Cinionic is the company that has been established by Barco, Appotronic and others (Barco/Appotronics J/V Has a New Name) to develop the cinema business.
Cinionic also didn’t show the new technology for projection Project 2020 that it showed at the US event and that Chris was impressed by. Cinionic did have a booth and a demo suite, but it was showing its latest products for the smaller cinema. The company felt that there was a gap in the market for premium smaller venues. Premium large venues are well established as a category, using full laser products, but the company feels that there is also scope for higher performance in lower brightness categories for smaller screens and the company was highlighting the Barco DP4K-13BLPHC (11,500 lumens, 600:1 Ansi contrast) which is based on a laser phosphor engine and supports active and passive 3D, but not colour separation systems. The DP4K-18BLPHC is a 16,000 lumen (version).
Cinionic says that there is a market for premium performance at smaller cinema display sizes.
The demonstrations at the event of the high contrast Barco projectors looked very impressive with very good contrast and saturation. The Ansi contrast is high, at 600:1, and the good performance is the result of optimisation in the light engine and optical path, including the lenses.
At the event, the company also said that it has done a deal with Kinepolis to roll out up to 300 laser-based projectors in Western Europe and Canada by 2021. Kinepolis acquired the Landmark Cinemas group in Canada in December 2017.
