Since its establishment in 1991, BenQ has grown from a small manufacturing plant in Taiwan to a worldwide leader in digital projectors. At the company's Annual Projector Regional Distributors' Meet in Bangkok, Thailand, Business Line met the company's senior management to find out the new technologies it is incorporating into its projector line.
Education focus
During the meet, three main categories of projectors were displayed to the media — education, short-throw and home theatre projectors.
Rajeev Singh, BenQ India's Country Head and General Manager, says that the company in India, where it has achieved the No. 2 market position, will focus mainly on education projectors. Referring to the other segments, he says, “The consumer segment should take off next year. New technologies such as solid state and LED are also being incorporated into our projectors.”
Interestingly, public or government-run schools form the bulk of its market for education projectors. “The government's budget for education is $9 billion in India, and with 13 lakh public schools, even if the target is one projector per school, this should result in significant sales for BenQ over the next three to four years,” he says. The demand for education projectors is led by the South, followed by the North and western regions of India.
Entertainment projectors
In India, entertainment projectors are priced from Rs 60,000 to Rs 1.7 lakh. The maximum screen size they can provide is 300 inches, almost five times that of HD televisions. However, the demand for home entertainment projectors is lower in India compared to international markets, he says, thanks to the booming demand for flat screen/LCD/LED TVs in the past few years.
BenQ's entertainment portfolio includes 720p (HD) and 1080p (Full HD) projectors, as well as a 3D-ready product. For those who avoid projectors because of space constraints, short-throw projectors might be the answer. “The advantage of short-throw projectors is that at a distance of just five metres, you get a 120-inch surface area,” says Adrian Chang, President of BenQ Asia Pacific.
“BenQ is marketing its entertainment projectors as an addition to your home theatre system, and not as a replacement for your television,” says Peter Chen, General Manager of BenQ's Technology Product Centre.
Some of the projectors, such as W1200, offer frame interpolation, which nearly doubles the frame rate from 24 fps to 60 fps. At a demonstration, in which a blue frame was used to differentiate between areas of the video with and without frame interpolation, although the difference wasn't stark we could definitely see smoother movement wherever there was frame interpolation.
Apart from movie-watching, BenQ's entertainment projectors see a big demand among the gaming community in Japan. Gaming consoles such as Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 are often bundled with BenQ projectors at a special price, says Chen.
“In India, there was a great demand for projectors during the Cricket World Cup,” says Singh. “Rentals went up to nearly Rs 20,000 a day, with a lot of restaurants, hotels and commercial complexes wanting to broadcast the matches. We see these establishments as potential buyers, as the starting price of a projector is just Rs 30,000.”
New line-up
Among BenQ's line-up of new projectors is the pocket-sized Pico projector launched last year. With a surface area of just a few square inches, it can hook up to practically any phone through a cable. This year it has launched the Pico projector with an iPhone dock. Focusing on innovation, the company has managed to produce a brightness of 100 ANSI lumens for this small projector, and the second-generation version aims to offer 200 lumens. A smaller projector with 50 lumens brightness is also in the making. “A projector which offers lower brightness than this is not acceptable to BenQ, as we pride ourselves in the quality of our products,” says Chen.
Expanding horizons
Apart from its strength in the projector business, BenQ is also a strong contender in the displays segment and manufactures digital cameras and HD camcorders. It is among the top three market leaders in most of the countries it is present in. In India, BenQ is retailed through 250 dealers, and the products are available in 75 cities and towns. “BenQ will have a much stronger presence across Indian stores in the coming months,” says Singh.