Barco was highlighting the UDX range of projectors which were announced at ISE (Barco Surprises with L/P Brightness). The company showed us the detail in the way that it had designed the lens mounting system which makes it easier to install lenses using just one hand – a useful feature in rental and staging applications. The lens can be pushed in until the user hears a click, which means it has been retained and then the lens can be locked.
Barco has a new UST lens that is unusual in that it projects to the side of the cabinet. This avoids problems when the image is projected back over the body of the projector, when heat rising from the body can affect the image quality. There is a very wide range of shifting (+130%, -100%) available so that the projector can be completely hidden from view, while maintaining the short throw distance. The corner of the frame has to be cut away to ensure that it doesn’t mask any of the image and so that the projector does not have to be removed from the frame to use the lens. The lens has a 0.38 throw ratio. The shifting of the lens allows blending and stacking of UST units and Barco is optimistic about the sales potential. The price will be decided nearer to shipment in October.
On the front of the booth was a large LED display that used a range of different pitch cabinets. Barco was emphasising that its design is such that fine pixel pitch only really needs to be used where the viewer is very close, while further away, more economical wider pitch cabinets can be used. The displays on show were a mixture of 1.2mm, 2.5mm and 4.0mm pitch.
The company was also showing the latest developments in its weConnect collaboration software for education and the ClickShare system. Barco is very much promoting itself as being uniquely qualified to support all aspects of corporate communication, from control rooms, to AV systems as well as digital signage and collaboration systems.
Analyst Comment
Barco’s marketing communications department does a very good at getting a consistent message out. It doesn’t seem to matter whether we talk to people in projection, medical, rental and staging or in collaboration, they are very consistent in highlighting the real user benefits of the technology that the company has developed. That might even suggest that the culture of thinking about the user is really well understood. (BR)
