From large high-brightness 4K projectors to the new SDVoE transmitters and receivers, always in the perspective of 4K: from source to distribution. And then, 3D, video wall and area education, for an ISE with great visual and media impact.
“Heaven and Earth” is the title of an Oliver Stone’s film released in 1993. Even Christie at ISE 2018 appeared suspended between 4K and… Earth (Terra)! Christie is going through, in the words of Brant Eckett, EMEA Marketing Manager, a delicate but exciting phase of the relationship with the market: “In the last sort of three-four years – he said – I’ve seen there is not the same level of innovation there was in the years before. Many big brands buy big components from the Far East, they put them in a box, the stick a label on it and then they sell it, and actually anybody can do that. What we are starting to understand is that integration with creativity is the right way to move on the market”.
The main protagonists of this year’s fair were, in fact, the Christie Crimson 4K phosphor laser projectors and the well-known Boxer series with native 4K resolution, presented in fascinating installations. The Crimson are 3DLP laser phosphor projectors for large venues and events, with brightness up to 25.000 ANSI lumens. Christie Boxer 4K30 is instead a projector that offers 30.000 lumens, designed for rental applications and high impact events, with Christie TruLife technology for color reproduction and image accuracy.
If on the projection side Christie has therefore given more confirmation than new, the novelty comes from the Terra product line, presented for the first time at ISE. Terra, in practice, is a series of transmitters, receivers, control hardware and software that allows the design and integration of systems compatible with Software Defined Video over Ethernet (SDVoE) in a simple, flexible and scalable package. With Terra, in short, Christie aims to offer a complete 4K native distribution, 4: 4: 4, from one player to another, taking advantage by SDVoE Alliance, which promises a standardized approach to maximize the scope and user experience of the architecture and performance of the AV-over-IP system.
Moreover, in the Education Zone of its booth, Christie organized a series of interventions to better update visitors on its AV solutions and the latest content management and processing technologies, including Pandoras Box, Widget Designer, Terra, Spyder X80 and Mystique.
And it’s very interesting the way in which Brant Eckett has summarized the corporate philosophy to this ISE and beyond, even in the future: “We have to be careful that we don’t dilute what we are and just becoming the same and the other brands and to do that means that we don’t talk about the product but we talk about why we did the product in that way. Leading us towards the development of technologies are precisely the people that these technologies use them, our customers. We want a simple product to sell and Christie is too technical, they like the Christie brand, they like the customer support but they don’t like the complexity. Our engineers don’t want to do that, they want to do the stuff that really excite them and if we don’t let them do that we loose what we are and our brand means nothing, we will look like everybody else, it’s a challenge”.
