If you're considering an upgrade to high-definition projection, Epson's PowerLite Pro G6970WU can light it up at an attractive price. By getting the most out of current projector technology, the $6,500 Pro G not only connects with just about any source and shines brightly, but the more you use it the more your church can save.
At 1,920 by 1,200 resolution (WUXGA), the Pro G6970's imaging can help update any church that's currently using a lower-resolution projector. The projector's images show three-times the detail, are formed on three high-temperature polysilicon LCD panels that are combined through sophisticated optics. The projector uses a conventional 380-watt high-pressure lamp and can work with a wide-variety of input sources and resolutions. The Pro G6970 weighs in at 22-pounds, making it possible for two people to install, even while hanging on a ladder. At 6.7- by 16.0- by 19.9-inches, the projector has an adjustable foot up front and two in the rear for setting it up on a table, shelf or even the floor. There are four threaded attachment points underneath for ceiling mounting.
As is the case with its large-venue competitors, the Pro G6970 accepts several different lenses, including an ultra-short throw model for tight spaces. On the downside, the lenses lack powered-zoom and -focus that can be controlled from the remote control. It takes a few minutes to change the projector's lens and lock it in place with an included bolt. Unlike most of its peers, the Pro G6970 comes with a high-quality standard-throw lens that will prove useful in many mid-sized auditoriums and houses of worship. So you're not stuck with an extra lens, Epson will give you $300 credit towards the purchase of any of the other five lenses. The optional lenses range in price from $1,400 to $3,000.
With its lens at the center of the case, the Pro G6970's is easier to set up than many of its competitors. It has horizontal and vertical keystone correction as well as a surprisingly simple manual image shift mechanism. By twisting a pair of knobs on either side of the lens, the image can be moved 67-degrees vertically and 30-degrees horizontally, providing the flexibility of not having to set the projector up directly in front of the screen. There's a way to lock it in place, but like the zooming and focusing, you can't shift the image remotely. It has 11 built-in test patterns for optimizing its settings, including a pure white image for checking on its brightness. While most will use it on its own, the projector can be set up in tandem with other Pro G models to create a panorama, stacked images or a video wall composed of several different feeds. It includes an edge-blending processor and can be focused on curved screens and in corners.
Inside, the projector has Faroudja's DCDi Cinema processor for smoothing out video anomalies. A big bonus is that the Pro G6970 can be used with SP Controls' inexpensive PixiePlus wall control panel as well as Crestron's RoomView, AMX and Extron XTP protocols. It can even be set to emulate the commands of Panasonic products for churches replacing those projectors.
Epson’s $6,500 Pro G6970WU proves that you don’t have to overspend to bring high-definition imaging to your parishioners.
CONNECTION CENTRAL
There's a small control panel on the back and operational LEDs up front. It leads with one of the best assortment of ports available in any projector. In addition to SDI, HDMI and DisplayPort, the Pro G6970 has BNC, VGA, S- and Composite video. It's one of the rare devices in its class that can use HDBaseT video streams.
It can connect to another display via a VGA cable and on top of USB, there's an RS-232 as well as three audio input inputs and an output; it has no speaker. The projector has a traditional Ethernet port but no way to link the projector to the institution's WiFi network. If you're thinking that the downside of all this is having a mess of visible cables hanging in the middle of your house of contemplation, think again. Epson is one of the only manufacturers to include a cable cover that screws into the projector and can hide a multitude of wiring sins. Unlike other Pro G models, the 6970WU is only available in black. The projector comes with a large remote control that uses a pair of AA batteries. Happily, its keys are backlit for work in a darkened house of worship, and its range can be extended by connecting it to the projector with an audio jumper cable. There are keys for selecting the input source, picking from its six projection modes, freezing the image or blanking the screen. It has a numeric keypad that makes entering IP addresses a snap.
In addition to password-protecting the projector's operations, you can set it up to display an image, like the church's logo or inspirational message, while it warms up. It'll be a short show, though, because the Pro G6970 was able to put an image on-screen in 15.9 seconds, beating out projectors that sell for much more. It shut itself off in only 1.6 seconds.
REAL-WORLD TESTS
After using the Pro G6970 for a couple of weeks with a wide variety of sources and content, I'm convinced that it will fit right in to a mid-sized church, particularly those looking to upgrade to HD imaging. Happily, it can run on either 110- or 220-volt electricity and includes a power plug lock that can prevent accidental projector shut-downs at exactly the wrong moment.
The Pro G6970 can be aimed at any angle along the lens's axis without overheating and it topped out at 160-degree Fahrenheit exhaust. Its fan gave off 49.6 dBA of noise at three feet, making it sound more like there were a couple of lamps inside. It had incredibly sharp focus across its image and using the Pro G6970's Dynamic mode, it put 6,105 lumens on screen. That's slightly above its 6,000 lumen specification and on a par with the output of Christie's DHD600-G. On the downside, its color balance was on the garish side with mustardy yellows, ghostly flesh tones and light greens. Using Theater mode drops its output to 4,750 lumens and makes flesh tones look better but is still a little too warm for my taste. There are 12 color temperature selections available as well as six-axis color correction software for getting the image just right.
The Pro G6970 projector has a $39 dust filter and its lamps are reasonably priced at $200 compared to others that are twice that price. They have a 2,500 hour rating, but are only warrantied for three months versus the projector's five years of coverage for houses of worship.
Once it's cooled, changing the lamp is a quick, three-minute operation. It can be done with the projector hanging from the ceiling but be sure to have a small Philips screwdriver handy. All told, the projector consumes 496-watts of power at full blast and 1.2-watts in sleep mode. If the projector is used for 15 hours a week and electricity costs 12 cents per kilowatt hour (the national average), expect that the Pro G6970's annual operational costs to be a reasonable $110. That's a bargain at less than one-third the cost of using the Christie DHD600-G or the Infocus IN 5544.
Inexpensive to get and use, Epson's $6,500 Pro G6970WU proves that you don't have to overspend to bring high-definition imaging to your parishioners. The large venue value choice, it has just the right mix of abilities and brightness to make your next service really shine.
