According to the National Golf Foundation, golf surged in popularity in 2020 by nearly every metric, as people sought out the socially-distanced outdoor activity amid the pandemic.
This week at InfoComm 2021, BenQ announced a new addition to their Golf Simulation line of projectors shipping in early November 2021. The BenQ LK936ST 4K Laser Projector is, according to BenQ, going to be a game-changer for the golf simulation industry.
The United States was the number one market for golf and golf-related products as of 2020. More than 24.8 million people played golf in the U.S. in 2020, up more than 2% year-over-year and the largest net increase in 17 years.
A Game-Changing Golf Simulation Projector
The BenQ LK936ST is the first 4K laser projector in BenQ's Laser DLP® lineup built for home and commercial golf simulators. Available for $5,849 MSRP, the 4K UHD 5,100 ANSI lumens LK936ST laser projector features 92% Rec. 709 color coverage for incredibly realistic golf course hues, 20,000 hours of maintenance-free use, and robust features for easy, flexible installation. Combining the high brightness and resolution required for golf simulation with the contrast and color accuracy also demanded by home cinema and gaming, the LK936ST lets users integrate the best of both worlds in the same room for a 'SimTheater' complete entertainment experience.
According to Infinity Business Insights, the golf simulator projector market was valued at USD 1,229 million in 2019 and is expected to grow with a CAGR of 8.3% in 2020–2027. So, it's no surprise that BenQ and other key projector manufacturers have decided to focus on growing projectors in this category.
Learn to Perfect Your Swing
Bob Wudeck, BenQ America's Senior Director of Business Development, can clearly see the value of increasing BenQ's presence in this segment. "The simulation market has surged strongly as golf enthusiasts look for ways to perfect their swing even when they can't get to the course."
4K resolution is a huge focus of the LK936ST, which should provide the kind of realistic detail that is now standard in every home entertainment experience. And the laser technology enables the projector to deliver the high brightness required for use in a well-lit room and groundbreaking contrast and color accuracy that all play a crucial role in golf simulation.
Again, Bob Wudeck, "We built the LK936ST, offering everything a golf sim projector needs to create a truly lifelike, immersive experience." "When resolution, brightness, contrast, and color come together, the golfer enjoys the full experience of the grain of the greens, the crystalline blue of the sky, and the waves on the water of their favorite course."
High Brightness and Color Accuracy
The BenQ's LK936ST appears, on paper, to be capable of delivering both high brightness and color accuracy with the ability to reproduce 92% of the Rec. 709 color gamut. It also features an exclusive golf color mode. BenQ says the projector references the natural blue skies and realistic green grass from popular golf software, immersing golfers in the world's most celebrated courses with a touch of the Golf Mode button.
The LK936ST uses the same Texas Instruments' DLP chip core technology that you can find in digital cinema theaters worldwide. The LK936ST's picture also provides 4K UHD resolution and a promised 3,000,000:1 contrast ratio for enhanced graphics with instant, lag-free response to the golfer's shots.
BenQ says that the LK936ST's color accuracy, along with high resolution, brightness, and contrast, will immerse the player in a more detailed and true-to-life golf simulation that helps keep their head in the game. According to BenQ, a great golf stroke demands focus, which can be lost in golf simulation if the picture is unrealistic.
According to NPD data, the June, July, and August 2021 golf equipment sales numbers are up 50% compared to the same months in 2019. In addition to the 24.8 million people who played a round of golf on a course in 2020, another 12.1 million participated in an "off-course golf activity," including driving ranges, venues like TopGolf, or indoor simulators…". Golf simulators range in price from an estimated $1,500 up to $80,000, and that's just what I found in a quick Google search. This represents a range of simulators designed for both the home and business markets. Today's golf simulators can be located in the garage, basement, or home theater or tucked into a small unused area that's hard to reach.
The BenQ LK936ST is purpose-built to make the best use of any space with a 0.81-0.89 short-throw lens with 1.1x zoom capacity, allowing the projector to be mounted safely outside the swing zone without the player casting a shadow on the screen. In rooms where the projector needs to be mounted farther away from the screen, its digital shrink and offset ensure a crisp, edge-to-edge picture that fills the screen. Finally, for greater installation flexibility, the LK936ST includes lens shift and other fine-tuning installation tools, such as horizontal and vertical keystone correction, and corner fit, along with multiple HDMI inputs and networking and audio I/O for easy interoperability with other entertainment components.
These smart installation features make it easy to create a space that delivers a great golfing experience and then use the same space as your home theater or gaming room. The ability of the LK936ST to do double duty as a high-quality simulator projector and a home theater projector is brilliant. It could be of real value to the right consumer.
Texas Instruments DLP
BenQ is the No. 1 selling global projector brand powered by TI DLP technology, according to Futuresource Consulting. The LK936ST is based on the single-chip DLP design, rated to last over 100,000 hours without degradation, while its light source is guaranteed for 20,000 hours of consistent color, performance, and maintenance-free operation. This means that owners of the LK936ST can have a reasonable expectation of enjoying pristine images and vivid, true-to-life colors, regardless of the video uses, without having to worry about constantly changing expensive lamps or losing color over time. In addition to long life and great performance, the light source turns on almost instantly, meaning that golfers can start playing right away, with no need for a lamp to warm up or cool down. The LK936ST features a filter-free, sealed optical engine that meets the IP5X dustproof rating, eliminating the hassle of cleaning and changing filters required by other popular projectors. Even when it's installed in a dust-prone environment, like a garage or basement, the LK936ST's dustproof design ensures that nothing will compromise its performance.
The golf simulation market is growing steadily, with a new generation of golfers practicing their drives more off-course than on the actual fairways and greens. Now, with BenQ's new LK936ST 4K, 5,100-lumens, short-throw laser projector, golf simulation has the potential to look more realistic than previous simulator projectors while also being more affordable.
BenQ believes, with good reason, that the L936ST is a game-changer. With its exclusive Golf Mode, this projector's color and ability to be a high-quality home theater and gaming solution enables integrators to create a dual-purpose SimTheater in a single space ― all under $6K.
At InfoComm 2021, the new BenQ LK936ST Golf Simulator Projector was awarded 'Best of Show'. For more information on the LK936ST, which releases Q4 2021, visit https://bit.ly/3na585n. More information on the full line of BenQ products is available at https://business-display.BenQ.com/, and be sure to check out our full review at www.projectorreviews.com when we get our review sample.
