Reprinted from the May 2009 issue of Church Production Magazine
Canon WUX10 Multimedia Projector
For many, the Canon brand connotes cameras and camcorders, or perhaps office copying machines and printers. Most would, on reflection, also acknowledge the greater breadth of the company's product portfolio, but few are likely to highlight projectors as a Canon specialty and, admittedly, Canon’s projector division is just a few years old. Yet over the past four years Canon has slowly and deliberately been establishing a reputation for high-quality, business-oriented projectors.
It’s an understandable brand evolution, combining Canon’s office products history with its image processing acumen. Interestingly, given Canon’s reputation in both professional and prosumer video, Canon’s projector division has stuck exclusively to business-oriented products rather than home theater models. In fact, the new WUX10 is Canon's first native widescreen, and although it can display HD motion video pixel for pixel, it’s still primarily a business projector.
Yet that combination should appeal to houses of worship: the high-brightness and sharp graphical and text images demanded in office/conference environments matched with a native wide aspect that suits the trend toward wide data screens and wide video sources. Add a high native resolution and the WUX10 yields a lot of displaying options. Its native 1920x1200 resolution matches the 16:10 aspect ratio of many native wide computer sources (1280x800 for example), but the WUX10 can also display native 16:9 video sources and 4:3 sources (either zoomed or with black bars). And a wonderful “True size” mode can display any source into in its own native resolution, pixel for pixel.
Up Close
The WUX10, like the majority of Canon’s projectors, is built around an LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) imagine engine; in this case, Canon’s proprietary AISYS (Aspectual Illumination System) version of LCoS. High resolution is an inherent advantage of LCoS, but other technology has caught up. On the other hand, LCoS also has the ability to all but eliminate any visible pixel grid, even when looking directly at the image from close range, and that’s an advantage the WUX10 shares. The overall result is a sharp, yet still organic and natural looking image.
At just over 10 pounds, the WUX10 is also a potentially versatile projector, physically small enough to move from room to room or to be installed in a small-to mid-sized sanctuary with a minimally invasive footprint. If moved around, an Auto Set auto-adjust feature can go a long way toward achieving an excellent image with minimal user effort, regardless of screen or wall color. A menu feature allows for manual adjustments to R, G and B screen color values, but that simple Auto Set button does a fine job automatically by leveraging Canon’s camera expertise. It can auto focus to a screen or wall, can auto correct for keystone, and the auto image function can accommodate, for example, an off-white or yellow wall by altering the color temperature values to still yield an accurate image.
For more permanent sanctuary installations in tight spaces, all of the connection ports are on the side of the unit, allowing it to be positioned almost up against a rear wall. And, while one can always use the handheld remote, the WUX10 does include an RJ-45 Ethernet connector so it can be comfortably installed high overhead and administrated and monitored remotely over a network. Other installation features include a PIN code security lock-out and a function to capture and display a custom logo during start-up.
The WUX10 input options do present a rather eclectic mix that speaks directly to the business focus of Canon's overall projector line-up. There are both DVI-I and 15-pin analog data input ports, and stereo mini audio inputs for each. However, the only direct motion video inputs are an HDMI and an RCA composite, not even an S-Video port. Of course, the 15-pin RGB input can be configured to accept component video via a splitter cable, but that would certainly not be the only component video option were Canon targeting home theater or other video-heavy usage. The HDMI input is a logical, if forward-looking, option for recorded video sources such as a DVD or Blu-ray player or set-top box.
Image is Everything
It was a young Andre Agassi in a Canon Rebel camera commercial more than a decade ago who turned “image is everything” from a statement of style to one of Canon’s substance as well. And that's still apropos with this Canon product. The WUX10 delivers excellent color, although the specific color coordinators depend on mode set-up. For example, the Presentation preset mode increases brightness at the expense of truly accurate color, moving all colors toward green. Standard, Movie and sRGB modes hold color much more accurately, although adjustments for Gamma and individual six-axis RGBCMY colors afford great fine-tuning options for installation professionals.
I found the grayscale range to be very good, with a nice smooth curve from black to white and visible gray variations throughout the entire range. Canon lists a brightness specification of 3,200 lumens and, surprisingly, given general industry practices, that’s not too far off. I measured 2,967 ANSI lumens as an average across the entire image in Presentation, with a bright spot over that mark of 3,200 lumens. Brightness in the other picture modes drops off significantly, but that’s to be expected. And a brightness uniformity of 82% is not bad at all for a widescreen projector.
Canon’s scaling was equally impressive. Using a variety of test patterns, including nearly impossible 1x1 pixel patterns and grids, I challenged the WUX10 to display source resolutions from VGA to WUXGA and the results were very good. I did see some of the inevitable moiré effect on some of those 1x1 grids, but the WUX10 was still able to display fine text clearly and legible at all resolutions. Of course, if you want a perfect picture with no scaling softness at all, the True size mode delivers since it is essentially a direct pixel-for-pixel passthrough. Although admittedly, it’s a mode that will probably be used sparingly in house of worship settings because it means surrounding a picture with black bars and under-utilizing the projection screen real estate.
At $13,000, you’d expect the WUX10 to perform well, and it does. With excellent scaling, color accuracy and high resolution, it delivers a very good picture, yet it also maintains the high brightness and sharp text of a business-use projector which will allow a broad congregation to read scriptures and hymns from a projected display. Price: $12,999
Jeff Sauer has covered the professional video and A/V industry for a dozen years and is an independent video producer and consultant in Massachusetts.