iDetic was fortunate enough to install Africa’s first Barco Freya+ projector on Friday:
The Barco Freya+ projector is based on Barco’s highly acclaimed Series 4 platform and forms part of their Cinema at Home Series. There is no ambiguity in the last portion of the sentence; this projector is DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives) compliant, which means you have the capability to watch cinema releases simultaneously with their worldwide release in commercial cinemas.
The projector features an RGB laser light source, which means it contains individual red, green and blue lasers. This, together with Barco’s Colorgenic technology, results in the Freya+ capability of re-creating more than 98.5% of Rec. 2020 colour space and boasting a total light output of 13500 lumens! Freya+ also has the latest VHC (very high contrast) lens options to offer actual 1,000:1 ANSI contrast and a 5500 ON/OFF contrast.
Installation of the Freya+ is more comparable to the installation of commercial projectors than residential projectors. It needs its own dedicated power, directly wired into your electrical distribution board, with separate power circuitry for UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply).
One thing not associated with Residential projectors is the Scheimpflug. It is the distance adjustment of the lens with the DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) plane to ensure a sharp projected image, not just at the centre.
Next is DMD convergence, seeing as three are present in the projector: One per primary colour. This procedure assists with colour bleeding as well as a further sharpness improvement.
Finally, we arrive at colour calibration. At this step, we use our trusty Xrite i1, Klein A10 and Calman to measure test patterns and input the measurements into the Barco colour management system, which it uses to auto-calibrate itself.
The end result speaks for itself, with 50fL measured on a 6m wide screen! Needless to say, the client is delighted.
It is another one of those situations where you need to experience it yourself, in order to fully appreciate it.