PANASONIC INTRODUCES SMALLEST WIRELESS PROJECTOR

LAS VEGAS, NV (June 13, 2001) – Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company (Los Angeles, CA) has introduced the 802.11b-compliant PT-L711XNTU, the industry's smallest projector capable of wireless presentations.

The ultra-portable PT-L711XNTU XGA projector heralds a new era in interactive presentations. By simply inserting an optional wireless LAN card into their PC, users can transmit data using the industry-leading Wi-Fi™ (IEEE 802.11b Wireless Networking transmission protocol standard) at a transfer rate of 11 Mbps over a 125-foot distance from PC to PT-L711XNTU. The projector can also be teamed with new 802.11b-equipped notebook PCs from Panasonic and other leading laptop manufacturers to provide customers with a wide variety of wireless-enabled mobile computing solutions. Wi-Fi is the global wireless LAN standard protocol for wireless local-area networking.

Weighing just 8 pounds, the PT-L711XNTU's wireless capabilities allow for an easily setup, continuous, cable-free presentation from multiple PCs while overcoming the limitation of too few inputs and too short cabling.

"Imagine a totally wireless, networked university, where wireless computers and wireless projectors work together to meet the faculty's and students' presentation needs," said Steven Abend, Director of Sales, Panasonic Presentation Systems Group. "When users team the PT-L711XNTU and an 802.11b-equipped PC, that educational setting can become a reality."

Two application software programs, Wireless Manager and JPEG Converter, are supplied to manage the data transmitted during the wireless presentation. Wireless Manager software controls the transfer of desired content by quickly transforming JPEG, Bitmap and PNG files into still images--in any order--and sending the images to the PT-L711XNTU for display. Multiple PCs can transmit images consecutively. JPEG converter can be used to create a data file of still images from Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel, WORD and other popular software programs. Multiple pages can now be easily processed using these software packages.

The overall 802.11b market is expected to keep growing at a healthy rate, according to an April report by Cahners In-Stat. By 2005, the firm estimates that companies will be spending nearly $6.4 billion on WLAN equipment. According to the Wi-Fi trade association, the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, more than 125 products are already equipped with 802.11b technology. The PT-L711XNTU offers excellent brightness of 1600 ANSI lumens with Micro Lens Array (MLA), a high contrast ratio of 400:1, and offers a native resolution of 1024 x 768 XGA Resolution. The projector offers two-mode lamp operation – Standard or Save – with lamp life of the Save mode now increased to 4,000 hours.

Other valuable features include one-touch "Auto Everything" setup, a Digital Cinema Reality circuit, HDTV compatibility, 10-bit Digital Gamma Correction, Intelligent Image Resizing circuit, and 3-Dimensional Y/C separation.

The PT-L711XNTU will be available in the Fall at a suggested list price of $7,495.