Barco/Cinionic is now S4 only (no more lamp based projectors)

[Marin Zorica]

I agree on Steve, first two, power requirements and HVAC are big deal. Not only in consumption, but in requirements......as (at leat here) you paying more for peak power when paying for electricity. Also, HVAC are pretty high cost here, so that cut's cost in half or more, plus if they are going to be boothless.....

There are just way too much cost savings things than with xenon projector that will and did beat all good things xenon have or give in projection terms. Take you're self as cinema owner and put only that cost savings things and it will be clear, plus add covid things and less audiance in cinema and it will be even more clear to get you're self a laser

[James Gardiner]

Follow the money..
Yes Barco is leaving Xenon behind because. They are following the money. The issue of metermeric differences and speckle.
General consumers cannot see this metameric issue. Its just too subtle and they don;t spend all day looking at different types of projection. I can see why POST houses are completely against it as its hard to collaborate when two different colourists are seeing different results form the same screen. So for them its not good enough.

Speckle can be mitigated to a large degree if approached correctly so would not be a big consideration..

But at the end of the day its the bean counters who have the most input into deciding what to purchase and Laser is hands down the only choice. Power is a HUGE deal, especially in this era of energy-politics and transition to renewables.

Personally I expect the Post houses to simply keep all the xenon projectors around for as long as possible.. What is left will do us until the industry is largely laser..

But currently we are hitting the end of the 10 year leases on S2 projectors. They will be replaced.. its just how business works.. SO we are heading into another transition and my guess, much of the xenon projectors will be gone in the next 2-3 years. So as a projector manufacturer, there is not much live left in the xenon market. Barco and NEC are just trying to get ahead of the transition.

From my perspective, I like Laser. Yes I see the slight differences, but in isolation its not an issue. Hell, in the film days, depending on how the chemicals in the baths were changing concentration as they get used, one print from the next also had similar if not more difference in image. This never effected us then, so why now?

I would like to push back on comment that the Studios will move away from DCI and the standards around it. Thats so, never going to happen. But yes, date of release streaming basically negates the need for the security in place, there will still be distributors that rely on the DCI implementation to protect their IP going forward.

Once the warped reality of COVID is gone, I trust profit and money will move the industry to a more sustainable position. (But Cinema is still going to be severely effected unfortunately.)

[Marin Zorica]

Yes.....well when talking about quality, just take all silver screens as example and that will beat all bad things from laser, xenon etc..... Last night went to cinemas and only available seats were 4th row somewhere near wal, screen in room was silver and from that part of room uniformity was.......what to say Now same story goes like when moving from 35mm to dci......only this time things are going quite well