Protocol Document
Jay Ankeney
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Is Laser-Illuminated Projection the Future of 3D?
1/13/2014
Last month I saw the future of digital cinema exhibition and the future is bright and beautiful. With the help of NEC Display
Solution’s top-of- the-line NC 3240S digital cinema projection systems, Laser Light Engines Inc. staged a week of
demonstrations of laser-illuminated theatrical projection at the Technicolor Interop Technology Center in Burbank, Calif.
What was seen on the screen was spectacular.
In the booth of the TITC theater were two of NEC’s flagship NC 3240S 4K DLP cinema projectors, one lit by a standard
Xenon lamp and the other operating with the latest laser engine from LLE. The demonstration included 2D content on both
white and silver screens and 3D content on a silver screen with the laser-powered projector presenting the left eye and the
Xenon version beaming the right.
It is important not to call LLE’s modification of the NEC projector “laser projection” since, as will be explained shortly, the
light emitted into the theater is not high-powered coherent laser light. Therefore, the technically correct appellation for this
technology is “laser illuminated” projection.
This may become significant as this technology is rolled out. After all, based on experiences
with
unshielded laser light shows dating back to 1960s rock concerts, the FDA
still requires operators
to apply for a safety variance for each laser-source installation above 5,000 lumens.
HOLLYWOOD INTEREST
Bill Beck, founder and executive vice president of business development for LLE, told me,
“Hollywood’s interest in this week of
demonstrations has been phenomenal, with representatives
from all the studios coming to our sessions. We predict that by the end of the week all the film
community will be behind the adoption of laser-illuminated projection.”
As Beck explained, one reason is that the operational costs of laser light sources can be
significantly lower than high-powered digital cinema Xenon lamps, which only last about 600
hours at full power with their output dropping to 70 percent in the first few hundred hours and to 50 percent by the end of life. That will
make
retrofitting digital cinema projectors with laser light engines even for 2D presentations very appealing to theater owners as the technology
evolves.
But for 3D fans, the benefit will be finally providing viewers with the 14 foot-lamberts of brightness hitting their eyes, which is the
recommended level for optimal 3D imagery. While 14 foot-lamberts is the DCI spec for 2D, it has been very difficult for 3D theaters to achieve
this level of illumination, so 3D releases are usually color-timed for the 4–6 foot-lamberts of their real-world exhibition.
Achieving those 14 foot-lamberts (named after 18th century Swiss-German physicist Johann Heinrich Lambert) with cost-
effective technology is
the key breakthrough with this laser-illuminated projection design. To create left/right separation, a projector’s beam passes through the
3Denabling technology in front of its lens. This can be either left/right polarizing filters, sets of color wavelength
filter wheels or alternate frame
display systems. These can reduce the brightness hitting a viewer’s eyes by 72–90 percent. That’s why many 3D theaters
actually provide their
premium ticket
-
paying customers a dimmed down cinema
experience far below the optimum viewing requirements for proper
3D.
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TVTechnology
1/14/2014
http://www.tvtechnology.com/prntarticle.aspx?articleid=222965