NEC had a meeting room to promote its projectors and flat panel displays. The company told us that it has done very well with the P502HL Laser Phosphor projector which has sold strongly into universities which like the brightness and lack of filter maintenance. The projector also has a wide throw ratio and very flexible image shift features which makes installation easier. The HDBaseT support is also popular with installers. In discussing the lamp vs L/P discussion, we mentioned the low cost of the Epson lamps, that the company had mentioned. “Why worry about lamp cost if you have no lamp?”, was the question back.
The PX1004UL is quite a high end projector with 10,000 lumens of WUXGA resolution but is said to sell well into higher education. The projector has a triple speed colour wheel to help improve colour performance and uses a metal phosphor wheel that is said to be more robust than plastic wheels, which might degrade over the life of a projector. NEC also had a UST projector on display.
A 65″ touch system that has ultraHD resolution and is intended to compete in corporate environments with the Microsoft Surface Hub was being shown, but details were thin as the display is to be officially launched at ISE in a couple of weeks. However, we found that the unit has an OPS slot and uses the FlatFrog InGlass touch. It has side-mounted speakers.
NEC’s new touch display will have side speakers. Image:Meko
We heard that at ISE, NEC will re-align its E, V and P lines of digital signage to provide the same chassis and features for both the V andP series, with the difference just being the brightness and making it simpler to have ‘mixed fleets’ of displays. We also heard that the displays will have SoC technology as well as support for the Raspberry Pi compute platform. The company will also phase out the XS series of displays, as bezels on standard products have been getting slimmer, and later will have a C series for 16/7 operation.
