cinema applications for about three years now. “In 2012, Power Technology completed a $1.5 million contract for a Tier 1 military supplier”, Burgess commented. “During the project, five unique methods of speckle reduction were examined, tested, engineered and ranked. The best speckle-reduction method was chosen, and a low-speckle military laser was commercialized. The design entered full production and more than 80 laser systems were made and deployed. The technology is proven to reduce speckle effectively while being immune to harsh environments. The knowledge gained during this program was instrumental in making a speckle-reduction technology for use with Laser Illuminated Projection. As I am sure you know, laser speckle is important to manage in a projector application”.
Burgess added that while Power Technology is not currently a member of the Laser Illuminated Projector Association (LIPA), the laser projection trade group, the company intends to join next week.
When asked if both 2D and 3D content will be shown in the demo, Burgess said only 2D content will be shown. He added, “The Illumina product we are debuting is a 3P system. We are only showing 2D content on Monday. As you probably know, laser illuminated projectors bring the greatest value to 3D projection. We definitely will not ignore this segment of the market. Stay tuned for future announcements”.
Preliminary Specifications for Power Technology’s Illumina Cinema Laser System
Power Technologies has put preliminary specifications for the Illumina system on-line at http://www.powertechnology.com/products/cinema-lasers. In addition to four versions of the Illumina module intended for laser cinema, this site includes two versions of the Illumina module with shorter wavelengths, 405nm and 375nm, intended for photolithographic applications.
The four versions of the Illumina module are intended to produce from 10K to 65K D65 white-balanced lumens on the screen. According to Power Technologies, this is sufficient for screen widths from 10M to 30M (33’ to 98’).
Illumina laser module in a home theater setting.
While the current demonstration only relates to cinema projectors, one of the photos Burgess sent me shows a different Illumina laser module in a home theater setting. As Burgess said about 3D, “Stay tuned for future announcements”. –Matthew Brennesholtz
