ASK Proxima Projectors at InfoComm 2014

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Art Feierman

This page runs through new products from ASK Proxima that Art saw at the annual InfoComm trade show.

The Return of ASK Proxima

ASK Proxima is back in the US. Proxima was one of the first US projector companies, but got bought by InFocus, then sold to ASK in Europe. Now designing in the EU and building them in China, ASK Proxima is back selling projectors in the US, and has been introducing models since last year. We've reviewed two new models already.

ASK Proxima at InfoComm

At InfoComm, though they really didn't "have a whole lot of new," but a new pair of projectors did get my attention. It wasn't so much that it has unique features but rather that it seems to be a pretty solid LCD based projector, that one could only describe as being really aggressive priced. There were also three new E series projectors added to the current line-up. We reviewed one of the existing ones a few months ago, the E1655U-A.

They have added an E3000 series which I would define as commercial projectors. Those support dual lamp operation for reliability. The brightest of the new E series claims 85000 lumens!

We reviewed one of their C3 series projectors this year, but it was the new C5 series got my attention in the booth. There will be the C520, a 5500 lumen XGA, and almost as bright, the WXGA widescreen C510W at 5000 lumens. These projectors have a 1.65:1 zoom lens which is pretty good, and they offer manual lens shift and keystone corner correction.

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The image here is of the C520 projector. The C520 (pre-production) projector projected a very bright image, with good sharpness. And considering the pricing (below), I was very surprised to learn that the two C5's offer edge blending!

Here's the exciting thing:

Although suggested retail list price (MSRP) for these two projectors are around $1500, the folks at ASK Proxima suggested that these projectors will be selling for very close to $1000. $1000 for a 5000 or 5500 lumen LCD projector, to date, has not been seen yet in fact I don't think there's a DLP projector that bright, for that low a price. It would seem ASK Proxima is trying hard to get the attention of major resellers.

The Proxima team announced several new distributors added at InfoComm, which means the new ASK Proxima projectors will be available from a lot more dealers int he very near future. A very good thing.

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Finally, they also launched a C4 series priced between the C5 and the C3. The new C4 projectors are the C421 (MSRP: $739), C431 ($1039), and C431W ($1069). These run from 3000 to 3700 lumens. Even these offer edge blending, and they have a still healthy 10W sound system.

Well, Mitsubishi, one of the oldest names in the projector business exited the projector business last fall. On the other hand, Proxima (as ASK Proxima) - who's been doing it even longer, is back!