No Limit for Better

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Posted January 11, 2010 by Jennifer B. Davis

This weekend’s Parade magazine features an interesting interview with mega-star Harrison Ford, who brought to life beloved characters from Star Wars, the Indiana Jones franchise, and a whole host of Tom Clancy novels set to film. Yet, in his interview he doesn’t emphasize his talents as a gift or even a job really, but rather a craft. Something that must be worked at to achieve mastery.

“When I was a carpenter,”, he explains,” I once worked with this Russian lady architect. I would tell her, ‘Look, I’m terribly sorry, but I want to change that a half inch,’ and she would say, ‘No limit for better.’ I think that is a worthy credo. You keep on going until you get it as close to being right as the time and patience of others will allow.”

“No limit for better” is a great motto for Runco as well. Our products are the result of applied mastery of video for home theater applications and elsewhere in luxury homes. We continue to drive innovation and set the standard in the CEDIA industry, which means new products in flat panel and projection, new categories of solutions, and a constant drive to develop our craft. More importantly, we understand the for our dealers and the clients they serve, there is no limit for better.

by Jennifer B. Davis - Jennifer B. Davis is all about technology innovation and is a customer advocate, business executive, mom, and loves her job as Runco’s VP of marketing.

LED projection the right way

Friday, January 08, 2010

Posted by Bob Williams

Light Emitting Diodes, or LEDs, are set to revolutionize projectors. The reasons are many-fold and include: long life, high reliability, infinite contrast, low energy consumption, and no hazardous substances. But the biggest impact to actual projected picture quality is the color saturation created from these pure light sources.

LED’s unique color saturation means brighter and deeper colors than ever before possible in a consumer product. The way color scientists picture this impact of brighter and deeper colors than previously available is with a diagram called a CIE chart, where the deepest colors of red, green, and blue are plotted against a field of all possible colors that can be seen. When an LED projector, such as the Runco Q-750, is put up against best-in-class lamp based projectors, the resulting area, or “color gamut”, is 90% larger. That means 90% more of all visible colors can be seen when you use LEDs as your light source than if you use a lamp.

Of course, as a famous comic book once said, “With great power, there must also come great responsibility,” and this is also true when you have a large color gamut like this. Because as color scientists also will point out, the color gamut produced by the display should match the color gamut of the capturing device (film, video, etc); otherwise you will get exaggerated effects such as sunburned-looking skin and neon-looking colors. Literally, the colors will appear to be inside of the objects and lighting them up. So here at Runco, once we decided that LEDs were ready to go into our projectors my first thought was that we needed a way to control these vast colors in a way that allowed display of the vast color pallet without this issue, but was also user friendly and flexible enough to please everyone, including outdoor sports fans (who need the brighter colors) and video purists (who need accuracy). The result is our Runco Smart Color (RSC) and the Personhral Color Equalizer (PCE).

Runco Smart Color is a hue correction curve and color gamut mapping algorithm that prevents colors sensitive to the human eye, such as skin tones, from appearing the wrong hue, over-saturated, or over-bright. When enabled, you can safely use the entire color gamut of the LEDs without worrying about how well-matched the capture device is to the display.

The Personal Color Equalizer works like a graphic equalizer and adjusts all of the parameters needed to produce any color gamut that you desire. The PCE controls use easy to understand terms such as hue, saturation, and level, so you can feel free to experiment. In addition to the controls themselves, we have 5 presets that represent nearly all of the industry standards for the capturing devices. There are lots of fancy names like SMPTE C and DCI, so there’s an “auto” setting as well that will correctly select the right one for almost all sources.

So to sum it up, we at Runco want to make sure that any technology we throw your way, no matter how promising, is enabled in a way that allows you the maximum enjoyment as well as the ability to tailor it to your needs. We believe we’ve done so for LEDs with our Runco Smart Color and Personal Color Equalizer.

Bob Williams is the Chief Product Architect for Runco International. He has worked on digital projectors for the past 15 years and lives near Portland, Oregon.

Sherlock Holmes

Monday, January 04, 2010

Posted by Jennifer Blasen

My boyfriend Curtis and I used two Regal Cinema movie passes we receive from family every Christmas to view Sherlock Holmes last Saturday evening.  Holmes took us on an adventure of mystery, action, and suspense to find the truth, save the world from evil and reignite the legend of detective Holmes – the Nancy Drew of the 1800’s.

Robert Downey Jr as Dr. Sherlock Holmes is extreme, neurotic, and entertained by performing sleep-inducing experiments on his dog (the dog-lover in me was not amused). Holmes battles fiercely in the first scene and later fights in a bare-knuckle boxing match in London. Between detective work and battle scenes, the film carefully develops the ‘bromance’ between Holmes and his loyal partner Dr. Watson played by Jude Law. Holmes is afraid of losing Watson, even to a woman, and disapproves of his engagement. Their bond is obvious but not overdone or fake.

I was curious to see how Rachel McAdams would portray a woman in the 1800 Victorian era, as her recent roles have been lighter in films such as: Wedding Crashers, The Family Stone, and my favorite romantic book turned film The Notebook. In the film McAdams plays Holmes love interest, Irene Adler. Although we don’t fully understand the history between Holmes and Adler we understand the connection between them and Holmes unyielding willingness to save McAdams from the villain Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). I expected a step-up acting opportunity for McAdams, but was a disappointed by her appearances. Perhaps it wasn’t entirely her fault- there was a huge lack of lines and plot given to the Irene Adler character altogether.

I would recommend adding Sherlock Holmes to your BluRay collection for its spectacular images of developing London such as a gravel road to Big Ben and the construction of London Bridge. The Runco QuantumColor Q-750i will enhance and enrich black tones in night scenes (there are several in the film- watch the movie trailer to see a few). By the end of the film, like all good mysteries, each clue is realized and the pieces of the puzzle come together with the help of the fearless sleuth, Sherlock Holmes.

~Jennifer is a Linfield College Wildcat and has enjoyed her work with Runco for the past 3 years. In her spare time she enjoys running, golfing, working in the garden, and trying new things in the kitchen.