The promise of setting up a short-throw projector next to the screen yet still getting large, sharp and bright images is fulfilled for houses of worship with Canon’s Realis WUX500ST ProAV Projector. Perfect for everything from projecting song lyrics and sermon notes to IMAG of the pastor, the WUX500ST works where other projectors don’t.
Rather than interchangeable lenses, the WUX500ST is a purpose-built short-throw projector for specialty situations. At 5.3- by 16.3- by 13.2-inches, it is tiny compared to the likes of Panasonic’s PT-DZ13K and can be easily hidden. It weighs a reasonable 13.8 pounds and can be carried and set up by one person. The LEDs on its top are for power, warning, overheating and lamp problems.
With the ability to create huge images close to the screen, Canon’s Realis WUX500ST can light up a small or oddly shaped house of worship.
Based on Canon’s AISYS advanced optics, the WUX500ST avoids the artifacts common on short-throw projectors, like bowed borders, uneven illumination and soft focus; it includes built-in edge blending for creating huge composite projections. On the other hand, like other short throw projectors, the WUX500ST lacks an optical zoom lens; it has a 12X digital zoom.
The WUX500ST can create a five-foot image from just 33 inches away from the screen, and tops out with a surprisingly strong 21-foot-wide image. This can help with small or oddly-shaped houses of worship, allowing the projector to be set up behind the lectern, at the base of the back wall or as the basis of a rear-projection system. Its four attachment points underneath not only work with mounting hardware but also accept screw-in adjustable feet. You can use a generic ceiling mount, a Canon-made one or the company’s unique under-table mounting hardware. The only requirement is that the WUX500ST requires 24 inches of clearance for cooling.Inside, the WUX500ST has Canon’s latest 0.71-inch Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) imaging chip that provides the brightness of a reflective design and the resolution of a liquid crystal display. It delivers WUXGA (1,920 by 1,200) resolution and works well with HD material.
Testing It Out
Setting up a short-throw projector can be tricky and the WUX500ST eases the process. In addition to up to 12-degrees of keystone correction for horizontal and vertical misalignment, you can create a rectangular image by adjusting the corners. The projector also allows you to shift the image mechanically with a pair of thumb wheels on the left side by 10-percent right-to-left as well as up by as much as 75 percent.
Rather than interchangeable lenses, the WUX500ST is a purpose-built short-throw projector for specialty situations.
Unfortunately, once the shift is set, you can’t lock the knobs.Along the left side, the WUX500ST’s simple control panel is far from the projector’s rear exhaust stream. In addition to controls for power, input and keystone correction, there’s a button for opening the Menu and a T control for navigating within it. The projector also has an AutoPC key for optimizing the projection parameters for a connected computer.All of this is replicated on the WUX500ST’s small remote control, which adds buttons for Blank, Freeze, Aspect and other features. There’re dedicated buttons for adjusting the gamma setting as well as selecting the video mode, which range from Standard, Presentation and Photo to DiCom Sym for grayscale items. You need to dig into the Menu to adjust things like Sharpness, Contrast, Brightness and R-G-B gain and offset.
My favorite is the access to the projector’s 13 test patterns, which can help streamline setting up and checking the projector’s aim and focus. You can also directly turn on the WUX500ST’s split screen system to do things like show video of the band and the song’s lyrics side by side.The WUX500ST’s ports are a good mix of old and new, but the projector lacks a cable cover as is the case with Epson’s BrightLink Pro family of short throw projectors.
In addition to audio, HDMI and VGA, there’re connections for a DVI and an HDBase T source. It has an RS-232 for wired control, a Gigabit Ethernet port as well as WiFi built in that can turn the WUS500ST into an access point for transmitting data throughout the hall. The projector can be controlled via PJLink, Crestron or AMX control systems.
Give and Take
It has a USB port that candisplay .jpg images from a flash drive, but neither Office files nor video, as other short-throw projectors can. You can create a slide show of any images in a folder that are displayed alphabetically with crossfade or fade-out, fade-in transitions. This can be a nice touch for weddings and events.If you want a projector that acts quickly look elsewhere because the WUX500ST took 32-seconds to get to its projected image onto the screen and 1:31 to shut itself off. You can turn it on and off from an AC outlet controlled by a simple light switch and the projector worked with video from a Blu-ray player, iPad Pro, live video source and a Gefen eight-way video switcher.
It can’t hold a candle to the PT-DZ13K’s 13,100 lumens of light, but the WUX500ST acquitted itself well, particularly considering its size and price tag. Using Presentation mode, it put 6,630 lumens onto the test screen, one-third above Canon’s spec. This drops 20- and 33-percent in Standard and the more realistic Photo modes. Still, the WUX500ST delivers a lot of brightness for a small package and should be more than enough for a mid-sized church.It’s loud—with 48.3 dBA of fan noise at three feet, but that’s nothing compared to the PT-DZ13K's 56.4 dBA of noise.
The exhaust comes out the back at a peak of 152-degree Fahrenheit, but the case only gets warm. In addition to replacing its $420 lamp that’s rated to last for 3,000 hours of use, the WUX500ST has an air filter upfront that takes a couple of minutes to remove, vacuum and put back in. In its brightest mode, the WUX500ST used 365 watts. If you want to keep the network connection active, when its idle, the projector still consumes 1.8-watts at idle. All told, it has estimated annual operating expenses of $148 if it’s used for 15 hours a week and electricity costs the national average of 13 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s about one-third the cost to use the PT-DZ13K.With a three-year warranty, the WUX500ST has a list price of $8,250, but if you shop around you can find it for closer to $6,500, making it a best buy for religious institutions of all denominations. By delivering a large, sharp and bright image, it puts projectors in their place: next to the screen.
