California Museum of Photography Taps Hitachi to Project Art in Motion

UCR / California Museum of Photography (UCR/CMP) is an off-campus facility of the University of California, Riverside, and works to promote photography and related media through exhibitions and collections. When one of its most recent exhibits, One Ground: 4 Palestinian & 4 Israeli Filmmakers, required the use of multimedia projectors, UCR/CMP turned to Hitachi America, Ltd. to help it overcome several challenges surrounding the project.

When UCR/CMP curators began planning the film exhibition, they wanted to show the selections in a gallery setting versus a more staid, traditional and dark theater setting. The first challenge was to select projectors that were bright enough to use in a relatively high ambient light setting that were still capable of producing bright film images with a sharp picture. Additionally, because of the international mix of film formats being used, the projectors needed to be capable of processing NTSC and PAL video formats and to be able to show a 16:9 aspect ratio.

To address these needs, UCR/CMP selected four of Hitachi's CP-X995W LCD projectors - Hitachi's brightest projector to date with 4,500 lumens. The CP-X995W projector is designed for presenters who rely on maximum brightness for use in large venues, a description very much in line with UCR/CMP's original requirements. In addition to its high brightness, the projector features Motion Adaptive Progressive Scan Technology, XGA resolution and a 300:1 contrast ratio, providing exceptional video quality along with crisp images. Furthermore, the CP-X995W is HDTV compatible and features an anamorphic 16:9 aspect ratio for added video options. The projector also has extensive horizontal and vertical keystone control which was used by UCR/CMP to control images projected on screens that angled out from the wall.

The projectors helped to enhance the experience of museum visitors as they viewed One Ground-the work of four Israeli and four Palestinian contemporary film and video artists who created footage that addresses conceptual and universal issues of exile, loss, belonging, identity and home. Critical to the conceptualization and presentation of this exhibition was the specifically designed architectural environment. A multinational architectural team designed space specific to each film, using Hitachi projectors to project images with the appropriate size and configuration for each separate film installation - some of which were as large as 12 feet wide on screens that measured 24 feet high.

Courtesy of Hitachi America, Ltd.

For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our Hitachi CP-X995W projector page.