User Manual

A World of Color
Data projectors are no longer just a simple substitute for the venerable overhead projector, with its
black lines and simple charts laid upon a transparency. Yet our thinking about the value of projectors,
particularly in business and educational settings, has not advanced far beyond that.
To many, the words “projector” conjures up a dull presentation. But that’s an outdated mindset. What
began as a tool for putting black and white words and simple color charts and graphs onto slides has
evolved into a media-rich platform, supporting video, audio, animations and photographs. And
presentation programs are just one paint source on the palette of choices business and education
professionals can now use to tap into the power of color.
Indeed, nearly anything that a computer can store on its hard disk, play from its DVD drive or access
from the Internet can be projected in living color. A short and not very exhaustive list would include
online videos, corporate, educational and personal websites, personal and corporate blogs, short
message feeds with photos, images from photo sharing sites, streamed full-length films and television
shows, and many other sources.
Such rich, high-definition content has made the quality of the color produced by a projector extremely
important, regardless of whether it is meant for home, business, or classroom use.
Considering this universe of color-based content, potential purchasers can evaluate projectors using a
number of specifications. These include white brightness, contrast ratio (the difference between the
brightest part of the image and the darkest), and resolution (such as XGA or SXGA, measured in pixels).
For most users, the key to determining the capability of a given projector to successfully present vibrant
images is the projector’s brightness, measured in lumens. In general, the higher the number of lumens,
the brighter the projector. One of the many reasons brightness is important in business and education
projector is the frequent need to project in conference rooms and classrooms with the lights on.
Considering the overwhelming use of color in today’s presentations, the ability for a projector to project
color at a brightness equal to its projection of white light is critical. Yet the widely-used lumens
specification measures only white light, a fact unknown to more than 70 percent of projector buyers,
according to a recent TFCinfo Associates study. And unfortunately, in more than 50 percent of
projectors sold today, Color Brightness is substantially lower than White Light Output.
Even sophisticated information technology buyers often have no idea that the lumens specifications
refer only to the output of white, rather than colored, light. Until the arrival of the new Color Light
Output specification, buyers had no way to determine if a projector was capable of producing the bright,
vivid color they demanded. In the digital era, where online ordering is the norm, the ability to evaluate
the color quality of a projector on specs alone, without seeing it in action, is imperative.