Sacramento, Calif. – 8 April 2016 – Barco, the global leader in digital cinema, is fully on track to achieve its strategic goals for cinema laser projection. Barco’s cinema laser strategy is centered on two axes:

• Radically improve the movie experience at a very attractive TCO with Barco’s Flagship Laser series, thereby giving exhibitors the opportunity to create a differentiating premium movie experience that generates a very strong return on investment.

• Offer considerable cost savings versus traditional lamp-based projectors, while providing superior image quality with Barco’s Laser Phosphor series. These projectors come both as new and as retrofit kits, making existing Barco lamp-based projectors upgradable to Laser Phosphor on-site.

Barco Flagship Laser leads the premium cinema industry
Many years of technology leadership have culminated in the development of the Barco Flagship Laser projector. Barco’s integrated laser projection technology radically improves the movie experience while reducing complexity for exhibitors. That’s why more than 40 exhibitors in 20+ countries have already selected Barco Flagship Laser projection technology, totaling over 100 installations across the world. This provides Barco with a higher number of premium laser installations today than all other premium laser alternatives combined.

Unprecedented image quality
The Barco Flagship Laser projector range offers unprecedented image quality to provide a differentiated, premium movie experience, as validated in recent surveys of exhibitors that selected Barco Flagship Laser projection for their cinema. The surveys indicate that moviegoers give the highest image quality scores to Flagship Laser-illuminated screens, also acknowledging that this premium experience has a positive effect on their cinema visit frequency. They are also willing to pay a higher ticket price for the laser-projected movie, boosting revenues for exhibitors. These top-line indicators, combined with our operational efficiencies and cost savings (from the elimination of lamp swaps), make a very solid business case for Barco’s Flagship Laser.

Pushing the boundaries further with Barco Flagship Laser
At CinemaCon, Barco is introducing a high-contrast version of its Flagship Laser series. With a contrast ratio of 6000:1 it doubles the contrast of the existing Flagship Laser high-brightness version and almost quadruples the contrast of 4K lamp projectors while still reaching brightness levels up to 40k lumen. Exhibitors will have the opportunity to change versions over the lifetime of the projector to provide the perfect match for every screen.

Flagship laser customers endorse Barco
In late 2015, theater exhibitor Santikos and Barco made history by announcing the first all-laser projector-powered multiplex, opening this spring. The Texas-based exhibitor’s new Casa Blanca Theatre will utilize Barco’s Flagship Laser to brilliantly and efficiently illuminate all 16 screens.

“Our guests expect Santikos Theatres to be at the forefront of technology, and Barco laser is now the pinnacle of cinema projection. We are proud to outfit the Casa Blanca Theatre with the best products our industry offers,” comments Art Seago, President of Santikos Theatres.

Other exhibitors that have recently acquired the Barco Flagship Laser projector are enthusiastic about its benefits as well:

“Creating a big screen is not so difficult,” comments Cha Woncheon, CEO of Lotte Cinema. “The key is to provide the sound and image quality that suits such a screen. We thoroughly tested Barco’s DP4K-60L for more than two months and are now convinced that Barco laser projection will be the real game-changer for premium cinema.”

“To retain our position as a frontrunner in cinema, we are constantly investigating ways to offer new experiences to our audience,” says Eddy Duquenne, CEO of Kinepolis Group. “Barco has always supported us greatly in these efforts. Today, again, they’re leading the market with their laser technology and their vision of an immersive, interactive cinema experience. We believe the strategic partnership will truly help us create the Ultimate Customer Experience, thus attracting additional visitors to our theaters.”

Lars Jørgensen, Executive Country Manager at Nordisk Film Biografer: “This partnership is founded on a shared love for cinema. By building on innovative technology such as Barco’s laser-illuminated projection, we are bound to raise the bar in cinematic experience throughout the region.”

“We recently decided to upgrade our three biggest cinemas to offer new levels of excitement to our audiences. Laser-illuminated projection is just a must to enhance the visual experience. You really have to see the difference to believe. The brightness is really unprecedented; it is truly amazing, especially for 3D movies,” comments Janne Uusi-Kölli, Development Manager of Nordic Cinema Group.

Barco Laser Phosphor series – cost efficiency and superior image quality rolled into one
As the Flagship Laser projector footprint continues to grow, Barco is also rolling out its new Laser Phosphor cinema projectors. Complementing our Flagship Laser series, we are strongly committed to help exhibitors benefit from laser technology for all screens. Therefore, Barco has the clear strategic goal to make Laser Phosphor technology available across its entire portfolio, enabling movie exhibitors to benefit from laser projection in every auditorium across their entire circuit.

At CineAsia 2015, Barco introduced its first laser phosphor projectors, the DP2K-15CLP and the DP2K-20CLP, the first of a much broader wave of Barco Laser Phosphor projectors. The DP2K-20CLP is the industry’s first 18,000-lumen laser phosphor projector for cinema, featuring three times the brightness of any other laser phosphor offering on the market. Less expensive than Xenon projectors, Barco’s laser phosphor projectors ideally suit the needs of the mid-market and budget-sized cinemas.

More models, both 2K and 4K, will follow in the near future: B-series laser phosphor will follow later this year, while the S-series laser phosphor is expected in 2017.

Freeing users from all lamp-related costs, Barco’s laser phosphor projectors provide considerable ease of use and cost savings. Their optical efficiency is significantly higher compared to lamp-based projectors, resulting in energy cost savings of up to 50 percent. With their unique cooling system, the projectors boast a long lifetime beyond 30,000 hours.

Also, thanks to the unique laser phosphor retrofit module, exhibitors who already own a Barco cinema projector can easily replace the lamp house with a laser phosphor module.