New Projection Direction for East Hotel
Canberra’s East Hotel invests in high brightness Digital Projection for foyer signage.
31 March 2022
Text:/ Christopher Holder
If the nation’s capital, Canberra, is renowned for being a beige, bureaucratic city of compromise and reserve, then East Hotel’s 2012 arrival on the accommodation scene was like a breath of funky-fresh air. It’s a highly-curated design hotel where every item, every finish, every fitting has a purpose and a design intent. Nothing is left to chance.
One half of East Hotel’s husband/wife proprietor partnership, Dan Bisa, was on good terms with Canberra-based AV integrator, Sound Advice, and its boss Norman Korte. He wanted some advice about a large wall in the foyer he was hoping to use as an eye-catching display.
After talking through the options, Norman, convinced Dan Bisa to paint the wall white and invest in projection.
Back in 2012, prior to large-format laser projection, it was impossible to orient a projector in portrait mode without frying the electronics. Instead, Norman Korte employed a custom-made mirror system from Visual Fidelity to reorient the image for the space. The projection wall instantly became another design feature, displaying digital art and in-house promotions.
Years later, the projectionDesign unit’s lamp was well past its use-by date. Again, it was time for Dan Bisa and Norman Korte to have a conversation. Norman convinced Dan of the merits of an upgrade, to a high-brightness laser light source projector from Digital Projection.
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The output is impressive
21,000 LUMEN UPGRADE
The M-Vision Laser 21000 is a single-chip DLP projector, boasting a 21,000-lumen output, a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, and performance that rivals three-chip units without the three-chip price tag.
The optical system, from the laser light source up to the lens is completely sealed and can be considered IP60 rated. This ensures that light output and colour performance will not be degraded due to the ingress of dust. Additionally, this projector is completely filterless as the system is liquid cooled and uses a radiator heat exchanger, minimising maintenance as no replacement or cleaning of filters is necessary and allows unrestricted airflow.
Being a laser light source projector, the MVision 21000 is just at home oriented in portrait mode as it is in landscape. Norman went back to Visual Fidelity, only this time to order an industrial-rated bracket for the occasion.
“The output is impressive,” observes Norman Korte, head of Sound Advice. “It’s a WUXGA resolution projector. We didn’t feel we needed the extra pixels of a 4K projector, and the additional brightness was our prime concern. Which we got, in spades.”
The Digital Projection unit sits on the hotel’s network with a Mac Mini acting as a media player. The content varies from cutting-edge digital art through to marketing and promotional material, including the promotion of Dan Bisa’s nearby apartment development — from all reports, the projector upgrade has already paid for itself!
Sound Advice: (02) 6280 8777 or soundadvice.com.au
Amber Technology (Digital Projection): 1800 251 367 or ambertech.com.au
Visual Fidelity: (03) 9338 8995 or visualfidelity.com
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