Digital Projection created the 20,000-lumen Titan Super Quad digital projector - on display at ISE 2013 - out of steel.

“Most of the others are made of plastic,” says Nick Cottiss, international sales and marketing director for DP.

How could they get the projector’s durability across? Why not drive a truck over it?

But of course!

The gang wasn’t 100-percent confident the $90,000 projector would survive, so the first test run was performed on an empty chassis. No problem. Next, they submitted a complete projector – a non-working early prototype – to the test.  Survived again.

In the end, they were ready to run Cottiss’s own 3-tonne (3.3 US ton) over the beast, while a movie was playing – specifically a DVD of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” There was no special meaning behind that video, says Cottiss: “It was at the top of the DVD stack.”

It was important to do the demo with a movie playing, he says, because “we had to prove not just that it would survive but that it would survive undamaged.”

It did. Six times.

Cottiss says they had to bolt the projector to the ground to keep it stable. Other than that, there was no hanky panky in the demo, which is playing on numerous screens in the Digital Projection booth at ISE.

How was Cottiss so lucky to be selected as the driver? In this video, he explains why his truck was picked (the demo reel follows).

Nick Cottiss, Digital Projection, describes why his truck was picked to roll over DP Titan Super Quad

Demo: Digital Projection rolls 4-tonne truck over DP Titan Super Quad

About the author

Julie Jacobson - Guest Writer,

A co-founder of EH Publishing in 1994, Julie is editor-at-large of CE Pro, sister publication of Commercial Integrator. An authority on home automation, networking, integration, digital convergence and the CE pro channel, Julie speaks often about these subjects at industry events. She graduated with a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan, and received an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Julie is a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player.

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