Laser video projectors under development

That ever-so-fragile component in your video projector – the bulb – is under attack from all sides. On the one hand, LED technology is gaining ground thanks to its high light intensity. On the other hand, the laser is looming large, initially nurtured by DLP and now adopted by Sony.

The idea of using a laser as a light source is nothing new. All the way back in 2007, Vincent reported on Laser TVs in an article on the future of screen technology. Then in 2008, we covered the announcement of Mitsubishi’s Laser TVs, which, in the end, were never released over here. Finally, in November 2008, we speculated about whether lasers could be used as a new light source in video projectors.

And now Sony has got us talking about lasers again thanks to the contraption pictured below.

This RGB laser module uses semiconductor diodes to produce red and green, and a form of technology based on second-harmonic generation to produce green. The resulting power is 10 watts for red, 6 watts for green and 5 watts for blue, making a total overall power of 21 watts. That’s pretty good compared with a total power consumption of 200 watts for a typical projector, most of which is consumed by the bulb.

So what type of products could use this technology? Brightness ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 lumens opens up the field to home cinema and business-oriented products. Price, however, is a key factor that will ultimately determine who can expect to enjoy this new technology, and for the moment, there’s no information available about potential costs. There’s also the problem of laser speckle, and whether Sony has managed to find a way to correct the loss in definition this incurs.

Sony is announcing the laser’s lifespan as 10,000 hours, which is twice as long as even the best bulbs on the market. Other advantages cited by Sony include higher contrast (always good), smaller lens elements and an extended colour gamut, although a larger colour coverage zone will only really be of use when DVD and Blu-ray discs are in turn encoded over a wider colour gamut.

The first test models are set to be released by Sony in the second half of 2010 so we wouldn’t expect to see any final products before 2011.

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