Epson EMP-710

Epson’s latest foray into the ultra light and portable LCD projector market, the Epson EMP-710, takes very little time to power up and begin projecting an image. Swapping through image inputs is performed by a toggle switch on the top of the unit (most projectors require searching through the OSD). Controlling the image quality works in a similar way, with keystone and colour controls on top of the unit. The focus and zoom rings are controlled manually, and the projector lens recesses
back into the main unit housing to protect it when travelling.
The EMP-710 didn’t seem to heat up as much as other units APC has looked at, and it runs reasonably quietly. The unit’s cooling fans don’t kick in to cool it down until you’ve finished projecting.
The EMP-710 can throw an image up to 13.8m away, with image sizes ranging from 65.3cm to 7.63m (two to 25 feet) — more than enough for the office, boardroom or meeting hall. It has an ANSI lumen rating of 1,000, but it seemed slightly brighter than that. Epson says the projector has 85% image uniformity, and we couldn’t discern any significant fading or defects.
The now common mouse/pointer controller has also been included with the EMP-710. This handheld W remote allows you to control the PC, presentation or projector from a maximum distance of 10m. Alternatively, the unit also has a USB and serial port for connecting a mouse.
The projector has a 15-pin VGA connector, composite video input and S-Video input, and supports the major video formats (PAL, NTSC, SECAM) plus VGA, UXGA, SVGA and XVGA to a maximum resolution of 1,024 by 768 projection. It comes with a mono speaker (not much better than an internal PC speaker), but also has multiple audio inputs and outputs (one stereo input and output jack, plus two RCA inputs) so that you can plug in external speakers.
The only drawback with the unit is its price. At $12,750, it’s out of reach for many smaller businesses. However, for large corporations with big budgets, the EMP-710 should be just the ticket.