A large and innovative immersive room, to “decompress” visitors, but also many novelties for the corporate and educational world: at Epson’s booth, Carla Conca, Videoprojector Business Manager for the Italian market, tells us the latest from the world of video projection, with a focus on 4K.
Making our first entrance at ISE 2023 and being totally captivated by Gaudi’s colorful salamander, moving on a huge video projection wall, welcomes visitors to Hall 3, one of the big names in the video world and the most scenic setups, to be clear. Here is Epson’s booth, which left nothing to chance, in concept as in the smart video projection technologies presented to the international audience at ISE.
Accompanying us in this crowded space is Epson Italia’s Business Manager Videoprojector Carla Conca: “I want to start from the immersive room,” she tells us as we enter this large area wallpapered with artistic subjects, such as Monet’s paintings, and a classic piano in the background, “designed as a relaxation area for people experiencing the physical and mental whirlwind of this fair. It looks like an ordinary installation, but it hides a very sophisticated technological composition, made with professional video projectors equipped with special optics, which manage to do ceiling-to-floor with a single machine. The content, then, is generated by an algorithm that “breaks down” the impressionists’ paintings by returning relaxing multiplier effects.”
Abandoning these sweet feelings for a moment, let’s get to the heart of technological innovations. Of interest, first and foremost, are laser projectors for classrooms and hybrid offices, now more functional and interconnected. For example, the new Epson EB-810E model with super ultra-short optics, on the market by June-July 2023. A 5,000-lumen 4KE projector with a super ultra-short projection ratio (0.16:1), capable of projecting scalable images from 80 to 160 inches. “Thanks to the super ultra-short optics,” explains Carla Conca, “the product is ideal for all environments where space needs to be saved, such as meeting rooms, signage, and immersive facilities. Suffice it to say that it can be placed on a standard cabinet, as we show here at ISE, and allows you to project a few centimeters away from the wall or screen. A solution that is scalable, energy-efficient, and without the need for fixed installation. Supporting the needs of agile work, but also in educational settings, it offers truly unique versatility and portability.”
Also growing is the range of high-performance yet compact and affordable large-screen laser projectors designed for business, education, and immersive spaces. We are talking about three solutions with 4KE resolution – EB-L570U, EB-L770U, and EB-L775U -, brightnesses between 5,200 and 7,000 lumens, superior multi-projection features, and advanced connectivity for simplified setup. Not only that, the machines can eliminate common problems such as limited viewing angles, blind spots, and interference from footprints and reflections, ensuring more comfortable and inclusive viewing. Hybrid work, moreover, is simplified by the MTR (Microsoft Team Room) automatic power-on function, activated on HDMI signal detection.
The last piece of our visit, is the news in terms of 4K, with solutions geared to achieve, in the coming months, proposals of up to 20,000 lumens. In the wake of the success of the Epson PU2200 line, with lighter and more compact projectors, Carla Conca shows us the new EB-PQ2000 with 4K resolution. Further evolution in terms of size and weight, as well as ease of installation, setup and maintenance, image quality, and sustainability. The EB-PQ2000 is compatible with the optional ELPEC01 camera, which enables quick and easy use of advanced auxiliary techniques, such as stacking and projector combining. Each machine comes without standard optics, so the user can implement the optimal projection solution for the target scenario, using Epson’s extensive family of high-quality 4K optics, without varying projection ratios. The new products offer important environmental and economic benefits: they consume less, have packaging with a smaller carbon footprint, and can be stored, transported, and installed more easily.
In closing, a line on the Italian market. “We have been absent from education applications for some time, due to the Digital Board tender that excluded video projection technologies. Now the Ministry has readmitted these products, also fueling the theme of immersiveness, so we are back fully active. So too is the increasingly important slice of the high education market, with significant investment from Italian universities. Along with service and rental, art and entertainment also represent rising segments for us. By now, everywhere, when entertaining and engaging people, video projection comes into the picture. So we preside over new markets for new needs, thanks to the demand for immersiveness.”
