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Technology 4 Min Read

Get to know the Sapphire 4K40-RGBH hybrid laser projector

January 28, 2025

We talk to Christie’s Larry Paul about our new hybrid RGB pure laser and laser phosphor projector

Meet the Christie® Sapphire 4K40-RGBH. It’s the world’s first high-brightness hybrid RGB pure laser and laser phosphor projector. That’s not a typo—we’ve combined solid-state RGB pure laser illumination with a dual laser phosphor system into a single projector.  

We wanted to shed some light on this unique technology for our partners and customers, including how its hybrid illumination system works, its benefits, and what makes it ideal for 3D projector applications. So, I spoke with Larry Paul, our executive director of technology and custom solutions, who spearheaded Sapphire’s development.

You’ll find the 5-minute video below, along with three key takeaways and the full transcript.

Key takeaways: 

  • We’ve coupled an RGB pure laser projector system with laser phosphor to achieve a broad spectrum of color and compatibility with 2D applications, front or rear projection, all active and passive 3D formats, and any screen type. 
  • Using a left-eye projector and a right-eye projector and an Intelligent Filter Holder (IFH) in each, Sapphire 4K40-RGBH is automatically configured to project in 3D. 
  • Because of its hybrid system, we can “notch out” red, green, and blue for each eye for a spectrum of color in color comb 3D applications, like 3D dark rides and visualization powerwalls, that isn’t possible with lamp-based systems. 

Read the full transcript

DEBORAH NOON: Hi, there. My name is Deborah Noon, and I'm a Senior Public Relations Specialist at Christie. And I manage our blog Spotlight. Today, I am joined by Larry Paul, our Executive Director of Technology and Custom Solutions, to talk about the Sapphire 4K40-RGBH, our newest 3DLP projector that we just announced. Larry, welcome.

LARRY PAUL:Hello, and nice to be here.

DEBORAH NOON:Thank you. Let's dive into some questions about Sapphire. First, could you tell us what distinguishes the Sapphire 4K40-RGBH from other high brightness projectors?

LARRY PAUL: Absolutely! We're very excited to add the Sapphire 4K40-RGBH to our product line. We have our Griffyn® series, which is our true flagship product, which is a RGB laser. We have actually taken the best of both worlds on the Sapphire platform, where we've taken the RGB illumination system. We've actually coupled that with laser phosphor to get a broad spectrum of color and also great performance for a variety of different screens.

DEBORAH NOON: Fantastic! What are the benefits of this hybrid illumination system?

LARRY PAUL: Well, we're actually really excited about hybrid illumination because one of the features that it enables is color comb 3D. And that means we could actually have a left eye projector and a right eye projector. We have a filter slot in the projector, which we call the eye of the intelligent filter holder, which actually drops in. So you take your standard projector in normal 2D high brightness, and then you drop in a left eye filter in the left projector, a right eye filter in the right projector. And the projector automatically configures itself to become a 3D system, or each projector becomes a left eye and right eye.

So we're very excited about what this will do to enable new forms of 3D. Of course, it's also compatible with active 3D. And it also, because of its capabilities, it is compatible with silver screens and rear projection screens. And so if you have a 3D system with a silver screen, you can add your polarizer to it, and now you have a active to passive system. If you have an active passive polarizer or dual projector with static polarizers and you're compatible with silver screens as well in 3D and if you have a rear projection screen that's polarizing preserving, you have 3D for that. So we're excited because we really just add all those capabilities.

We have our active 3D. And 3D is a very important part of the market for specific customers, mostly theme parks and special venue applications, where 3D is still used. But it's also used in visualization and powerwalls and other special applications like that, where people want to see 3D.

So because of the hybrid illumination, we're actually compatible with every kind of projection surface that exists, whether it's silver screen, rear projection screen, any surface at all.

DEBORAH NOON: Fascinating! Could you explain color comb 3D a little bit more for us?

LARRY PAUL: Absolutely! Color comb 3D is basically where you have interference filters. In this case, we're actually using Infitec filters. Infitec was the developer, originally, of that technology back many, many decades ago. And they have actually improved that technology and enhanced that technology. In our existing products or our previous products that had Infitec compatibility, like Boxer or our lamp-based M-series or our Xenon series, we would add an interference filter in each projector, just the way we would do in the Sapphire platform. But the difference is, like with our Boxer, you would start with a REC. 709 profile, and then you'd have to shrink down the color volume to make it compatible with left eye and right eye.

What we have here is because we have this brand new RGBH hybrid system where we have the best of both red, green, blue, and our laser phosphor, we're able to actually get our color comb 3D, where we notch out red, green, blue for one eye, red, green, blue for the other eye. And you get a really broad sense of color that has never been really possible from a lamp-based system that used color comb 3D in the past.

So what we're really excited about, this really does replace our Boxer series and is a true high brightness product that complements and supplements our products. It does not replace Griffyn, but it adds to our product line. And meeting those special needs for our customers that are really trying to create caves or create visualization systems, or theme parks, or experiences that are truly different than what you can experience at your house, that's what the Sapphire RGBH platform does.

DEBORAH NOON: Fantastic! Thanks, Larry. Thank you for your time today and explaining the new Sapphire 4K40-RGBH to us.

LARRY PAUL: My pleasure, it's been great to talk to you today. And thank you very much. Have a good day.