High-end projectors buoy market

MANILA, Philippines - Up until recently, the projector was pretty much a one trick pony that projects images on a surface. But projector makers like Epson have tweaked and refreshed the features of this display device so it can continue to keep its place in modern boardrooms, classrooms and other places where visual aids are required.

One of the high-end projectors to come out from the Japanese company recently is the Epson EB-450Wi. It is an ultra short throw projector that turns any standard whiteboard or smooth, flat surface into an interactive presentation area.

The EB-450Wi comes with its own wall mount mechanism so it can be installed overhead and from there it beams images onto a flat, clear surface. Presenters will appreciate that having a projector overhead eliminates the nuisance of getting them blinded by the projector’s light.

The EB-450Wi comes with a digital infrared pen so users can electronically write over their presentations and even manipulate on-screen objects as if they are using a chalk, whiteboard marker or a computer mouse.

The changes in the presentations as a result of the digital pen scribbling can be saved as jpeg files onto the computer where the EB-450Wi is connected to.

Digital flipcharts

Sean Fellows of market GfK, one of the largest market research companies in the world, said projectors are likely to become the flipchart of the digital age.

To live up to this kind of expectations, projectors today have to project the best image in more ways than one. Aside from shedding off some pounds by not being too chunky anymore and improving its design so it’s not as clunky as before, projectors are also getting improved LCD technology to support high-definition standards.

Some manufacturers are even looking or claiming to already have support for 3D images.

Because many offices and classrooms have space issues, portable high-end projectors, particularly the short throw models, can come handy.

A projector’s throw ratio determines the size of the projection. If a throw ratio is 2.0 and the projector is 14 feet away from the screen, then the display width will be seven feet. 

GfK, on the other hand, defines a short throw projector as being able to produce an image larger than 1.5 m from a distance of less than 100 cm. The ultra-short throw EB-450Wi can be mounted as close as 2.8 cm away from the wall and can project a 60-inch image from only 7.6 cm away.

GfK believes the benefit of portability and the new advanced features of high-end projectors will consequently buoy demand as this equipment become desirable once again.

The Epson EB-450Wi, which is now locally available for P106,900, is both portable and innovative so the market might give it a chance to literally hang in there.