In the pantheon of industry-changing home theater projectors, Sony stands at the top. The company has a long history of best-in-class, award-winning home cinema projectors and its new VPL-GTZ380 flagship 4K laser model continues that heritage.

The projector is hitting the market at an opportune time. The COVID-19 pandemic has put an emphasis on superb home entertainment like never before. The GTZ380 offers dealers another reason to reach out to new and existing clients to help them create high-level home cinema experiences during this lockdown environment and beyond.

To put the debut of the new GTZ380 in perspective, it’s helpful to revisit the list of Sony’s past flagship projectors, each of which broke new ground and enabled integrators to bring the cinema experience to their residential clients’ home theaters.

Sony’s list of flagship home theater projectors goes back to its 1997 debut of the VPH-G90 9-inch CRT projector, which is described as the best and last Cathode Ray Tube projector to hit the market by enthusiasts. The 242-pound G90 is still coveted in the aftersale market today and projected 2500×2000 line HD line resolution, a monumental achievement at the time.  

In 2004, Sony debuted its QUALIA 004 High Definition projector, the world’s first to incorporate Sony’s Silicon Crystal Reflective Display (SXRD) technology. The QUALIA 004 displayed full high-definition 1080p resolution with native 1920 x 1080 pixels. But the game-changer was the SXRD technology, which replaced the technologies like rotating color wheels to eliminate pixel gaps and provide consistent color reproduction.

Measuring Supply Chain Impacts on Home Entertainment

The home entertainment category is especially susceptible to the supply chain crisis because there are so many individual components required. Despite that ongoing problem, the once-forgotten “home theater” category continued its strong comeback in 2021 likely driven by the ongoing house-bound public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Download your copy today!

More recently, Sony led the way in 4K with its VPL-VW5000ES. The hefty 94-pound unit hit the market in 2017 as a true 4K home theater projector producing 8.8 million pixels and 4096 x 2160 resolution. The $60,000 flagship VW5000ES used Sony’s highly efficient Z-Phosphor laser light to produce 5000 lumens in true 4K, and its SXRD 4K panels to boost contrast.

Sony VPL-GTZ380 Available in February

In 2020, Sony is breaking new ground again with its new $88,000 flagship, 10-lumen VPL-GTZ380. The GTZ380 is just hitting the U.S. market and available for integrators starting in early February.

“Sony has led the 4K projector market for nearly a decade, and we’re thrilled to announce a new range of powerhouse models for our customers and CI dealers,” says Mike Fasulo, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics North America. “Offering a big screen, immersive viewing experience that delivers the creator’s true intent is a core goal when developing our projectors, and these new models are no exception.”

Sony’s flagship 4K SXRD laser projector VPL-GTZ380 offers an impressive visual experience in a home theater or living room, as well as corporate, entertainment and simulation environments. This projector delivers overwhelming image expression with its high contrast, brightness and HDR with wide color gamut in a compact body size (112 lbs.). The model also features “X1 Ultimate for projector,” to enable enhanced picture quality. This groundbreaking projector incorporates a newly developed native 4K SXRD™ panel with improved light stability and a new laser light source using a red laser diode in addition to the two different-wavelength blue laser diodes.

This enables the model to achieve an impressive 10,000 lumens and a wide color gamut of 100% DCI-P3 without any loss of brightness. With low-heat and a compact chassis, this industry-leading projector offers flexible installation possibilities.