Casio, like many other projector manufacturers, introduced a 4K lamp-free projector at ISE, the XJ-8300HN, which the company says is targeted at large venues. Well, relatively large or medium sized. Since the projector only has 5000 lumen output, it couldn’t even be used in larger conference rooms or college auditoriums. The projector uses a single 0.66” DLP to produce a UHD (3840 x 2160) image and a laser-phosphor light source with 20,000 hours life. The projector does not use a red LED like lower-output Casio projectors – it is all laser. Contrast is said to be 20,000:1. The projection lens has manual focus, zoom and lens offset.
Casio XJ-8300HN and a suggested use case for the projector (Source: Casio)
In addition, Casio introduced two ultra-short show projectors, the XJ-UT310WN and the XJ-UT351WN. Both are WXGA (1280 x 800) single panel DLP projectors with a 0.28:1 throw ratio and Casio’s lamp-free hybrid (LED & Laser) technology. These projectors are very similar except that the UT310WN has 3100 ANSI Lumens while the UT351WN has 3500 lumens.
Perhaps the most interesting thing in the Casio booth was one of their lamp-free projectors in a transparent case, allowing you to see how a hybrid optical system works. Interesting, but hard to photograph and slightly confusing because the graphic on the wall didn’t match the projector on the stand.
Hitachi introduced one new projector at ISE 2017, the LP-WU660. This is a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 6000 lumen laser-phosphor DLP projector. The projector has a dust-resistant optical engine, 20,000 hours of life and HDBaseT and MHL inputs, among others. Hitachi also demonstrated its 3,500-lumen WUXGA LP-WU3500. This LED projector had been introduced at ISE 2016 but began shipping just a couple of months ago. This light source in the projector was a Philips ColorSpark HLD LED system, not conventional LEDs. Hitachi also demonstrated their new landscape-to-portrait optical converter, for use on projectors not capable of being installed in portrait mode. A conventional projection lens is used in association with the converter.
Image produced by the ColorSpark-based Hitachi LP-WU3500
Hitachi also expanded their lamp-based 5000 series installation range with the CP-WX5506M and CP-WU5506M. These projectors can be controlled wirelessly from your smartphone or tablet. This simplifies the use of features such as projector stacking, built in blending and warping, and the scheduling capabilities. In addition, these projectors have high security capability such as MAC Address Filtering and SSID Stealth.
Vivitek is a brand of Delta Electronics, which also had a booth at ISE and is written up separately (Videowall Cubes at ISE). Projectors are sold under the Vivitek brand name and both LED videowalls and rear projection cubes for control rooms are sold under the Delta brand.
At ISE 2017, Vivitek launched two new DLP large venue laser-phosphor single panel projectors, the DK8500Z and the DU8190Z. The two projectors are nearly identical except the DK8500Z is a 4K/UHD (3840 x 2160, 16:9, 0.66” DLP) projector with 7,500 ANSI lumens and the DU8190Z is a WUXGA (1920 x 1200, 16:10, 0.67” DLP) with 10,000 ANSI lumens. Both have a laser-phosphor light source with 20,000 hours life and 10,000:1 contrast. They can use the same eight lenses and have motorized zoom, focus and lens shift. The lenses range from a 0.38:1 non-zoom lens to a 5.31:1 – 8.26:1 zoom lens. Both projectors have a variety of interfaces including 3G-SDI in/out and HDBaseT but only the DK8500Z has a DisplayPort interface and only the DU8190Z has HDMI 1.4 (x2), VGA and DVI-D inputs.
The DK8500Z and the DU8190Z are described as “coming soon” and the Vivitek rep in the booth said that probably means this summer. Prices have not been set.
Vivitek DK8500Z. TheDU8190Z looks the same. (Source: Vivitek)
Vivitek also introduced in Europe the DH759-USTi projector at ISE, although the projector has been available in the US. This is a single panel DLP ultra-short throw (0.33:1), FHD (1920 x 1080), 3500 lumen projector that targets the education market. Lamp life is 3000 hours in the normal mode, up to 7000 hours in the dynamic Eco mode. This projector was demonstrated at ISE with the NovoEnterprise collaboration software, which was also launched at ISE. –Matthew Brennesholtz
Vivitek DH759-USTi with the NovoEnterprise collaboration software.
