We recently attended InfoComm 2007, the audiovisual industry's annual introduction of new products. The show was jammed with tools for meeting planners: audience-response and polling systems, interactive whiteboards, videoconferencing "telepresence" solutions (next month's topic), and much more, but some of the most interesting news was in projectors.
The projector price war continues, but it's not just about cost. Projectors have gotten brighter, even as they've gotten cheaper; 2000 lumens of brightness is now the minimum standard for even the most affordable projectors.
For example, the Dell 1201MP projector based on DLP technology offers 2000 lumens of brightness (good enough for most boardrooms or small breakout rooms), weighs just 4.95 pounds, offers 2100:1 contrast for sharp images, and displays on-screen images in SVGA (800 x 600 pixel) resolution. Yet it sells for just $599 (www.dell.com).
Similarly, the Epson PowerLite S5, using 3LCD technology, weighs 5.8 pounds, offers 2000 lumens and SVGA resolution for $649 (www.epson.com). While its contrast is less sharp (400:1), the PL S5 has convenience features like Instant On and Instant Off that work in four to five seconds. The AV Mute Slide feature lets you instantly turn off the sound and images to create a quick pause in the presentation.
Projector manufacturers were touting ease-of-use features, including added color capability, a new 16 x 10 wide format, matching the capabilities of current-generation laptops, "short throw" (putting up a big picture even if the projector is just feet from the screen), and the ability to put projectors on a computer network so they can receive and present content from a corporate (or meeting) server.
NEC (www.nec.com) demonstrated three new 3500-, 4000-, and 5000-lumen projectors designed to link with the Network Projector support found in Microsoft's new Vista operating system. The Vista technology automatically finds projectors on the network and wirelessly connects to them, making pushing content to a networked projector as "ubiquitous as using a printer."
Texas Instruments, whose DLP chip is at the heart of about half of all projectors, showed its new color-processing system. While color processing has traditionally blended RGBvariants of red, green, and bluethe new BrilliantColor DLP chip (which will be in more than 70 projectors by year's end) adds cyan, magenta and yellow segments (www.dlp.com).
Toshiba (www.toshiba.com) showed projectors with ease-of-use elements like the "blackboard" featureif you lack a screen or white wall, the projector can adjust for projection on black, green, or brown walls. A new projector with a built-in document camera, the TLP-XC2500AU (2500 lumens, 1024 x 768, $1,439), makes it easy to project text from books or magazines or to show a small product close-up on screen.
One new Toshiba projector has a slot for a USB flash drive, making the no-laptop PowerPoint presentation a possibility. Create your PowerPoint on your PC, and then save each slide as a JPG on the flash drive. When ready to present, simply stick the USB drive into the projector and advance each image using the projector's remote control. Of course, you'd have to commit to your presentation when you sign off the PC; no last-minute updates!
Price drops (also found on plasma, LCD, and other Public Information Displays) should give the savvy meeting planner negotiating leverage with AV providers. If their equipment prices are dropping, why should your price go up?
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Looking to create detailed three-dimensional designs of your next eventdown to the tables, tablecloths, and place settings? Meet Vivien, a Windows-based virtual event design program. It lets you quickly draw walls, risers, cylinders, and other surfaces; choose from hundreds of types of tables, chairs, and more; add digital photos of specific linens or other items; and even use photorealistic rendering to "snap a picture of the event before it happens."