Sony may well be a product and innovation leader in the business environment; however it also offers an accomplished range of home cinema projectors. With a huge heritage in the broadcast, film and TV marketplace, Sony replicates success and increases their reputation with the stunning new VW and HW series units set to change the way you watch home movies forever.

Many technologies are researched and developed for this home market, but one of the biggest new developments in the Sony camp has been the move out of the LCD 720p market to focus on high-end home theatre projection solutions, using SXRD technology.

Set to make big waves as the technology becomes more affordable than ever in the home cinema arena, it is a reflective liquid crystal on silicon panel device for use in projectors, which is able to achieve a pure panel contrast of over 3000:1 with the high resolution of Full HD (1920x1080.)

The outstanding picture quality generated by SXRD is due to the large number of pixels contained within the image area of the device. For this to be achieved both the size of each individual pixel and the space between pixels has been minimised. A combination of radically advanced manufacturing methods has enabled 2,000,000 pixels to be placed just 0.35um apart giving the final picture a smoother, non-pixellated and film-like image. This is the world's smallest inter-pixel spacing, thus delivering full HD within a tiny panel area measuring a mere 0.78 inches diagonally across.

In addition, the SXRD technology allows for high contrast and rapid response time. These features ensure even the smallest details and tones are replicated perfectly as is smooth motion for fast moving movies or games.

This technology is set to appear in a wide range of Sony home cinema projectors, and the two new models in the line up, the HW10 and VW80 represent stellar leaps forward in specification and performance at the price levels.

“For the enthusiast who spends a lot of their disposable income on audio visual kit, and is possibly thinking of their first foray into the world of home cinema projection we have the amazingly priced HW10,” highlights Chris Hirst, product marketing manager for the Home Cinema Projection business.

“The feature set and specifications speak for themselves,” he continues. “It’s got a 35,000:1 contrast ratio so to achieve this we’ve used our advanced iris 2 technology for the first time at this price point. Through this technology the contrast is significantly increased, giving us the blackest blacks we’ve been able to recreate yet! This alongside the heralded Bravia Engine 2 and x.v colour processing boards gives the user a breathtaking palette of vibrant colour experience like.no.other!”

The VW80, on the other hand has been designed to appeal to the less casual entry user of home cinema and for those who have a dedicated custom install space.

One area that has always been a bugbear in the home projector market is of course the issue of panel frequency; essentially how it handles motion. With the VW80 Sony is introducing ‘Motion Flow’, which is an extremely high frequency response panel.

“Motionflow itself works by creating intermediate frames from the original video source and inserting them to double the number of images displayed every second. The unprecedented level of accuracy with which this is done ensures that what you see on the screen is a seamless, perfectly crisp and smoothly moving image.” Hirst enthuses. “No longer will you feel like you’re missing the action in some modern films where the camera has a “handheld” feel. Because of the insertion, the camera pans more smoothly than ever before.”

So there you have it, innovation is key to Sony, across both the commercial and consumer markets. With research continuously working towards new and improved solutions, the next time you’re considering purchasing something for your living room, consider returning to the company who’s already given you a great display solution in your workplace. You’re sure to find you get another great product that fulfils all your home cinema needs.