Christie J Series Races Across Europe

Mirage WU20K-J leads the charge and is tipped to become “de facto projector of choice for mapping”

The European market has wasted no time in affirming Christie’s belief in the strength and relevance of its new J Series projectors. Christie Partners and resellers are reporting major sales — right across the EMEA territories, and across the entire product range.

When designing the J Series, which marks the next generation of its 3-chip DLP® Xenon platform, Christie set out to target a variety of applications within the rental staging and fixed install markets — as well as the advanced visualisation segment — by making the products available in three resolutions, SXGA+, HD and WUXGA.

The new J Series replaces the existing Christie Roadster and Mirage 3-chip DLP® Xenon models and offers the flexibility for customers to continue using existing Xenon product accessories — lamps, stacking mounts and lenses — as well as newer M Series input cards and lens accessories. New features include WUXGA resolution in a Xenon projector and embedded Christie Twist™ that allows for image warping (without the need to purchase additional electronics cards), plus Intelligent Lens System (ILS™), edge blending and colour-matching capabilities.

In addition, J Series gives the customer the option of choosing 3D, via the Mirage J Series, or retrofitting it at a later stage via an easy upgrade. And at the same time, eco-friendly and energy-efficient features help reduce cost of ownership by lowering power consumption and extending projector life.

The result is superior performance, higher brightness (up to 22,000 lumens output), excellent colour reproduction and stable colour temperature — packaged in the most compact chassis in its class.

In the UK, where Christie’s EMEA operations are headquartered, advanced projection specialists QED Productions have ordered eight Mirage WU20K-J 20,000-lumens, native 1920 x 1200 3-chip DLP projectors. These are high-performance, active stereo projectors providing exceptional 3D performance.

“This is a milestone investment for QED,” said company director, Paul Wigfield, “both because it takes our current stock of Christie Roadsters to over 50 machines and because it reaffirms how Christie has continued to innovate and lead the industry. The new J series not only integrates with our existing fleet but it also provides additional functionality and improvements. “The Mirage WU20K-J is the flagship model of the range, delivering the highest overall brightness, the highest resolution, and incorporates the latest in triple flash 3D technology.”

The native 1920 x 1200 resolution enables shorter throw distances to be more easily achieved when blending multiple projectors, and for projection mapping applications QED believes that this will quickly become the de facto projector of choice.

“No other projector can deliver as much brightness, quality and resolution in such a compact chassis, and no other projector is so versatile,” believes Wigfield.  Because the Christie J series is backward compatible to our existing fleet and lamps modules and in addition to sharing common electronics input cards with the M Series, this also provides an extra dimension to our rental fleet and to what we can offer our customers.

On mainland Europe, Christie’s long-term German Partner, Vision Tools, is another leading rental staging and sales company that has become an early adopter, jumping headlong into J Series technology. The company purchased eight Roadster HD20K-J and has already used the products for a large event in Kazakhstan — shipping the products to site straight off the plane.

Stephan Schlüter, owner and general manager of Vision Tools, immediately commended the excellent performance and image quality. “Our customer was looking for a large projection in portrait mode, which is now easily accomplished with the new Christie J Series. It saved both time and money as handling and set-up was much quicker than expected,” he observed.

Meanwhile, Christie’s Swiss distributor Visopta AG has supplied eight Roadster S+22K-J and two Roadster HD20K-J to auviso, which has taken the opportunity to ramp up its rental fleet. The Lucerne-based company is a technical service provider for events and installations and depends on cutting-edge equipment. auviso general manager, Martin Elmiger, liked the robustness of the product and sent his new Christie J projectors direct to an ice pavilion where they were used to display live camera feeds and lighting effects. The confidence to invest was further underpinned by the back-up auviso receive from Visopta, and Christie’s German office.

Over in France no fewer than 21 Roadster J Series projectors have been sold within the first two months to six different Partners. This includes ten and six projectors, respectively, to Alabama and Leni alone — who instantly recognized the benefits of the J Series with a massive vote of confidence.

“The new J Series has got off to an incredible start in France, and instantly captured the market’s imagination,” stated Pascal Gervais, director of Christie France.  While Leni has invested in six Roadster WU20K-J’s, Alabama were also clear in their intentions. “To complete our rental fleet, it seemed obvious to focus on the new potential of the J Series,” said Joel May, Associate Director of Alabama. “Our six new Christie Roadster S+22K-J and four WU20K-J are equipped with Christie Twist technology and we have the additional benefits of a memory zoom and focus with DMX communication possibilities, which provides ease of use in all configurations.

Finally, in Italy Christie’s Independent Sales Consultant officeEhome Italia confirms that it has sold five powerful Roadster HD20K-J projectors to long-established rental house, Milano Music Service (MMS) for use in stacked configuration for a video mapping exercise for manufacturers, Brembo.

Visitors to ISE 2012 will have the opportunity to see the new J Series in action at booth #1H27 and #1H40.

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About Christie^®

Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc. is a global visual technologies company and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ushio, Inc., Japan, (JP:6925). Consistently setting the standards by being the first to market some of the world’s most advanced projectors and complete system displays, Christie is recognized as one of the most innovative visual technology companies in the world.  From retail displays to Hollywood, mission critical command centers to classrooms and training simulators, Christie display solutions and projectors capture the attention of audiences around the world with dynamic and stunning images.  Visit www.christiedigital.com

About the Christie J Series

Christie J Series models are available in 2D- and 3D-capable models, a range of brightness levels and three resolutions: SXGA+, HD and WUXGA. The broad range of high-quality lens options all contain Intelligent Lens System (ILS™) capabilities.

Christie DS+8K-J, DS+10K-J, HD7K-J and HD9K-J offer standard inputs: Analog, Dual-link DVI. The DS+8K-J and HD7K-J are 3D upgradable.

The Roadster S+14K-J, Roadster S+18K-J, Roadster S+22K-J, Roadster HD14K-J, Roadster HD16K-J, Roadster HD20K-J, Roadster WU20K-J are all 3D upgradable and offer standard inputs: Analog, Dual-link DVI, SD/HD-SDI, video decoder.

The 3D Mirage J Series projectors are compatible with today’s 3D home entertainment requirements and are ready for Blu-Ray 3D™ video, PS3 and other gaming consoles, meeting the mandatory 3D spec for HDMI v1.4a. Christie also offers a range of accessories that include 3D glasses (active and passive), emitters and filters. Mirage models include: DS+8K-J, HD7K-J 7 and WU7K-J (all offering Analog, Dual-link DVI input cards), and S+14K-J, S+18K-J, S+22K-J, HD14K-J, HD16K-J, HD20K-J, WU14K-J and WU20K-J. All these offer Analog, Dual-link DVI, SD/HD-SDI and video decoder input cards.

Christie® is a registered trademark of Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc.

Source: Christie Digital Systems