CEDIA Expo is always chock full of video and audio demos to show off each company's latest products for the custom-installation market. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to effectively demonstrate the performance of an audio system on the show floor, mostly because of the ambient noise level and the difficulty of building an acoustically advantageous area in the exhibit hall—even the so-called "sound rooms" are compromised in one way or another.
On the other hand, video is fairly easy to demonstrate under relatively ideal conditions—all you need is a completely light-controlled area, which requires only black drapes and a ceiling of some sort or, better yet, a temporary room built in the exhibit hall. Of course, not all manufacturers of video products go to so much trouble, but those that do have a better chance of impressing showgoers.
In no particular order, here are my top five video demos at CEDIA 2015. The links connect to my individual coverage of each company.
1. SIM2 HDR Technology Demo
SIM2 demonstrated a brilliant—and extremely expensive—solution to the problem of projecting high dynamic-range (HDR) images in a home theater: a dual-projector setup using two Super Lumis Pro 1080p 3-chip DLP projectors that were precisely aligned on an 11-foot-wide Draper TecVision XT1000X screen (gain 1.0). One of the projectors was reproducing high-brightness parts of the image while the other was reproducing the low-brightness parts, and the effect was stunning.
The content was standard Blu-ray, so the system was stretching the dynamic range beyond what was intended by the grading process. But as a technology demo, it revealed how much dynamic range is possible using two projectors in such a configuration—the blacks were inky, and the peak luminance was 95 foot-lamberts! I can't wait to see this demo with real HDR content.
2. JVC Projectors Demo
JVC has always been a favorite projector brand among AVS members and AV journalists, and this year's crop raises the bar even higher with HDR10 capabilities and a 50% increase in peak light output—1700 to 1900 lumens, depending on the model—with exceedingly deep blacks for which JVC is justifiably famous. The demos in JVC's booth and in a separate ballroom off the main show floor were completely light controlled, and all three new models (six if you count the Reference and Procision series as separate) looked spectacular.
Of particular interest to me was the HDR demo, which I saw in the off-floor ballroom. It used a DLA-RS500 (the mid-line model) playing UHD HDR footage from a Sony FMP-X10 server at 50 Mbps on a 16:9 Stewart StudioTek 130 screen (gain 1.3) measuring 11 feet wide. (As many of you know, the JVC projectors use a technology called e-Shift to simulate UHD resolution by quickly shifting the pixels from 1080p imagers between different positions.) The image was gorgeous with really deep blacks and excellent low-level detail, though it wasn't super-bright, mostly because the footage was shot on a somewhat overcast day.
Also impressive was the flagship DLA-RS600 playing SDR UHD footage from a RedRay server on a 14-foot-wide, 16:9 Stewart StudioTek 130 screen (gain 1.3) in normal lamp mode. Even without cranking the lamp for such a large screen, the image was beautiful with plenty of pop and sharp detail. The same was true of the entry-level RS400 demo on a 9-foot-wide, 16:9 Stewart StudioTek 100 screen (gain 1.0) in low-lamp mode with the iris closed down. In fact, none of the demos used the auto-iris mode, which made the deep blacks all the more impressive.
3. Digital Projection Insight 4K Dual LED Projector Demo
Digital Projection International (DPI) is one of a few companies that make true 4K-resolution projectors for the consumer market. At CEDIA 2015, DPI demonstrated its Insight 4K Dual LED 3-chip DLP projector, which can reproduce a color gamut up to 98% of BT.2020 with a perceived peak luminance of about 3000 lumens. (The actual measured peak luminance is 25% less than that, but the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch, or HK, effect causes humans to perceive highly saturated colors as brighter than they measure.)
The demo was shown on a 16-foot-wide, 16:9 Stewart StudioTek 130 (1.3 gain) screen. It included some nature footage and a circus scene graded for BT.2020, DCI/P3, and BT.709 color gamuts, and the difference was striking, most obviously in red—the BT.709 red was positively orange and quite desaturated compared with P3 and especially BT.2020. Also in the demo were clips from Star Trek (the J.J. Abrams reboot of the franchise) in P3 color and 4K resolution, which looked superb, particularly the red foliage on the alien planet in the opening scenes. The one drawback I saw was a relatively high black level, which was most evident in the letterbox bars, but otherwise, it was a spectacular demo—as it had better be with a list price of $150,000!
4. Texas Instruments 4K/UHD DMD Demo
I was fortunate to be allowed into the Texas Instruments (TI) demo room in the Omni hotel; the company tightly controlled who got in. The demo was a prototype projector based on a new DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) intended to be used in single-chip projectors for home theaters as well as business and educational settings. Why not use it in 3-chip models? Because TI was emphasizing precise subpixel alignment, which is very difficult in 3-chip designs but automatic in single-chip projectors.
The demo presented the TI prototype projector on one 10-foot-wide Da-Lite Da-Mat screen (gain 1.0) and another competitive projector on an identical adjacent screen. During my time in the room, the second projector was an Epson LS10000 alternating with a Sony VPL-VW350ES, both of which are in the $8000 price range that TI is hoping manufacturers will target with the new chip. The TI prototype used an RGBRGB color wheel at 4x speed, but I didn't see any rainbow artifacts in the image, only in the light coming from the projector when I looked at it from far off axis.
The still images included a photo of power lines, a map, some spreadsheets, and a DisplayMate test pattern with swirling black-and-white lines. On the TI prototype, the fine lines in all these images were all fully resolved and clearly distinct; not so on the 3-chip, "faux-K" Epson, which looked much less sharp, and it exhibited some obvious aliasing in tightly packed lines as well as color shifts due to imperfect subpixel alignment. The Sony is a true 4K projector, so the fine detail looked better but, interestingly, still not as good as the TI, and it also suffered from color shifts because of the imperfect subpixel alignment of its 3-chip design. The same was true in the video footage; both the Epson and Sony exhibited some color shifting, especially in white areas of the image.
5. Vizio Reference Series FALD Demo
Vizio's first appearance at CEDIA was notable thanks to the presence of the long-awaited Reference Series LED-LCD flat panels with FALD (full-array local dimming), which are available in two sizes: 65 and 120 inches. The RS65 uses quantum-dot technology to achieve 120% of the DCI/P3 color gamut or 87% of BT.2020, while the 120-incher does not use quantum dots, so it's gamut is somewhat less than that (96% of P3 or 73% of BT.2020). Also, both sizes implement 384 local-dimming zones—in the RS65, each zone consists of exactly one LED, while the zones in the R120 each include several LEDs.
I was enthralled by a demo of FALD backlighting versus edgelighting in the Vizio booth. The company had removed the diffusion layer and quantum-dot film from an RS65 and replaced the blue LEDs with white ones. Next to it was an LED-edgelit set with its diffusion layer removed, and both panels were showing the same content. I was fascinated to watch the RS65's LEDs turn on and off behind the image, while I could barely see the image on the edgelit set. Granted, edgelighting is essentially useless without the diffuser, but this demo clearly illustrated why FALD is better.
On the other hand, video is fairly easy to demonstrate under relatively ideal conditions—all you need is a completely light-controlled area, which requires only black drapes and a ceiling of some sort or, better yet, a temporary room built in the exhibit hall. Of course, not all manufacturers of video products go to so much trouble, but those that do have a better chance of impressing showgoers.
In no particular order, here are my top five video demos at CEDIA 2015. The links connect to my individual coverage of each company.
1. SIM2 HDR Technology Demo
SIM2 demonstrated a brilliant—and extremely expensive—solution to the problem of projecting high dynamic-range (HDR) images in a home theater: a dual-projector setup using two Super Lumis Pro 1080p 3-chip DLP projectors that were precisely aligned on an 11-foot-wide Draper TecVision XT1000X screen (gain 1.0). One of the projectors was reproducing high-brightness parts of the image while the other was reproducing the low-brightness parts, and the effect was stunning.
The content was standard Blu-ray, so the system was stretching the dynamic range beyond what was intended by the grading process. But as a technology demo, it revealed how much dynamic range is possible using two projectors in such a configuration—the blacks were inky, and the peak luminance was 95 foot-lamberts! I can't wait to see this demo with real HDR content.
2. JVC Projectors Demo
JVC has always been a favorite projector brand among AVS members and AV journalists, and this year's crop raises the bar even higher with HDR10 capabilities and a 50% increase in peak light output—1700 to 1900 lumens, depending on the model—with exceedingly deep blacks for which JVC is justifiably famous. The demos in JVC's booth and in a separate ballroom off the main show floor were completely light controlled, and all three new models (six if you count the Reference and Procision series as separate) looked spectacular.
Of particular interest to me was the HDR demo, which I saw in the off-floor ballroom. It used a DLA-RS500 (the mid-line model) playing UHD HDR footage from a Sony FMP-X10 server at 50 Mbps on a 16:9 Stewart StudioTek 130 screen (gain 1.3) measuring 11 feet wide. (As many of you know, the JVC projectors use a technology called e-Shift to simulate UHD resolution by quickly shifting the pixels from 1080p imagers between different positions.) The image was gorgeous with really deep blacks and excellent low-level detail, though it wasn't super-bright, mostly because the footage was shot on a somewhat overcast day.
Also impressive was the flagship DLA-RS600 playing SDR UHD footage from a RedRay server on a 14-foot-wide, 16:9 Stewart StudioTek 130 screen (gain 1.3) in normal lamp mode. Even without cranking the lamp for such a large screen, the image was beautiful with plenty of pop and sharp detail. The same was true of the entry-level RS400 demo on a 9-foot-wide, 16:9 Stewart StudioTek 100 screen (gain 1.0) in low-lamp mode with the iris closed down. In fact, none of the demos used the auto-iris mode, which made the deep blacks all the more impressive.
3. Digital Projection Insight 4K Dual LED Projector Demo
Digital Projection International (DPI) is one of a few companies that make true 4K-resolution projectors for the consumer market. At CEDIA 2015, DPI demonstrated its Insight 4K Dual LED 3-chip DLP projector, which can reproduce a color gamut up to 98% of BT.2020 with a perceived peak luminance of about 3000 lumens. (The actual measured peak luminance is 25% less than that, but the Helmholtz-Kohlrausch, or HK, effect causes humans to perceive highly saturated colors as brighter than they measure.)
The demo was shown on a 16-foot-wide, 16:9 Stewart StudioTek 130 (1.3 gain) screen. It included some nature footage and a circus scene graded for BT.2020, DCI/P3, and BT.709 color gamuts, and the difference was striking, most obviously in red—the BT.709 red was positively orange and quite desaturated compared with P3 and especially BT.2020. Also in the demo were clips from Star Trek (the J.J. Abrams reboot of the franchise) in P3 color and 4K resolution, which looked superb, particularly the red foliage on the alien planet in the opening scenes. The one drawback I saw was a relatively high black level, which was most evident in the letterbox bars, but otherwise, it was a spectacular demo—as it had better be with a list price of $150,000!
4. Texas Instruments 4K/UHD DMD Demo
I was fortunate to be allowed into the Texas Instruments (TI) demo room in the Omni hotel; the company tightly controlled who got in. The demo was a prototype projector based on a new DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) intended to be used in single-chip projectors for home theaters as well as business and educational settings. Why not use it in 3-chip models? Because TI was emphasizing precise subpixel alignment, which is very difficult in 3-chip designs but automatic in single-chip projectors.
The demo presented the TI prototype projector on one 10-foot-wide Da-Lite Da-Mat screen (gain 1.0) and another competitive projector on an identical adjacent screen. During my time in the room, the second projector was an Epson LS10000 alternating with a Sony VPL-VW350ES, both of which are in the $8000 price range that TI is hoping manufacturers will target with the new chip. The TI prototype used an RGBRGB color wheel at 4x speed, but I didn't see any rainbow artifacts in the image, only in the light coming from the projector when I looked at it from far off axis.
The still images included a photo of power lines, a map, some spreadsheets, and a DisplayMate test pattern with swirling black-and-white lines. On the TI prototype, the fine lines in all these images were all fully resolved and clearly distinct; not so on the 3-chip, "faux-K" Epson, which looked much less sharp, and it exhibited some obvious aliasing in tightly packed lines as well as color shifts due to imperfect subpixel alignment. The Sony is a true 4K projector, so the fine detail looked better but, interestingly, still not as good as the TI, and it also suffered from color shifts because of the imperfect subpixel alignment of its 3-chip design. The same was true in the video footage; both the Epson and Sony exhibited some color shifting, especially in white areas of the image.
5. Vizio Reference Series FALD Demo
Vizio's first appearance at CEDIA was notable thanks to the presence of the long-awaited Reference Series LED-LCD flat panels with FALD (full-array local dimming), which are available in two sizes: 65 and 120 inches. The RS65 uses quantum-dot technology to achieve 120% of the DCI/P3 color gamut or 87% of BT.2020, while the 120-incher does not use quantum dots, so it's gamut is somewhat less than that (96% of P3 or 73% of BT.2020). Also, both sizes implement 384 local-dimming zones—in the RS65, each zone consists of exactly one LED, while the zones in the R120 each include several LEDs.
I was enthralled by a demo of FALD backlighting versus edgelighting in the Vizio booth. The company had removed the diffusion layer and quantum-dot film from an RS65 and replaced the blue LEDs with white ones. Next to it was an LED-edgelit set with its diffusion layer removed, and both panels were showing the same content. I was fascinated to watch the RS65's LEDs turn on and off behind the image, while I could barely see the image on the edgelit set. Granted, edgelighting is essentially useless without the diffuser, but this demo clearly illustrated why FALD is better.