PMA Research’s latest quarterly forecast for the worldwide projector market says worldwide projector shipments will reach 9.5 million units in 2013. While the overall market is likely to trend up modestly from 2012, there are some areas of anticipated higher growth.

In the Mainstream segment (1000 – 3999 Lumens), PMA boosted their outlook for ultra-short-throw projectors in large part due to expected tenders in the Middle East as well as steady gains in the rest of the world. Solid State Illumination (SSI) models are also expected to outperform the overall projector market as well. New entrants into the SSI market and second-generation models which target mid-level price ranges will contribute to SSI growth.

In the New Era segment (sub-1000 Lumens), pico projectors recovered strongly in the second half of 2012, gaining 35% vs. the second half of 2011. PMA expects similar growth for these models this year, particularly for the very popular iPhone “sled” models. The success of these models may inspire the introduction of similar projectors for Android Smartphones such as the Galaxy S IV.

Christie unveils its latest electronics platform – Christie TruLife – with a proprietary, 1.2 Gigapixel per second, floating point architecture. Christie TruLife electronics forms the basis for the latest generation of projectors, capable of delivering ultra-high resolution, high frame rate video with high image fidelity (e.g., 4K resolution image processing at 60 fps and beyond). The current standard digital interfaces such as DVI have a bandwidth of 165 MHz.

With a high-performance electronics engine that leverages the latest in field-programmable gate array (FPGA) integrated circuits (ICs), the platform is capable of supporting a video-processing pipeline of up to 1.2 Gigapixels per second (GPix/s).

A common measurement of video-processing power -- the speed or rate with which video data is processed, is typically measured in Gigapixels per second (GPix/s). Christie says its platform scales to reach 1.2 GPix/s, which is nearly 10x faster than standard high-def projection and 4x faster than typical 3D projection, as well as double what other 4K projectors are capable of.

If Microsoft has its way, Surface devices will be omnipresent-- not only tablets and smartphones, but as wall-sized touchscreens and interactive tables, all of which smart and seamlessly connected.

Such a vision comes from the trailer announcing the opening of the Microsoft Envisioning Centre whose mission is to create not the next generation of Microsoft computing, but products for the next 5- 10 years.

According to the 2-minute video, nearly every available surface will be interactive, since giant touchscreens pepper the walls both offices and homes. All the displays are interconnected, meaning users can instantly beam and interact with data from tablets and smartphones (such as family photos or work schedules) on the bigger screens.

Meanwhile children play on tablets as they watch grandma read bedtime stories (which in turn unfold on screen as interactive cartoons) on the living room TV.

Extron introduces a new, two input 3G-SDI Card for the Quantum Elite videowall processing system that accepts SDI, HD-SDI, and 3G-SDI signals.

The new 3G-SDI input card features Extron high performance scaling technology, motion adaptive deinterlacing, and film mode cadence detection to ensure high quality image presentation on videowall displays.

Automatic source format detection captures 480i and 576i SDI sources, HD-SDI sources up to 1080i/60 Hz, and 3G-SDI sources up to 1080p/60 Hz, complying with SMPTE 259M, 292M, and 424M digital video standards. SDI, HD-SDI, and 3G-SDI input support is also available for the Quantum Connect videowall processing system.

"Many videowall installations incorporate SDI, HD-SDI, and 3G-SDI signals from sources such as cameras and production equipment," says Casey Hall, VP Sales and Marketing for Extron. "Quantum's 3G-SDI input card supports direct connections for these signals, eliminating the need for external conversion to DVI or other signal formats."

~sedna’s Touch T6.7 is the first high-end, completely Mac-based multi-touch solution, says the maker. .

This 67”multi-touch comes with a secondary vertical display to provide a huge workspace with plenty of room for teamwork and collaboration. The one-of-a-kind system offers Dual Mac Pro performance with a professional look and complete reliability.

Touch T6.7 can be used in almost any professional field.

Did you see this at ISE? You would have had to look at the stand of BLiNKBLIiNK where in addition to the selection of multi-touch systems and software, their stand also offered a demo setup powered by the Mac-based digital signage software suite, the ~sedna presenter 3.

Go ~sedna’s Touch T6.7

On International Women’s Day, Fabrica reaffirms its social commitment with two videos which use different approaches to highlight the situation of women. They are endorsed by UNRIC, the UN’s European office.

The famous Piazza Duomo in Milan provided the evocative setting for an enormous digital canvas spread across 4 windows of the Benetton megastore there-- 100m2 of high resolution screens.

Fabrica is Benetton Group’s communication research centre, established in 1994. Its mission is to unite culture and industry. Fabrica invites young artists/designers from around the world and gives them an annual study grant, offering them a training opportunity and a wealth of resources and relations so they may develop, under expert guidance, cultural and social communication projects in the fields of design, visual communication, photography, interaction, video, music and publishing.

Live Window is a project based on experience design as a form of communication on the street, aimed at grabbing the attention of passers-by. Benetton Group offers a selection of Benetton flagship stores around the globe for Fabrica to use in the project's experiments. These retail outlets are linking into a single network software centrally-controlled in real time by Fabrica.

Go Live Window

Watch Fabrica Display for International Women’s Day

DynaScan Technology unveils three 1920x1080 LCDs displays at Integrated Systems Europe - all with DVI daisy-chain ports and RS232 control.

The DS55LX3 is a 55”, 1500-nit LCD with local dimming backlight. It features a bezel of just 5.3-millimeters and screen-to-screen and built-in video daisy chaining so a single 1080p source can be used on video walls up to 6x6 in size without the need for any additional external video wall controller.

The DS72LT6 is a 72” LCD with a brightness spec of 5,000 nit aimed at outdoor apps such as outdoor enclosures and storefront windows. This display has a 30mm bezel and includes a direct LED backlight with local dimming.

DynaScan also introduced a 2,500-nit version, the DS72LT4, featuring a fanless thermal management system, with all other features the same.

Go DynaScan’s High Brightness Professional Display Models

Lighthouse Technologies shows the X3 with a 3.9-mm pixel pitch that makes it Lighthouse’s highest resolution LED screen to date. It's aimed at indoor rental and staging market as well as digital signage.

Developed in conjunction with XL Video, X3 combines Lighthouse’s processing and a mechanical design developed by XL Video, resulting in a unique curable and flexible joint structure that allows the screen to be shaped in different ways to become concave or convex both horizontally and vertically, so you can wrap it, bend it and twist it.

The use of 3 in 1 Surface Mounted Device (SMD) LEDs allows X3 to deliver 140-degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles. 16-bit processing and Lighthouse’s M4 color processing technology deliver what it says is better color, as well as a brightness of 2,000 nits.

At less than 10 kgs per panel, and with a panel size of 500x500 millimeters, the X3 is lightweight and easy to transport. Servicing is also quick and simple, with just the loosening of two clips to open the back cover.

Go Lighthouse Technologies Shows the X3