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I witnessed 'Short Throw' projector technology for the first time at IFA last year when I saw the Toshiba ET20 cast a 42in picture despite being positioned just one foot from a wall. At the time I made a comment to a DLP Marketing Director that if this could be reduced to just a few inches the LCD and plasma markets may be in real trouble. Well now they are...

As it turns out Sanyo is the company which has made the breakthrough having managed to manufacture a projector which can create a 60in picture when sat just three inches from the nearest wall.

The 'LP-XL50' is the name given to this revelation and it works because the aspherical mirror inside it – through which all content passes – has been repositioned from the front of the unit to the middle. In essence this makes the device somewhat of a cheat since (as the photography illustrates) the lens itself remains around one foot from the wall, it is the just front of the unit that is sat within three inches. Not that this really matters a jot...

In fact it actually gives the projector a lot more versatility since the projector can finally be positioned alongside existing media equipment rather than on an opposite wall. Vitally, it also means shops can show off projectors far more easily than before and build public awareness of the format.

As a first gen model the LP-XL50 isn't of the highest spec but with a 1024 x 768 native resolution it can manage 720p and has 2,000 lumens brightness. S-video and VGA input sources also figure along with other analogue sources but HDMI and DVI are noticeable absentees.

The LP-XL50 won't appear until late December this year either but now the technology is there if we give it a few generations everyone will realise that a small device capable of projecting huge high definition images is infinitely preferable to lugging around and wall mounting today's screens...

Link:
Original Press Release (Need to read Japanese Alert)

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