Screen idol

Ever fancied the idea of a true “home cinema” experience, but decided that you simply don’t have the room? Richard Cree has found just the solution

While some experts will point to a giant rack of complicated kit and refer to it as “standard”, what really matters for that true cinema effect is the screen. To date, this has also been the main obstacle. There’s a number of ways to get a wall-filling picture—a stupidly large plasma screen or a projector, for example—but most involve a large room. A large plasma screen obviously needs a large room to make sense, but projectors also require a large distance between them and the screen (which again means you need a big room to get a big picture with the right clarity).

Now the clever folks at Projectiondesign have come up with a wide-angle, short-throw lens version of the Model Two projector. Thanks to some clever lens technology—this from a sister company to Koenigsegg, the one responsible for the amazing high-performance car which left Jeremy Clarkson and pals on Top Gear breathless—this tiny projector can throw images at a 1:1:1 ratio (that is, the picture size matches the distance from the screen).

Even on a fairly low-quality freebie version of the Buena Vista Social Club—and without being hitched up to any high-spec home cinema equipment—the quality and feel of the picture, thrown onto a wall in what is effectively a single spare bedroom is impressive. The size of the room and the way the projector is quietly going about its business on a makeshift chest of drawers and a few telephone directories, make a statement about how practical, down-to-earth and everyday this little projector is, a fact possibly belied by its £4,000 price tag, and certainly blown to pieces by the set-piece battle scenes from Gladiator. So you can have all the fun of the cinema in your spare room after all.