Jay Ankeney
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Is Laser-Illuminated Projection the Future of 3D?
1/13/2014
Last month I saw the future of digital cinema exhibition and the future is bright and beautiful. With the help of NEC Display
Solution’s top-of- the-line NC 3240S digital cinema projection systems, Laser Light Engines Inc. staged a week of
demonstrations of laser-illuminated theatrical projection at the Technicolor Interop Technology Center in Burbank, Calif.
What was seen on the screen was spectacular.
In the booth of the TITC theater were two of NEC’s flagship NC 3240S 4K DLP cinema projectors, one lit by a standard
Xenon lamp and the other operating with the latest laser engine from LLE. The demonstration included 2D content on both
white and silver screens and 3D content on a silver screen with the laser-powered projector presenting the left eye and the
Xenon version beaming the right.
It is important not to call LLE’s modification of the NEC projector “laser projection” since, as will be explained shortly, the
light emitted into the theater is not high-powered coherent laser light. Therefore, the technically correct appellation for this
technology is “laser illuminated” projection.
This may become significant as this technology is rolled out. After all, based on experiences
with
unshielded laser light shows dating back to 1960s rock concerts, the FDA
still requires operators
to apply for a safety variance for each laser-source installation above 5,000 lumens.
HOLLYWOOD INTEREST
Bill Beck, founder and executive vice president of business development for LLE, told me,
“Hollywood’s interest in this week of
demonstrations has been phenomenal, with representatives
from all the studios coming to our sessions. We predict that by the end of the week all the film
community will be behind the adoption of laser-illuminated projection.”
As Beck explained, one reason is that the operational costs of laser light sources can be
significantly lower than high-powered digital cinema Xenon lamps, which only last about 600
hours at full power with their output dropping to 70 percent in the first few hundred hours and to 50 percent by the end of life. That will
make
retrofitting digital cinema projectors with laser light engines even for 2D presentations very appealing to theater owners as the technology
evolves.
But for 3D fans, the benefit will be finally providing viewers with the 14 foot-lamberts of brightness hitting their eyes, which is the
recommended level for optimal 3D imagery. While 14 foot-lamberts is the DCI spec for 2D, it has been very difficult for 3D theaters to achieve
this level of illumination, so 3D releases are usually color-timed for the 4–6 foot-lamberts of their real-world exhibition.
Achieving those 14 foot-lamberts (named after 18th century Swiss-German physicist Johann Heinrich Lambert) with cost-
effective technology is
the key breakthrough with this laser-illuminated projection design. To create left/right separation, a projector’s beam passes through the
3Denabling technology in front of its lens. This can be either left/right polarizing filters, sets of color wavelength
filter wheels or alternate frame
display systems. These can reduce the brightness hitting a viewer’s eyes by 72–90 percent. That’s why many 3D theaters
actually provide their
premium ticket
-
paying customers a dimmed down cinema
experience far below the optimum viewing requirements for proper
3D.
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Laser Light Engines RGB systems are delivered in a standalone rack,
but can also be configured and installed in typical industry projector
pedestals having 16RU or larger capacity.
John O’hara (L), CEO of Laser Light Engines, Inc. and Bill
Beck, founder and executive vice president of business
development
According to Paul Panabaker, director of product planning at LLE, in
the
demonstration we saw at the Technicolor facility the projectors were putting
17.5 foot-lamberts of luminance on the 22-foot screen, which allowed the
intended 14 foot-lamberts to reach the viewers’ eyes through the ReadD
glasses, which were provided.
MASTERING THE STUMBLING BLOCKS
Laser-illuminated projection has been attempted for 20 years, but until recently
one of the major stumbling blocks in its theatrical acceptance has been the
problem of “speckle,” which is a shimmering or sparkling artifact caused by
microscopic constructive and destructive interference of the light when
displaying large expanses of the same color.
“
Our solution is to convert the columnated coherent light coming out of the
laser engine into conventional light before it emerges from the projector,”
explained LLE’s Beck. “This directional brightness is far more efficient than a
Xenon lamp, which means the amount of light you can get out of a laser-
illuminated projector is not optically limited. Then, to minimize speckle, our
patented technology, which widens the color band, lets the RGB light diverge in
multiple angles to average the interference patterns generated by the individual
beams.”
During the TITC 3D
demonstration, which
included viewing clips
from “Gravity,” “The
Life of Pi” and “The Last
Reef” among other
films, all timed at 14
foot-lamberts, I was
fortunate to secure a
seat directly in the
middle of the theater
surrounded by some of
the best “golden eyes”
in the digital cinema
business. Many of these
experts claimed to still see some speckle artifacts in the movie clips, which my “golden-
aged’ vision did not detect except, perhaps when pure color bars were projected, but
they were all enthusiastic about laser-illuminated projection’s potential.
“This technology will enable 3D to be seen in a way the public has never been able to
before,” said Garrett J. Smith, who was responsible for digital mastering operations at
Paramount for more than two decades.
“This has to be the future of 3D because viewers expect the color
in 3D presentations to
look as true as it does in 2D. The future is laser projection, no doubt about it!” added
John A Rupkalvis of StereoScope International.
“I was very impressed by the image brightness,” said John
Cox who QCs digital cinema
packages for Shutter Ghost. “I’m often bothered by the consistency problems with
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Xenon lamps when traveling around the studios, and
we should see a much greater consistency from laser light engines.
John T. O’Hara, president and CEO of Laser Light Engines, said they expect to start seeing digital cinema projectors retrofitted with laser-
illuminated light sources up to about 45,000 lumens in large screen venues starting in Q2 of 2014.
With advanced cooling systems, these could
soar to 70,000 lumens.
Now the question is whether Hollywood studios will provide prints color-timed for the hallowed grail of 14 foot-lamberts to take full advantage
of it.
Jay Ankeney is a freelance editor and post-production consultant based in Los Angeles. Write him at
.
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