UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND CHOOSES SONY PROJECTORS

Recently the University of Queensland (UQ) Business School relocated from level 19 of Central Plaza One to a nearby building also on Queen Street in Brisbane. The new site allowed UQ to have a visible and publicly accessible street presence and as a result the Business School wanted an eye-catching 1.6m-tall video display that could span a 25m-long wall which began in the foyer café area and continued all the way down the left side of an informal area.

The University of Queensland AV Designer – Service, Automation & Events Information Technology Services Events, Michael Livingstone, explained, “The budget couldn’t stretch to an LED display of that size so projection was used instead. We needed the ability to compete with ambient light, to deal with a relatively short distance from the projection wall to the projectors, wanted to avoid costly video wall processors to manage the blend and geometric correction, a product known to be reliable, high colour brightness and colour accuracy. We did our research and found that the Sony VPL-FHZ65W projectors would be ideal for the job.”

The VPL-FHZ65 laser projector is ideal for a wide range of business, education and entertainment applications. The powerful Z-Phosphor laser light source is teamed with Sony’s advanced BrightEra 3LCD projection engine to deliver extremely bright, detail-packed WUXGA resolution images with generous 6000 lumens brightness and rich, stable colours. Constant Bright maintains the same brightness throughout the 20,000 hours recommended life span and virtually zero maintenance operation without the worry of sudden lamp failures. An automated filter system cuts the hassle of regular dust cleaning and there are also a range of energy-saving features which significantly drive down total lifetime ownership costs.

Livingstone continued, “UQ had already been using Sony FHZ series projectors for a few years with excellent results. The video wall application required a long life, low maintenance projector which would also remain stable with regards to colour and brightness during its usable life. We also wanted a projector that could allow us to adjust its geometry without the expense of a third party solution. The key point was that with 11 overlapping images, the image blending also needed to be handled within the projector meaning our source device only needed to manage the image overlap.”

UQ uses Sony projectors for all of their small to medium sized spaces and have used the Sony FHZ series since they were first released.

Livingstone added, “I don’t know of any video walls with such a wide aspect ratio which uses 12 projectors in straight line. It’s an excellent execution and a very unique one. The Business School are extremely happy with the results and people tend to go ‘wow’ the first time they see it. Even for someone who works in the AV industry it’s an eye-catching sight to stand in front of a display that extends out past your peripheral vision.”

According to Livingstone the functionality of the Sony projectors was critical but just as important was their reliability and cost effectiveness as he commented, “The Sony projectors have ticked all the boxes and due to their value for money allowed us to create this unusual display. The laser projector market tends to be dominated by DLP technology, but the colour accuracy and saturation is not as good as the 3 LCD system. UQ has a number of users who demand high colour accuracy and very high detail with the images they show students. For our users, Sony projectors are ideal.”

All in all Michael Livingstone sees the University of Queensland’s decision to purchase and use Sony VPL-FHZ65W projectors as a win-win solution as he concluded, “Sony VPL-FHZ65W projectors are great value for money, require very little upkeep and allow us to focus on delivering more systems and services to our students and staff. We can’t ask for more than that.”

Sony: pro.sony.com.au