It's Time for NEC & Infocus to step up to bat!

If I were a presentation projector manufacturer this is what I would do! I would check out the market for a presentation projector that did all those things presentation projectors are supposed to do and one that excells at video, as in HT video.


I bet there is a market! A big one. Corporate North America buys tons of these projectors and every weekend people leave work empty handed, not even thinking that the office projector could be used for Saturday night entertainment! A little marketing nudge and I suspect the demand for this type of product would increase exponentially. The explanation is simple - it kills two birds with one stone. The business gets to write the projector off for its legitimate business purpose and employees take it home afterwork to watch the latest DVD. The best of both worlds.


Both the Infocus LP350 and NEC LT150 (and Vt540 & LT155 etc.) have proven themselves tremendously popular with the HT crowd because they are relatively inexpensive alternatives to expensive HT projectors. Don't think there's a demand for one of these? Just look at what happened with the LT150 when the price hit sub $3,000.00 U.S.


The trick here is to tweak these things for the HT crowd. I wouldn't think it would take too much. A zoom, descent bulb life and cost, a component input, a change to the colour wheel (6 segment and speed it up) and maybe 16:9 panel - maybe, if it doesn't add too much expense, because in my opinion for DVD use it isn't going to make that much of an improvement. Anyway those who care can always get an anamorphic lens. Since these things are almost always used with PCs for business purposes offer one without comprehensive video processing - cheaper and lets the hobbist do his/her own thing. Offer another with good outboard processing for a reasonable price for those who want it.


Take a look at NEC's track record for defective units. You'll see post after post about the great service. You would be really fortunate to have a unit replaced rather than repaired if you purchased a HT projector! NEC treates it customers like they're important and I bet the other presentation manufacturers do too.

These things should be pretty tough since they're designed to be used under a variety of conditions, unlike HT projectors.


Maybe I am being naive here. IMO there's is a pent up market here and nobody's really tapping it the way it could be. I think Infocus is going to be using Toshiba to market its HT projector - why? Just send something good to the HT magazines for review and a few advertisements claiming "Best of Both Worlds" - you know a split picture of the guy in the business suite carrying the projector in it's case and the other with the same guy in his leisure clothes with his arm around a beautiful woman enjoying a movie - and away you go. It isn't like you're starting from scratch, or is it?


Cheers,


Grant