Monday, October 6, 2014

Projector tech - my experiences

My organization strives to be on the cutting edge of technologies.  Toward this end, we installed some alternative projectors in the environment, as we were spending a good deal of money on replacement lamps.

In ~2011, we purchased some Casio XJ-M245 projectors.  These do not use a typical lamp (~3,000 hours), but instead a hybrid LED/Laser lamp, which is supposed to offer 10,000 hours.

These models were pretty much the first ones around with this tech, and we saw good performance with some degradation at 9,000 hours.  We were able to get the light engine replaced under warranty for one, and we paid on another (so far).

Projectors ran $1200 or so, lasted around 10,000 hours, and a light engine replacement ran $289 (incl. tax and shipping to the repair facility).

We have 5 or 6 of these projectors in our environment.  We have bought some of the higher-output versions of the same Casio, as well as some nice Panasonic models since.

In all, the Laser/LED hybrid light engine has worked well.  Panasonic and Casio use different methods (one uses a green laser, the other blue, if I recall), but both offer good business graphics performance.  I have not tested either in a "theater" environment, ours were primarily used for digital signage (caution: lasers!)

In all, cost-effective and low maintenance.  The panasonics look GREAT in large conference rooms.  I'm very happy with their performance.