News / Media

Runco Press Release 8-9-2011

New LS-1 introduces Runco’s high-quality, affordable projection to value-conscious customers looking for the very best performance.

Beaverton, OR – Runco® is excited to announce the newest addition to its critically-acclaimed LightStyle™ Series DLP™ projectors, the LS-1. The LS-1 is a single-chip 1080p DLP projector that provides an unprecedented option to homeowners looking for the performance and flexibility of a Runco projector at a very attractive price point.

“With the introduction of the LS-1, we are able to bring the renowned Runco performance to a broader group of video enthusiasts,” said Jennifer Davis, VP of Marketing at Runco. “Being able to hit this competitive price point enables our integrators more opportunities to sell to a large, previously-untapped market and for homeowners to enjoy the benefits owning a Runco brings.”

The Runco LS-1 is an ideal alternative for homeowners who want a high performance video option for watching TV or movies, but also want the color depth and picture quality for console gaming (i.e., PlayStation, Wii or Kinect), internet browsing or streaming video and movies via a set-top box. The Runco LightStyle product line offers the greatest range of brightness and image performance for different rooms and needs.

“Runco’s LightStyle Series allows us to deliver Runco performance to a new group of clients,” said Brian Hudkins, president of Gramophone LTD. “The beauty of the LightStyle Series is that we have been able reach a larger customer base due to its affordability, without sacrificing performance OR reliability as these projectors meet the high quality standards of Runco.”

The LS-1 uses Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology to deliver the best color and crisp detail available in this product class and combines Runco’s SuperOnyx™ technology with ConstantContrast™ and ViVix™ proprietary digital video processing to achieve deep black levels and significant contrast, well above 10:000:1. The LS-1 also incorporates the ISF™ (Imaging Science Foundation) calibration suite for optimal performance in various rooms and lighting conditions. These calibration tools feature day and night calibration memory settings, individual sharpness and noise reduction controls, programmable image memory selection keys, built-in test patterns and a dark room-optimized remote.

Its sleek, glamorous design and customization options make the Runco LightStyle Series projectors the perfect solution to pair with a design-conscious homeowner. The LS-1 can be customized with Runco’s FinishPalette™ which enables complete projector customization for the homeowner. FinishPalette adds full-color design options, including exact PMS color matching for any college or pro-sports teams, a gallery of artist impressions and the option to custom-print your own artwork. Complementing the FinishPalette offering are 25 hand-finished signature paint colors to compliment any décor.

The LS-1 is also available with Runco’s CineGlide™ lens solution that enables a motorized, mechanical 2.35:1 anamorphic lens to move in front of the standard lens for perfect Scope reproduction. Runco CineGlide enables the viewer to switch from 16:9 content to 2.35:1 content, without black bars on the top or side of the image, with the touch of a button.

by John Sciacca on May 25, 2011

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http://www.hometechtell.com/technologytell/article/best-3d-projector-on-the-market/

I first experienced Runco’s new D-73d 3D projector at the CEDIA Expo last September and was pretty impressed. By “pretty impressed” I mean that it was the best display of 3D technology I witnessed at the show. I find myself prone to headaches and discomfort when viewing many 3D demonstrations, and the D-73d was the easiest-on-the-eyes solution I’d seen. From my blog posted at the Expo, I wrote, “Fortunately the 15 minute walk [to the demo] was totally worth it as the Runco demo had the BEST 3D I’ve seen so far at the show. (At this point, I feel like I’m a qualified expert since I believe I have seen all the 3D demos. ALL…OF…THEM!) They have licensed Real-D’s technology and use a passive system that is the closest thing (identical?) to what I’ve experienced in the theater and didn’t make the two hemispheres of my brain feel like they were trying to slowly tear apart, swap places and then wage war on each other.”

But there is a big difference between being wowed by a 10-minute demo and evaluating something critically for hours on end. So, when an opportunity to review this new projector at Runco’s factory headquarters came up, I jumped at the chance.

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http://www.hometechtell.com/technologytell/article/best-3d-projector-on-the-market/

By Runco January 31, 2011

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http://www.runco.com/_blog/This_Minute_at_Runco/post/The_Benefits_of_Front_Projection/

#1: The Big Screen Experience

Home theater enthusiasts have known for decades how impressive front projection entertainment systems can be. They are the dominant technology in commercial cinemas for good reasons and many of these translate into residential applications.

So, why consider projection for your home?

The first benefit is that you can create a big screen experience at home. While plasma displays top out at around 150” and single LCD TVs over 70” are rare, projection systems are virtually unlimited in size and at a lower cost per square foot of display. You can create screens measured not in inches diagonal, but in feet or meters wide, which translates into more compelling entertainment.

#2: Design Flexibility

The second reason to consider front projection in the home is that it fits your lifestyle and blends seamlessly with your décor. You can hide the electronics away and with a touch of a button bring a home theater to life, without having to leave the room.

There is also no thinner flat panel display than a front projection screen. Projectors are available in a wide range of sizes, industrial design styles, and personalization that allow the product to be customized to the homeowner’s personality and passions.

#3: Unmatched Image Performance

From color performance to black levels, in the right environment, projection dominates. Plus, you are not limited to a fixed aspect ratio of 16:9 high definition (which is a 1.781 aspect ratio). You can watch CinemaScope2.35:1 content without black bars using Runco’s CineWide® and CineGlide™ technology.

#4: 3D Done Right

The market excitement around 3D in the home is palpable and there is no better way to watch 3D than with projection. The big screen experience is more immersive and it enables Runco’s Constant Stereoscopic Video™ (CSV) with battery-free passive glasses for the best-in-class 3D performance.

#5: Energy Efficiency

Using power-consumption-per-square-inch calculations, projectors use a fraction of the energy of large flat panel displays. This is especially true of Runco’s InfiniLight™ lamplessLED illumination (available on the QuantumColor™ series and the 3Dimension™ D-73d).

Why doesn’t everyone have a theater?

First off, projection is seen as relatively complicated (as opposed to a buy-and-hang flat panel display, which is often a do-it-yourself project for the homeowner). This leads to people believing it to be wildly expensive, overly complex, or not even considering it as a possibility at all.

The second reason is people associate projectors with dark, cave-like rooms that can only be used for movie watching. Sometimes space, room size, or ceiling height limitations can make homeowners believe that projection will never work for them.

Once the homeowner considers projection, then the real work begins of making it work for their room.

Projection only works when the light on the screen is brighter than the brightness of the room. In other words, the “blackest” blacks of the scenes you show, will only be as dark as the screen before you turn on the projector and in many bright rooms that is simply not dark enough for acceptable viewing. Make no mistake, projection is not the best solution for every room.

Outsmarting the Sun

While the industry standards for theater brightness call for approximately 14 foot lamberts (fL) of luminance off the screen, the sun delivers a whopping 10,000 fL!

One of the ways to beat the sun and create incredible visual experiences in the home is with a flex-theater. When you can’t dedicate the space or the budget for a dedicated home theater, a flexible design that accommodates multiple uses of a single space can be a perfect compromise. A projection system combined with modular furniture and lighting control can transform a living room into a theater back into an entertainment space with a simple tap on a touchscreen.



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http://www.runco.com/_blog/This_Minute_at_Runco/post/The_Benefits_of_Front_Projection/

Best products in 35 categories unveiled at CES 2011 in Las Vegas.
January 06, 2011 by Steve Crowe

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http://www.electronichouse.com/article/ces_electronic_house_names_product_of_year_awards/

Electronic House has announced the winners of its 2011 Product of the Year Awards during an awards presentation at CES 2011 in Las Vegas.
Covering 35 different categories, the winning entries were chosen by a panel of industry experts, integrators and the editors of Electronic House. Judging criteria included creativity, innovation, incorporated equipment, obstacles overcome, aesthetics, and lifestyle benefits.

Video Projection Screens

Screen Innovations Black Diamond Motorized



Black Diamond Motorized has eliminated the need for an extra flush mount chassis box. No extra chassis is needed. Customer satisfaction is increased significantly after watching a 126% larger screen over a small flat panel TV, as customers no longer have to contend with glare produced by flat panel TV’s. The image on Black Diamond is non-reflective and easy on the eyes. In addition, the Black Diamond Motorized eliminates any aesthetic concerns from customers that don’t want a screen in their rooms at all times.

Video Projectors

Runco D-73d



Integrating 3D visualization technology that is based on the science of how the human eye and brain process actual depth and dimension in real life, Runco has created a flawless stereoscopic video reproduction that is unlike anything else in the home or private cinema market. Runco’s D-73d 3D projection solution mirrors the biology of stereopsis (the science of 3D viewing) with amazing results, making it perfect for 3D and 2D viewing. The system includes: state-of-the-art projection with the brightest LED-illumination system on the market, highly-lauded color gamuts (including accurate reproductions of film capture and proprietary Runco Native color gamut), Runco’s Personal Color Equalizer™ for infinite color control, and the Runco SmartColor™ technology for realistic flesh tone rendering. The projection system is lamp-free and uses less power than EnergyStar® requirements for televisions. These engineering feats are joined by Runco’s Constant Stereoscopic Video™ (CSV) architecture to ensure that both eyes are getting full 1080p-resolution and a continuous stream of flicker-free video, reducing eye strain and discomfort commonly associated with 3D.

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http://www.electronichouse.com/article/ces_electronic_house_names_product_of_year_awards/

Equipment Review: Runco QuantumColor Q-750i LED Projector


By: Andrew Robinson

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http://hometheaterreview.com/runco-quantumcolor-q-750i-led-projector-reviewed/

While 3D may be dominating nearly all of the HDTV talk these days, the hot technology among front projection aficionados is LED projectors. The Runco Q-750i is such a projector, employing Runco’s own InfiniLight LED illumination technology.

There are two LED projectors in the QuantumColor lineup, the Q-750i and Q-750d. The more expensive Q-750d features an outboard video processor and HDMI switcher, whereas the more affordable Q-750i has both its video processing and inputs housed internally.

The Q-750i is a large projector by today’s standards measuring in at approximately 22 inches deep by 10 inches tall and weighing a hefty 49 pounds.The Q-750i has all of the modern connection options one could ask for or need, including two HDMI 1.3a inputs, two component inputs (one RCA the other BNC), a single RGB monitor input, an S-video input and one composite video input. The Q-750i has the ability to be controlled via RS-232 and also features an IR repeater as well as a few 12-Volt triggers…

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http://hometheaterreview.com/runco-quantumcolor-q-750i-led-projector-reviewed/

Equipment Review: Runco LS-5 DLP Front Projector



Runco has hit it out of the park with this product. One could even worry that they may have cannibalized some high-end business with the extraordinary value proposition offered here. To those who thought the rarified air of high-quality front projection was filled with only products made from unaffordium, think again. This may be the first time “Runco” and “very affordable” have been in the same sentence. Like most current-generation DLPs, it’s small, lightweight (22 pounds), and relatively quiet. To get visibly higher image quality than offered by the LS-5, be prepared to spend four to five times its retail price. Spot-on colorimetry, ruler flat gray scale, high-quality optics, and every “tweak” necessary for an ultimate calibration, and all for less than what we paid for a decent flat panel last year, yields a new high water mark for both performance and value … … it does seem like a non-sequitur, doesn’t it.

By: HomeTheaterReview.com

November 1, 2009

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http://hometheaterreview.com/new-high-end-runco-led-projectors-save-energy/

Runco just introduced a new series of LED HDTV front projectors including their QuantumColor™ Q-750i and Q-750d. The QuantumColor projectors maximize the benefits of Runco’s new InfiniLight™ lampless LED illumination technology and pair it with proprietary engineering to create energy-efficient systems that deliver high light output.

“LED-based projection is incredibly complex and Runco has significantly invested to lead in this category,” stated Runco CEO Gerry Perkel. “QuantumColor is a revolutionary solution that maximizes LED performance and offers a never-before-seen color gamut. But, having these features is only part of the magic. To make this a revolutionary new platform, Runco created proprietary technologies that harness the impressive color gamut to create images that are nothing short of stunning.”

Working in close collaboration with Texas Instruments, Runco has invested considerable time to create new color options for home theater projectors. QuantumColor projectors offer the most astounding arsenal of colors ever available in front projection, including DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative), Adobe RGB, sRGB, REC 709 and REC 601, to enable exact reproduction of any content. To harness these incredible color gamuts, Runco introduces its revolutionary new Personal Color Equalizer™ (PCE), a six-axis (R, G, B, C, Y, M) color adjustment that works like an audio equalizer and allows colors to be individually dialed up and down for every video source and multiple personal preferences. Runco’s PCE enables custom integrators to achieve unprecedented colors that include those exactly defined by Hollywood’s cinematographers and the color preferences that each individual viewer chooses for each source.

Color equalizing is revolutionary, but such a large color gamut can distort images if not coded properly. To eliminate unrealistic distortion, Runco developed Runco SmartColor (RSC™), which is a proprietary hue compensation curve and gamut mapping technology that preserves lifelike, accurate flesh tones by increasing color saturation, without sacrificing the purity of other colors. True to Runco’s Installer Dependant™ legacy, RSC enables custom installers to create color preference settings for their clients who, for example, want REC 709 perfect HD encoding when watching Blu-ray, but prefer incredibly green grass that pops off the screen when watching football–all without sacrificing or adjusting other colors, which leads to unrealistic flesh tones and oversaturation. QuantumColor projectors never lose color alignment as they automatically assess and adjust color calibration every time they are turned on.

“Runco has been innovating and changing projection technology for years,” says Joel Silver, founder and president of the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF™). “An LED lampless light source is clearly the next step in front projection, and Runco’s investment in color gamut and customization puts its QuantomColor projectors well ahead of the pack. The innovation offered by Runco’s Personal Color Equalizer easily enables accurate color gamut for all current sources.”

Runco’s proprietary technologies enable the Quantum Series to achieve a new level of customized HD video performance that, until now, has been unachievable. QuantumColor enables the projectors to produce immeasurable black/white contrast and new color standards, redefining projector specifications as we know them and demanding new ways to be measured. Runco’s QuantumColor projectors are the first to measure ColorContrast™, the ratio of a single color at its darkest (black) to its brightest by utilizing an incident light meter. The difference between these measured colors is greater than lamp-based projectors and ColorContrast enables colors to be “turned up” to achieve greater realism and dimensionality. The result is an unsurpassed visual experience that must be seen to be understood….

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http://hometheaterreview.com/new-high-end-runco-led-projectors-save-energy/