BenQ LU935ST: Bright, Short Throw Laser Projection for Home and Business

Imagine this: You’ve finished a long day, and you’re ready to unwind. But instead of simply watching TV, you step into a different world. You’re on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach, the Pacific breeze (courtesy of your ceiling fan) ruffling your hair, the virtual sun setting over the iconic coastline. This is the power of a well-designed golf simulator, and at its heart lies a critical piece of technology: the projector. But not just any projector will do. To truly create that sense of immersion, you need a projector that can overcome several significant challenges.

The Immersion Equation: Brightness, Short Throw, Resolution, and Color

Creating a believable projected environment, whether it’s a golf course, a movie scene, or a business presentation, requires a delicate balance of several key factors:

• Brightness: Ambient light is the enemy of projection. A bright room washes out the image, destroying contrast and making it difficult to see details. High brightness is essential to overcome this.
• Short Throw: In many situations, especially home installations and golf simulators, space is limited. A short-throw projector can create a large image from a very short distance, preventing shadows and maximizing the viewing area.
• Resolution: The more pixels a projector can display, the sharper and more detailed the image will be. This is crucial for realism, whether you’re reading the break on a virtual green or admiring the fine details of a cinematic masterpiece.
• Color Accuracy: The colors of the projected image must be true to life. A golf course with unnaturally vibrant greens or a movie with skewed skin tones will instantly break the illusion.

These challenges have driven innovation in projection technology, and one of the most significant advancements is the use of lasers as a light source.

Introducing Laser Projection: A Revolution in Brightness and Longevity

For many years, traditional projectors relied on lamps – essentially, very powerful light bulbs. While lamps can produce a bright image, they have limitations. Their brightness diminishes over time, requiring periodic (and often expensive) replacement. They also generate a significant amount of heat and can take time to warm up and cool down.

Laser projectors, on the other hand, offer a fundamentally different approach. Instead of a bulb, they use lasers to generate the light needed to create the image. This offers several key advantages:

• Extended Lifespan: Laser light sources can last for 20,000 hours or more, far exceeding the lifespan of traditional lamps. This translates to years of virtually maintenance-free operation.
• Sustained Brightness: Unlike lamps, lasers maintain their brightness over a much longer period, ensuring consistent image quality.
• Superior Color: Lasers can produce a wider range of colors (a wider color gamut), resulting in more vibrant and realistic images.
• Instant On/Off: Laser projectors can power on and off almost instantly, eliminating the warm-up and cool-down times associated with lamp-based projectors.

But how do these lasers actually create an image? That’s where DLP technology comes in.

Deep Dive into DLP: The Dance of the Micromirrors

The BenQ LU935ST, and many other high-performance projectors, utilize Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology, developed by Texas Instruments. DLP is a fascinating example of micro-engineering at its finest. At the heart of a DLP projector is a tiny chip called a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD).

The Magic of Micromirrors: Millions of Tiny Reflectors

Imagine a chip, smaller than a postage stamp, covered in millions of microscopic mirrors. Each of these mirrors is incredibly small – smaller than the width of a human hair! And each mirror represents a single pixel in the projected image.

These mirrors are mounted on tiny hinges, allowing them to tilt back and forth at incredibly high speeds – thousands of times per second. They can tilt in one of two directions:

• Towards the light source: In this position, the mirror reflects light towards the projection lens, creating a bright pixel on the screen.
• Away from the light source: In this position, the mirror reflects light away from the lens, creating a dark pixel.

By controlling the duration that each mirror spends in the “on” position, the projector can create different shades of gray. The longer the mirror is on, the brighter the pixel; the shorter it’s on, the darker the pixel.

But how do we get color? That’s where a clever device called a color wheel (in some DLP projectors) or multiple lasers (in more advanced models) comes into play.

The Color Wheel (and Beyond): Painting with Light

In a traditional single-chip DLP projector, a color wheel is used to introduce color. This wheel is a spinning disc divided into segments, typically red, green, and blue. As the wheel spins, it rapidly cycles through these colors.

The DMD mirrors synchronize with the color wheel. For example, when the red segment of the wheel is in front of the light source, the mirrors tilt to reflect the red light for the appropriate pixels. The same process happens for green and blue. This happens so quickly that our eyes perceive a full-color image.

More advanced DLP projectors, including some laser projectors, may use separate red, green, and blue lasers, eliminating the need for a color wheel. This can result in even wider color gamuts and improved color accuracy.

Laser Light Source Explained: Precision and Power

Lasers are unique light sources. Unlike a light bulb, which emits light in all directions and across a broad spectrum of wavelengths, a laser produces a highly focused beam of light of a single wavelength (meaning a single, pure color). The word “laser” is actually an acronym: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

The process of stimulated emission is a quantum mechanical phenomenon. In simple terms, it involves exciting atoms to a higher energy level. When these atoms return to their normal energy level, they release photons (particles of light) that are all in phase and traveling in the same direction. This creates the coherent, focused beam characteristic of a laser.

In a laser projector, the laser light is directed towards the DMD chip, where the micromirrors reflect it to create the image. The use of lasers allows for precise control over the light’s intensity and color, resulting in brighter, more vibrant, and more accurate images.

Short Throw Demystified: Big Pictures, Small Spaces

The “ST” in BenQ LU935ST stands for “Short Throw.” This refers to the projector’s ability to create a large image from a very short distance. This is achieved through sophisticated lens design.

A standard projector lens spreads the light beam at a relatively narrow angle. A short-throw lens, on the other hand, uses a wider angle, allowing the image to expand rapidly over a shorter distance. This often involves the use of aspherical lenses and mirrors to carefully control the light path.

The throw ratio is a key specification that describes this capability. It’s the ratio of the distance from the projector to the screen (throw distance) to the width of the screen. A lower throw ratio means the projector can be placed closer to the screen to create a given image size. For example, a throw ratio of 0.5:1 means that the projector needs to be placed half the width of the screen away from it. So, to project a 100-inch wide image, the projector would only need to be 50 inches away.

This is crucial for applications like golf simulators, where the player needs to stand close to the screen without casting a shadow. It’s also beneficial in smaller rooms where a traditional long-throw projector simply wouldn’t be practical.

The BenQ LU935ST: A Case Study in Advanced Projection

The BenQ LU935ST brings together all of these technologies – DLP, laser light source, and short-throw optics – to deliver a high-performance projection solution. Let’s revisit some of its key features in light of what we’ve learned:

• 5500 Lumens Brightness: This high brightness, thanks to the laser light source, allows the LU935ST to produce a vibrant image even in rooms with ambient light. This is essential for golf simulators and other applications where complete darkness isn’t possible.

Resolution and Clarity: The BenQ LU935ST

• WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Native Resolution: This resolution, higher than standard 1080p (1920 x 1080), provides a sharper and more detailed image. The extra vertical pixels are particularly useful for displaying documents, spreadsheets, and other content with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The projector also supports signals up to 4K resolution, although it will downscale them to its native WUXGA resolution.

Beyond the Specs: Contrast, Color, and Connectivity

While we are still awaiting confirmation of some specific specifications (contrast ratio, exact throw ratio, color gamut coverage), it’s important to understand their significance:

• Contrast Ratio: This is the ratio between the brightest white and the darkest black that the projector can produce. A higher contrast ratio results in a more dynamic and realistic image, with deeper blacks and brighter whites. DLP technology is generally known for its excellent contrast ratios.
• Color Gamut: This refers to the range of colors that the projector can reproduce. Wider color gamuts, often expressed as a percentage of standards like Rec. 709 or DCI-P3, result in more vibrant and accurate colors. Laser projectors often have an advantage in this area.
• Connectivity: The LU935ST likely offers a range of connectivity options, including HDMI, to connect to various sources like Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, computers, and streaming devices. HDMI likely has audio pass-through.

Real-World Applications (Revisited): Bringing it All Together

Let’s revisit the scenarios we mentioned earlier, now with a deeper understanding of the technology:

• Golf Simulators: The LU935ST’s high brightness combats ambient light, allowing for daytime use. The short-throw lens allows for a large, immersive image without the player casting a shadow. The WUXGA resolution and accurate colors (pending confirmation of color gamut) provide a realistic depiction of the golf course.
• Home Theater: Enjoy cinematic experiences with bright, detailed images, even in rooms that aren’t completely dark. The long-lasting laser light source eliminates the hassle of lamp replacements.
• Business Presentations: Deliver clear, impactful presentations in any meeting room. The high brightness ensures visibility, even with the lights on, and the WUXGA resolution keeps text and graphics sharp.

Conclusion: The Future of Projection is Bright (and Short)

Laser projection, combined with advanced technologies like DLP and short-throw optics, is transforming the way we experience visual content. The BenQ LU935ST exemplifies this evolution, offering a powerful and versatile solution for a wide range of applications. By understanding the science behind these technologies, we can appreciate the engineering marvel that brings these immersive experiences to life. The ability to project large, bright, and detailed images from short distances opens up new possibilities for entertainment, education, and business.