Missoula, MT - September 2015… Known as the Garden City for
its mild winters relative to the rest of Montana, the city of Missoula is comprised of six wards, all of which
are overseen—from a governmental perspective—by the City Council Chambers. To
ensure the best possible image quality for the weekly city council meetings,
sub-committee sessions, and other public hearings that take place there, the
city government recently upgraded the house projection system with an
EIP-UHS100 HD Widescreen DLP® Projector drawn from the catalog of Santa
Margarita, CA-based Eiki International, Inc.
EVCO
Sound & Electronics of Spokane, WA, an AV systems design / build firm
specializing in projects for the Business, Education, Government, Healthcare
and House of Worship markets, was contracted to handle the Missoula City
Council Chambers’ facility upgrade. EVCO Sales Engineer James Wasem, who
oversees sales design and engineering, project management, and some
installation for the company, discussed the nature of the Missoula City Council
Chambers project.
According
to Wasem, the new 8,000 lumen Eiki EIP-UHS100 DLP projector with an AH-CD20202
lens was a replacement for an aging 5,000 lumen LCD projector. The previous
projector and screen delivered lower quality results than city officials
desired, especially for the viewing of spreadsheets and high-detail images.
City management wanted to ensure the new projector was very crisp and bright
and had the ability to project a larger image.
“The
new Eiki projector is used to display public hearing content that includes
PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, photos, and other related content,”
Wasem explained. “HD content is sent from a laptop computer via Extron
DTP-series transceivers using a shielded CAT6A cable and is delivered to the
projector’s HDMI input at 1920 x 1200 resolution. The new projector was
installed in the existing ceiling mounted location, suspended about 12 feet
from the floor and 19 feet from the screen. For this project, we used the Chief
projector mount that was included with Eiki’s bundled installation package.”
The
old projection screen in the City Council Chambers was a 4:3 aspect ratio
motorized model. To accommodate the output of the Eiki EIP-UHS100 DLP
projector, a new fixed Da-Snap screen manufactured by Da-Lite was deployed.
This screen features a 164-inch diagonal 16:10 viewing surface.
When
queried about those attributes of the Eiki EIP-UHS100 that made this projector
the ideal choice for this project, Wasem offered the following, “The 8,000
lumen Eiki EIP-UHS100 DLP projector was the perfect fit for this job,” Wasem
reports. “The new projector delivers a beautiful image on the large screen—even
in high ambient light conditions. Further, Eiki’s special installation package
for this projector enabled us to deliver great value to the client by offering
spare lamps, filters, and the Chief mounting hardware. While this installation
didn't require the advanced configuration features included with the
EIP-UHS100, we were impressed with the option for edge-blending, advanced image
‘warp’ adjustment, and lens shift functionality. These features are often found
in projectors that carry higher price points, so this made us confident in our
value offered to our client.”
With
today’s sophisticated AV installations, quality customer and technical support
services are essential in order to keep a project on schedule. Here too, Wasem
gave Eiki high marks, “Eiki customer and technical support was very helpful
during the design phase before the sale. Rich Noll, Eiki International’s
Western Regional Sales Manager, ensured we had the right configuration that met
both the technical and budget requirements for this job. We were very pleased.”
The
Missoula City Council Chambers installation was initiated and competed in
August 2015 and the equipment was placed into service immediately afterward.
Since that time, Wasem reports the new Eiki projector is doing exactly as city
officials had hoped for. “Our client was instantly impressed with the increased
brightness, clarity, and size of the image,” Wasem said. “The high quality
components and value added installation package that came as part of the Eiki
bundle really made the project possible. This has been a win-win for all
involved.”
To learn more about EVCO Sound & Electronics, visit the company’s website at www.EvcoSound.com