Barco announced two flagship 6P laser projectors for premium cinema and five new laser phosphor projectors for small to large screens at the CineAsia Show.
The new high end units, the DP4K-20LHC (18K lumens) and DP4K-40LHC offer brightness up to 36,000 lumens have 6,000:1 contrast – twice the level of current products in the L-series. The products are three DLP designs with DCI4K resolution and with a claimed decrease in brightness of less than 20% after 30,000 hours of use. There is a separate chiller and the 18K projector weighs 200kg (440lb) and the chiller is 115kg (250lb). The brighter unit weighs 235kg (520lb) but the chiller is the same. Five different lens options are available.
The L/P units are also designed for cinema and can get up to 24500 lumens and can offer constant output over the 30K hours of life. There are DCI4K (DP4K-17BLP 17,000 lumens/2,000:1 for 43′ to 59′, and DP4K-23BLP 24,500 lumens for 59′ – 75′ screens) and 2K options (DP2K-23BLP – 24,500 lumens/2,400:1 contrast and for 59′ to 75′ screens – DP2K-8SLP – 7,000 lumens/2,000:1 contrast and for 20′ to 29′ screens – DP2K-10SLP – 9500 lumens for 29′ to 42′ screens).
The BLP series have separate cooling systems to support the higher brightness.
Because of the range of options in lenses and other areas, prices were not quoted but Barco said that the SLP series brings pricing down to unprecedented levels for laser and it said that “or less than 1 dollar per hour of operations, exhibitors can now enjoy laser image quality and ease of mind from a brand-new laser phosphor projector.”
Barco also has laser phosphor engine upgrades for projector owners that already have B or S series cinema projectors.
Barco also introduced its brand-new Barco Alchemy Integrated Cinema Media Processor (ICMP) as an option. With this next-generation ICMP, exhibitors can leverage the full benefits of alternative content by directly hooking up their ‘UHD Premium’ sources to the projector. Two additional HDMI2.0 interfaces have been added to the ICMP, while keeping its legacy HDMI1.4 (and SDI) inputs. This gives users the option to hook up four different sources. Thanks to the capabilities of HDMI2.0, the 4K HFR and 4K 3D capabilities that the projector and server already had are now linked to a much wider portfolio of new alternative content sources.
