Tom Norton

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CES 2012
Show Pile
Tom Norton  |  Jan 15, 2012
I remember CESs of long ago—that's about five to ten years, an eternity in CES time— when all of the literature handed out was in print form. Now it's typically on a flash drive, a disc (and even they are getting thinner on the ground—particularly the tiny ones that can't be used on Mac computers) or a simple card with directions to a news-release website. But not always; there's still a pile of paper to deal with, like the 6-inch stack I brought home with me. Luckily I drive to the show.

One of the realities of blogging at CES is that we here at Home Theater cover the video news first, which means that most of the video-related entries end up at the bottom of the blog pile, with the later, heavily audio-related entries at the top. That's why the blogs here are front-loaded with audio. Much of the serious high-end audio is at the Venetian Hotel, well removed from the of the circus atmosphere at the Las Vegas Convention Center where just about everything else, including the video, resides.

You may see a lot of audio entries below and wonder why? Well, for my part, I can't escape my roots of a dozen years or more writing the Stereophile. But more importantly for our present purposes, speakers are speakers, and I spent most of my time at the Venetian scoping them out. While many speakers that you'll see here will be inappropriate for home theater, largely because their manufacturers don't see fit to make matching center channel speakers for them, the technology involved is still fascinating. To me, anyway.

CEDIA 2016
SI Transformer Switches Aspect Ratio Like Magic
Tom Norton  |  Sep 16, 2016
Screen Innovations (SI) showed their Transformer screen last year, but it’s only now being readied for full production. It can service films of varying aspect ratios, primarily 2.40:1 and 16:9.
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Silverline
Tom Norton  |  May 12, 2007  |  Published: May 13, 2007

Silverline was demonstrating two different speakers, the floorstanding Prelude ($1200/pair) and the small Minuet ($600/pair). I heard the Preludes ($1200/pair). One attendee remarked that the Preludes sounded better than a lot of more expensive speakers at the show. Apart from a trace of aggressive brightness, which could well have been due to a completely untreated room, I have to agree. The speakers sounded more dynamic, and bigger, than their size might suggest. Silverline makes a wide range of speakers, including a center channel (which at $1200, may be a little pricey to mate with the Preludes).

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SIM2
Tom Norton  |  Sep 08, 2007

SIM2's demo used three new projectors from that company. The first, and the one that impressed me most from a price/performance
aspect (though at $16,000 it isn't cheap by today's projector standards) was the HT-3000E. Incorporating TI's BrilliantColor technology, and SIM2's new Unishape lamp technology that can vary both the color of the lamp and its brightness in a dynamic, nearly instantaneous way, it presented a superb image with excellent deep blacks. Oddly, SIM2 was using a Firehawk screen-8' wide for the 3000E, 10' wide for the other two projectors, the C3X ($20,000) and the C3X 1080($30,000), both of which were demonstrated with anamorphic lenses. (There was a lot of anamorphia going around at this year's show.)

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CEDIA 2012
SIM2 Cinemaquattro
Tom Norton  |  Sep 06, 2012
No price was announced for it today, but SIM2's Multimedia's Cinemaquattro must be that company's most pricey offering. Offering a full 4K resolution and a 3-chip DLP engine, it claims a brightness of up to 10,000 ANSI lumens from its 2kW Xenon lamp. As with all pro-derived projectors, its chassis is sold separately from its long list of available lenses. SIM2's PR maven, Lucette Nicoll, stands by to give you an idea of its size. It weighs 251 lbs.
CEDIA 2012
SIM2 Features LEDs
Tom Norton  |  Sep 07, 2012
At its Friday press event, SIM2 Multimedia featured its M.150 single chip DLP projector with LED illumination. Normally, LED-based projectors aren’t very bright, but this one lit up the screen. It might have helped that the 125-inch diagonal screen was a DNP Supernova with a gain of 2.4. Surprisingly, this screen had no perceptible hot spot and little fall off in brightness at off-axis angles, making it a viable alternative for LED-lit projectors like the M150.

SIM2 also launched, but did not demonstrate, its SIRIO high Brightness 3D projector (shown in the photo above). Its single-chip DLP dual lamp design (2 x 300W) is claimed to offer higher brightness than other dual lamp projectors. The projector body by itself is $25,000, and a variety of lenses are available at extra cost. The projector will go on sale in late October.

The company also announced a $1000 drop in price for its base line, single-chip DLP models. The Crystal 35 is now $5000, the Crystal 45, $7000.

A price was also announced for the Cinemaquattro 4K projector mentioned in an earlier blog: $158,000, not including lens, of which there will be a variety available. Just in case you were hovering on the edge of your seat before writing that check. The projector is based in a professional Christie design; the light output also mentioned earlier will depend on the chosen lamp configuration and lens.

SIM2 Packs Them In
Tom Norton  |  Sep 06, 2008
Sim2 demonstrated three of its DLP projectors, but their big launch was the D60, a single-chip 1080p DLP at $6000--a new low price point for the company.
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CES 2009
SIM2 Plays Host
Tom Norton  |  Jan 10, 2009
Got $36,495 burning a hole in your pocket? SIM2 has an answer in the new C3X Lumis HOST. According to SIM2, this 1080p, compact 3-chip DLP projector produces excellent blacks thanks to its Dynamic Black auto iris and modulated projection lamp. The "host" part is an outboard processor/input switching box included in the price (not shown in the photo). It did produce an outstanding image.
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CEDIA 2016
SIM2 Projector Advances 4K “Wobulation”
Tom Norton  |  Sep 16, 2016
At last year’s CEDIA we reported on a new DLP imagining chip from Texas Instruments that offered one-half the pixels required for full 4K resolution. To produce 4K, the digital micromirrors first display half the pixels in the image, then microseconds later shift by a fraction of a pixel to show the others. While this is similar to the pixel shifting (a.k.a. wobulation) now used by JVC in most of its projectors (the new BLUEscent excepted), and by Epson in its laser model, TI argues that its micromirrors can shift far more rapidly.
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CEDIA 2011
SIM2 Turns Fifteen
Tom Norton  |  Sep 09, 2011
2011 is SIM2 Multimedia's 15th anniversary. To celebrate, the company is introducing 15 new models in 2011. In honor of the event, members of SIM2's upper management, including President Maurizio Cini, also attended the show.

All of SIM2's projectors are DLP designs. The new models fall into five different ranges: CRYSTAL, MICO, NERO, LUMIS, and CINEMA. The CRYSTAL range (2D only) consists of two entries, the $6500 Crystal 35 and the $8500 Crystal 45. To our recollection, these are nearly blue light specials for a manufacturer which is not normally known for relatively affordable projectors.

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