Presentation

Government Executive August 1, 1998

In picking a projector, you must consider several things. First, will it live in one place, such as a conference room, or do you need to take it on the road? Projectors fall into three categories: fixed (roughly 20 - 40 pounds), portable (10 - 19 pounds), and ultra-portable (under 10 pounds) As the weight decreases, you lose some image quality, though technological innovation is minimizing the trade-offs.

Second, what conditions will you be using it in? Less than 200 ANSI lumens - a basic way of measuring a machine's ability to project an image - can be seen in a dark room, 200 to 500 can be seen in a dim room, and more than 500 can be seen in a fully lit room.

Third, what will you be showing? The source of your presentation (for example, slides or multimedia) will determine the resolution you need. The current standards are (in order of sophistication) VGA, SVGA, XGA. As XGA gets established, the price of the others will go down.

If you work or travel overseas, you'll also want one of the newer models that has a universal power supply so you don't have to worry about having the right adapter. Also consider operating costs, such as bulbs. How many hours does the bulb last? Can you change it yourself?

Competition and fast-paced technological innovation are keeping this category, and its prices, changing fast. Hot new products include:

  • The Notevision 3 and 4 from Sharp. The 3, which has 700 ANSI lumens and weighs in at 14.6 pounds, lists for about $9,500. The 4 (due out in September), the company's ultra-portable 9.9-pound competitor, will sell for less than $7,000.
  • In Focus has possibly the most mobile projector, the LP420. It tips the scales at a mere 6.8 pounds and provides 500 ANSI lumens for $6,000.
  • Epson's PowerLite series. The 7300 has a whopping 1,200 ANSI lumens at only 13.8 pounds and goes for $14,999.
  • NEC's ultra-portable contestant, the LT80, weighs 9.9 pounds with 600 ANSI lumens and goes for $7,500.
A search of GSA Advantage, GSA's online shopping mall, yielded 710 projector-related items. About half are projectors; the rest are bulbs, screens, etc.

Contacts

For more help in picking equipment, see Presentations magazine.

Epson
(800) GO-EPSON

In Focus
(800) 294-6400

Lightware
(800) 445-9396

NEC
(800) NEC-INFO (632-4636)

Panasonic
(800) 524-0864

Polaroid
(800) 816-2611

Sharp
(888) LCD-SHARP (523-7427)

Sony Electronics
(800) 686-7669

3M
(800) 952-4049

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