This is a short report on the yesterday Barco presentation in Campus One headquarters in Kortrijk, Belgium. 

B LASERS 

Upgraded B series projectors were presented: DP2K-23BLP and DP4K-23BLP now with a laser-phosphorus light source. The projector housing has not been modified; cooling systems of already well-known "Katyusha" type have been added on top of it. Light sources are modular; they can be installed into already operating cinema projectors. 24,000 lumen light output capable of changing gradually depending on screen size, movie screening format and source age from 30 to 100 % of its nominal capacity.  
The worldwide premiere is taking place in 2 weeks in Hong Kong. Supplies - from December 15, while preorders are already available.

LASERS - IN GENERAL

The full range of BARCO projectors includes only one low-end S series which still uses xenon gas. However, the company is planning to eliminate this disadvantage already next year with an updated version DP2K-SLP.
So, the xenon light story has passed into oblivion. Based on the demand tendency, the company expects that the sales of laser light source projectors will exceed those of xenon light source by 2018.
Today, BARCO is the undisputed world leader in terms of the number of laser projectors of all type installed in the cinemas. Both in premium RGB and high street laser-phosphorus segments, the nearest competitors areway behind. Moreover, there are no other analogues for some of them BARCO models.

ALCHEMY

A new version of BARCO Alchemy, a popular cinema server, was presented. Apart from an updated program interface and new functions, the server will be equipped with two new physical interfaces for direct connection of external sources in HDR format. The technical details and more information will be available after the presentation in Hong Kong.

AUROMAX

BARCO AuroMax APX 2.1 sound processor was presented. The processor version 1.0  was ready for sales by now, but there was another miracle happened, which we had been looking forward for so long. It is the agreement regarding the new universal sound standard in the movie industry. The official specifications of the standard from SMPTE will be published in the beginning of 2017. In the meantime, all producers are retrofitting their acoustic product ranges to comply with the new standard. 
BARCO AuroMax APX 2.1, coming to the market in the beginning of next year, will be capable of playing all formats of sound tracks existing in the movie industry - BARCO's, former competitor's or the new ones. The configuration for a small cinema hall is 20.1, for big ones it is 26.1. 
According to the producer, the processing algorithms for surround sound channels are significantly greater in terms of performance and output quality than those of the former competitors, and it is due to iosono team which is now part of BARCO and their genius psychoacoustic engineers. Google that.
Nine laser cinema halls of GRINNFILM, Kursk, are going to be the first happy owners of APX 2.1, now happily (for which read - successfully) working in Auro-3D 11.1 format. All the other Auro-halls of the world will be prospectively upgraded with APX processors during 2017.    

ESCAPE 

The presentation included new upgrades for BARCO ESCAPE, an increasingly popular 3-screen video format. Next year, the side screen projectors will be laser-phosphorus, just as the main one is now. 20CLP model. The AuroMax sound system will be installed in Escape cinema halls by default.
The main news for this is content, of course. According to the projected timetable for the next year, there going to be one movie released in Escape format a month. These are both the original Escape movies and the "standard" potential blockbusters which are additionally mounted in accordance with Escape, a new montage philosophy. 
The participation of the first-tier producers like Jerry Bruckheimer ensures a new level of impressions and further growth of the Escape-halls which already make almost 150 around the world. The nearest to us is in Poland. We are looking forward to one in Russia. We have a lot of additional industry-specific and financial information available at request:)  

LOBBY 

The presentation included the description of a new system for advertising in cinema lobbies. Just as the old version, this is a complex of LCD panels installed on the walls of entrance corridors, concession zones; large format projection on the free space of lobby walls, sound support along the perimeter.
However, now… now, InfiniSense BARCO system tracks how people move, where they stop and gather together using their mobile phones while they are in their pockets. It analyses these data, which include a guest age category, to show only those advertisements or movie trailers which are of a potential interest to these people, and they see it on the spot.
There are no such panels in Russia yet. But we have no other way out… :)

IN GENERAL

Again, BARCO proved to be the undisputed world leader in complex advanced solutions in the cinema industry.
Being at the technical presentation, it was a pleasure to realize that it was a many-year engineering work that was behind all those cutting-edge products coming out into the market and spreading out worldwide that quickly.  For instance, some reports were devoted to specific issues of contrast and brightness of laser light sources of projectors of different producers, colour space, Rec.2020 and DCI 3P themes. 
We all wonder what is under development in secret Campus One labs in Kortrijk.
 What are they going to surprise us with in 2018? We will find out soon! And now – let’s go for 2017! Without doubt, it is going to be the year of laser and 3D technologies for BARCO.

With Kinocomfort comfort is guaranteed!