And the winners are…it’s time again for the Buckaroo Awards, those annual InfoComm best-of-show awards from Pacific Media Associates. The Buckaroo award is named after the pioneering cowboys of the Great Basin country of the American West (parts of California, Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon).These cowboys were known for fancy gear that displayed lots of silver ornamentation, so the name is fits as recognition of products that produce the best-looking pictures. The Buckaroo Awards recognize those products in the front projector category that lead the herd by enabling projection of attractive images in a broad range of situations.

Says PMA: “Although data-capable front projectors using digital imager chip technology such as 3LCD, DLP, or LCOS date from 1994, the industry has made giant strides in technology, yielding giant improvements in brightness, resolution, color gamut, and a host of other features and performance measures.”

“Industry growth has attracted numerous major brands, further spurring innovation and continued improvements in price-performance that have led to market expansion. But as is typical of maturing markets, competitive pressures force manufacturers to take new measures such as expanding the boundary of the key measure of performance--in this case brightness--and specializing in narrower and narrower segments.”

Meant for high ambient light conditions, Da-Lite’s new High Contrast version of its popular High Power screen surface provides a unique combination of high gain along with contrast enhancement that Da-Lite says is due to its grey base and highly reflective top surface.

The result is a screen surface with moderate viewing angles (20 degrees) and the ability to reflect light back towards the source.

These characteristics make this surface a good choice for environments with a moderate amount of ambient light and a projector that is placed on a table top or in the same horizontal viewing plane as the audience.

High Contrast High Power is a washable surface with a gain of 2.4 and a 20-degree viewing half angle. The material is available immediately on Da-Lite’s electric, manual and fixed frame screen lines.

Go Da-Lite High Contrast High Power

Microvision's SHOWWX+ pico projector gets an HDMI update, while keeping the same portable size and weight.

It supports all iDevices, as well as anything that's HDMI-ready-- although not all devices will support full video mirroring. It is also HDCP compliant.

The projector's brightness is 15 lumens, with 5000:1 native contrast ratio and 2-hour battery life, according to Microvision. Resolution remains at 848 x 480.

Go Microvision SHOWWX+ HDMI

Acer announces two additions to its pico projectors series-- the C110 and C112, both in a diminutive form factor designed for customers to show off content from their smartphones and tablets.

The C110 is the smallest of the 2 models, and lacks a power adapter (or power source) or a display port-- it takes both images and power via USB connection. Measuring 110 x 85 x 25mm, it only weighs 175g.

It combines DLP technology with an LED lamp Acer says lasts up to 20000 hours, with 1000:1 contrast and WVGA (854 x 480) resolution images. Display size starts from 12" to 100", in native 16:9 format.

The C112, meanwhile, is slightly larger and heavier and carries specifications identical to the C110's-- while coming with an optional external battery Acer says has around 2 hours' worth of power.

Both models come in matte black, with the C112 having control buttons embedded on its top surface.

Go Acer Projectors

Introducing the next-generation Wolf Cinema projection platform, the SDC-15. “The Cub,” the SDC-15 is a fully-featured home cinema projector enabled for both 2D and 3D [stereoscopic] viewing.

Suitable for theater screens up to 11’ wide, the SDC-15 uses a next gen 3-chip, D-ILA (Direct Drive Image Light Amplifier) light engine for ultra-high-fidelity 1080p viewing experiences.

D-ILA is an advanced LCOS technology from JVC, which produces  film-like imaging with deep contrast level performance and natural color renditions.  The system is complemented by advanced video processing algorithms, 99 custom memory calibration settings plus a precision optics package for razor-sharp image reproduction from today’s most demanding HD sources.

And like all Wolf projectors, SDC-15 is designed with a highly-efficient thermal chassis for extended projector and lamp life.  Multiple whisper fans help keep the light engine at optimum running temperatures by routing cooling air in a rear-to-front design, facilitating a wider range of placement options for the custom installer.

The system provides for optional Wolf Cinema 3D shutter glasses and 3D signal emitter, when your client desires the full suite of 3D viewing effects.  Wolf Cinema ProScaler may also be offered as an outboard processor option – the latter may be chosen for expanded connectivity for the ultimate home  cinema  ensemble.  Each projector is carefully hand-calibrated at the factory for top performance in both 2D and 3D viewing.

The SDC-15 is delivered in an elegant high gloss black cabinet, and comes complete with a full system IR remote control, LAN and RS-232 system control capabilities.  The SDC-15 incorporates a dual set of HDMI 1.4 inputs, one set of component video and PC inputs.  Additional home theater options include two VariScope™ FX fixed cinema anamorphic lens assemblies that help enable full 2:35 widescreen viewing without unwanted top/bottom “black bars” [the SDC-15 requires an optional video scaler for 3D “CinemaScope” viewing].   SDC-15 projector ceiling mount kits are also available for further ease of installation.

First shipments of the SDC-15 begin in July 2011 (No.American Suggested Retail Price of $15,000.)

Go “The Cub,” the SDC-15

When a projection screen is installed in an environment with many windows and too much ambient light, you would wish for a screen surface that could handle that. Now there is Projecta’s new Pearlescent-- with an increased reflection performance of 1.5 gain-- and developed with this situation in mind.

Pearlescent is a vinyl projection surface for tensioned projection screens like electric tab-tensioned projection screens, fixed frame screens or Projecta Fast-Fold projection screens. Pearlescent has a gain of 1.5 (OK, we already told you that once...) and a full viewing angle of 80°.

Pearlescent’s reflective coating provides an increased amount of brightness with a moderately reduced viewing angle. The increased gain of this surface makes it suitable for environments where ambient lighting is uncontrollable and a projector with moderate light output is in use.

A tensioned projection screen surface guarantees a flat viewing area which is absolutely necessary for any installation where a high quality projection is desired. High resolution projectors and short throw lenses increase the necessity of a perfectly flat screen surface.

Projecta has been focusing on tensioned projection screens and screen surfaces for several years so they use special non-supported vinyl materials specifically designed for tensioning.

Pearlescent is available in the Tensioned Descender (RF) Electrol and Tensioned Elpro (RF) Electrol. For complete product specifications, formats and sizes please use the link below.

Go Pearlescent, available in the Tensioned Descender (RF) Electrol and Tensioned Elpro (RF) Electrol