Tag Archives: projector

500Mbps Good Enough Tests

hfr test logo image mattersMany eyes and many tests later, the specifications for quality digital cinema playback was decided upon by the community. Then, in the spirit of ‘good enough’, Stereoscopic 3D quality problems were ignored. And more recently, it appears that High Frame Rate (HFR) and in particular HFR S3D is moving like an unexamined juggarnaut into the future.

At the SMPTE event last month held in conjunction with NAB, Dr. Marty Banks tossed some landmines into the Knowledge Base. Then one of the people who did tests that made the 48 frame per second decision for the Hobbit gave their historical view. His bombshell was that 48 was chosen because it wasn’t known whether (enough…any?) hardware manufacturers  could come to the plate with working equipment by the time of the release in late 2012.

One part of the DCI and SMPTE and ISO Specification for D-Cinema is a 250Mbps interface between the projector and the media player. In the early days this meant the link from the server, but since Series II TI systems capable of running 4K material (and all systems from Sony), this means an internal media block.

[Update: Qube announced at CinemaCon that their IMB supplies a 1Gig stream to the projector. A quick scan of the interwebz and the memory of other visits at CinemaCon puts the rest of the manufacturers at 500Mbps.]

24 frames per second times 2…OK, let’s double the Mbps into the projector…500Mbps is the bar that seems to be accepted wisdom for ‘good enough’ 48 frames per second stereoscopic 3D material, such as The Hobbit. Anyone got a problem with that? Answer: Who could? No one really has varied sources of material or even firm software to test it with.

Enter the new company image-matters. They have assembled equipment that will be able to show material at speeds above and below 1Gbps. They will show this at 6 cities around the world for the next 6 months. People will look and talk.

Here is the link for the press announcement:

High Frame Rate & High Bit Rate Test Equipment and Test Series

April 14, 2012, NAB Show, Las Vegas, for immediate release.

Image Matters, intoPIX, MikroM and Virident collaborate beyond the state of the art. The target is a series of tests on June 7 and 8 2012 in Burbank CA, coordinated by Michael Karagosian of MKPE Consulting, and cinematographers Kommer Kleijn SBC and David Stump ASC, as co-chairs of the SMPTE 21DC Study Group for Higher Frame Rates.

These tests will be conducted in collaboration with studios and the creative community. They will measure the minimum JPEG 2000 codestream bit rate requested by high frame rate content to reach the visually lossless quality demanded by digital cinema applications.

The experimental equipment set will enable playback of JPEG 2000 codestream bit rate higher than 1 Gbps (i.e. more than 4 times the current DCI specification). The decoded 2K images will be transmitted to a single projector at a frame rate of up to 120 fps (i.e. 60 fpe for Stereoscopic 3D content).

In order to speed up the test process and to allow the easy production of multiple encoding flavours, the equipment set will also be capable of encoding high frame rate content from uncompressed files in near real-time.

The assembled equipment will consist of one server incorporating 4 Virident FlashMAX boards and one intoPIX JPEG 2000 PRISTINE-P4 board. The PRISTINE will playback the decoded codestream on four 3G SDI links to the MikroM IMB inserted into the projector. The MikroM’s IMB will receive the four 3G-SDI links and pass the uncompressed image data directly to the projector backplane. Image Matters will insure project coordination and integration.

The integration has enough headroom to allow, on request, multiple equipments to be combined to achieve higher bit rates and/or higher frame rates.

Storage

  • Four 1.4 TB Virident FlashMAX MLC cards: 
    • total capacity of 5.6TB
    • total read bandwidth of 5.2 GB/s
    • total write bandwidth of 2.2GB/s on XFS file system.
  • Each Virident card has: 
    • a half height and half length form factor
    • a PCIe x8 Gen1 bus • power consumption of 25 W
    • a sustainable random read of 1,3 GB/s

JPEG 2000 Encoding/decoding

  • One intoPIX PRISTINE P4 board
    • 2K & 4K JPEG2000 decoder FPGA IP-cores
    • high frame rates capacity: up to 120 Fps
    • high bitrate capacity: up to 1 Gbps
    • four 3G-SDI outputs
    • one Genlock input
    • One MikroM Integrated MediaBlock MVC 201
      • four 3G-SDI input
      • Formatting and pass through of uncompressed image data
      • Up to 120 2K fps

      Information

      Please contact Jean-François Nivart
      [email protected]
      +32 495 23 00 08

      About Image Matters

      Image Matters offers innovative hardware and software modules for professional image and sound handling. This new venture helps OEMs, integrators and end-users to develop advanced imaging systems and applications easily and quickly.

      More information on www.image.matters.pro

      About intoPIX

      intoPIX is a leading supplier of image compression technology to audiovisual equipment manufacturers. We are passionate about offering people a higher quality image experience and have developed FPGA IP cores that enable leading edge JPEG 2000 image compression, security and hardware enforcement. Achieving a major breakthrough in digital cinema, intoPIX has achieved a leading position in the professional image compression industry based on the JPEG 2000 standard. More information on our company, customers and products can be found on www.intopix.com

      Interested in HFR technology? Contact Gael Rouvroy, intoPIX C.T.O. – [email protected] – +32479774944

      About MikroM

      MikroM is a leading design house and provider of state-of-the-art audio/video technologies for selected professional markets. The portfolio covers silicon-proven IPs, ASICs, PCBs and Systems in combination with professional design services. With a variety of products and services MikroM focus on application-specific and reliable solutions for system integrators and OEMs in quality-driven markets as HD Broadcast, Digital Cinema and Advertisement/Presentation.

      About Virident

      Virident Systems’ professional Storage Class Memory (SCM) solutions deliver unconditional consistent performance that supports the most data-intensive content and applications. Virident Systems is backed by strategic investors, Intel®, Cisco® Systems and a leading storage hardware and software solutions provider as well as venture investors Globespan CapitalPartners, Sequoia Capital, and Artiman Ventures. For more information visit www.virident.com.

      References:

      High Frame Rates – The New Black, Getting to Speed

      HFR-S3D Post SMPTE/CinemaCon Hobbit

      Combine 3, Drop 2, 120 becomes 24

500Mbps Good Enough Tests

hfr test logo image mattersMany eyes and many tests later, the specifications for quality digital cinema playback was decided upon by the community. Then, in the spirit of ‘good enough’, Stereoscopic 3D quality problems were ignored. And more recently, it appears that High Frame Rate (HFR) and in particular HFR S3D is moving like an unexamined juggarnaut into the future.

At the SMPTE event last month held in conjunction with NAB, Dr. Marty Banks tossed some landmines into the Knowledge Base. Then one of the people who did tests that made the 48 frame per second decision for the Hobbit gave their historical view. His bombshell was that 48 was chosen because it wasn’t known whether (enough…any?) hardware manufacturers  could come to the plate with working equipment by the time of the release in late 2012.

One part of the DCI and SMPTE and ISO Specification for D-Cinema is a 250Mbps interface between the projector and the media player. In the early days this meant the link from the server, but since Series II TI systems capable of running 4K material (and all systems from Sony), this means an internal media block.

[Update: Qube announced at CinemaCon that their IMB supplies a 1Gig stream to the projector. A quick scan of the interwebz and the memory of other visits at CinemaCon puts the rest of the manufacturers at 500Mbps.]

24 frames per second times 2…OK, let’s double the Mbps into the projector…500Mbps is the bar that seems to be accepted wisdom for ‘good enough’ 48 frames per second stereoscopic 3D material, such as The Hobbit. Anyone got a problem with that? Answer: Who could? No one really has varied sources of material or even firm software to test it with.

Enter the new company image-matters. They have assembled equipment that will be able to show material at speeds above and below 1Gbps. They will show this at 6 cities around the world for the next 6 months. People will look and talk.

Here is the link for the press announcement:

High Frame Rate & High Bit Rate Test Equipment and Test Series

April 14, 2012, NAB Show, Las Vegas, for immediate release.

Image Matters, intoPIX, MikroM and Virident collaborate beyond the state of the art. The target is a series of tests on June 7 and 8 2012 in Burbank CA, coordinated by Michael Karagosian of MKPE Consulting, and cinematographers Kommer Kleijn SBC and David Stump ASC, as co-chairs of the SMPTE 21DC Study Group for Higher Frame Rates.

These tests will be conducted in collaboration with studios and the creative community. They will measure the minimum JPEG 2000 codestream bit rate requested by high frame rate content to reach the visually lossless quality demanded by digital cinema applications.

The experimental equipment set will enable playback of JPEG 2000 codestream bit rate higher than 1 Gbps (i.e. more than 4 times the current DCI specification). The decoded 2K images will be transmitted to a single projector at a frame rate of up to 120 fps (i.e. 60 fpe for Stereoscopic 3D content).

In order to speed up the test process and to allow the easy production of multiple encoding flavours, the equipment set will also be capable of encoding high frame rate content from uncompressed files in near real-time.

The assembled equipment will consist of one server incorporating 4 Virident FlashMAX boards and one intoPIX JPEG 2000 PRISTINE-P4 board. The PRISTINE will playback the decoded codestream on four 3G SDI links to the MikroM IMB inserted into the projector. The MikroM’s IMB will receive the four 3G-SDI links and pass the uncompressed image data directly to the projector backplane. Image Matters will insure project coordination and integration.

The integration has enough headroom to allow, on request, multiple equipments to be combined to achieve higher bit rates and/or higher frame rates.

Storage

  • Four 1.4 TB Virident FlashMAX MLC cards: 
    • total capacity of 5.6TB
    • total read bandwidth of 5.2 GB/s
    • total write bandwidth of 2.2GB/s on XFS file system.
  • Each Virident card has: 
    • a half height and half length form factor
    • a PCIe x8 Gen1 bus • power consumption of 25 W
    • a sustainable random read of 1,3 GB/s

JPEG 2000 Encoding/decoding

  • One intoPIX PRISTINE P4 board
    • 2K & 4K JPEG2000 decoder FPGA IP-cores
    • high frame rates capacity: up to 120 Fps
    • high bitrate capacity: up to 1 Gbps
    • four 3G-SDI outputs
    • one Genlock input
    • One MikroM Integrated MediaBlock MVC 201
      • four 3G-SDI input
      • Formatting and pass through of uncompressed image data
      • Up to 120 2K fps

      Information

      Please contact Jean-François Nivart
      [email protected]
      +32 495 23 00 08

      About Image Matters

      Image Matters offers innovative hardware and software modules for professional image and sound handling. This new venture helps OEMs, integrators and end-users to develop advanced imaging systems and applications easily and quickly.

      More information on www.image.matters.pro

      About intoPIX

      intoPIX is a leading supplier of image compression technology to audiovisual equipment manufacturers. We are passionate about offering people a higher quality image experience and have developed FPGA IP cores that enable leading edge JPEG 2000 image compression, security and hardware enforcement. Achieving a major breakthrough in digital cinema, intoPIX has achieved a leading position in the professional image compression industry based on the JPEG 2000 standard. More information on our company, customers and products can be found on www.intopix.com

      Interested in HFR technology? Contact Gael Rouvroy, intoPIX C.T.O. – [email protected] – +32479774944

      About MikroM

      MikroM is a leading design house and provider of state-of-the-art audio/video technologies for selected professional markets. The portfolio covers silicon-proven IPs, ASICs, PCBs and Systems in combination with professional design services. With a variety of products and services MikroM focus on application-specific and reliable solutions for system integrators and OEMs in quality-driven markets as HD Broadcast, Digital Cinema and Advertisement/Presentation.

      About Virident

      Virident Systems’ professional Storage Class Memory (SCM) solutions deliver unconditional consistent performance that supports the most data-intensive content and applications. Virident Systems is backed by strategic investors, Intel®, Cisco® Systems and a leading storage hardware and software solutions provider as well as venture investors Globespan CapitalPartners, Sequoia Capital, and Artiman Ventures. For more information visit www.virident.com.

      References:

      High Frame Rates – The New Black, Getting to Speed

      HFR-S3D Post SMPTE/CinemaCon Hobbit

      Combine 3, Drop 2, 120 becomes 24

Laser Projection Group Introduction

The Laser Illuminated Projector Association (LIPA) has released a pdf that outlines their purpose. Generally speaking, there are many international rules that require laser-based equipment to go through regulatory agencies which might make sense for other products (which might use focused light in the output), but don’t make sense for laser-based projectors (which use a diffuse light that substitutes for the xenon bulb.)

The pdf is here: Introducing LIPA

The LIPA website with much more information is: LIPA Website

Laser Projection Group Introduction

The Laser Illuminated Projector Association (LIPA) has released a pdf that outlines their purpose. Generally speaking, there are many international rules that require laser-based equipment to go through regulatory agencies which might make sense for other products (which might use focused light in the output), but don’t make sense for laser-based projectors (which use a diffuse light that substitutes for the xenon bulb.)

The pdf is here: Introducing LIPA

The LIPA website with much more information is: LIPA Website

Laser Projection Group Introduction

The Laser Illuminated Projector Association (LIPA) has released a pdf that outlines their purpose. Generally speaking, there are many international rules that require laser-based equipment to go through regulatory agencies which might make sense for other products (which might use focused light in the output), but don’t make sense for laser-based projectors (which use a diffuse light that substitutes for the xenon bulb.)

The pdf is here: Introducing LIPA

The LIPA website with much more information is: LIPA Website

[Reply: NATO] Sony and the Un-free glasses

New Articles with NATO’s and Sony’s responses

UPDATE: Sony Responds To NATO’s Claim That Studio’s 3D Glasses Plan Is Myopic – Deadline.com

Movie Theaters Upset, Won’t Approve Sony’s New 3D Glasses Policy | FirstShowing.net

Two articles and the priceless comments from the anti-3D-fanz:

Sony to Stop Paying for 3D Glasses in May 2012 (Exclusive) – The Hollywood Reporter

Trouble in the 3D World? Sony to Stop Paying for Free RealD 3D Glasses | FirstShowing.net

Lot of steam in those articles. A lot of money in play.

But let’s get this straight: The exhibitors have a problem with some people not enjoying some 3D. Which system uses the cheapest glasses and the worst screen possible? Which system is trying to keep those glasses free instead of figuring a truly enviromental solution? Only RealD. The active system, XpanD and the other non-polarizing system, Dolby, use a much better pair of lenses. 

There is a lot learn in this story.

10 Rules When Buying a DCinema Projector

In this instance, some engineers at Barco go through the details of what to consider when deciding on which projector to get. Naturally, they point out what they consider as the advantages of the Barco projectors, but with this knowledge one can ask intelligent questions and interpret intelligent answers from other vendors.

What follows is a white paper that can be read here or downloaded from the attachment link below.


What to look for when buying a digital cinema projector?

10 Golden Rules to remember

When considering a new digital cinema projector, image quality, reliability, uptime and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) would seem to be the most obvious criteria. And with good reason. After all, stunning your audience with a crisp and bright picture at every show, while not having to charge an arm and a leg are of vital importance in cinema. But how can you recognize products that rank high on all these criteria? And what other parameters are relevant for your theater?

Below, we have listed 10 golden rules to help you make a decision when investing in digital cinema projection equipment.

Table of contentsBarco Logo

DCI compliance: a no-brainer? 

Total cost of ownership: look at the complete picture 

Uptime: 100% is NOT the Holy Grail 

Image quality: the magical mix of brightness, contrast and resolution 

Engine cooling and sealing: protecting the heart of your projector 

Choose a projector that best suits your auditorium 

Remote monitoring: you don’t need to be in the theater to know it is running well 

Consumables and peripherals: freedom of choice to best suit your needs 

Serviceability and ease of use 

There’s no business like cinema business – find a strategic partner that understands your needs

 Conclusion 

 1. DCI compliance: a no-brainer?

The Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) is a joint venture of major motion picture studios, formed to establish a standard architecture for digital cinema systems. DCI authored the “Digital Cinema System Specification”, commonly referred to as the “DCI Specification”.

The specification establishes standards for the presentation environment (such as ambient light levels, pixel aspect and shape, image luminance, white point chromaticity) as well as the specifics of content protection, encryption, and forensic marking.

This specification is generally accepted as THE standard for the digital projection of features films. Official cinema content –from the major Hollywood studios– can only be played using equipment that has been certified to comply with the DCI Specification. Only a limited number of projector models have achieved this certification.

It may seem like a no-brainer, but the first thing to consider when buying a digital cinema projector is to verify whether the model you selected is DCI compliant. Using equipment that does not have this compliance certification will cause the protection mechanism to kick-in when you try to play your feature film. No show. An exhaustive and up-to-date list of certified projectors can be found on the official website of the DCI: www.dcimovies.com.

2. Total cost of ownership: look at the complete picture

Setting up a fully equipped digital cinema projection booth is a significant investment for many exhibitors. Faced with the upfront costs, it is easy to overlook the complete picture. This means that not only the investment in equipment should be assessed, but also the costs of operating that equipment over its complete lifetime. Taking this holistic approach can generate savings that are significantly higher than the initial investment cost.

The major contribution to operational cost comes from the high power lamps that drive the projectors. In order to achieve the light levels defined by the DCI Specification (see above), lamp light sources from 2kW to 7kW are used in digital projectors. These Xenon bulbs typically have a warranty lifetime of 2500Hrs to 500Hrs. This means that there are two major contributions to the operational costs of these lamps (and projectors):

  • Replacement cost: this is the purchase cost of new lamps, replacing the lamps in the field that have reached their warranty lifetime (or that have broken down before this time).
  • Running cost: is the cost of electricity, used to power the projector-lamp combination. Since in state-of-the-art projectors, the lamp takes up more than 80% of the power consumption, it is clear that it also constitutes the major source of running costs.

When buying a projector and/or lamp technology that comes with it, it is important to examine the complete cost, resulting from the two contributions mentioned above. Some manufacturers promote very high efficiency lamps, claiming that these produce more light using less power. This only impacts the running cost. However, these lamps also have a significantly lower lifetime and come at a higher cost, negatively impacting the replacement cost. Other manufacturers support using lamps similar to those applied in analog (35mm) projection. These lamps do have a longer lifetime (which has a positive impact on replacement cost), yet they require more power to achieve the same brightness (which has a negative impact on running cost). All in all, these two alternative lamp types have a higher TCO than standard short arc lamps (optimized for digital cinema projection). Remember: it is important to look at the complete picture. By selecting the best lamp technology you can achieve direct savings that will offset more than your initial investment cost.

Still, the complete TCO picture doesn’t stop at lamp costs. Operating a digital cinema projector also includes replacing air filters, learning how to use the interaction software, cooling your projection booth… Even though their contribution to Total Cost of Ownership may seem harder to quantify, their impact can be significant. As regards air filters, for example, two types are commonly used. Most brands use paper filters (so-called HEPA filters) to protect the internals of the projector against dust intrusion. Barco has a patented sealed engine design, which allows the use of metal filters. The link with TCO can be established in the fact that paper filters have to be thrown away and replaced when they are clogged with dirt and dust, while metal filters can be cleaned —even with just water— and re-used. At a cost of more than €100 per paper filter and a bi-annual replacement, the total contribution of filter cost to TCO can quickly add up to several thousands of dollars.

The same is true for the other contributions mentioned above. More detail can be found in our dedicated white paper on TCO or supplied on request.

3. Uptime: 100% is NOT the Holy Grail

For an exhibitor, there’s nothing worse than a missed show. Not only does the cost of refunding ticket hurt your revenue, the price you pay for a blemished image is probably much higher. The only way to prevent black screens is to make sure your projection equipment achieves 100% uptime. You might think that this is the unachievable Holy Grail of exhibition, since all components have a finite lifespan and all lamps are rated for a given lifetime (see above). How realistic achieving this perceived unattainable goal actually is may therefore come as a surprise to you.

In state-of-the-art digital projectors, maximum uptime is achieved in two ways:

  • Prevention: keeping the patient healthy is always the best course of action. In projection, keeping the optical chip (the heart of your projector) cool is an important first step. Barco runs its chips at an operating temperature 2°C below that of competitors. As a result, this critical component has a 30% longer lifetime. Another important contribution to maximum uptime is projector cleanliness. The exhibitor can impact this by keeping the projection booth as dust-free as possible; but the manufacturer’s filter design remains the most critical aspect. For more information on Barco’s patented sealed engine and the difference between paper and metal air filters, please see above.

Finally, prevention can come from projector intelligence as well. State-of-the-art devices are network-enabled and can send remote messages to a central management system. Some of these messages contain preventive maintenance alerts, informing the exhibitor that a service intervention should be performed before an intrusive alarm occurs. Barco projectors monitor more than 500 internal parameters and e.g. send notifications when lamp runtime is reaching the warranty lifetime.

  • Fast and easy correction: if something does go wrong, resolving the issue as quickly and smoothly as possible is crucial, preferably without the patrons in the auditorium noticing anything. A way to facilitate such an intervention is to have a projector built on a modular architecture. In such a design, the projector’s building blocks are easily accessible from the side and can be replaced quickly without the need for special tools or training. Truly modular projectors make switching components in-between shows possible (or in such a short timeframe that ticket refunding is not necessary if the show is interrupted). Barco has even extended this modularity to the lamps by being the only manufacturer to offer an easily replaceable lamp housing: not only does this format protect the projector’s interior in case of lamp explosion, it also allows the local technician close to the projector to replace the lamp in the shortest possible time.

4. Image quality: the magical mix of brightness, contrast and resolution

Once you have your DCI compliant projector, which is economical to run at 100% uptime… you want to be sure you get the best possible image on your screen. Unfortunately, no single metric can quantify image quality. However, three major factors contribute to everyone’s perception of image quality:

  • Brightness: this is quantified as the luminance (in cd/m² or fL) on the screen, which is related to the brightness (in lumens) of the projector. The DCI Specification sets a minimum luminance (both for 2D and 3D). Given the impact of the lamp/projector-combination on TCO (see above), it is important to find a setup that best matches your screen size. In this respect, Barco’s DP2K family of six projector models offers you more than 20 lamp/projector combinations to optimally fit the needs of your auditorium. Opting for on-screen brightness far beyond the DCI Specification is not necessary: the dimmed environment of cinema theaters and the wide color gamut of DCI compliant projectors do not require higher brightness. You would only blind your audience with the additional luminance.

Don’t forget, the lamp is only the initial source of the light and brightness. How efficiently you can transport this light from your lamp to your screen defines the actual setup. The state-of-the-art design, development and manufacturing of the projectors impact this setup greatly. A highly efficient projector (quantified in lm/W) needs a smaller lamp to achieve the same on-screen brightness; again helping you keep your TCO under control.

  • Contrast ratio: is defined as the ratio between the brightest possible output (white) and the darkest possible output (black). As opposed to brightness, more is better when it comes to contrast ratio. The human eye can adapt to a very high range of light levels; the better you can fill up this range, the more natural the image will look. Best-in-class projectors go beyond the DCI Specification, e.g. by applying intelligent coatings on the optics that prevent the occurrence of scattered light in the projector.
  • Resolution: this is the total pixel count on the screen. It is defined by both the resolution of the content that is put in and the resolution that the projector can handle. The minimum of these two values defines the on-screen resolution. It is typically quantified by the amount of columns in the image (e.g. “2K” for 2048 columns or “4K” for 4096 columns). Note that a 4K image actually has four times the amount of pixels compared to a 2K image. In the race for increased resolution, the acuity of the human visual system is a defining factor. Below a certain feature size (in cinema, this is the pixel size), a human eye cannot perceive additional detail anymore. This is important when comparing 2K to 4K: the highest resolution only makes sense on your premium screens. Beware when switching from 2D to 3D: some technologies do not maintain the minimum 2K resolution when projecting in 3D mode.

So, when trying to assess the image quality of the projector you’re considering, it is important to look at these three parameters. A bright projector model allows you to serve a bigger screen at a lower cost; a wide choice of models helps you optimize matching the projector to your screen. As for resolution: use 4K wisely for you premium screens.

5. Engine cooling and sealing: protecting the heart of your projector

Like in your car, the engine driving the projector constitutes the heart of the entire device. It contains the most precious components, the high resolution chips that actually form the image. In Barco, Christie and NEC devices this chip is based on DLP technology from TI. Sony uses proprietary LCoS technology. Being such a crucial component, it is important to protect it against any damages.

One form of damage can come from small —dust— particles entering the engine and interfering with the microscopic components of the chip. All projectors use air filters to minimize dust; Barco has a patented sealed light engine which takes this protection to yet another level.

Another form of damage, over a longer period of time, occurs as a result of the impact of heat on the chip’s materials. LCoS devices contain liquid crystal material, which is an organic substance. This means that a yellowing effect occurs as the chip is subjected to the light and thermal load of digital projection. This has an impact on the efficiency and color accuracy. DLP chips inherently have a longer lifespan, but still need cooling when used in the high-power environment of a DC projector. To show how important this cooling is, Barco has succeeded in running its chip at a temperature 2°C lower than that of its competitors, thus achieving a 30% improvement in the chip’s lifetime!

So, when choosing your projector, remember that you will be using it over many years. An intelligent design that combines dust prevention and state-of-the-art cooling will give you worry-free operation over the life of your equipment.

6. Choose a projector that best suits your auditorium

We mentioned above why it is important to optimize your TCO by selecting a projector/lamp combination that best fits your screen. Also from the perspective of investment cost, it makes more sense to have a wide choice of models so that projector and screen can be matched optimally. Let’s say a certain brand only sells one model; then you would have to put that same model in all your auditoria, irrespective of their size. Since this single model would typically be built to cover many brightness ranges, its output is bound to be excessive on your smallest screens. You would have to run it using a small lamp, not taking full advantage of the investment you made. There are six models in Barco’s family of DP2K projectors; this makes it possible for you to optimize your investment, adapting it to the variation and complexity in screen sizes that are common place in every theater. This high granularity makes sure that every projection booth contains the projector that best fits its specifications.

7. Remote monitoring: you don’t need to be in the theater to know it is running well

As mentioned above, a state-of-the-art digital cinema projector is an intelligent device that monitors its internal parameters and health status. Furthermore, it can share this data with the outside world. Barco projectors monitor more than 500 internal parameters and make these accessible through a protocol that runs over standard network connections. In its most basic format, this enables centralized control and monitoring of projectors across the theater.

But monitoring functions do not stop there: there are tools to distribute the projector parameters across global networks (i.e. the Internet) and set up centralized access and control over multiple theaters. This enables hooking up your equipment to a remote helpdesk for example. Another option is to run business intelligence and reporting tools on the collected data and perform preventive maintenance, budget estimates, etc.

With these connectivity and remote monitoring features, long gone are the days of analog projection: now you no longer have to be in your theater to know it is running well. When buying a DC projector today, keep in mind that the connectivity is an enabler for many services that are valuable to your theater.

8. Consumables and peripherals: freedom of choice to best suit your needs

A projector is not a stand-alone device. It uses its internal and peripheral components to generate the high quality on-screen image you expect. Typical internal components are the high power lamps and the 3D system. Typical peripheral components are the digital cinema server or alternative content scaler which provides the inputs.

It is important to know that no single brand supplies all of these components. Some brands focus on lamps (e.g. Osram, Ushio, Philips), while others focus on 3D technology (e.g. RealD, Dolby, MasterImage, Xpand). The choices and combinations in the setup of projector components and peripherals are almost infinite. When selecting you projector, the central node in this setup, it is important to select a brand that allows you to choose your preferred vendor and system, based on your own taste and best available deals.

Some projector manufacturers are only compatible with one type of 3D system, thus forcing you into a limited screen selection and pricing structure. Other manufacturers push one brand of lamps, reducing your ability to compare and negotiate between different suppliers.

Keep in mind that for many of these additional components there is no right or wrong choice to be made and much depends on the personal preference of the exhibitor. A projector manufacturer who understands this provides objective and open advice without pushing you into a model that’s not the best match for you.

9. Serviceability and ease of use

For every type of high-end electronics, you have to perform a minimal amount of regular maintenance tasks in order to enjoy your valuable equipment as long as possible. The same is true for DC projectors where these tasks involve cleaning filters, replacing cooling liquid, updating software… If you are operating multiple theaters and projectors, your technicians will appreciate not having to learn many different service manuals in order to perform these regular interventions.

When it comes to hardware related actions, be sure to check the following when analyzing the serviceability of your projector:

  • Modularity: How easy is it to access and swap the different —internal— parts of the projector? Do you need special training and tools?
  • Communality of spare parts: How big is the list of parts you need to familiarize yourself with and keep in stock? How fast and easily can you swap parts from one model to another?

When it comes to interacting with the projector through its software (either for maintenance or regular use), be sure to check:

  • Ease of learning: Does the software have a simple clear GUI? Is the GUI consistent over different models and generations?
  • Ease of use: Can you easily define and program presets? Does the software support different languages? Does the software support multi-projector setups, through remote control (see above), projector cloning, etc.?
  • Ease of diagnostics: Does the software support you in quickly finding and solving any issues? Does it support preventive tools for early alerts?

10. There’s no business like cinema business – find a strategic partner that understands your needs

Don’t forget: when you are choosing a cinema projector, you are also choosing a partner for a long-term collaboration. Often, what you are selecting is also a service partner that establishes a close collaboration with you and your projector supplier. Cinema is a global business that does not stop working at the weekend and after 5 pm. Not every supplier understands these specific needs. The job is not finished once the equipment is delivered and installed in your projection booth. You are entitled to the latest software updates; your personnel should receive hands-on training; a professional helpdesk should be on-call to solve your requests.

When comparing projector brands, be sure to also compare these after-sales support issues. A service team should be experienced in the business, locally present to service the equipment while having access to the most up-to-date tools. Whether this team is employed by your equipment supplier or by a dedicated service partner does not matter: the most important thing is that you receive the best possible service!

Be sure to select a partner that has sufficient focus (not too large) and bandwidth (not too small) to support your business.

11. Conclusion

We hope this White Paper will help you select the digital cinema projector that best suits your needs and preferences. Even though digitization of your theater may be very disruptive, there is no reason for it to be intrusive. The perfect image quality at every show and flexible programming of feature films and alternative content will open up new opportunities for revenue streams. However, this does not mean you should be overwhelmed with complex technology. In fact, best-in-class digital projectors were built to make your life easier. So, how can you identify a best-in-class projector? We hope this White Paper will guide you in doing just that.

Dr. Ir. Tom Bert
Product Marketing Manager
Barco

[email protected]

 

Wim Buyens
Vice President Digital Cinema
Barco

[email protected]

Copyright © 2011

BARCO n.v., Kortrijk, Belgium

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from Barco.

Optical Efficiency in Digital Cinema Projectors

What isn’t compared is the energy and materials that go into making a remarkably simple film projector against a remarkably complex digital projector, plus the energy and materials that are needed to create the media server and the local central storage, plus the data farms that create and store the movies in the distribution chain, plus the network operation centers that oversee their constant quality and security. Like projectors, data centers use an astounding amount of energy to keep the air cool and what it takes to constantly keep the disks moving and processors humming.

With just a little thought, one can make a long list of data centers in the digital cinema chain: at the animation studios, at each post-production house, at each specialist render farm, at the sites which create the master Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM), and those facilities that create each separately keyed Digital Cinema Package (DCP).

The efficiency of a digital cinema projector was the topic of a side-discussion at a recent technical meeting, involving a number of engineers who have been intimately involved in the digital cinema evolution. There was only conjectured and estimations based upon hearsay. It was surprising. It came up again on an online chat, where engineers who are not centimeters deep/kilometers wide (as is your author), also didn’t have an answer. It was also part of the discussion in our article:
3Questions – Laser Light Engines

So it is a pleasant and interesting relief to be able to present this document from Barco on the subject. Created by Barco Product Marketing Manager Tom Bert, it lends detail into some of the nuance of optical efficiency inside a digital cinema projector.


Optical efficiency in Digital Cinema projectors

How to get as much light as possible from your lamp onto your screen?

1 Introduction

In this article, we want to discuss everything that has an impact on how much light falls onto the screen… except for the lamp. We will have a close look at all the components that influence parameters such as image quality, total cost of ownership and serviceability.

It is our goal to clarify the impact of product design, craftsmanship and manufacturing on projector performance. We want to provide you an inside view on what’s under the hood of the projector and how it really impacts performance.

We hope that, after reading this article, you better understand how a digital cinema projector works and what contributes to the stunning performance of these state-of-the-art devices.

2. The life of Ray

Digital Cinema projection is all about getting the light from your lamp onto your screen. In this paragraph, we will discuss the different impacting parameters on a ray of light leaving the lamp. We will try to do this in a sequential approach, following the build-up of the light path of your digital cinema projector.

The image below gives an overview of the components involved:

Components of a Digital Cinema Projector2.1 Reflector

The reflector is an elliptical or parabolic structure that is placed around the lamp, in order to capture as much light as possible from the lamp and send it into the optical path of the projector. An important parameter is the surface roughness of the reflector: high end devices use perfectly smooth reflector materials, while others use processing techniques that introduce small imperfections. This can have an impact of as much as 15% on the reflector efficiency.

Important to remember is that a badly designed and manufactured reflector can destroy all of the light concentration that comes from using short arc lamps. A well designed reflector also corresponds with the heat generation and dissipation capacity of the projector.

2.2 Filters

After being captured and sent into the optical path by the reflector, the light is filtered. First it goes through a UV-filter and later on through an IR-filter. These filters get rid of that part of the light that can damage the interior of the projector and have in this way a huge impact on the projector lifetime. Filtering out too much of the spectrum of your light, means you will have to compensate later on, leading to a lower overall optical efficiency. However, it is important to know that these filters work far from the sweet spot of the visible light in the spectrum. This means that their influence on image quality is low. Their impact on lifetime is much more important.

2.3 Optical engine

After being filtered from the dangerous components in the spectrum, the light enters the actual optical engine of the projector. This engine contains passive (light rod, lenses and prism) and active (chip) components. At the interfaces of these components coating materials are applied to improve performance.

2.3.1 Passive optical components

The optical engine contains relay lenses and a light rod to transport and spread out the light. The materials that these components are made off, have an impact on the performance. Badly designed engines use materials that absorb too much of the short wavelength (blue) light. This causes them to turn yellow (cfr. you get a sunburn when you forget to put on your sunblock) or even melt! It is clear that this has a major impact on image quality.

It also defines the energetic capacity of your projector, this is the amount of light you can send through. When not designed to transmit the high load that bright projectors bring, the material can break. The brightest digital cinema projectors, like Barco’s DP2K-32B, were specifically designed to carry the load that comes with projecting more than 32,000 lumens.

2.3.2 Active optical components

In digital cinema, two technologies are used for the active chip: DLP™ (from Texas Instruments, which has ~90% market share) and LCoS (from Sony, which has ~10% market share). A digital cinema projector contains three of these chips, one for each color channel (red, green and blue). This is by far the most important component of your digital cinema projector, also from an optical efficiency viewpoint. Its compact size and accurate angular performance makes it the central component that defines the design of all other optics.

For DLP™ technology, the overall optical efficiency of the chip is defined by a combination of:

  • The chip size: it is easier to “aim” light on a bigger chip than on a smaller chip. This is one of the reasons why projectors using the 1.2” DLP Cinema® chip have a 10% higher efficiency compared to those with the 0.98” DLP Cinema® chip. For that same reason, 4k projectors with a 1.38” DLP cinema® chip will have a higher optical efficiency than those using the 1.2” DLP Cinema® chip.
  • The fill factor: the fraction of the surface that is active and reflects the light.
  • The surface reflectivity: the amount of light that bounces back from each individual mirror. This is defined by the maturity of the manufacturing process and is close to the maximum achievable value for DLP™.
  • Diffraction: when hitting structures with a small features size, such as DLP™-mirrors, a small portion of the light is always diffracted (sent off in non-perpendicular angles). As technology miniaturizes, it will become more important to manage this aspect.

With LCoS projection technology, other parameters come into play, like the inefficiencies related to using polarized light. All this leads to DLP™-based digital cinema projection yielding higher efficiencies than LCoS-based projection.

To maximize the chips’ lifetime and maintain a high image quality over time, it is crucial to keep them away from dust. Sealed engines, as patented by Barco, keep the chip surface clean and help avoid scattered light and spots on the screen.

2.3.3 Coating

Two types of surface coating are typically used on the optical materials:

  • Anti-reflection (AR) coatings: these minimize the light being bounced off the optical materials and maximize the light being injected in and transmitted through the engine. A well designed engine uses these AR-coatings wisely and can achieve a transmittance of more than 99% through the passive optical components. The avoidance of reflection also reduces the amount of the scattered light in the engine, which has a positive impact on contrast ratio.

Be aware: any small dust particles on the interface surfaces undo the benefits of using AR-coatings. They also lead to dark spots or zones on screen. That is one of the reasons why the sealed engine design, as patented by Barco, is so important.

  • Color separation coatings: these are used in the heart of the light engine (the prism) to separate the incoming light into the separate red, green and blue channels that are sent to the 3 different chips. As the name indicates, the coatings have to provide a clear separation between the different parts of the spectrum. Just like you need a sharp knife to have a clean cut, you need a sharp filter to have a good spectral separation. This so-called cut-off of the filter has improved significantly of the last years by improved manufacturing techniques. High-end devices use filters with a sharp cut-off, leading to better color separation. This has impact on optical efficiency and image quality.

2.4 Color calibration

The DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative) standard emphasizes (amongst other things) the white point and color gamut of the image on the screen. These parameters do not 100% match the output of an uncalibrated projector (one where you build in the components, not tune or tweak them and power it up). Achieving the color points set by the DCI specification, means you have to slightly compromise on light output. This has an impact on optical efficiency of 5-10%.

2.5 Projection lens

The final component the light ray goes through before leaving the projector is the projection lens. In order to achieve the high level of focus that we know in digital cinema (and from the distances typical in theatre environments), this has to be a piece of optical top design. While we call it the projection lens, it is actually built up of multiple small lenses, each contributing to the overall performance. Like the other passive optical components described above, lens design also depends largely on choice of materials and careful coating of interfaces. State-of-the-art lenses yield an overall efficiency of about 85%.

2.6 Beyond the projector

Most people neglect the impact of parameters that influence the light after it has left the projector. This can go from dirty porthole windows to dirty screens (with low or high gain). Now that you understand what design and work goes into getting the most out of your projector, you should appreciate what a waste it is to loose your light on dirty material.

3 Putting it into numbers

In order to objectively quantify this, we typically use the unit lumen per watt (lm/W): the light output (in lumens) divided by the electrical power input (in watt). This unit helps taking a holistic approach, making it possible to compare across technologies and across brands.

A typical digital cinema lamp (only the lamp!) achieves 40-50lm/W. A typical digital cinema projector (everything described above + lamp) achieves 4-5 lm/W. This means that all the contributions we discussed before yield on average an optical efficiency of 10%!

4 Conclusion

Many factors influence the optical performance of your projector. Even more, we hope you understand that designing a projector is an art as well as a science. It takes know-how and experience in optics, electronics, mechanics and, cooling techniques to design a top class projector.

When selecting your projector, be sure to inquire on how the supplier took into account these aspects. Choosing a brand that cares for all of them will make your projector a high-quality, high-performance and safe choice for the future!

Dr. Ir. Tom Bert
Product Marketing ManagerBarco logo

Based on the inputs from: Rik Defever, Peter Janssens, Nico Coulier

Barco Digital Cinema

Noordlaan 5
8500 Kortrijk
Belgium

3Questions – Laser Light Engines

As we understand it, the replacement of the Xenon bulb with lasers makes a better overall match to the etendue limits of the chip. By their nature, lasers have a very small emission area and a very narrow emission angle. Therefore, they can use less power to put more light at the proper etendue angles of the chip, and can therefore allow the chip to put more light through the projector’s lens. They also allow the use of lenses with higher f#, which in the real world means less expensive lenses.

The most notorious problem with lasers thus far is described as “speckle”, due in large part to the extreme narrow band of color that the laser emits. This speckle is known to cause not only color distortions, but unless reduced below obvious levels can also cause fatigue and even nausea and headaches. Lasers also require active temperature stabilization which in many cases requires a lot of power.

Against this background, we introduce and thank Bill Beck for this opportunity to ask 3Questions.

Bill Beck is a founder of Laser Light Engines Inc., based in southern New Hampshire near the famous R&D centers of Boston (MIT, Harvard, BU Photonics). Their website is polite but also light on detail – one suspects that they were in research mode with little to say, then exploded into development mode and have been too busy to say much.

Recent news items have announced a relatively large infusion of capital, both from typical venture capital sources, and also from the IMAX Corporation to develop a laser light source for their digital projectors. Secondly, they have helped found an industry group with Sony, IMAX and others – Laser Illuminated Projection Association (LIPA) – to help regulatory agencies differentiate the established needs of protecting the public who watch laser-light shows (and which require FDA exemptions for each show) from what they are hoping will be a new category called “laser-illuminated projection”. There is also word of another industry association that is trying to pin down how to quantify speckle: how to measure and what it does.

Separately, Sony has announced their research and development of laser engines (links below) and there are rumors of assistance from a French company which might imply that their development is not as advanced as the Sony website seems to indicate. Kodak also showed their first versions of a laser system for digital cinema which they speak of as being two years away from application.

Q1: We understand that the initial Laser Light Engine concept is to supply a module that replaces the Xenon light engine. Would that include replacing the optical block of condenser lenses and the prism?

Bill Beck: We see this as a multi-step process.  In the future, there won’t be a need for a condenser and splitter as our laser makes narrow band RGB which could easily be delivered directly to the chips. But the optical block of the typical projector, which includes these items, is not part of the module that we can easily modify after the fact. We conceive that our first product offerings will be packages, adapted for each brand and model, which will work with existing optical blocks. It will be a one-time replacement of the lamp and reflector housing that that won’t require a great deal of customer difficulty.

Q2) The optical block is an expensive part of a projector, and your lasers must have costs associated compared to a bulb and the reflective surfaces they replace. Where is the savings?

A2) As you know, the human visual system responds to a very narrow band of wavelengths, and in that band, to some frequencies more than others. The typical xenon bulb is quite efficient compared to other choices. For example, they are quite white balanced. But they still generate significant amounts of infrared and ultraviolet light, which is all wasted energy (typically, ~95% of the energy created) and which requires special designs to eliminate both the heat and the O3 (ozone) created.

And, when you think about it, the design of RGB laser systems won’t require all the interband light between the frequencies needed to mix colors – more wasted light. Plus, the basic laws of physics apply, such that the light is incredibly bright at the arc point, but the power decreases inversely proportional at the square of the distance. By the time the light gets bounced around and focused to the very narrow slit cone the chip can accept, an incredible amount of the light is wasted and the energy used to create it is for naught.

So, yes. In comparison, it takes significant power to create the laser light, but we can generate just to amounts that we need, at the frequencies that we need, and supply it to the chip at the angle that it needs. This allows us to bring an exact ratio of power (which isn’t equal amounts of R and G and B by the way) at the specific frequencies we choose (615/546/455 nanometers.)

The nature of high pressure bulbs (25 atmospheres in an IMAX bulb) also requires them to be replaced quite often, often before their time – we’re talking 100’s, not 1000’s of hours of use. At 5 movie showings a day, 2 hours each, a thousand hours can be reached in 3 months. Because the special glass, and coatings on the glass, get bombarded with such high amounts of energy they become brittle – an exploding bulb can cause 10’s of thousands in damage. They are not inexpensive, so exhibitors have to turn them on and off between each show. Still, a single high duty-cycle projector might use 10,000 dollars worth of bulbs per year, or more.

While the first generation units won’t have all the power consumption reduction optimized, we estimate that we will ultimately get 2X the light to the screen for the same power consumption, without considering the reduced requirements for AC pulling heat away (which is not insignificant.)

Finally, and also not insignificant, our tests show that the system can use high f# laser input and achieve 4000:1 sequential contrast with DLP and 3300:1 with LCOS. With the appropriate f# projection lens, the contrast ratio could go even higher.

It is premature for us to speak about projected pricing for our systems. But even apart from direct costs, we feel that offering a constant source of more energy efficient light, which won’t required a projectionist to suit up in full-body protective clothing every 3 months, will bring advantages in every column.

Q3) It is hard to decide on the third question. Lumens per watt of RGB power, input v output to the screen, or how you got the speckle out, or whether you mean all the speckle or just enough that we don’t notice…or should we ask about what you imply about this multi-step evolution, or what this means for less expensive lenses or what the implications are for 3D, both for more light and, for example, we understand that lasers can, by their nature, coherently spin photons in one direction then another, obviating the need for expensive 3D solutions external to the projector. Please take your pick, but please keep it simple. It took me 20 hours of research just to understand etendue.

A3) Yes, the light people do speak in tongues sometimes. The same effect will often have a different name depending on if you are looking from the source point or if you are looking from the receipt point. I’m an optical fibre guy myself, so I’ll start with our concept and try to keep it in one language.

We speak in terms of lumens per beamliine. In the first system that we propose there can be up to 7 beamlines, each with about 30,000 lumens coming out, which combined, that is about 200,000 lumens going toward the chip and getting 60-100,000 lumens out. Depending on the projector efficiency, that is at least 2 times and approaching 3 times the brightness of a big (6Kw) Xenon lamp.

Our research shows that because of the low etendue of the source, we can keep scaling up, which has been a problem for digital cinema. As you alluded, lamp technology could not scale much further. Even with larger chip sizes, there was only minimal brightness gain in the system. With the ability to further cool the chips, we can foresee putting 3 times the light through each optical cable – that’s about 80k lumens per beamline; about 250 optical watts of white balanced of RGB light to the projector. Looking at this another way, that is about 5 times brighter than the brightest Xenon powered digital projector. [Editor’s note: Wow! Bill Beck’s note: Again, that will require not insignificant work to keep the chips cool.]

As far as alternating polarization of the photons pre-chip, that is another benefit of lasers, and the implications are huge…but  it will take some work with the chip engineers. That subject can take up 3Questions on its own.

 


 

Links: 

Sony Insider » The Science Of The Laser Projector

 

Sony Develops Highly Efficient RGB Laser Light Source Module for Large Screen Projectors

 

Sony Insider » Sony Details New RGB Laser Light Source Module For Projectors

Kodak Laser_Projection_Technology; Large Display Report article.pdf

KODAK Advances Lasers’ March on DCinema

Display Daily » Blog Archive » News on the Laser Cinema Front

DProVe | Digital Projector Verifier

Because it was originally marketed with the post-production-centric Digital Leader, which has the price of $2,500, it perhaps isn’t as well established in the industry. But for $100 it is a steal and should be used often and by everyone until everyone is an expert.

OK; not quite $100 you say. True. It is $100 per copy plus a $150 media charge. So, $250, or $350 for 3, etc. Except, the license allows that for a single site all copies over 5 are not charged for. In other words, there is a 5 copy per site charge, plus the media fee – total $650, then that’s it for a multiplex, even if it has 10 or 15 screens.

SMPTE Digital Leader Demonstration – YouTube

What is needed next is a checklist of questions and answers for the projectionist to run through, making sure that the presentation from the server and projector is as fine as can be.

This is where the DCinemaCompliance – Post Installation Checklist can come in handy, as well as the DCinemaTraining instruction set on how to make the checklist relevant to each of your employees.

SMPTE Releases Two New Digital-Cinema Products To Standardize Workflows, Enhance Theater-Going Experience

DPROVE_Order_Form.pdf

DProVe Flyer | SMPTE

DProVe | Digital Projector Verifier

Because it was originally marketed with the post-production-centric Digital Leader, which has the price of $2,500, it perhaps isn’t as well established in the industry. But for $100 it is a steal and should be used often and by everyone until everyone is an expert.

OK; not quite $100 you say. True. It is $100 per copy plus a $150 media charge. So, $250, or $350 for 3, etc. Except, the license allows that for a single site all copies over 5 are not charged for. In other words, there is a 5 copy per site charge, plus the media fee – total $650, then that’s it for a multiplex, even if it has 10 or 15 screens.

SMPTE Digital Leader Demonstration – YouTube

What is needed next is a checklist of questions and answers for the projectionist to run through, making sure that the presentation from the server and projector is as fine as can be.

This is where the DCinemaCompliance – Post Installation Checklist can come in handy, as well as the DCinemaTraining instruction set on how to make the checklist relevant to each of your employees.

SMPTE Releases Two New Digital-Cinema Products To Standardize Workflows, Enhance Theater-Going Experience

DPROVE_Order_Form.pdf

DProVe Flyer | SMPTE