TWIN a BARCO

[Allan Barnes]

Has anyone experience in running two BARCO projectors on 1 screen with the same image. Usually, I am told, this "twinning" is used in 3D to increase brightness or something. ANY HELP / NOTES WOULD BE WELCOME.

[Steve Guttag]

The problem with dual projectors in 2D is getting a precise pixel overlap. You'd want to stack them (and figure out the exhaust of the lower one), use lens shift to overlap the images precisely and NEVER move the lenses after that (they'll never register precise enough).

Normally, 2 projectors in cinema is for 3D or a proprietary projector configuration like Dolby Vision or IMAX, which have their own methods to ensure precise image alignment.

[Marcel Birgelen]

To the best of my knowledge, Barco currently does not offer a DCI compliant 2D twinning sollution. Their current projector setup does not allow for advanced image warping and as such it will be practically impossible to converge both images on screen exactly.

The only brand currently offering DCI compliant 2D twinning solutions on the open market I'm aware of is Christie. Christie has both a legacy product (which probably is end-of-sale), but offers advanced image warping options in their CineLife+ range of projectors.

For dual-projector 3D, the aligment requirements are far less constrained, as both images do not need to converge on a pixel-level detail, so setups are also far less constrained.

If you're looking at new hardware, a single projector setup with enough light budget will almost certainly be more economical and will require far less maintenance than any stacking solution out there. It will also be better for contrast. But I guess, you're stuck with two existing Barco machines?

[Allan Barnes]

Thanks... still thinking on this series 1 Barco "STACKING." I assumed 3D required a more percise setup not less

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

The difference with 3D is that, unless there is cross-talking (one eye sees the image supposed for the other), each eye sees the image projected from one projector only.
Therefore, if there is a small misalignment, it won't be noticed.
Something like the View-Master. You didn't have the images overlapping one-another there.

[Marco Giustini]

very much what Ioannis said. I did some tests and it really takes quite a lot of (horizontal) misaligment before you see something weird.