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Projection equipment overview: the secrets of projection

Projection equipment market is in constant development, the model line is updated, to replace one device is replaced by another. New technologies and functions make projectors more convenient and economical, simplify their operation, expand their capabilities. We will try to tell you about some of them.

Video technology

Secrets of projection

There is an alternative

To date, the majority of projectors on the market as a source of light are so-called discharge lamps. They create a powerful luminous flux, but have a number of drawbacks of various kinds. One of them is a relatively short lifespan 1500-6000 hours depending on the type and mode of operation , because over time the lamps become dim and need to be replaced. Another disadvantage – the need to heat the lamp when you start the projector, which causes a delay before the session. Finally, the lamps contain toxic mercury vapors and need to be disposed of in a special way. All these problems are pushing projector manufacturers to find a worthy substitute for mercury lamps. At the moment there are several technologies on the market that make it possible to do without them.

One of the first alternatives are LED Light Emitting Diode light sources. The main advantages of LEDs – low power consumption and longer life than discharge lamps. LED sources work 20 000-30 000 hours and don’t need replacement at all. But to displace the lamp projectors LED-models have not yet succeeded, the reason for this – the low power, caused by the fact that the green LEDs do not shine brightly enough. The luminous flux of LED devices usually is a few hundred ANSI-Lm, while not very powerful lamp devices easily creates a flow of over 2000 ANSI-Lm. As a result, if you use LED projectors in rooms with strong light, the picture will not be very bright. Although when working in a darkened room such problems will not arise. But it is notoriously inconvenient to take notes in the dark. Nevertheless, some companies produce compact LED models for office and home use – Acer, BenQ.

Another alternative to lamps are hybrid laser-LED light sources. They are not inferior to LEDs in terms of lifetime up to 20 000 hours , but far superior to them in terms of power. Now there are hybrid projectors on the market with luminous flux of up to 4000 ANSI-Lm. This has been achieved due to the fact that the green LEDs in them are replaced by phosphor, bombarded by a laser, and the sources of red and blue light are LEDs or laser. As a result the hybrid models are competing with the lamp models and are comparable with them in terms of power. As for cost, hybrid projectors can be slightly more expensive than their tube counterparts, but over time the difference is recouped by the lack of replacement lamp costs. The first laser-LED models were produced and still produce by Casio all series of this brand – Green Slim, Standard, Short Throw, Pro , but other companies start to use the technology – such as Acer K520 model .

Another alternative source of light, which is already appearing on the market – the laser. It too differs from lamps by its long service life up to 20,000 hours , while providing a powerful luminous flux. An example of a model with a laser light source is BenQ LW61ST.

A projector in your pocket

The development of LED-technology entailed the appearance of a whole class of pocket projectors the so-called pico-projectors . After all, LEDs consume little power, and therefore can be powered from a battery, rather than from the network, and be self-contained. The power of such devices is not very high – from several tens to several hundreds ANSI-Lm, which is of course many times lower than lamp ones. But they are easy to carry, especially as they do not weigh much. They are powered by smartphones, PDAs, cameras and other similar devices. Some pocket projectors are equipped with built-in memory, expandable with memory cards.

Casio

The projector does not necessarily have to be large. Some of them can literally be carried in your pocket, such as the 3M projector

Pocket models can be found in the range of few brands – for example 3M, Aiptek, Acer, Optoma, Vivitek. Some companies go further and make camcorders with projection function. You can take a picture or a video and then project it.

USB and its capabilities

Sharp

Casio projector with USB flash drive support: no cables – just plug in the flash drive and you can project

More and more models on the market support USB display. All you have to do is to plug in a flash drive with data on it, select the file you want with the built-in viewer and it will be projected on the screen. The technology is convenient in that for presentations there is no need to bring separate signal sources or bother with wires. It is especially useful when it comes to outdoor events – instead of taking somewhere at once both a projector and a laptop or already on place to ask for someone else’s computer , you can confine yourself to one projector and a small “flash drive” which will fit in your pocket. Many models of Acer, BenQ, Casio, Epson, Mitsubishi, Optoma, Sony and some other brands feature USB flash drive display.

This technology is in demand not only for mobile presentations. It opens up great opportunities for the Digital Signage sphere. The projectors are widely used for digital signage in shopping and entertainment complexes, business centers, public buildings. Under such conditions, there is inevitably a problem with laying cables for signal transmission. Using compact and inexpensive USB-drives as a data source considerably simplifies the task. The more so that some projector models allow you to adjust the duration of display of individual frames, the frequency of their appearance and many other parameters.

A projection from USB drives, however, has its own limitations. If you can install software which supports all possible video and image formats on your computer, and then transfer a ready picture to the projector, then when working with the “flash drive” the device must open the file itself. The built-in projector software usually “understands” only a limited set of formats. As a rule, these are jpeg images, but also some other types, such as avi. The most popular PowerPoint files PPT for presentations are supported only by some models of the projectors. Most often they need to be converted into a special format, which is a series of images jpeg copies of presentation slides stacked in a certain order. Certainly, we can’t speak about any video on slides or complex animation, but there will be no problems with static pictures. An example of such presentation format for projectors is PTG, which is used, for example, by Casio, Mitsubishi and some other brands.

For video clips you may also need to convert depending on the software of the device . By the way, apart from USB memory sticks, data can also be stored on memory cards, for which the models have special slots.

USB input can also serve to transmit picture, sound and control commands directly from PC or notebook to the projector. Epson, InFocus and other manufacturers support this technology.

Through the USB port you can connect a variety of equipment, acting as a source of data, such as document cameras that allow you to project images of paper documents, or photo cameras.

Without wires

The technology of data transfer via Wi-Fi wireless network has been used in the projectors for a long time. Not every device of course supports it, but many models either have a built in Wi-Fi module or have a slot for installing an optional module. This function is traditionally demanded for presentations from laptops. But increasingly popular data sources are smartphones and tablets. Some companies-manufacturers of projectors have considered this trend and have provided the ability to project content from mobile devices via Wi-Fi. For this purpose, special software for smartphones is developed and available for download. Examples of such applications are Epson iProjection, which allows you to receive content from Apple devices iPad, iPhone, etc. . , as well as Mobi Show, compatible with other platforms. Casio projectors work with Mobi Show.

What’s written with a pen

Visual media are becoming more and more popular in the marketplace. They are used in different spheres: at lessons and lectures, during brainstorming sessions, trainings, meetings – practically everywhere. Increased demand for interactive whiteboards which allow interaction with projected material triggered the growth of short-throw projectors. But then models began to appear that could replace an interactive whiteboard themselves. At the beginning such devices were not many – only a few, but now in the ranges of almost all major manufacturers of projection equipment there is at least one model that supports interactive functions, and even a few. Most of them – short-focus or ultra-short-focus, which is not surprising – because of their small projection distance light beam falls almost vertically on the screen, and it does not get standing next to people. But there are also quite a lot of standard medium-focus devices.

Sony

A powerful projector is a big meeting room

Photo: Sony

The projector is completed with a special interactive pen marker which location and movement is fixed automatically. If you move the marker across the screen, the projector will be able to trace its trajectory and “draw” a line repeating it.

The interactive projectors have their advantages and disadvantages. Their undoubted “plus” is that this is an affordable and easy alternative to interactive whiteboards. In fact, you can do without such a board, because the device doesn’t care what to project on – on simple screen, on whiteboard not interactive at all or even on a single-colour wall. In addition, the projector is easier to transport: you disconnect the wires in one room, move it to another, plug it in and the screen there became interactive too. To move the board from place to place is not so convenient. But manufacturers of interactive whiteboards provide their products with powerful support in the form of various additional software. The functions of interactive projectors are not so extensive.

NEC

Using Panasonic interactive pen you can write directly on the screen, blackboard or even wall

What interactive projectors allow to do? It depends on the capabilities of the software the model comes with. The simplest one is to draw over the projected image. And it can be both simple lines in different colors and geometric shapes you can choose them in the application menu . Presentation fragments can be not only highlighted with lines or shapes, but also enlarged using the built-in zoom function. Often the software even allows saving a frame with the resulting marks in a separate file, and some programs even allow editing of the original files. Often the pen is able to work in the computer mouse mode – to copy and move files, to open them, to call up menus, etc. d. The projector usually comes with one pen, but many models support the use of two pens at the same time in which case one pen has a limited feature set . An interactive pointer also often functions as a stylus.

A matter of economy

The intensity of the lamp has a direct impact on the lamp life – the brighter it shines, the faster it will fade. That’s why now most projectors allow two, or even three modes of their operation – with different power of the light flux. Economic mode extends lamp life by an average of one third or more. It also reduces the power consumption of the lamp and the projector as a whole.

However, manufacturers do not stop there, and introduce various functions that help reduce energy consumption models even more and relieve the burden of lamps or other light sources. And there are many variants of such functions.

For example, some projectors, using sensors, can detect the degree of light in the room and depending on it decrease the brightness of the lamp if the room is dark and the picture is clearly visible or leave it at maximum level. Casio models support this function.

Other devices gradually reduce the lamp power if the projected picture does not change for a long time. After all, so often it happens that during the show started a discussion on some issue, and the screen is forgotten, and the projector continues to work, wasting the resource lamp. As soon as the image changes, the brightness returns to the previous level. This function – dimming – is used, in particular, in some Sony models.

There are also other situations when there is no need in full power of the lamp. For example, when you temporarily turn off the picture. Some devices also significantly decrease their brightness in this case.

Many projectors automatically shut down if they don’t receive an input signal for a certain amount of time. The time interval is usually set by the user himself.

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John Techno

Greetings, everyone! I am John Techno, and my expedition in the realm of household appliances has been a thrilling adventure spanning over 30 years. What began as a curiosity about the mechanics of these everyday marvels transformed into a fulfilling career journey.

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Comments: 1
  1. Gavin Gibson

    Hello! After reading the text on projection equipment, I’m curious to know what are some of the latest advancements and features in projection technology that can enhance the viewing experience? Are there any specific brands or models that you would recommend for high-quality projection? Also, how does projection equipment compare to other display technologies like OLED or QLED in terms of image quality and versatility? Thank you!

    Reply
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