Barco’s iQ line of projectors first captured everyone’s attention at NAB 2002. It was a revolutionary product combining a seamless switcher, image tiling, and network interface all into one medium-sized installation front projector. Nothing like it had been seen previously, although plenty of manufacturers had tried to stuff PC operating systems into front projectors (Ampro’s ALICE 5000 DLP projector was a notable example from 1997). And there haven’t been too many imitators since then, although a few projector manufacturers have incorporated a direct LAN interface and on-board OS.
The iQ Pro G350 is the latest version to hit the market and it builds upon the same clever design of the original iQ Pro. The “engine” is an LCD design that uses three 1.4-inch 1024x768 panels driven by a pair of 200-watt UHP lamps. It’s not exactly a lightweight projector at 29 pounds, but the iQ Pro G350 is intended for permanent install and is built rugged as a result.
No standard lenses come with the projector. There are three available motorized zoom lenses (1.3 – 1.8:1, 1.9 – 2.6:1, and 3.0 – 6.0:1) plus a pair of fixed focal length optics (0.85:1 short-throw and 7.0:1 long throw). That range should pretty much cover any conference room or classroom installation you’d think of, and with a pair of lamps capable of several thousand lumens it will light up some big screens.
The unique features of the iQ Pro G350 include the ability to seamless switch between inputs and also to set up screens with tiled RGB and video images. Two RGB images and one video source can be shown at any time, and you can define the position, size, and shape of your screens to be saved and recalled as macros.
The built-in PC runs Windows XP with a 1.2 GHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, and a 40 GB hard drive. That wouldn’t necessarily be an impressive PC these days, but it’s more than adequate as a server and OS for any projector. Barco also offers proprietary software for remote access and diagnostics.
OUT OF THE BOX
The base projector is shipped without a lens (that comes separately). For my review, Barco sent along their QVD 1.3 – 1.8:1 lens that has motorized zoom, focus, and vertical lens shift. It installs easily by fitting onto indexing pins and is secured with a locking lever. You don’t need to attach or remove machine screws when changing lenses, as is the case with other installation projectors.
For network connections, I simply tied an RJ-45 cable into my office LAN, which has four different Windows and Mac computers, a printer, and a cable modem resident. The connector complement also includes a DVI-I jack, a 5xBNC array for component video and RGB sources, a 15-pin VGA jack, a BNC jack for composite video, a DIN connector for S-video, and a separate 15-pin monitor output from the internal PC.
Other interfaces include four USB connectors, the 100baseT LAN connector, RS-232C control, and a pair of 1/8-inch mini plugs for microphone and line input, plus line output. This is for remote control of audio only; there are no speakers builtin to the iQ Pro G350.
The supplied remote works with a host of Barco products and is large, intuitive, and has good range. You’ll have direct access to any of the available inputs from the remote and can also quickly access the motorized lens functions. One thing I have always liked about Barco is the direct access to picture adjustment modes from their remotes, so you don’t need to spend a lot of time navigating menus.
UP AND RUNNING
If you are reasonably competent in Windows XP, you can find the iQ Pro G350 sitting out there and let XP’s automatic IP address assignment function let you communicate with it. Two pieces of software are necessary to realize all of the potential of this projector. The first is Barco Control and Diagnostics, which basically enables remote communication, maintenance, and diagnostics with the projector.
The other is DropZone, which is a neat GUI [graphical user interface] that looks like a science-fiction portal into another universe. It sits on your Windows desktop and is nothing more than an elaborate way to move files to and from the projector. Got a PowerPoint presentation or some JPEG still images? Just click, drag, and drop the files into the iris-like door that opens up for you, and they’re now on the projector, ready for use.
Those files can stay on the internal server or be set up to self-destruct once the projector is powered down. (No, Mr. Phelps, they don’t burst into flames a la “Mission Impossible”.) The files are simply deleted from the on-board server, which is reassuring to know if you’ve inadvertently left sensitive or proprietary information on the projector after a presentation.
The next step is to define which windows you want to appear and how you wish them to be tiled. If all you plan to do is to simply show full-frame graphics and video, just switch between inputs. But for something completely different, you can configure and save up to ten different templates for tiled windows using Barco Control and Diagnostics.
This lets you bring in graphics and remote video, such as a collaborative meeting might require. If someone at a remote location is using NetMeeting to control PowerPoint slides, you can make those appear in a large window with a small inset window showing the face of your remote presenter. Click-and-drag commands define the position and size of the windows, as well as what will appear in them.
None of this configuration is particularly hard to do. If you can move around a PC desktop with a mouse, you can set up the projector to do what you want, including send you (and up to two other email addresses) status updates and alerts on everything from lamp life to active inputs and elapsed run time.
As for the seamless transitions, there are 12 to choose from. Want to wipe left-to-right? How about a dip to black and fade in? Or maybe you just fancy a tried-and-true dissolve? Take your pick; they’re all here (and also remotely configurable). In my tests, the only input that was somewhat restricted here was the DVI input – I could only achieve a clean “cut” from it to any other source, or to it from other sources.
ON THE TEST BENCH
Barco has long claimed universal compatibility with just about any signal source, so I arranged a bevy of them from RGB 640x480 to 1280x720p and 1920x1080i HDTV, including a DVI HDCP signal from a Samsung SIRT-165 set-top receiver (which the iQ Pro G350 was quite happy with, by the way). After calibration for best grayscale, I took numerous brightness readings as the projector has five different white balance modes (Projector White, Computer, Video, Film, and Broadcast) plus an option to operate with one lamp or two. In Projector White mode, no correction for the blue-green UHP light is made, resulting in highest brightness (1,535 ANSI lumens with one lamp, 2612 with two).
But you’ll probably prefer Computer (975 ANSI with one lamp, 1,967 ANSI with two) or Video (790 ANSI with one lamp, 1,690 ANSI with two) modes. In fact, the iQ Pro G350 tracks a clean grayscale with any color temperature setting, exhibiting a total shift of 1,585 degrees K from near black to full white.
Contrast numbers were good for an LCD projector. Using a 16-checkerboard ANSI pattern, I measured average contrast at 209:1 and peak contrast at 368:1, with one lamp lit. Adding the second lamp dropped contrast readings by about 4%. Brightness uniformity from corner to corner measured 84%, which is excellent for LCD projection engines.
The projector did a nice job auto-syncing to the standard PC rates from VGA (640x480) to UXGA (1600x1200) and also worked nicely with 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p test sources. I was also able to construct a tile template that included HD from the Samsung tuner (720p output), desktop graphics from my PC (1280x1024) and video from a Panasonic RP56 DVD player (480i component).
Image quality in RGB mode was excellent. Barco has always used prime optics and you’ll see the benefit with sharp, crisp text and no focus problems that plague cheaper varifocal lenses on lower-cost projectors. Video image quality wasn’t quite as good, particularly with composite sources. Colors were right on after adjustment but I thought images could use a little more punch (more fooling around with the Gamma settings might have helped).
Video quality looked best from component progressive sources (480p and 720p) plus 1080i HD content, although the latter has to be down-rezzed about 47% to fit the 1024-pixel array. Motion compensation is good and the internal video decoder does pick up 3:2 and 30 fps video transitions quickly and smoothly.
ALL IN ALL
The iQ Pro G350 mostly delivers as promised, although it didn’t quite reach its advertised brightness rating of 3,500 lumens. My “best grayscale image” brightness measurement is much more conservative than the manufacturer’s and is always taken with a zoom lens at its midpoint, which could account for some of the difference. Barco notes that they also test for brightness with a different lens configuration, which might account for some of the difference.
The seamless switching and tiling functions work very well and are “ever-so-simple” to set up with the Windows GUI. Remote diagnostics and maintenance should be, in my opinion, a part of every installation projector system, and the iQ Pro implementation is quite thorough.
The DropZone interface was cool, although you could do the same thing with Windows Explorer and standard file icons. The on-board server and OS is handy if you want to move files from other media besides the LAN, such as the popular “thumb” or “pen” flash drives. There’s also a slot for PCMCIA smart cards, although I predict they’ll go away in favor of the smaller flash drives.
The big issues for many buyers will be price. At $14,995, this projector is at the high end for some end-users, who might instead cobble together a ‘solution’ consisting of a lower-cost LCD projector and an economically priced presentation switcher, spending less money in the process.
But that ‘solution’ won’t have the on-board OS and server functions, nor is it likely to have a wide range of interchangeable lenses. In that light, the iQ Pro G350 is definitely a niche product that delivers a lot of functionality for the price, which in the long run might make for a better investment if you’re considering buying an installation projector.
Pete Putman is an industry consultant, instructor, and writer, specializing in electronic display technology. He can be reached at pete@hdtvexpert.com.
