Projectors Considered: High End and Specialty Projectors for Higher Education

Higher-End/Specialty/Large Venue is a new category this year.  We looked at five different projectors – all laser projectors.  Four of the five are “traditional” commercial projectors – each offering interchangeable lenses, advanced networking and at least a couple of high-end features (like edge blending, auto calibrating, etc.)  The three reviewed by Nikki are particularly similar with the Optoma Panasonic and Sony all between 5100 and 6500 lumens claimed, so all direct competitors unless one has a unique feature you need that the others lack.  The fourth, the Epson L1755UNL I worked with first, but Phil is doing the full review.  Phil is publishing it as I publish this report so it is by the time you read this, accessible to you.  The Epson is a step up or two from the other three.  First, it is 15,000 lumens, but it also supports 4K content, which the others do not.  In all fairness, the Epson also sells for several times the price of the others.

Our last “contestant” is the EV100 / EV105 (white or black case). This odd-looking projector – looks like a large track light,  or a “can”, like you might see dozens of on any stage, for lighting, but it is a full-blown laser projector, and our first true “Specialty” projector to be included in an Education report because it is sure to be used in many museum and display (and digital signage) environments.