The DHA has been told to submit on December 6 its reply to a contempt of court petition filed by the plaintiff, Mandviwalla Entertainment, on the former’s failure to de-seal the cinema in accordance with earlier court orders. Talking to The Express Tribune, DHA’s counsel said the authority had not sealed the cinema. He said it had been closed until an inspection of a newly-installed three-dimensional projector was complete and the equipment declared fit for use. He said the court was told during Saturday’s hearing that the management could open the cinema any moment once it deposited Rs20 million as security with the DHA administration.

Plaintiff’s counsel held that the stay order against closure remained in effect till the next hearing.

DHA Security Deputy Director Malik Khalid Javed told the court during Friday’s hearing that the cinema was closed owing to serious security threats. He said information about the threats could not be made public, however it could be disclosed to the court if arrangements were made to keep it confidential. DHA’s counsel had earlier submitted an application in the court on November 3, stating that the closure was owed to security threats.

Judge Rai Muhammad Naeem Kharal had stayed the cinema’s closure till November 2, during the October 28 hearing, which was later extended for another day.

In the original petition, Mandviwalla Entertainment (Pvt) Limited had also objected to an advertisement by the DHA on October 2 inviting bids for management of the cinema for a period of two years by October 10.

The petitioner said its agreement with the DHA for management of the cinema, signed on November 15, 2006 for a five-year-term, was effective till November 15, 2011. It said that the ad was published in violation of Clause 5 of the agreement. Under the clause, it said, such proposals could be invited by the DHA only after both parties (DHA and Mandviwalla Entertainment (Pvt) Limited) failed to agree on extending the agreement for another five-year-term, on mutually acceptable terms.

The petitioner said that the ad created an impression that the management had failed to manage the cinema and could, therefore, cause an irreparable loss to its reputation. The petitioner had requested the court to direct the DHA administration to extend the agreement for another five year term on the already agreed terms and conditions.

Christie brings a wide range of feature-packed display systems to GovComm 2011 in Washington, D.C., Nov. 1 – 2, that demonstrate the company’s full range of DLP, LED and LCD solutions. Recognized for their power, flexibility and exceptional image brightness, Christie display systems are compact, high performance solutions that meet the needs of today’s government and military control room environments, which demand the latest high tech displays at the lowest cost of operation.

“The needs of government, military and contractors for powerful and reliable technology never change, but today’s customers also demand greater versatility and control in more cost-effective, low maintenance packages,” said John Stark, senior director of product management for Christie’s Collaborative Visual Solutions (CVS), Business Products division. “With IT department budgets stretched to the limit across every industry, Christie’s broad choice of visual display systems offer ‘high tech without the high price,’ to address the complex surveillance and security challenges of today’s global environment.”

Recognized for their versatility that takes them from the heart of the fashion world in New York City to some of the most sophisticated control room environments, award-winning Christie® MicroTiles® are unsurpassed where true-to-life colors, image clarity and long-life capability are crucial. They offer super fine pixel pitch of 0.567mm and a narrow 10 inch (260mm) depth, making installation easy almost anywhere. Able to handle multiple high-definition sources as well as PC inputs, they are modular 12 inches high by 16 inches wide by 10 inches deep rear projection units that can be stacked to form any shape or size. They have won awards that include Eco-Design honors and the PALME Middle East award as the Most Innovative New AV Product of the Year, where they were recognized for their “quality, design, power of operation and rich list of features.”

The booth also includes two 10,000 ANSI lumens Christie HD10K-M projectors, edge blended on a curved screen showing 2D and 3D content; The most compact in its class, the Christie HD10K-M is noted for its high-performance, feature-rich platform, which delivers brightness, reliability and affordability in a compact package. The Christie LHD7000 is a portable, single-lamp projector that delivers 7000 ANSI lumens of brightness, full HD (1920 by 1080) resolution, 4DColor™ technology and inorganic LCD panels for high contrast and vivid color presentations

The Christie FHD551-X is the perfect tiled LCD flat panel solution, featuring a virtually seamless display. It is energy efficient, with LED backlighting and high pixel density that looks sharp at any distance. Significantly thinner than conventional display cubes, it is the perfect solution where space is at a premium. The panels automatically map in an array, based on how the cabling is configured, and can be part of a complete Christie turnkey solution that includes mounting brackets, frame and pedestal structural supports, Christie Vista Spyder and Christie Spyder X20 video processors, and an entire range of TVC controllers and media servers.

Powering all of the content at the Christie booth is the world’s most versatile video processor, the Christie Spyder X20. The industry-leading video processor features highly sophisticated capabilities and an intuitive interface, all in a compact design. The Christie Spyder X20 offers total control and flexibility, enabling users to mix an incredible number of sources in multiple windows, create all kinds of picture-in-picture (PIPs) designs, as well as define, shape and blend borders with a remarkable sense of elegance and style, and do it all flawlessly, every time.

“Christie visual display products offer the highest level of performance at the lowest cost of ownership, incorporating the latest generation of technology to meet the global needs of today’s more complex control/command environments. Christie can offer a complete turnkey solution for any size installation, to meet any type of challenge and budget,” said Stark.

Additional Christie products will be on display throughout the showroom floor, including a 4 by 4 array of Christie MicroTiles with a third-party interactivity kit at the rp Visual Solutions booth # 107. Electrosonic will display a 1 wide by 2 high array using Christie 67” cubes at booth # 610. Avitecture, booth # 412, will have a 1 wide by 5 high Christie MicroTiles column and a Christie LWU420 LCD digital projector. A Christie HD10K-M projector will also be used for a keynote presentation at a session hall.

The projector lamp on the Casio Signature XJ-M145 has been praised for the length of time it lasts in one recent projector review.

PC Magazine noted that the device has a long-lasting and mercury-free light source and also features a good warranty for the projector itself and the bulb.

The device provides 2,500 Lumens of brightness and has XGA 1,024×768 native resolution. However, the light is not delivered in a standard fashion, but instead produces reds with LEDs, blues with lasers and greens by shining the blue laser light on a phosphor. The optical system then directs the lights to the DLP chip and out of the front lens.

The system is capable of functioning with some ambient light, but is probably best put to use within theatre conditions and darkness. In these conditions, it provides bright and well-saturated colours, although they sometimes had unwanted tints in certain colours.

One area where it did come unstuck was with the rainbow effect, a known curse of all DLP projectors. The Casio device had a relatively pronounced effect, but it’s “probably not an impediment in data presentations” although it could become an issue in areas where colour is crucial.

Overall, the device is a little bulky but its impressive lamp-life make it a tempting option for people looking for a projector for business use.

The Casio Signature XJ-M145 ($1,199.99 direct) and other projectors in Casio’s new Signature projector line use the same long-lasting hybrid LED/laser light source as the Casio Green Slim XJ-A145U ($999.99 direct) and a few closely related models. Not only does the light source essentially last for the life of the projector, it’s also mercury free. The XJ-M145 is larger and pricier than the Green Slim, but provides a few flourishes that the XJ-A145U lacks.

The XJ-M145’s light source is rated at 2,500 lumens and has XGA (1,024 by 768) native resolution. Instead of producing red, green, and blue using a standard lamp and a color wheel, it produces red with LEDs, blue with lasers, and green by shining the blue laser light on a phosphor. Its optical system directs the red, green, and blue light to the DLP chip, and out the front lens.

One of the key advantages of the hybrid light source is its whopping 20,000-hour expected lifetime—long enough to run the projector eight hours a day every business day for 10 years. The lifetime of standard lamps typically ranges from 2,000 to 5,000 hours, and bulbs can cost several hundred dollars to replace.

The XJ-M145 measures 3.3 by 12.2 by 9.6 inches (HWD), and it weighs 8.2 pounds. (The Green Slim XJ-A145U weighs 5 pounds.) Although it’s heavy enough that you might not want to lug it regularly, it’s fine for the occasional trip. It comes with a soft carrying case, complete with a pocket for cables.

That said, the XJ-M145 is able to read JPG and AVI files from a USB memory key, so you can read your presentation from the USB key and leave your notebook at home. Plug in a USB key, and the projector will automatically switch to it as the current source, and then give you a menu of options to find the files on the key and show them. (Casio includes a Casio-specific version of ArcSoft MediaConverter to move most common formats to JPG or AVI.).

The XJ-M145 can also connect wirelessly with Wi-Fi-enabled Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile smartphones and computers running MobiShow software, so you can run a presentation from these devices.

Other connectors include an HDMI port for a computer or video source; a VGA port for a computer, which also doubles as a component video port; S-Video, composite video; audio in, audio out, a serial port, and an Ethernet LAN connection.

A new feature is an intelligent brightness control that utilizes built-in light sensors to automatically adjust the brightness level of the projection to suit the lighting conditions in the surrounding environment, minimizing power consumption by using no more than the level of brightness actually required.

The XJ-M145, like all DLP projectors, has the potential for showing a rainbow effect in which light areas break up into their component colors when you shift your gaze or in a moving image. I’m of average sensitivity to the effect, and noticed it in several data images—it was relatively pronounced for a DLP projector but probably not an impediment in data presentations. All in all, the Signature should be fine for any typical data presentation needs, though I’d hesitate to use it in situations where exacting color is required.

The projector is adequate for short video clips, but I’d be hesitant to use it for medium-length clips, let alone movies. Colors sometimes seemed a bit off, but the real issue was the rainbow effect. It was frequently a distraction, particularly in test scenes from Terminator 2 that showed bright elements against dark backgrounds. If you’re not sensitive to it, it may not be an issue for you, but the same may not be true of your audience.

One bright spot was the built-in audio system. While many similarly equipped projectors are barely audible, the Signature’s 5-watt mono speaker pumps out a decent volume, loud enough to fill a small conference room.

Another plus for the XJ-M145 is its warranty, at three years for the projector itself, which is longer than many projectors offer, plus 6,000 hours for the light source. That’s well short of the 20,000-hour rating for its lifetime, but it’s a lot longer than the usual 90 days for a lamp. It’s likely that the light source will outlast the projector.

Canon introduced the LV-8235 Ultra-Short Throw (UST) Multimedia DLP Projector, capable of projecting an 80-inch picture from a distance of only 1.04 ft. The LV-8235 UST can sit on a table or be mounted horizontally or vertically on a wall, ceiling or floor for a variety of 3D or 2D display applications, including educational presentations, advertising/digital signage, or museum/arcade rear-projection screens. With a high brightness rating of 2500 lumens and a maximum display size of 110 inches, the LV-8235 UST delivers its crisp imagery in the WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution 16:10 aspect ratio, which eliminates cropping or distortion when presenting HD video or graphics created on widescreen laptops. This is Canon’s first DLP projector using a 0.65″ single DLP chip.

The Canon LV-8235 UST Multimedia Projector can be used for either normal 2D display or stereoscopic 3D display, depending upon user preference. The frame-sequential method of 3D display employed by the projector switches parallax images intended for the left eye and right eye at very high speed, and requires the use of active-shutter type glasses for viewers to experience stereoscopic 3D imagery.

Utilizing a newly developed ultra-short focus mirror optical system, this new model directs the images it generates through the projection lens and onto a built-in reflection mirror for loop-back through a projection window. This configuration makes it possible to use a table or a floor as a projection screen. The ultra-short throw capability also allows users to install the projector in a wide range of compact positions, including — through the use of approved brackets and attachments — horizontal or vertical wall or ceiling mounts. Examples of ultra-short throw applications include cost-effective 3D or 2D rear-projection in museums or arcades, or digital signage use in which store-front product promotions can be projected onto the sidewalk or the floor of a shopping mall to attract the attention of people walking by. The Canon LV-8235 UST Multimedia Projector is also ideal for many classroom applications where proximity to the whiteboard or screen helps to minimize the possibility of obstructions to projected images.

If you want a solar-powered iPad 2 with a pico projector, get a job as a school teacher in Zimbabwe, where Apple has entered into a joint venture with the Mugabe government to supply such setups to rural schools.

“Great meeting with Apple today in Paris – unveiled a fascinating new ‘School Box’ which will take iPads to the most remote rural schools,” wrote Zimbabwe’s education, sport, arts, and culture minister David Coltart on his Facebook page. “Using solar power and micro projectors we will be able to bring computerised teaching aids to the poorest schools.”

From Coltart’s point of view, this could be the start of something big. “If we can get it to work in Zimbabwe,” he writes, “I am sure it will spread to poor schools throughout Africa – and beyond.”

Newsday Zimbabwe notes that president Mugabe had distributed computers to rural schools as part of his “rural computerisation programme”, but that the effort has been a bust, with those computers either being stolen or unusable due to a lack of electricity.

The “School Box” bundles will solve the latter problem, but the iPads will be a tempting target for the light-fingered rustic. As Information Week pointed out on Thursday, the first iPad has been stolen from the US Department of Veterans Affairs shortly after the fondleslabs’ introduction to that agency.

Times are tough these days in the belt-tightening US government, but they’re infinitely tougher in rural Zimbabwe. So if someone tries to sell you a solar-power iPad 2, odds are that it was acquired by that worthy at a five-fingered discount.

ViewSonic Corp., has launched the ultraportable and energy-efficient LED projectors. Featuring diminutive form factors and 20,000-hour, long-life LED lamps, the PLED-W500 and PLED-W200 usher in a new category of ViewSonic projectors. They support 3D technology with 120Hz frame rates for exciting 3D visuals, and can project 33-40” screens from a 1 m distance. They also feature versatile USB connectivity, while the built-in Microsoft Office/PDF viewer and SD/SDHC card reader can display documents and play multimedia files without needing a PC.

ViewSonic’s PLED-W500 is an ultra portable LED projector. The PLED-W500 features an innovative new appearance, with a piano-black mirrored surface and geometric inset buttons that make the projector modern, glossy and elegant, ideal for business presentations and multimedia entertainment.

It delivers incredibly visible, dynamic images with WXGA 1280×800 native resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio to offer remarkable flexibility. Take advantage of the wide screen area to create impactful presentations at the office or in your living room. The LED projectors are equipped with short throw lenses that display large images in small spaces.

From a distance of only 1m, the PLED-W500 can project a 33” screen. They’re the perfect solution for small meeting rooms and home theaters.

Developed with Texas Instruments’ high performance DPP6401 image processing chip, the projectors support 3D graphics with 120Hz frame rates. Immerse yourself in exciting 3D games and movies using active shutter glasses. 500 ANSI lumens with glowing color technology deliver astounding all-digital visibility with life-like color, sharp graphics and notable video.

With 120% NTSC color gamut, it’s the vivid choice for mobile presenters and making it best for HD 720p and widescreen viewing.

With LED light source technology, it utilizes mercury-free LED light source destined for long projection life over 20,000 hours, helping to save energy costs and minimize maintenance.

Its compact with dimensions of 8.4” x 6.4” x 1.6” and lightweight at 2.6 lbs, it’s packed with features like HDMI – the highest and future-proof video standard, guarantee for real digital picture distinction, integrated 1GB Media Storage that store your presentations or multimedia and direct playback without a PC.

These make it a true on-the-go mobile projector, multiple PC and video inputs, SD & USB for PC-less presentation, USB display, project your presentation through USB connection without the clutter of running a bulky VGA cable, 120Hz/3D-ready, automatic vertical keystone correction, built-in level sensor automatic corrects and adjusts the distorted image to have a wonderful straight shape, and integrated speakers.

With the built-in 32GB SD/SDHC card reader and Microsoft Office/PDF viewer, the projectors can play Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other multimedia files directly. All you need is a projector and a remote control for a smooth presentation experience.

ViewSonic’s PLED-W200 is a palm-sized LED projector ideal for business travelers. It delivers incredibly sharp, vibrant images with WXGA 1280×800 native resolution, 250 ANSI lumens.

The PLED-W200 Pico WXGA LED projector delivers the best performance and value for on-the-road presenters and business travellers. Some features of PLED-W500 can also be seen in PLED-W200.

Almo Professional A/V has added Casio’s full line of “Lamp-Free” commercial projectors to its roster of products, the company announced Monday.

The products were shown at Almo Pro’s E4 AV event in New York this week.

“The lamp-free Casio projectors simplify the install and maintenance of any projector application and that makes them an attractive option – and one that we needed to be able to offer our partner community,” Sam Taylor, executive vice president and COO for Almo Professional A/V, said as part of the announcement.

“The Casio booth has drawn a considerable amount of attention on our E4 Fall 2011 tour as attendees learn about how the Hybrid Light Source technology makes the projectors not only affordable, but also part of the whole Green AV movement being discussed during E4.”

A projector that was supposed to be at Founders Heritage Park during the Nelson Arts Festival has been stolen.

The Solar 250 projection unit, owned by Grouse Lighting in Wellington, was stolen last Thursday night. It was being used to project an oil-like effect on to the windmill near the entry to Founders, by Atawhai Dr.

Nelson Arts Festival technical director Antony Hodgson said it was worth about $1000 and the festival would have to pay for a replacement if it was not found.

Mr Hodgson said it was disappointing that someone had stolen it, as they had taken “a whole lot of enjoyment” away from the people who were to visit Founders in the festival’s last week.

“It was putting an effect up on the windmill after dark; there was this beautiful oil effect making the windmill look a bit like a giant lava lamp,” he said.

The unit, about the size of a small toolbox, was made in about 1980. “We can replace it, but it would be lovely to have that one back. It’s a bit of an antique,” he said.

Vivitek Corporation, a manufacturer of environmentally innovative visual presentation products, has appointed Beta Distribution to distribute Vivitek projectors.

Beta Distribution has been appointed to sell the Vivitek projectors suited for the office equipment sales channel.

Vivitek offers a variety of products in different brightness and resolution categories, including the innovative Qumi pocket projector, which is now available with a 5-year warranty for the educational market.

Brian Grogan, sales manager, UK/EMEA Vivitek Corporation: “Beta Distribution provides great benefits through their overall support of the dealers in the office equipment market while the company’s extensive dealer base and its operational strengths convinced us that Beta Distribution would help grow our business in the office equipment sales channel.”

Brian Ebury, AV product manager, Beta Distribution added:”Vivitek offers Beta Distribution a wide range of DLP projectors that allows us to complete our offering to the channel. The current selection comprises 16 models and we see a strong potential for the Vivitek range to grow in line with our company growth.”

This channel expansion is a continuance of Vivitek’s strategy to increase the market penetration across all channels. Beta Distribution is the latest edition and now joins Rapesco, Northamber and Karma AV as a UK Vivitek distributor.