LASER, LEWIS & L SERIES LCD
23 March 2016
Nothing focuses the collective attention of a room full of media hacks than the promise of an AMG Mercedes F1 garage tour. Yes, news of a 25,000-lumen laser 3LCD projector product release is mildly diverting — enough to look up from one’s canapés, certainly — but being ushered into motor sport’s holy of holies really is akin to a religious experience for a tech-nerd journo.
Epson has again stumped up who-knows-how-many-squillion Yen to be a key AMG Mercedes F1 team sponsor. You might ask how the world’s leading projector manufacturer could possibly justify such a dizzyingly high-octane hookup. The answer lies in Epson’s aspirations as a technology leader rather than simply slugging it out with HP for desktop printer market share.
Again, when Epson talks about its bleeding-edge credentials, it points to its ‘wearables’. Epson continues to invest in its Moverio augmented reality glasses, when others, such as Google, have lost their nerve. A new version will be out later in the year. In the here and now, Epson has had a modicum of success with Moverio in the fields of medical/surgery, museums and, here’s the big growth market, drone control.
Meanwhile, in the AMG Mercedes F1 garage, you’ll find the world’s most exclusive Moverio product demo. Space is at an absolute premium in the garage but Epson and AMG Mercedes have dedicated real estate for 12 comfy chairs that look out over the surgical bustle of the garage. Pop on some gun-muff headphones and a pair of Moverios and a well-spoken young lady from Brackley HQ walks us through the finer points of the AMG Mercedes power plant, pit lane machinations and more, all in glorious augmented reality. It’s a nice presentation, but one can’t but speculate whether it would have the same gravity if presented by an Epson sales drone in Meeting Room U1452 at a tradeshow! Which is more a statement about the magic fairy dust F1 liberally sprinkles on anything it touches than the quality of the product.
As for the new projectors? Epson may have come a little late to the laser party but is making up for lost time with some high brightness lamp-free 3LCD models at the right price. The new L series 3LCD laser projector lineup has the 25,0000-lumen, WUXGA EB-L25000U as its flagship, five models in all down to the 6000-lumen EB-L1100U.
The key innovation is the inorganic colour wheel, which helps the L Series range handle the brighter blue laser output and provides long-term colour stability. There’s a neat auto-calibration camera on the front of the projectors, which also has a setting for dual-projector edge-blending. Early indications suggest the top-of-the-range 25K EB-L25000U will ship for under A$25,000 which is certainly a realistic price for a lamp-free, low-maintenance high-brightness installation projector.
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