Advice on a new 0.69" laser projector

[Pietro Clarici]

A couple of my NC1600S are getting retired soon, and budget for a small independent theater like ours does not allow for 4K at current prices. Since the screens are 9 x 4 m and will have new Harkness Matt Plus surfaces, I'm looking at a 0.69" laser projector with a light output of around 11/12000lm. I have 18 years of experience with NEC machines from Series 1 onwards, they've been pretty reliable but I'm not sure that the current NEC lineup is very competitive in that range, especially when it comes to contrast (1600:1 vs. 2000:1 for Christie or even 2200:1 for Barco) and lumen per watt ratio: they have the NC1503L at around 14000lm, but there's a big gap between that and the 1402L at 9500lm. Also, I've read here that lens memory on NEC projectors seems to be quite unreliable, which I don't doubt since I've experienced this personally on 1.25" and 1.38" machines.

I'd really appreciate your first-hand experience with Christie and Barco. Christie seems to have very aggressive pricing, a 2411-RBe is almost 20% cheaper than a SP2K-11. Also, in both cases choosing the proprietary IMB over a IMS-3000 (currently I have 7 Doremi/Dolby servers) would save us around 7K€ per screen, so even if my original idea was to stick with Dolby to avoid retraining my staff (and maybe having a future backup option for my CP750s), I won't ignore the IMB-S4 or ICMP-X if they are reliable. We'll be able to move content from/to the existing servers if the FTP credentials are configured correctly, with no need for a TMS, right? Any advice will be much appreciated.

[Steve Guttag]

NEC's contrast ratio on the .69 is pretty poor and will look awful on a Matte-white screen. If you had a high gain screen, it would hide the contrast issues but have poor light uniformity. The IMB-S4 has no track record and I wouldn't advise it for its 1st year. That is my advice on all new products. That 1st year is their beta-test...no matter who it is.

The ICMP is a known quantity now, on the Barco side and there will be the ICMP-XS in the 4th quarter of this year that will have higher transfer rates, in addition to sound options. Mind you, the XS version is different enough that it too might warrant a 1-year period to see if has unforeseen issues. The Dolby IMS3000 and GDC SR1000 are known servers.

Barco and Christie both have pretty good products with very good track records and good images. It has been my experience that the .69" projectors have poorer lens repeatability. Remember, they are using higher magnification due to the smaller chips so any gear-lash in the lens mechanisms is magnified more than on the larger chip projectors.

I'd say that 11,000lm would be on the dicey side for you on a 4m tall screen with a matte-white screen (1.0 gain). Even 15,000lm is probably going to be risky 40,000+ hours out. And that's the trick. With xenon, you only had to worry about decay to 2,000-3000 hours. With laser you have to predict out 40,000-60,000 hours. When it's new, you'll be very fine with lots of head room. But you have to think years out and how fast those lasers will be decaying after you've run them. The harder you run them when new, the faster they will decay when they age. if you get a 11,000lm projector, you're going to be starting it in the 70-80% power range on day-1. That doesn't leave you much to go down the road.

[Agnius Acus]

First laser projector installations must be at least 10 years old now, so they are approaching the end of their lifespans. How are they doing?

[Pietro Clarici]

Thanks Steve, that was helpful. I thought a 25/30% overhead could work but I have no data about actual laser decay in the field. What you said about 15.000lm possibly not being enough is concerning, because I don't think I'll be able to stretch our budget in the 20.000lm range. Although I'm not a fan of gain screens, maybe 15.000lm on a Perlux 140 could be the lesser evil. This is definitely something I will consider, although my realistic target will be probably closer to 10 years/25.000 hours since I'm not optimistic about the future of our industry, and I believe that at some point we will be forced by our customers to offer something completely different - maybe LED, who knows - to stay in business anyway.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I need to find out which units my folks are considering. We were nearly under-spec'd on our 2K xenon, I'd hate to find ourselves wanting for headroom in both rooms after the inevitable 4k Laser purchase.

[Steve Guttag]

I don't know what the long-term data is and it is evolving as new materials and designs are put into use. Thus far, laser decay seems to be very slow. But, as you increase power, it is my prediction that it will increase geometrically (the decay).

Christie showed, at CinemaCon 2025, a technique they call VDR (Variable Dynamic Range) (the following are estimates as I don't have the numbers in front of me) It will have two modes...standard, which should yield a 10-15% improvement in laser power efficiency. Think of it as a variable laser control. When you are projecting black, it is turning the lasers down and only when you need full brightness does it turn them up to peak-white. In this manner, you can get more out of any given sized laser system rather than always having it set to what you need for the off chance that something at 48 nits is on screen. This is going to be a software upgrade to the Cine-Life + projectors sometime in 4Q 2025 and/or 1Q 2026. It will be a licensed feature so look for an associated fee.

There will also be a variant that will allow for something akin to a HDR projector by allowing a wider range of what the lasers can be ramped. So, if you are going for 108 Nits or 300 Nits, this is a potential "trick." to achieve it. I say trick because you are modulating the light to achieve it. If you put a checkerboard pattern up where need peak white while the darkest blacks, it can't do what, say Dolby Vision can do. But, with typical content, you likely will get an effect similar/better to TVs that do this now to achieve their contrast ratio specs.

Looking at Christie's own calculator, their numbers match mine. They are predicting, with a new Matte-White screen, you would need a CP2415-RGB. The CP2411-RBe doesn't have the headroom. If you are showing that it does, move your port efficiency to a more realistic 90% instead of 98%. Most port glass is about 92-93%, when new. This is allowing for a 30% overhead too. In fact, you'll have 43-66% headroom (depending on format). And, if you activate VDR once it becomes available, you'll push that 43% over 50% and likely get a VERY long life out of the system before needing lasers.

The equivalent Barco is the SP2K-15S and Barco's calculator, with the same size/gain/losses also picks the SP2K-15S as the smallest that they would recommend.

[Stefan Scholz]

NEC seems to have the worst efficiency of the projector lineups currently offered, and Christie using High Brightness lenses (do you really want these contrast killers?) in comparison the highest.
The 0.69" NECs are not known for contrast, but I have to admit, the one I sold to a multipurpose venue in a former medivial times church, chosen for very low noise, is actually ok looking on the matt white screen they have. Still, energy consumption is higher, than compared to Christie 0.69" in the same power range.
I installed the NEC, as the Christie S3 RGB lasers were still relying on Xenon based cooling fans, and the noise was excessive. New Gen 4 ones, as quiet as the NEC.

You are aiming for a 9 meter / 27 ft wide screen and Harkness matt white surface. It is about the size we I have in my room. Which will be a Christie 4435 with Ultra High contrast Premium lens, to achieve the desired image quality, and to enable the proposed variable dynamic range feature at 100 to 150 nits. Without this, we would have ended with a 4420 projector, to assure it's not driven in high laser output position to ensure semiconductor lifespan.
I never aim for 50 nits (14fl), as this is border to night vision. Aim for the old film standard, of 55 + 20 nits, and you're in the daytime vision for most humans, with a vastly improved image perception. The contrast of modern projectors is good enough to do it. Remember, the 14 fl were standardized at a time, when DLP chips barely reached 1500 to 2000:1 on/ off contrast in laboratory testing, real life production models even falling way behind these figures. At that time, any overly bright image looked awfully washed out, for lack of blacks. 14 fl ensured some kind of color image reception for most patrons.
Today's production, even at 0.69" or 0.47" chipsets, looks ok in blacks.
For that screen size, and High Brightness lens (no go for image quality) eventually a X415 might do in ok drive position. But the extra for the next step isn't much.

Media block choice, either GDC SR 1k or Dolby IMS 3k, or ICMP-X for Barco. All have proven reliability records in quantities. All have the rare ones, which have problems, all have very good manufacturer support behind. I wouldn't go for something "new" to the market, unless it has been around for a year. You certainly don't want to be the Beta tester site, even with "the greatest manufacturer support imaginable". The choice between established media blocks is yours. I have customers that prefer GDC and their GUI, other like, the Dolby one, as it is somewhat similar to their old Doremi, at least in command structures.
I have been doing more GDCs than Dolby, we do just what the customers wants.