I was impressed by the image produced by Christie’s new Roadie 4K45 (Christie Breaks DLP Brightness Record), which – despite using just one lamp – projects at 45,000 lumens. It is said to be the brightest single-lamp projector worldwide.
Christie’s 4K45 produced an impressive image, even on the bright show floorA model that certainly does not use just one lamp is the Boxer 4K30 (in fact, it uses six! – Christie Introduces Lightweight 30K Lumen Projector for more details – Man. Ed.) The Boxer is a 3DLP installation projector that was being used for projection mapping used on Christie’s stand, to great effect. It outputs 30,000 lumens of brightness and has DCI-4k resolution.
The use of six lamps enables Christie to use lower-power 450W units, resulting in a total power usage of around 2,700W. A normal xenon model (the Boxer uses mercury lamps) in the 30,000 lumen range would use up to 6,500W. Lamp life is also said to be doubled from the average 750-hour xenon life.
An interesting feature for the Boxer model is its ability to project at any angle (360° projection). Lamp-based projectors commonly cannot do this, as the heat from the lamps would damage internal components if it rose in the wrong direction. Christie could not share many details, but said that it uses a modified design to enable the Boxer being used upside down or on its side.
The Boxer 4K30 has been very popular, with “massive” pre-sales. A US company bought 90 at once, and Germany’s Publitec has purchased 40.
A totally new projector range at ISE was introduced with the H Series, which currently consists of the D12WU-H and D12HD-H. Another ‘world’s best’ tag applies to the former model, which Christie says is the brightest 1DLP projector, globally. It reaches up to 12,000 lumens, is half the size and weight of comparable models and has 1920 x 1200 resolution. The D12HD-H is slightly lower-specced, with 1920 x 1080 resolution and 11,000 lumens of brightness.
The H Series models have 1,200:1 (D12WU-H) and 5,000:1 (D12HD-H) contrast ratios and use dual 465W/dual 330W lamps, respectively. They feature 3G-SDI, HDMI and RJ45 (HDBaseT) ports and will be launched in April.
Christie was also showing the Velvet LED tiles, which were launched at Infocomm 2014 (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 25). Since that time the module size has been changed to 480mm on each side. The high fill factor, as the LEDs used are larger than most competitors’, is very popular, we heard.
