Small projectors are incredibly versatile tools. Not only do they provide the most cinematic experience in home theaters, they also serve up engaging images in corporate boardrooms, conference rooms, classrooms, museums, and entertainment venues.

Of course, different models serve different purposes, so you must select the right projector for the job. For example, the Sony VPL-FHZ75 is designed specifically for installation in business and educational settings, and it's got a lot to offer in those environments.

The Sony VPL-FHZ75 measures roughly 20" x 18" x 7" (LxWxH) and weighs in at about 34 pounds. That's pretty hefty, so take care when mounting it on the ceiling. With the Lamp Mode at its Middle setting, the projector generates about 36 dB of noise, which is fairly quiet. The case's simple, clean design should blend into just about any environment.

This is a 3LCD-based projector—that is, it utilizes three LCD panels, one each for the red, green, and blue portions of the image. The light source is a set of blue-laser diodes, some of which excite a yellow phosphor wheel whose light is then filtered into its red and green components. The blue light from the lasers and red and green light from the phosphor wheel are each directed to pass through the corresponding LCD panel, after which the three colors are combined and directed through the main lens.

Newly developed 0.76" LCD panels are joined by a new optical compensator, which reduces light leakage and improves the black level. Each panel has a resolution of 1920x1200, aka WUXGA. Ideally, the pixels from each panel overlap on the screen perfectly, resulting in a full-color 1920x1200 image.

Lasers have exceptionally long operational lifespans; those in the FHZ75 are specified to last 20,000 hours, which greatly reduces maintenance needs. In addition, Sony claims that the projector's brightness remains constant throughout the lasers' lifespan.

Speaking of brightness, the FHZ75 claims a peak light output of 6500 lumens, which is more than enough for well-lit boardrooms or classrooms. Of course, the peak light output will undoubtedly decrease if you have it calibrated, but I bet it will still be quite high compared to home-theater projectors, which are designed for dark rooms. Sony also claims an infinite contrast ratio, because the lasers can be instantly modulated or even turned completely off. I always take brightness and contrast specs with a grain of salt, but I wouldn't be surprised if the measured values were still impressive.

A function called Intelligent Setting greatly simplifies installation. It offers presets that automatically adjust brightness, color, cooling, and other parameters for optimal performance in a variety of environments, such as meeting rooms, classrooms, museums, entertainment venues, and multi-screen setups.

Interestingly, the projector automatically recalibrates itself every 500 hours of use. When the unit is powered off at that point, it displays several test patterns, and an internal RGB sensor is used to recalibrate grayscale, color, and gamma. I'd love to see something like that in consumer projectors!

The FHZ75 can accommodate a variety of available lenses, all of which provide powered focus, zoom, and lens shift, though there are no lens memories to store different settings. The supplied standard lens has a zoom ratio of approximately 1.6 and a throw ratio from 1.39:1 to 2.23:1. It also offers a wide lens-shift range (-5%/+70% vertical, ±32% horizontal), which provides great flexibility in placement. In addition, the projector provides horizontal and vertical keystone correction, but I strongly recommend against using them if possible, since they reduce visible detail in the image.

Sony's Reality Creation video-processing technology is found in many of the company's consumer and commercial display products, including the FHZ75. It uses a pattern-matching database to optimize upscaled images while minimizing induced noise. I've seen it in action many times, and it works quite effectively.

In some applications, multiple projectors are used to create a truly giant image. The FHZ75 offers seamless edge blending, which joins color-matched images from several projectors into one super-sized display.

All projectors have air filters that prevent dust from invading the interior, and this model is no exception. Even better, it automatically cleans the filter after every 100 hours of use by knocking the filter to dislodge dust into an integrated absorber.

The FHZ75 is fully compatible with the leading control, monitoring, and management systems, such as Crestron Connected and Extron XTP Systems. This allows users to easily integrate the projector into their existing system, which is especially important if it's placed in a relatively inaccessible location, such as a high ceiling.

The Optoma ProScene ZU660 is a WUXGA (1920x1200) laser projector intended for use in boardrooms, higher education, museums, houses of worship and smaller entertainment venues. This $9,999 DLP projector boasts 6,000 lumens and has excellent placement flexibility – a major plus for the environments it is intended for – due in part to its interchangeable lens options and motorized lens shift. The ZU660’s street price is $5,999, making it an excellent value for both business and higher education applications.

This is a joint review written by myself and my brother, Chris Kahl, who I’d like to welcome to the Projector Reviews team. You’ll be seeing a lot of business and education projectors from him coming up. I’ll still be reviewing these higher-end projectors such as the ZU660 that is the subject of this review, but you can expect to see more reviews of home entertainment and gaming projectors from me from now on. Alright – welcome, Chris – and now, back to the review.

We’ll start this review of the Optoma ProScene ZU660 with a brief overview, followed by some highlights before moving on to the extensive list of special features. We will also tour the hardware – written by Chris – as well as discuss picture quality and performance before summing it all up for you on the last page. By the end of this review, you should have a pretty good idea about whether or not the ZU660 is the right projector for your business or education applications. Let’s get started!

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Best Classroom Projectors report.  

The Optoma ProScene ZU660 is a 6,000 lumen projector with WUXGA resolution (1920x1200) and a laser light engine. Projectors with laser light engines tend to be my favorites, as the projected image are usually high quality, bright, and have vibrant colors. Add to that the low cost of maintenance – a 20,000 hour light engine life and no need to change out air filters – and you’ve got yourself a good deal.

Lamp based projectors require that the lamp be changed out every 3,000 to 8,000 hours and lose brightness starting at several hundred hours running, whereas a laser projector starts to lose brightness starting at several thousand hours. Those lamp based projectors tend to have a lower upfront cost than laser based projectors, but obviously require more lifetime maintenance, while the lasers have a higher starting cost and low maintenance costs. As we say, there are always trade-offs.

That 6,000 lumens is bright enough to handle some serious ambient light, such as what is seen in classrooms or museums. We tested the projector with the wide window of my living room open. Thanks to that high lumen count and laser light engine, the ZU660 performed admirably, still holding rather excellent color and clarity of picture. More on that on the Picture Quality Page, though.

The Optoma ZU660 has a host of features beneficial to both the business and education markets, as well as for, as mentioned, smaller entertainment venues. I could see the ZU660 being used in music venues for concert projections, in places such as The Whiskey A-Go-Go, Viper Room, or the old House of Blues in Hollywood, CA (may it rest in peace). I use those as examples because they are of the smaller venues I am most familiar with (fun fact – I was one of the last musicians to perform at that House of Blues before the tragic destruction of the venue to make way for some dumb hotel).

This laser projector has all the inputs and connectors necessary for your business and education applications, including HDBaseT for running AV signals over long distances. It has Crestron RoomView for command and control, which is a useful feature for those who are installing a network of these projectors. The projector has a multitude of interchangeable lens options, adding to the placement flexibility offered by the motorized lens functions such as a generous amount of lens shift, that HDBaseT, and some other awesome features we’ll get into on the next page.

The Panasonic PT-MZ670U is a 6,500 lumen projector with a laser light engine and WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution. It’s designed for classroom or conference room environments, and Panasonic’s marketing boasts a “compact” design that makes it portable, and though it is large and heavy, it is a bit more compact than others I have seen in this particular market. The projector has a host of features for business and education applications, not the least of which is its vast placement flexibility due to interchangeable lenses and motorized lens shift.

These features make it versatile enough to be at home in medium sized classrooms and conference rooms as well as in larger venue environments such as lecture halls, auditoriums and even houses of worship. It has a list price of $11,999, which is pretty typical of projectors of this caliber, but its street price is significantly less. Still, that street price is $5,899, so it is unlikely that the MZ670U will be used in a K-12 environment, especially when you consider one can buy a high-end interactive projector for around $2,000 less. As always, it'll come down to what you need in a projector that determines its value to you and your applications. In this review, I’ll be giving you a brief overview followed by a list of the highlights and special features, a tour of the hardware, then some insights into the picture quality and performance of the Panasonic PT-MZ670U.

Here is the link for the MZ670U's specifications. The button below our specs seems to be pointing to a different review, so use the link above while we get that worked out. Otherwise, you can view it as the last page of this review.

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Best Classroom Projectors report.  

The Panasonic PT-MZ670U arrived on my doorstep on June 8th, and I’ve only just gotten around to reviewing it. The reason for this is that just two weeks prior, I had an accident involving a metal door and 14 mph winds, which rendered two fingers on my left hand useless and unable to bend. If you know anything about hands, or even just flex your fingers and have a look at the top of your own hand, you’ll know that all of the tendons come together and it’s practically impossible to keep the tendon of one finger from moving when you move another. All this to say – my whole left hand is unusable (even six weeks later).

So when this giant road case appeared at my door, I just kind of stared in disbelief, like “how am I going to get this inside,” before noticing it had wheels. Great! I used my good hand to roll it to my door and then – CLANK. Apparently, my door is about two inches off the ground. I hadn’t noticed before. At this point, I tried to heave this case that’s almost as big as I am into my house by hooking my left arm under the handle and yanking with my right hand and body weight, not realizing that as I flexed my left arm, my hand would flex also.

Obviously, I hurt myself. Thankfully, the UPS driver saw my struggles and came back out of her truck to get it into the house. After that, I quickly realized I wouldn’t be able to lift the thing onto my shelf by myself, so it has sat in its case, waiting to be reviewed. I thought about starting to write the first pages of the review several times, but these things tend to be 8 Pages and thousands of words long, and I could barely even get a steady work schedule down, let alone fathom writing a full review.

Fast forward to now, it’s mid-July and I am writing this review on my iPad, jabbing the letters one at a time until Siri decides to grace me with the correct words from her predictive text function. All I can say is, thank The Maker for the iPad and Microsoft Word app, because without them, I doubt you’d see a review from me for the next several months.

Alright, enough backstory. As mentioned, the Panasonic PT-MZ670U has a laser light engine. Its projection technology is 3LCD – this is my favorite combination of technologies for projectors. The brightness of a 6,500 lumen laser light engine paired with the awesome color that is characteristic of projectors with 3LCD panels, as 3LCD equates to having as many color lumens as there are white ones, always get me stoked to see the projector in action.

Laser projectors tend to cost more upfront than their lamp based counterparts due to the fact that their long-term cost is lower. Lamp based projectors generally require more maintenance over their lifetime – their lamps need to be replaced sooner than laser light engines or LED light engine. For example, a lamp can be expected to last anywhere between 3,000 and 6,000 hours running at full power, with the brighter projectors claiming the shortest life span.

Laser projectors like this Panasonic claim up to 20,000 hours. Laser projectors also tend to not need as much maintenance on filters, and in the case of the Panasonic PT-MZ670U, its filter lasts up 20,000 hours and then can be taken out, washed, and reused. Pretty cool. It's got some other rather interesting functions, but I’ll save that discussion for the next page where I’ll touch on the MZ670U’s special features. After that, we’ll take a tour of the Hardware, discuss Picture and Sound Quality, then Performance. I’ll sum it all up for you in the end, with a list of pros and cons so you can determine whether the Panasonic PT-MZ670U projector is right for your business and education applications.

The NEC NP-PA653UL is a 6,500 lumen, large venue laser projector using 3LCD technology for advanced business and education applications. This beast of a projector is feature-laden, from its numerous inputs and connectors to the motorized lens options and 4K abilities. Though its native resolution is WUXGA (1920 x 1200), the NP-PA653UL can accept both 4K UHD and true 4K content. I’ve rather enjoyed this projector while testing 4K content, and can tell you right of the bat that the NP-PA653UL is a serious projector that performs quite well, and I was very impressed.

With a significant, but reasonable list price of $7,779, this commercial-grade install projector will find its home in the higher education and corporate markets, likely in a high-end lecture hall, executive boardroom, church, or other large venue. NEC outdid themselves with an impressive feature set geared toward these types of applications, of which I will go into in further detail on the Special Features Pages. The NP-PA653UL has a normal throw distance, and has excellent placement flexibility thanks to a healthy amount of vertical and horizontal lens shift and Keystone Correction. Now, without further adieu, let’s dive into our review of the NEC NP-PA653UL business and education projector.

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Best Classroom Projectors Report. 

I received an email from Art Feierman whilst he was attending Infocomm 2017 in Orlando, Florida. He was eager to tell me of the new 4K capable business and education projectors being shown at the convention. I believe I sent him back a message saying, “I want.” We’ve talked at length about 4K, and he knew of my thirst to get my hands on one for review.

This is not the first 4K capable projector I’ve gotten to work with, as I get to “play” with each projector that we do videos of, and in doing so, I capture real time footage. I’ve seen true 4K projectors, 4K UHD, and also 1080p pixel shifters, including this PA653UL, in action while filming these videos, (as well as lower resolution projectors, of course, and appreciate the varying quality of each projector’s image performance and the color capabilities).

That said, I was sufficiently impressed with the picture quality, color, features, and overall performance of this laser projector. I mentioned that the cost is $7,779 – I’ve been unable to find a lower street price as of yet, as very few commercial-grade projectors are sold online. Most projectors in this class are sold by AV integrators/dealers, who install them in university classrooms, auditoriums, museums, houses of worship, entertainment venues, command and control facilities, etc.

Let’s get some perspective here. Most lamp-based projectors of today claim between 3,000 and 8,000 hours running at full power. That said, lamp based projectors at this brightness level or brighter rarely quote even 4,000 hours at full power. Lamp projectors running in their less-bright ECO modes are now beginning to see 5,000 to 8,000 hours, but that’s still a far cry from a laser projector like this one that claims a light engine life 20,000 hours at full power.

Again, the NEC NP-PA653UL is a commercial projector, which is to say, it is loaded with advanced features. There are more affordable laser projectors for business and education out there, to be sure, but those have more limited capabilities. You don’t need this NEC for the typical 30-student classroom, but it may be your best choice for a 200-seat lecture hall, or a mega-church, and any situation requiring multiple projectors at once, or special lenses.

Projectors like the NEC NP-PA653UL are large venue commercial projectors, so they have those extra features for advanced setups, making them really flexible – starting with that interchangeable lens option, but also Edge Blending (multiple projectors each handling a single image, but appearing seamless – in both brightness and color), and Projection Mapping capabilities. If you really don’t need all of that for your business and education purposes – Sony and Epson are bringing in $3,000-and-below models that are more for your typical business (large portable) projectors that are ceiling mounted 10 or 12 feet from a smaller screen.

In other words, pixel shifting projectors will prove extremely popular for providing value, saving true 4K projectors for the most critical applications, such as a wall display in a museum 10 feet high and 40 feet wide (Edge Blending), where the visitors are viewing the projected image from as close as a few feet away! You’d want an incredibly sharp image for an application such as that.

You are also paying for brightness. That 6,500 lumens is positively wall-melting, at least in a typical conference or board room, even with a lot amount of ambient light present – such as having all the fluorescent lights on. We’ve watched a number of 4K films at night in my house – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Fifth Element among them – and I can say with confidence that I am glad this is not a projector geared for a dedicated home theater. It is simply too bright for a fully darkened room, unless of course, you have something like a 20-foot screen.

While reviewing during the day, I did not need not even shut my blackout drapes, even slightly, nor did I need to worry about the blinds leaking plenty of light. With a full blast of sunlight coming in to the room, this laser projector can combat all that ambient light for a bright image with only a slight bit of color wash out. This makes the projector suitable for rooms and lecture halls with a lot of ambient light. Since it is a large venue projector, it may be used on some rather large screens (this model can produce an image from 50” to 500” diagonally), so that high brightness rating is going to come in handy. Remember – the bigger the screen, the more lumens you need.

That concludes our little overview and perspective to get you started. Next is a summary of the NP-PA653UL’s highlights. From there, you can move on to our Special Features pages, Hardware Tour pages,  discussions of Picture and Sound Quality, then Performance. Finally, we’ll sum it all up for you, including a list of pros and cons so you can determine whether the NEC NP-PA653UL business and education install projector is the right one for your organizations specific needs.

• 6,500 Lumens
• 3LCD Projection Technology
• WUXGA Resolution 1920 x 1200 x2 (pixel shifting)
• 4K Capable
• 2,500,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
• 20,000 light engine life
• Motorized Lens Shift
• Interchangeable Lenses use a quick release Bayonet-Mount (choice of 3 interchangeable lenses)
• DiCom SIM (for reading x-rays and other diagnostic films)
• 3D Capable
• Edge Blending and Projection Mapping
• Portrait and Landscape Mounting – ability to mount the projector on its side to create a vertical image, or standard mounting for landscape
• Stacking multiple units to double (or more) the output
• Quick Power On/Off
• Picture-in-Picture
• Filter Free/Maintenance-Free
• HDR (HDR10 standard) and BT.2020 Color Support
• TileMatrix – Enables 4Kx2K resolution utilizing 4 projectors via HDBaseT Loop Out
• Optional MultiPresenter Stick can display up to 12 devices at simultaneously
• Screen Mirroring for Android and Windows with Simple Annotation Software
• Advanced Networking
• Excellent Warranty – 5 years or 20,000 hours parts and labor, including InstaCare next business day exchange

Our review of the Panasonic PT-RZ670BU projector confirms it is a large, heavy and bright commercial business projector that uses a laser light engine.

This isn't your typical business projector, rather it is a highly flexible projector suitable for use at trade shows, large venue presentations, staging, commercial rental applications and most applications that require 24/7 continuous operation such as retail signage, command and control, etc .  This series offers the choice of 7 different lenses including zoom and with fixed focal length models and covering the range from ultra-short throw up to long throw models.  Versions of this projector are offered that do not include a lens, but the model PT-RZ670BU projector we reviewed came with a powered zoom lens with a 1.7 to 2.4:1 zoom ratio.

The PT-RZ670BU gets our Hot Product Award by offering a lot of performance and being suitable for continuous 24/7/365 operation in commercial applications.