Insight Media produces the Projection Summit event just before InfoComm. Analyst Chris Chinnock shares a few of the highlights of the event.
- Christie CTO Paul Salvini used his keynote address to point to many of the advances coming in projection, noting the segment is far from static, with innovations in light sources, frame rates, resolution, wireless, interactivity, collaboration and novel applications driving progress.
- Laser projectors have been in the news recently and attendees gained new insight into the capabilities of these laser devices and the benefits of using them in projection solutions from Laser Light Engines, Necsel and Modulight. These solutions will take time to enter the market, but look very promising at this stage of development.
- LED device progress continues on its torrid pace too as we heard about advancements in LED devices from Osram and Luminus and ways to increase output for projectors using Wavien technology
- The session on hybrid projectors drew good discussion with attendees responding to an informal survey suggesting the technology will indeed make good in-roads in the mainstream part of the projector market.
- Wireless and new wired connectivity options were also well discussed with proponents. WHDI discussed their 5GHz WIHI solution while Wireless HD and WiGig groups described their 60 GHz wireless solution. The HDBaseT alliance talked about their new CAT 5 wired solution that can deliver power, data and video over a single LAN cable. I was amazed at the capabilities of these competing solutions, with each offering strengths and weakness for any particular application, which has the potential to create some end user confusion.
- A second keynote from Levin Tang, Secretary-general of China 3D Industry Association, described the huge appetite for 3D on-going in the China market. The latest sales figures suggest that 8M 3DTV sets are now in consumer’s hands in China and 20M will be sold in 2012. There is also an aggressive government push to establish a world class 3D industry in China, so all parts of the ecosystem are looking for technology, content and products – a huge opportunity for many.
- Pacific Media Associates’ Bill Coggshall used his presentation to note that there are pockets of good growth opportunity in the projection industry, but the mainstream projector market is mired in a cost war that is hurting growth and profitability. He concluded that this can change and offered a number of steps manufacturers can take.
- Our Green AV panel was lively too with the emphasis shifting from green to sustainability. New buildings will now have to account for the sustainability of AV equipment and according to consultant Chris Maione, up to 80% of his corporate clients are now including sustainability in their AV installs. This is a trend that is clearly impacting product design and install.
- In the 4K session, it was noted that the production infrastructure to create 4K content is maturing rapidly, but the delivery, calibration and display of 4K content needs improvement. This is clearly an important trend area to watch and capitalize on.
- Finally, in the passive 3D session Volfoni debuted the design of their new polarization light modulator for use in passive polarized 3D solutions, with LC-Tech/Lightspeed Design describing their competitive solution.
