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Traffic Planning and Design Gets the Picture: A Case Study
April 22, 2008
It sometimes feels like you're flying blind when planning upcoming projects. For one company, a civil engineering firm, that feeling wasn't an option, so it took advantage of what technology had to offer. It's seeing success now thanks to a new multimedia projector.
By Margery Weinstein
For Traffic Planning and Design (TPD), a Pottstown, PA-based civil engineering firm, visual details are critical. In order to show Computer Aided Design & Drafting (CADD) graphics of upcoming projects, TPD needed a display solution able to convey visual details with precision and clarity. After researching available options, TPD outfitted its primary conference room with a Canon REALiS SX6 Multimedia Projector, which provides SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) resolution display; 3,500 ANSI Lumens of brightness; a contrast ratio of 1000:1; and Adobe RGB color matching.
Making the Choice
"We wanted very high-quality resolution because we're doing a lot of very finely detailed CADD drawings," says TPD’s IT Manager Karl Fischer. "The biggest issue was making sure the projector was bright enough and the colors clear enough." Fischer and his team needed to ensure the visibility of all the shades of color within the CADD design files, along with the different grades, shades, and line weights representing different design features. The company began its search by looking at several projectors from various dealers, and was told what it wanted would cost about $15,000. Luckily, says Fischer, the company found it could get the performance it needed for less than half that price with REALiS SX6
The projector's detailed SXGA+ resolution image projection was necessary because CADD designers work on dual-screen monitors. "With their workstations, the designers are running dual 19-inch or 21-inch flat-screen monitors, with plans stretched out across both screens," Fischer explains. "We're then going from working on dual flat-screen monitors to throwing a single image up on a wall in the conference rooms for collaboration. That single image has to contain all the detail we've put into the plan and still be really clear and concise." REALiS SX6 was able to take these large plans, he says, and make them visible on a single screen.
According to Canon, the display quality of the projector is boosted by its Genuine Canon 1.7x Ultra-Wide Powered Zoom Lens, which provides a diagonal screen size range from 40 inches (at a short projection distance of 3.9 feet) to a maximum of 300 inches. That means at a distance of 9.8 feet, it can project at a screen size of 100 inches.
Color Accuracy
Fischer says another benefit of the projector was its color-matching features. He noted that the company knew TPD's previous projector was displaying colors inaccurately as soon as they saw the black-and-yellow TPD logo on the screen. With REALiS SX6, the logo appears as it was designed, and serves as an indication that the rest of the colors displayed also will be accurate. That accuracy is imperative, Fischer emphasizes. "If you look at a CADD design of roadway improvements you'll see how detailed they are," he says. "All of these details mean something very serious. If you misinterpret any of them, projects could fail when they go to construction because of bad information in the plans."
The REALiS SX6 installation in TPD's main conference room will be replicated with a similar setup in each of the company's three satellite offices this year. The company is more than satisfied with the projector, Fischer points out, particularly the "color richness, the sharpness of the image, the brightness, and the accuracy of color."
For more information on Canon REALiS projectors, visit www.canonprojectors.com
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