Barco SP4K Series 4 Projector Issues

[Rick Cohen]

I was one of the first customers to install these Series 4 laser projectors in the fall of 2020. I purchased four of them. They have had issues (both critical and non-critical) right off the bat. One projector needed the SMPS replaced. Another projector needed a new light engine. All of them have intermittent laser plate notifications, where one or more of the laser plates do not turn on when they are supposed to. It started out as a light sensor notification, but after a software update the notifications changed to the laser plate. By going into the GUI, the diagnostics verify that certain lasers have zero output when this notification is active.

I have sent in countless logs to Barco. They have had me swap out the light sensor, the fan controller board, the Cinema Controller Board, and the SMPS. We have reset the colors and white point multiple times.

They even sent their own technician out last June to go through all the projectors for three days, and they had him swap several LDM cards (Laser Driver Module) to see if the laser plate issues were tied to the LDMs. That didn't produce any results, either.

Essentially, I have spent almost a half million dollars on four laser projectors that have not been functioning properly for over 2 years, and have jumped through every hoop imaginable in an effort to resolve the issues with Barco, and I am still where I was two years ago.

There is also another annoying intermittent notification regarding "Media Server License Applied, Reboot Required" even though the IMS-3000 Media Server License was applied two years ago. The notification keeps popping up on all four projectors a few times each week, for no apparent reason. The issue has been escalated with both Dolby and Barco, but neither company will take responsibility for it, and it has yet to be resolved after two years.

My only conclusion is that these projectors are full of glitches or bugs, and new units should not be sold until those problems have been resolved. While these issues are essentially non-critical. they are also not indicative of a product that is stable or ready for a broad rollout. It is certainly not what I was expecting from a marketplace leader.

If any other technicians have experienced similar issues, I would love to know if there is a resolution which I am not aware of, short of tossing them in the dumpster.

[James Gardiner]

Thanks for sharing Rick. I would have to agree based on the description, there are serious issues here, serious enough to question fit for purpose.
Personally I am very surprised Barco would allow this to happen, they are typically very particular about QC. Considering its been 2 years, unless this is systemic I would have expected to swap them out and brand these units as lemons. Take them back to the factory and dissect them to find out what's going on.

My only other comment would be.. Check your GROUND connection for the building. I had a site I was doing all the tech side, we contracted a cinema installer to do the electricals. Took 1.5 years to figure out the ground (As in power) was not done correctly and it was wildly fluctuating and the result was random faults all over the place. Cost us a fortune. (Wanted to throttle the contractor)

The type of issues you are seeing could very well be caused by that issue.

[Steve Guttag]

I, now, have multiple sites running the SP4K series of projectors. The vast majority are SP4K-12C, with some SP4K-15C, a couple SP4K-25C and one SP4K-35B. Almost all have the IMS3000 as their server with an SR1000 or two in there as well (none with the ICMP/Alchemy).

I have not had the experiences you've had on ANY of them. The first units went in 2020 (yes, that year) at around June and went fully operational labor day of 2020. I've had one Light Source Board (LSB) failure, early in life, so I attributed it to infant mortality. I've exchanged a small number of ICP-Ds but I think those were all due to software issues, mostly Barco and some with Dolby (IMS3000). They were done at the behest of Cinionic and I think we were all learning what the various failure modes were or what was a timing thing that could be addressed via software versus actual component failure. Once the software (Barco) came out that addressed the issues, they did evaporate. I did have one freakish lens issue where the zoom motor on the lens stopped working...those are the same lenses as used on the DP series and not an SP4K specific issue...never had that one before (or sense).

The big one on the SP4K series, and it won't be limited to just Barco, is the .98" 4K DMDs (TRP), as used in the SP4K get stuck pixels at an incredible rate. If one considers that 4K chips are 4 times as likely to get a stuck pixel as 2K (there are 4 times as many mirrors) and then multiplies that out with the TRP style chips are more likely to stick in the first place, it has geometrically increased the odds of getting a stuck pixel. I'm well into the double-digit, percentage wise, in 2-years, of stuck pixels. There is no rhyme or reason...I've had them on projectors just a couple of months old as well as over 2-years. Thankfully, the SP4K series has about as easy a change out of the light engine as one could hope for (aside from having to converge it...always RED is the bear). It is my understanding that this issue is being addressed at Texas Instruments and how the DMD is made (that is where it has to be addressed).

If it matters, all of my installations use a UPS on the projector electronics which does mean that there are two ground connections (which sort of goes towards James' comment though since they both ground at the same load center...if one is bad, so is the other but there is twice the chance of a good solid connection).

I won't say there are no errors ever on boot up. There are the non-fatal "yellow" oddities here and there where some line in a macro may not execute on boot up but that clears when a show starts. For instance, using legacy protocols with Q-SYS as a control system, I noted that the projector will not provide status until a macro is selected (they wake up in a neutral state), so I have the automation system (eCNA) issue a command to select a special "WakeUp" macro that does nothing more than clear test patterns as a harmless macro (once that is selected, macro, dowser, lamp...etc status is available). Every once in a while, it will fail the execution of that clear test pattern, with a yellow warning. I'm experimenting with delaying the execution so we're not so close to the boot up of things. I doubt others are running into that sort of thing.

At all of our sites, the projectors are put into the ECO state at night...so they do go through a boot up each day. The exception would be if content is transferring, unless we have Q-SYS monitoring transfers, in which case, the projector is delayed form going into ECO until the transfers are completed.

In short, I'm not seeing the same sort of failure (and frustration) rate as you are, with respect to Barco component failure and spurious errors or needing to recalibrate. In fact, component failure (except the DMDs) has been quite low (one board for me in over 2-years). Though people's memory fade quickly, the S2 projectors (and servers, when DCI compliance was a thing) caused MANY MANY software updates, with servers sometimes getting daily updates of some sort. Early ICPs were troublesome. My biggest software issue with the SP4K was with the ICP-D and the IMS3000 where shows may start with no image (putting up a test pattern and then clearing it would restore the image and it was normally on the first show of the day but it could happen later), has been addressed and that no longer happens. The remaining 1st show issues on boot up are mostly with the IMS3000 booting up in a bad state. They are not too common...just enough to be annoying as any boot up issue is annoying...but, in that case, it is not a Barco issue.

[Sebastian Binz]

The big one on the SP4K series, and it won't be limited to just Barco, is the .98" 4K DMDs (TRP), as used in the SP4K get stuck pixels at an incredible rate.

Unfortunately, I can relate to that. Our brand new SP4K-15C, installed in December 2022, has now developed a stuck pixel.
Are you aware of any activities or developments regarding this issue on Barco/Cinionic or TI's side?

[Steve Guttag]

You should speak with your Cinionic representative as they can speak to how they are handling the situation (and they are).

[Jesse Crooks]

As the lucky winner of a stuck pixel, a bad lens, and a faulty IMS3000 (mercifully all under warranty) I will say that I never want to watch movies on my xenon screens again after getting an SP4K.

[Darin Steffl]

Jesse,

Are you saying you enjoy the performance/quality of the image on the SP4K aside from the defects?

I have one that we're installing in April but now I'm nervous of these issues. Maybe the standard 2 year warranty isn't enough for the pile of issues being reported.