DP Stuns at ISE 2014 with First 12K-Lumen Laser Projector

Digital Projection demos HIGHLite Laser 12k, the first ever laser video projector with 12,000 lumens, 20,000 hours of solid-state illumination, surprising affordability.

Julie Jacobson

Digital Projection arguably won ISE 2014 with the new HIGHLite Laser 12k, apparently the first ever laser projector with 12,000 lumens of output.

The WUXGA-resolution unit can go 20,000 hours before needing a phosphor wheel replacement. That compares to about 1,500 hours of lamp life for traditional-based projectors, according to Mark Wadsworth, international marketing manager for DP.

How much does it cost to replace a phosphor wheel?

DP hasn’t firmed up a price yet, but Wadsworth says, “It will cost a whole lot less than 20,000 hours of lamps.”

Besides their long lamp life and associated labor savings, laser projectors beat out lamp-based projectors when it comes to mounting options, says Wadsworth.

Typical video projectors employ fancy thermal systems to cool off hot lamps. For proper heat dissipation, the projectors must be mounted in a specified orientation – typically vertically or horizontally – with maybe 12 degrees of wiggle room.

Since there are no lamps to cool in a laser projector, it can be mounted any which way, as DPI demonstrates at ISE with a series of units fanned out.

The projector is surprisingly affordable, expecting to retail for about $45,000 USD including the lens, Wadsworth stresses, when it ship in Q2 2014.

Although plenty of vendors are showing laser-based projects at ISE, Wadsworth says he knows of no other commercially available projectors that exceed 6,000 lumens.

“You’ll not see anything else like this,” he says.

So what is the downside of the product? Wadsworth thinks before answering: “There is no downside. Why wouldn’t you buy it? It lasts 20,000 hours.”

At ISE, the company announced LANG AG, one of Europe’s largest supplier of professional video equipment, ordered a “fleet” of the new projectors.

Features according to DP:

Perfectly suited to all vertical channels, no feature has been overlooked. Edge Blend is included as standard along with geometric correction functionality. Fully active 3D with up to 144 Hz refresh rate offers flicker-free viewing. Dual HDMI 1.4, DVI and 3G-SDI inputs provides the very latest high speed video delivery. To compliment all of this, HDBaseT connectivity allows for the transmission of uncompressed High Definition Video over a CAT5e/6 LAN cable. To suit every application, the lenses range from 0.77:1 to 6.76:1.

 

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!