Many home-cinema fans will have a projector hanging from their living-room ceiling. But do you know where it was made? We travelled to the Norwegian city of Fredrikstad, where one small company, projectiondesign, develops and produces high-end projectors.

Finally in Fredrikstad: After travelling for several hours, we arrived at projectiondesign’s hallowed halls.

Fjords, snow, elk, heavy metal, Vikings, winter sports — these are just a few things that come to mind when you think of Norway. It’s probably only die-hard home-cinema fans that hear “Norway” and think “projectors”, but they’re right to associate the two. To find out why, Televisions.com paid a visit to high-end projector manufacturer projectiondesign.

Our journey from Oslo took us 100 kilometres south, to the small city of Fredrikstad, where the company has established its base. Since 2001, the 130-strong team of staff has been building projectors for scientific and medical purposes, as well as for the home cinema. We took a peek behind the scenes.

On with the protective suit

One of the highlights from the Norwegian manufacturer: the projectiondesign F80 is designed for professional applications.

The first thing we notice is their clearly defined production philosophy: Everything is done under the same roof — from research and development, right through to manufacturing. There are some components they can’t build themselves — the lenses and video-processing chips are ordered in — but projectiondesign brings together all of the most important steps at its Fredrikstad base. We looked into one room, for example, where they analyse the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of projectors — this property is especially important for any devices intended for use in the medical or military sectors.

A vital port of call for military and medical devices: the EMC measurement lab.

But we’re interested primarily in the work that goes into making home-cinema projectors. Et voilà, we suddenly find ourselves in the acoustics room where projectors’ operating noise is measured. The engineers also use a pressure chamber to simulate operation at various temperatures and altitudes. On top of this, they use a system that subjects the devices to strong vibrations and impacts. There’s even a machine that simulates a fall of up to — ouch! — 130 centimetres.

Warning: Protective clothing must be worn! Here we are on our tour through the manufacturing section.

We move on quickly to the manufacturing facility, the heart of the production process. Here, technicians work so precisely and painstakingly that we had to wear a protective suit. When asked why we didn’t need a facemask, Thomas Andersen, product manager for home-cinema projectors, explained: “We don’t have a proper clean room here, but we’ve found the standard we achieve to be totally sufficient.” In the manufacturing facility, we see automated etching tanks for printed circuit boards, machines for fitting chips, and many workstations at which individual components such as lamps or lenses are fitted meticulously by hand.

As another pillar of the company’s philosophy, all handiwork is double- and triple-checked to avoid human error creeping into the process. Test runs and an initial calibration also take place in the manufacturing facility — which complete with odd-looking plastic tents that the staff use to test functions and settings in the dark. Total assembly time for the smallest projector averages 42 minutes; the top model, the Helios, takes around two and a half hours. Once assembled, the finished projectors go to an automated warehouse before being dispatched.

Models, prices, and technology

Diligent workers: A lot of the work at projectiondesign is completed by hand.

In Fredrikstad, production of “avielo” home-cinema projectors is currently running at full steam. This series of five projectors was first presented the “High End 2008” trade fair and has now gone on general sale. Since its introduction, the series has also added two new 1080p models to its ranks (see box below). Interchangeable lenses with different focal lengths are available for some of the projectors, and although the whole range uses DLP chips from Texas Instruments, the Norwegians developed their own optical units, rather than buying them in from the American company.

The Scandinavian manufacturer particularly values accurate colour reproduction, and fits projectors in post-production studios all over the world. All models therefore provide an extensive colour-management system with a wide range of controls.

Not exactly a bargain: the Optix will set you back at least 25,250 GBP.

The lamps in the Spectra, Optix, and Helios use Philips’ new VIDI technology — and the Optix and Helios even use DuArch technology, with two lamps. VIDI allows the developers to control the colour spectrum more precisely, producing finer greyscale differentiation. Right, time to get out of this overall — and tuck into a proper home-cinema session!

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