Epson started by showing us the EB-6960i, a UST projector designed to create a 100″ image and one of a number of new UST projectors that were also shown at the FETC and TCEA in the US. (Epson Adds Four UST Projectors for Education). We heard that Epson has added an extra HDMI port to allow educators to add other devices, such as Apple TV, at the request of clients. Pricing in the UK is £2420 + tax and staff drew our attention to the 10,000 hour lifetime (eco mode) and the cost of lamps, which is just £50. In the UK, Epson provides a licence for Smart Notebook for a year with its projectors.
Next we looked at the L1300U, an 8,000 lumen laser phosphor projector with 1920 x 1200 resolution and ‘4K enhancement’. Staff highlighted that unlike a number of other brands, Epson uses an inorganic phosphor wheel that the company developed internally. (I’ll miss out the discussion we had about organic alignment layers!). The inorganic wheel means that Epson can offer 20,000 hours of life or 50,000 if you choose a ‘custom’ mode. The company offers a five year warranty.
The projector is a compact unit for 8,000 lumens of output. Image:Meko
Epson then showed us the ELPOLX01 UST lens although on checking the website, there are not a lot of details. The company has upgraded its lenses to ensure that they are ‘4K ready’. There is no point in boosting the resolution of imagers if the lenses aren’t good enough. Equally, the potential life time of lenses could be ten years or more, so it’s important to have enough quality for the longer term.
Finally the firm explained how the firm’s memory for zoom and offset are very convenient. Facilities may have stage areas that have screens that are used in front of the stage normally, but the memories allow multiple settings to be stored, so that a different configuration can be quickly selected when switching to project to the back of the stage.
