RIGHT OF PASSAGE...THE PROJECTIONDREAMS CRT DAYS..

Dear Folks,

When I took my ISF calibration course in 1999 I had already been setting up/Installing CRT projectors for over 7 years.

I remember the words Joel Silver -president of ISF-uttered to the calibration class when I was introduced..."Here`s a man that already knows about setup"...

Indeed Projectiondreams started in the Pro Market and was the first company in Europe prolifically to sell the more esoteric CRT projectors like the Electrohome`s,Sonys,Nec`s,Runcos and Vidikrons.

In Europe before about 1998 the only projectors sold in numbers were the Barcos (808`s mainly)and commercial Sonys like the 1031/2`s & 1272`s.

About this time Electrohome- a Canadian company,released the Marquee 9501LC (Liquid Cooled)-which was rebadged by Christie and Vidikron as the Vision 1.(*In a case designed by Pininfarina of Ferrari fame..)..

In the U.S...high end Crt projector really took off when Runco stepped into the fray by selling rebadged Barco 808`s in a new black case with gold Runco badge as the Runco DTV 1200..

Projectiondreams was the first to import these esoteric U.S. models-as well as the new Sony G50`s,70`s and the G90..(*7",8" and 9" tubes respectively) and lesser known "stars" like the NEC XG135LC...(*My personal favourite..)..

Projectiondreams was the first European company to offer Crt projectors with modified HDMI boards,custom tubes,custom cases/paint jobs..

Liasing with U.S..Crt Custom "greats" like Mike Parker,Terry Ferrentinos,Curt Palme,Doug Baisey and Graham Johnsone ,Projectiondreams introduced 2.35.1 curved screens setups into Europe first.

These were great days,where 100`s of CRT installs were performed &  picture setup boundaries were pushed and the way paived for todays acceptance of Home Cinema..:-)

Each CRT projector had to be carefully converged by aligning red/green/blue grids perfectly to form a grid of white squares..always at the manufacturers the blue tube was slightly de focussed to achieve more brightness-and correcting the gain setting on this (*Always too high) immediately improved overall resolution..

Each square in each grid (*with the NEC XG135LC for example) had to be aligned..100 point convergence was possible..as with the Barco Cine 9 which appeared after the Runco DTV 1200 and Barco had some stock left..

Of course there were no pixel grids with CRT projectors,no permanently on lamps..as such when the tubes faded to black..effectively the tube was off...so contrast ratio was astoundingly high..the Barco Cine 9 was measured at a true 36,000:1..something that even today projectors struggle with and only achieve through the use of Auto Iris features..

There was a filmic smoothness to CRT that is only just being matched today by 4k projectors..and remember-over 15 years ago the Barco Cine 9 was capable of resolutions beyond 2160p...astounding eh?

The only thing arguably that crt projectors lacked was brightness..even the Cine 9 struggled to get over 250 Ansi lumens-yet what really held the picture was the dynamic range between absolute white and black..and the CR (*Contrast ratio) was so good that the lack of brightness was not really an issue in dedicated rooms..

Even now..some of the best ever screenshots have come from CRT setups..this is Projectiondreams pedigree..the difference of knowledge of true professional picture setup learnt over many years..this of course is our right of passage..which diffrientiates us from ANY competition in Europe..let alone Portugal..

Anyway..here`s some pics from the good old days..:-)