IN THE FIELD: THE PANASONIC PT-RQ35K
It’s the morning of a corporate show and the main session is set to kick off at 9am. There is no doubt that live events are stressful, but they don’t always have to be. On the day of this show, Sean Cagney, CEO at Amazing Industries, caught an extra half hour of sleep and even had time to grab a coffee on the way over to the main room where he only needed 10 minutes to make sure the projectors were dialed in perfectly and ready to rock for the day.
Sean Cagney has been in the live events industry for over 20 years and has headed Amazing Industries since 2010. Amazing Industries, based out of Dallas, specializes in tightly planned multimedia events and installations for companies and other high-level clients. In many of the events that Amazing Industries produces, Sean Cagney has grown accustomed to using the Panasonic PT-RQ35K, but the way he got into the 35Ks was very interesting.
The Beginning
On an event where Sean had spec’ed the show with PT-RQ25Ks, they weren’t available, so similar to when your Prius rental gets upgraded to a Tesla, Sean ended up with PT-RQ35Ks from his long-time partners at Nationwide Video. He described this opportunity as a very bittersweet coincidence because now he feels like he has no choice but to use the 35Ks going forward: “The RQ35 really shows up with a lot of horsepower. I’ve done a couple shows where we don’t necessarily have the information or rigging choices to lens the fixtures perfectly. It’s good to know that even if I overshoot a little bit on the image, the loss of light or resolution isn’t even noticeable because there is so much output coming from the projector. It really is impressive.”
When Sean arrived at show site for his first event with the PT-RQ35Ks, he and his crew were immediately aware of just how bright the 35Ks really are in person. Sean described their brightness in a pretty profound way: “On these events, scheduling is always pretty hectic. Often times, I have to tune these projectors with other lighting being on. I don’t have to make the room completely dark to figure out the projection. I usually try to have the crew black out when we go to full white to do the soft edges, but these things are so bright that I can load in while everyone else is working. We can start doing the geometry as soon as they turn on and other people can still be working. It saves everyone a lot of time!”
Technology
As we further discussed the Panasonic PT-RQ35Ks, we talked about the development of technology and how the transition from 25Ks to 35Ks has leveled up his business. Regarding his partnership with Nationwide Video, he was able to speak to how Nationwide’s investments in the highest quality gear helps him pass that quality on to his clients: “The 35s transform our event spaces into lush, colorful, immersive sets as a result of the entire upstage wall being projected. These higher-powered projectors have transformed what my company can offer to our clients. Everything is clean and crisp. They crossfade beautifully, the color depth is there and then the big name of the presenter lights up on the screen. The 35K makes it so much more immersive due to the precision and craftsmanship of the product. It’s just better at every single turn and that’s what helps grow our business. I can also count on Nationwide gear showing up ready to go time and again.”
Another element of the Panasonic PT-RQ35K that Sean raves about is the warp technology: “The response to Geometry Manager Pro is much quicker than it was on the previous generations and that’s a big difference maker for us. They also have as much warp as I could possibly need. Some other older projectors have limitations on warping but it seems like the 35K can always accomplish what I need it to.”
The biggest game changer here is that that we can make projection feel “LED Bright” now. We can build a huge screen with gorgeous color and excellent projection depth without facing camera issues. We also benefit from the low rigging weight, and we save on the excessive freight and labor required to build an LED wall of the same scale.
At these corporate events, much of the attention is devoted to making sure the speaker is flawlessly visible to everyone in the room. This is another reason Sean leans more towards projection and less towards LED. “When you start pointing cameras at the stage and the screens behind, it’s gorgeous all the time. There is no concern over LED processing in the cameras or the distance between the stage and the cameras. They can be right next to the screen and moiré is never a concern.”
The scaling that the Panasonic PT-RQ35K projectors are capable of compared to LED is of great value to Sean as well: “Whatever 4K scaling this projector is capable of impresses me every time. I can feed it HD and it’ll up-res it to 4K and it looks better than the original 3G in a way that doesn’t get pixelated at all. You really get the best version of your assets coming out of your projector. With LED, whenever you try to upscale things, you almost immediately get artifacts. It’s nice to know the 35 can handle a wider variety of inputs and still get a really quality output.”
Saving Time
In the live events industry, margins are always tight and making the client’s vision happen without blowing the bank is a key component of a successful business. When talking to Sean, he shared an insight about his experience: “Our client doesn’t want us to go into overtime, and we don’t like being beat up, so the fact that these projectors save us some time with tuning is tremendous. And since the 35K projectors are so much more high-powered than some of our other options, I don’t need to be stacking projectors anymore.”
I can do a whole 100+ foot projection Cyc with 5 to 8 projectors in under two hours and that’s including putting them all up in white and knocking out all the soft edge gradients.
Sean has a unique opinion when it comes to the industry’s drive towards LED. When we really started to break it down, we looked into the difference between projection and LED. Sean said: “I can do a whole 100+ foot projection Cyc with 5 to 8 projectors in under two hours and that’s including putting them all up in white and knocking out all the soft edge gradients. Our project manager, John Stephens, rolls in after me and tunes the black level calibration which essentially raises the video black and then you just draw in where you’re not in the double video black. No more bright columns of double video black. From a time and cost perspective a 150’ wide screen needs a Muslin Cyc, 2 runs of truss, and half dozen or so RQ35s, all of which fits in a 24’ truck, installed by a relatively small crew. Making the same screen with an LED wall is 2 trailers of gear, the tiles, the rigging, the ballast, 100’s of amps of power service, and takes an army to build it. Easily triple the cost.”
Conclusion
Amazing Industries’ mission statement is to create the best events possible for their clients and Sean Cagney never spares an expense or cuts corners on that vision. In partnership with Nationwide Video, Amazing Industries is able to leverage the best new gear available and continuously level up his client offerings. The Panasonic PT-RQ35K, from Nationwide, have allowed Sean to provide a better service while also creating more efficiency and saving money. In an industry where every extra minute counts and might even offer you a spare 30 minutes of sleep, Sean stands by the fact that the RQ35K is the solution.
In our last few minutes chatting, it was really cool to hear how Sean quantifies a great show: “When I can see an 80-foot-wide sentence, white font on a pure black background, that’s my favorite queue. If there was anything wrong with the geometry, this would scream it at you. It’s my favorite thing to test.”
To learn more about Amazing Industries, visit them at amazingindustries.co
If you’d like to take advantage of Nationwide Video’s well-maintained, top-of-the-line inventory, visit nationwidevideo.com
To learn about the specs of the Panasonic PT-RQ35K, visit the product page.