Digital projectors, new visual technologies<\/p>\n
Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id<\/p>\n
Just a few weeks after the world's leader in digital projectors,
\nInFocus, launched its latest products in Jakarta, other companies
\njoined it in flooding the local market with their own offerings.<\/p>\n
If you think nobody would be interested in investing US$3,000
\nto US$4,500 on a digital projector, you are wrong. There must be
\na sizable market here, otherwise these companies would not have
\nbothered bringing these expensive products into this country,
\nwhere they had to set up service centers or prepare the necessary
\nlogistics to ensure that reliable after-sales service could be
\noffered.<\/p>\n
Among the companies that make digital projectors is NEC, a
\ncompany that most of us recognize more for its Versa line of
\nnotebook computers. NEC is by no means a newcomer in display
\ntechnology. In fact, for many years in the early 1990s its
\nMultisync monitors kept receiving Editor's Choice awards and were
\nconsidered the industry benchmark against which other monitors
\nwere measured.<\/p>\n
In the past, this company was not very active in promoting its
\nprojectors and monitors in Indonesia, but it seems that this is
\ngoing to change. Last month, NEC Singapore appointed two local
\ncompanies -- PT Indovisual Presentatatama and PT Necindo -- as
\nthe distributors for its multimedia products, which include a
\nplasma display, two LCD monitors, several flat CRT monitors and
\ndigital projectors for both business and home use. These products
\nhave a number of new technologies that are worth looking at, and
\nthis time we shall look only at the ones incorporated in the DLP
\n(Digital Light Processing) projectors.<\/p>\n
One of the interesting things that I never saw before on a
\ndigital projector is the inclusion of wireless LAN capability.
\nSo, if you use the NEC LT220 or LT260, for example, you can
\nconnect your notebook or desktop PC wirelessly using Wi-Fi
\n802.11b technology.<\/p>\n
This will eliminate the need for the master of ceremony to
\nkeep the audience entertained while the previous speaker
\nfrantically unplugs his notebook and the next one tries to
\nconnect his to the digital projector. In addition, the notebook
\ncan now be placed anywhere in the meeting room.<\/p>\n
These two microportable projectors also have the versatility
\nto select which notebook it will communicate with. So, if you
\nalready have more than one notebook set to launch an individual
\nPowerpoint presentation, pressing the button will allow you to
\nchoose which presentation it should project on the screen.
\nDiagnostics and adjustment of the device can also be made
\nremotely.<\/p>\n
Another great new technology is what NEC calls 3D Reform. As
\npresenters already know, sometimes the layout of a meeting room
\nis such that it is difficult to place the projector squarely in
\nfront of the screen.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, most projectors nowadays are equipped with the
\ncapability to compensate for the angle of projection so that the
\nvertical edges of the projected image are not skewed. This
\nfeature is called keystone correction. To eliminate the
\ndistortion of the horizontal edges, however, you may have to move
\nthe projector itself around. With the 3D Reform feature found in
\nthese NEC projectors, the image on the screen can be made
\nperfectly square without much hassle.<\/p>\n
As they are portable projectors, these 2.9-kilogram DLP
\nprojectors are made to withstand dust, smoke and other less-than-
\nfriendly environments. The LT260 has a brightness level of 2100
\nANSI lumens and XGA (1024 x 768) resolution, while the LT220
\noffers 2000 ANSI lumens with SVGA (800 x 600) resolution. The
\nformer has a good 1300:1 contrast ratio, in addition to NEC's
\nVORTEX Technology Plus color management technology that allows
\nfeatures such as white balance correction and individual color
\nadjustment.<\/p>\n
Like most other projectors today, these projectors can sense
\nnon-native resolutions up to UXGA (1200 x 1024) and automatically
\nconvert it to their best capability. Their Eco-Mode technology
\nallows us to adjust the brightness when the room is dark enough
\nso that we can extend the life of the lamp.<\/p>\n
Another nifty feature is the use of CompactFlash. Because
\nthese projectors have a built-in viewer, you can download your
\npresentation file to a CompactFlash memory card and carry just
\nthis tiny card instead of the notebook to the meeting room. Of
\ncourse, this will mean you can't make last-minute revisions.<\/p>\n
For a larger audience, such as in a classroom, a small
\nauditorium and a conference room, NEC offers the MT1060 (2300
\nANSI lumens) and MT1065 (3000 ANSI lumens) portable projectors.<\/p>\n
They all share the technologies found in the LT Series. If you
\nneed a high-end projector for a really large auditorium, however,
\nyou can check out the NEC SX\/XT Series at their website
\nwww.necmultimedia.com.<\/p>\n
How can you project the scene of the darkest and blackest
\nnight on a screen? You will need a projector with a very high
\ncontrast ratio, of course. NEC's new ShowCase Series digital
\nentertainment projectors, the first of which is the HT1000,
\noffers a contrast ratio of 3000:1. That means, broadly, that the
\nratio between the luminance of the brightest and darkest spots in
\nthe image is 3,000 to 1.<\/p>\n
This high contrast ratio is achieved with the use a chip that
\nincorporates NEC's proprietary SweetVision Technology. For
\ncomparison, the latest PolySilicon LCD has a contrast ratio of
\n200:1 or above, and the 35 mm slide has 500:1.<\/p>\n
Other technologies found in the HT1000 include the company's
\n3D 10-bit video decoder, which further enhances images. It also
\nuses Faroudja DCDi technology to compensate for interlaced video
\ninput, for example, from a standard TV broadcast.<\/p>\n
Aspect ratio is a challenge in today's entertainment display
\nsystems, as different video sources may have different ratios --
\nthe ratio between the width and the height of the image. HT1000
\ncan handle various aspect ratios, including 16:9, 1.85:1 and
\n2.35:1.<\/p>\n
It also has the ability automatically to fill a 16:9 screen
\nwith a 4:3 image input without creating a stretched look. You can
\nalso adjust the vertical position of the image so that there will
\nbe no black bars typical of certain aspect ratios.<\/p>\n
NEC Singapore, the wholly owned subsidiary of the NEC Corp.
\nthat launched the products in Jakarta last month, also introduced
\na series of new monitors. One of them was the NEC PlasmaSync
\n42MP4, a 42-inch plasma display. It also showcased the mainstream
\nand the professional lines of CRT monitors. What I am looking
\nforward to, certainly, is the opportunity to test-drive their
\ngood-looking 15-inch LCD monitor, the LCD1550X. So, stay tuned.<\/p>",
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