Sony shows off its new 4K projector

Sony has taken the wraps of the latest generation of 4K SXRD projectors and invited the whole world to come and see it. Well, maybe not the whole world, but it seemed like most of the key cinema moves and shakers came to London for the two one-day events.

Once again the event was held at the Odeon Leicester Square, but unlike the previous time Sony demoed the 4K there, this time it went much smoother. It's no secret that Sony has had a bit of a management shake up for its digital cinema business in Europe recently, but it seems like things are paying off with a good product and a clearer strategy.

There was a lot of press coverage about the event, though for all those of you that cannot read the Norwegian article, you will have to make do with the IDG/PC World write up:

The projector, which was used earlier this month to project the "Spiderman 3" movie at its world premiere in Tokyo, is a giant. It stands more than 1.5 meters high, is 1.4 meters deep and 74 centimeters wide and weighs 300 grams.

At its heart sits a 4.2kW bulb (an average household bulb is about 60W) and light from here is bounced off mirrors and through a prism to be split into red, green and blue streams. Each of these goes through a 1.55-inch flat-panel display based on Sony's SXRD (Silicon Crystal Display) technology before being combined and magnified through a lens as wide as a man's hand.

The result, as Sony demonstrated on Wednesday, is a spectacular image that's a rank above what you might be used to seeing at the movies. The projector outputs an image with 4,096 pixels by 2,160 pixels resolution, which is double that of HDTV both horizontally and vertically to result in more than 8 million pixels versus about 2 million on HDTV.

So far, so pedestrian and unspectacular. But the image that it put up on Britain's largest cinema screen looked very good. You will have noticed that the shape has changed too. Gone is what I though looked like a hulking giant black cyclopic toad and now we have something that more closely resembles 35mm and DLP Cinema projectors - if only it was a little less wide to fit more easily through the doorway of the average projection booth. It has been recommended for FIPS certification (as I discussed in the Dolby article).

What is equally impressive is the business side. Sony seem to 'get it' more than they did even 12 months ago. The pricing of the projector is reasonable at 75,000 euro (sans lens) and they are even hinting at a financing vehicle to help pay for it.

But some things remain frustratingly unchanged. The article says that "Sony launched its first 4K digital cinema projector two years ago, but it's only in use in four of Japan's roughly 3,000 cinema screens, the company said." That ignores the 11 4K SXRD projectors that have been sold in Norway - MORE THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD (including Sony's native Japan) - of which four are in cinemas or screening rooms, i.e. as many as Japan. Do not ignore your biggest customer, however small, or risk driving them into the arms of the competition.

But, like I said, overall it was an impressive presentation and while there are issues to be resolved with the projector technically and the organisation around it, at least it shows that Sony are heading in the right direction.