At CEDIA Expo 2010, Runco^®, the leading brand in luxury display solutions, unveiled its 3Dimension^™ D-73d, QuantumColor^™ Q-1500d, Signature Cinema^™  SC-50d and SC-60d projectors with a sleek new industrial design called Runco Copenhagen. Today, the company has announced that it is expanding its Design by Runco^™ Initiative to include FinishPalette^™ offerings for the new projectors.

FinishPalette provides Runco customers a unique level of personalization and customization that reflects their own individual styles and décors. Runco’s FinishPalette catalog offers custom color, material and print options. Whether a client chooses to personalize the projector with their own artwork or utilize Runco’s combination of signature colors and designs, Runco helps the integrator create a truly one-of-a-kind projector that is a design-focused alternative to ubiquitous, commodity display products which are not aligned with the aesthetic of the luxury home.

Copenhagen FinishPalette options include:

• NCAA^® School Team Logos
• Runco ColourPalette^™ and FinishPalette Signature Colors
• NFL^® team colors
• Glow (whose saturated colors responds to the ambient light)
• Artist Series graphics

Runco’s new Copenhagen design is the latest to benefit from Runco’s FinishPalette customization options. Inspired by both classic and modern Danish architecture and design, including the influential works of Arne Jacobsen, whose famous Swan Chair set the standard in the late 1950s, and the playful shapes of trend-setting furniture designer Verner Panton. Utilizing a design aesthetic that has been integrated by avant garde furniture designers and luxury furniture retailers, the smooth curves and elegant finishes of Runco’s new design fit with a variety of room designs and décor styles: from modern to traditional, from transitional to eclectic. Elegant and unexpected materials, such as glass and vented metal, combine to make a personal statement that’s innovative and unique well beyond traditional electronics. 

The 3Dimension Series projectors integrate 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. As the brightest LED home theater projector available on the market, the Q-1500d maximizes the benefits of Runco’s InfiniLight^™ lampless LED illumination technology, and pairs it with the QuantumColor’s revolutionary technological advancements such as Runco SmartColor^™, InstantOn^™, and an energy-efficient system that delivers must-see projection performance. In concert with the prowess of the Signature Cinema Series, the Runco SC-50d and SC-60d offer exceptional product performance and provide integrators with a state-of-the-art product that allows them to offer their customers an extraordinary cinematic experience that surpasses even the most renowned public theaters because the product and room are custom built with the finest components to exactly match the owners’ specifications.

FinishPalette offerings in Runco Copenhagen design projectors are available now. Pricing varies based on design. Runco’s D-73d, SC-50d, SC-60d and Q-1500d projectors are available exclusively through the best dealers in residential A/V – the Runco authorized dealer network. For more information about the FinishPalette catalog, Runco, or to find a local dealer in your area, please visit www.Runco.com.

I really like my clients, and they are a passionate group of people. Jennifer Davis, who is th VP of Marketing at Runco wrote an “Open Letter to ESPN 3D” on the Runco Blog this week, I’ve included it here, but if you want to subscrieb to their feed, go here.

By Jennifer B. Davis, Runco

On the occasion of the announcement of the first-ever NBA telecast on ESPN 3D, here is an open letter to the executives of the network.

Dear ESPN 3D,

I am writing as a concerned fan and as a fellow-traveler in this crazy world we call “3D in the home.”

First, I have to say that I appreciate your leadership and vision with regards to 3D. In similar fashion, you lead the charge to HD and I only became a fan of sports watching once I saw it in high-definition. I share your belief that 3D will be to sports what HD has been to sports, but only if we solve some of the fundamental problems with the medium. Problems, frankly, that you are proliferating.

Allow me to explain. When I go to http://espn.go.com/3d/, I am told that to experience ESPN 3D I need three things: 1) a 3D TV, 2) Active 3D glasses, and 3) a compatible set-top box. I have no concerns with your #3 (that is your business), but I have a problem with #1 and #2. They just don’t tell the whole story.

I am concerned that your fans will take your advice and rush out to buy a small, 3D TV to serve up their new cable channel. They probably won’t get great service from the big box store in which they will shop. They probably will end up with a compromised, mass-marketed display with mediocre performance on a small screen (when compared to being in the stands, courtside, or on the green at the sporting events you will shoot in 3D). They’ll want to experience the thrills and spills of their favorite sports with the same realism they get at the game (the promise of 3D), but instead they’ll see something that looks like a diorama or dollhouse (more like foos ball than hockey). If they want the realism that is possible, they need the immersion that they get not with a 3D TV, but with a truly big-screen experience of a projector, like the new Runco 3Dimension™ Series D-73d. Projectors and screens are a solution that you don’t even mention on your website.

Along with the 3D TV, you tell them they will need glasses. That technically is true, as autostereo (glasses-free) 3D impacts display resolution and viewing angles too dramatically to make it a viable option for the home any time soon. However, you show a picture of Active 3D glasses (of course, designed to go with the 3D TVs that you recommend). This isn’t the sports fans’ only option. They can watch 3D in their home using glasses that are as stylish as sunglasses they may buy. Prescription glasses wearers can choose clip-on or custom-ordered prescription glasses. Kids can have glasses designed for their smaller faces. All of this is possible with Runco’s PreciseLight™ system used with our projection systems. This innovation results in more comfortable and compelling 3D (with no batteries to wear down or replace), yet it isn’t represented in your description of 3D.

The most discriminating sports fans will want to replicate the view from the 50 yard line or the 9th hole green and their 3D experience will lack that realism, that immersion, and the excitement of being “there.” This kind of involvement in sports watching is possible, but not with the technology you are advocating. If your customers had a Runco D-73d projector in their home, their experience would be incredible, the feedback they would give to their family, friends, and neighbors would help you sell more cable packages for your new 3D channel, and we’d truly embark on a new era for sports watching in the home.

I am a big believer in 3D. I love that you had the vision to be one of the first to announce and deliver 3D content into the home and applaud your efforts to improve the state-of-the-art in camera recording techniques, editing and distribution technologies. I ask that you show that same vision to the display technologies that you recommend.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Davis

P.S. I am excited to see the Miami Heat (and its new core of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh) versus the New York Knicks on Friday, Dec. 17 in a 3D broadcast from Madison Square Garden and, rest assured, we’ll be watching it on a 3Dimension Series D-73d here at Runco. I am hoping by the time that the other eight regular-season NBA games air on the new ESPN 3D (like the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic which are coming up after the first of the year), and certainly in time for the play-offs, you’ll acknowledge that consumers have a choice for 3D Done Right

The biggest buzz at CEDIA this year was 3D. You couldn’t walk a mere 15 feet through the convention center without seeing yet another 3D demo. Runco, who announced its 3Dimension Series D-73d projectors was no exception.

John Sciacca, one of the industry’s top writers and reviewers, recently wrote a round up on his 3D experiences at the show. Check out his thoughts on Runco’s new D-73d:

Now, a few years ago I left the Runco press demo thinking two things. Thing 1: Why, oh WHY didn’t someone on the PR team first ask, then beg, then downright demand that Planar CEO, Gerry Perkel, blouse his giant black shirt that looked like it was at the final stages of Jiffy-Pop level. Thing 2: Does this industry even need Runco anymore? In the past, yes, where projector design was kind of an art form, but today with top-shelf video processing available to everyone, most companies using the same DLP chips and high-end optics, that projectors have gotten so good at the $5 -10k range, that the premium pricing of Runco models to get that last 2-3% was seeming to be unnecessary.

Then I went to CEDIA in 2009 (aka last year) and I sat through the demo where they unveiled the Q projector. With a black level so low (as in absolute) that the entire press corps literally gasped. (I emitted a nervous laugh like when you witness something so unexpected that your brain just gloms onto one emotion and runs with it.)  Utilizing cutting edge LED technology and — most shokcingly — coming in at a price point that was like $10,000 *under* the rest of the market at 15 grand. Runco was back, and they were ready to start owning the projector market again.

 Cut to this year, and I know that Runco is going to have a 3D solution at CEDIA because A) everyone else does and B) their PR girl, Pippa, told me as much during our 3 hour dinner back in April.

 And, damn! Once again, Runco is showing they not only understand this space but that they are setting out to dominate the market. Their 3D demo was by far the most impressive I saw at the show, not just for picture quality, but for complete easiness-on-the-eyes.  Beyond just being a dual-projector, passive glasses system, I think the two things that set the D-73d apart from the others is that Runco is currently the only company to license RealD‘s Processing Package, the *exact* system used for 3D in commercial theaters. Second Runco has formulated its own lens material for the 3D glasses.  And their frames are comfy.

Click here to read the full article.