Tech Talk - The Home Cinema Alliance Podcast
A consumer-facing podcast hosted by industry veterans, Stuart Burgess from Immersive Cinema Rooms and Simon Gregory from Cinema Rooms.
Each episode, we bring you News, Reviews, and Interviews from inside the industry covering Home Cinema, Home Theatre, and all things tech.
Get involved podcast@homecinemaalliance.co.uk
Tech Talk - The Home Cinema Alliance Podcast
Inside Barco: Building Cinemas That Wow
Step into Barco’s headquarters in Kortrijk with us and see what separates a truly cinematic image from a bright picture on a big wall. Bart, who leads business development for Barco Residential in EMEA, opens doors to their demo cinemas and labs so we can connect the dots between specs, engineering, and what you actually feel when the room goes dark and the story takes over.
We dig into the choices that matter: setting a real HDR target around 40 foot-lamberts, choosing screen fabric and lensing to hit that brightness, and using projection where reflected light and acoustically transparent screens create that unmistakable theater vibe. Bart explains how Barco’s RGB laser engines, wide color, and HDR by Barco deliver contrast and punch without turning the room into a wind tunnel, keeping noise down to whisper levels so projectors can live in the space. And when the brief calls for a daylight-friendly “giant TV,” we map where LED walls shine—lower heat, reduced eye fatigue with SteadyView, and sustainability wins borrowed from control-room know-how.
We also unpack the difference compression makes, why a well-mastered 1080p can beat a compromised “4K,” and how firmware adds tone mapping and aspect ratio tools over time. If you’ve wondered about DCI at home, we cover secure playback, day-and-date rental models, and why studio-grade sources look and sound so visceral compared to streaming. Behind it all sits Barco’s test culture: EMC, altitude, thermal, and lifecycle stress that pushes beyond standards so your system feels invisible and reliable for years.
Whether you’re planning a dedicated theater or a social space with a massive screen, this tour gives you a framework: define the experience first—seating, light, content mix—then choose projection or LED, the right lens, and the right screen to match. Ready to see what’s possible? Subscribe, share with a cinema-loving friend, and leave a review telling us which room you’d build: LED in the living room, projection in the theater, or both?
Thinking of building your dream home cinema? Don't know where to start? Start with the HCA. At the Home Cinema Alliance, we connect homeowners with the very best in the business. Our members are trusted designers, installers, and technology experts who know how to turn any room into a breathtaking cinematic experience. Whether you're building from scratch or converting a spare room, our members are here to help you every step of the way. Visit our website to find your local member at homesinemareliance.co.uk.
SPEAKER_02:Hi, thanks for tuning in to the HGA Tech Talk Podcast. Today we're over in Belgium with our friends Barco. We've had a full-on media press day here looking around the stunning facilities. I'm with Bart of Barco. Bart, tell me a bit about yourself, your role at Barco, and your history at Barco.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, yeah. First of all, thank you for taking the time and come visiting us today. Glad to hear that indeed you've been having a great time. So I've been with Barco for 18 years. In two weeks' time, it'll be exactly 18 years. First, I was in the global procurement team, so purchasing various technologies and products. And then since February 2019, I'm in my current role, which is business development manager for Barco Residential, so purely looking after the residential market only in EMIA territory, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, both for the projection side of things and LED video side of things.
SPEAKER_02:So when you say the residential, you're talking about rooms like this. So for people like us at the HCA, when we're designing spaces like this for the integrator for the whole of the EMEA, so basically UK, Europe, South Africa.
SPEAKER_01:UK, Europe, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, uh Eastern Europe, the Scandinavi the Nordics, Sweden, etc. Uh, indeed South Africa, all the way up to the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, uh, Jordan. So you must do a lot of travel then. I do, yes.
SPEAKER_02:Collecting the air miles? Uh yeah, yeah. We were having a conversation over lunch about being upgraded, weren't we? You know, like when when have we been upgraded to business class and things like that? You have a hell of a lot more chance than me. I drove here today. Good drive? Uh oh yeah. Well, yesterday not so because it was raining. And I and I have a rear-wheel drive car, so it was you have to be very careful with the LD accelerator. Today it's not too bad outside, so I'm hoping for a little bit of a better drive back to Calais. Bit of fun on the way back. Yeah. So tell me a bit about Barco. Um, where where are we? What what town? Is it town or village?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we're in a town. We're in the city of Kortrek, uh in the province of West Flanders. So close to the pretty close to the French border, which makes it easy to travel to come and visit us. Either you're flying in, typically, I would say, to Brussels, depending on where you're flying in from. And then from Brussels to Kortrake, easy by train, relatively easy by car, although traffic can be a bit of a a pain sometimes. Uh coming in from the UK, the easiest thing to do, I would say, is definitely if you're from the the more southern part of the UK, is take the Eurostar from London St. Pancras to Lille, and from there it's a 30-minute drive, I would say.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was about an hour and a half from me, and I I came in the car, so I did the shuttle. So the the facility that we're in, um, is that open to integrators by appointment? So if we have a European integrator watching this who would want to bring a Barco customer to the facilities, is that a possibility?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, absolutely. So integrators, interior designers, architects, uh, like you say, customers or potential customers who are interested. Uh everybody's welcome. Indeed, by appointment, because our space where we're sitting right now, our residential demo cinema, as part of the overall experience center within Barco. And women, Lisbeth, who you met earlier today, they have at least, I would say, three visits per day. I believe they were saying, up to four, five, sometimes six different groups. So it becomes a bit of a sometimes a challenge for them to manage all of that. So we just need to make sure that you know we look at the calendar and then we can mix and match because we don't want to make sure that, let's say we want to avoid that people feel that they've got a rushed experience where it's just like, oh, let's come in and have a demo, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour, whatever, and then get out of uh get out of here. If that is what people want and they say, look, we're pressed for time, just a brief demo of your space, that projector, that's fine, we're happy to do so. But most people want to come over and see, soak up, or let's say take in the full experience, see what we do in healthcare, see what we do in control rooms, get to experience our large cinema as well, uh, the immersive experience area, and then indeed here uh to get the demo that they they came to see. So by appointment, we also offer training uh to partners, and we try to do that once per quarter in this very room, depending on the size of the group. If we have more than 10 people, we do it in one of the training rooms. So, yeah, plenty of opportunities.
SPEAKER_02:So before we get into the ins and outs of Barco, um tell us a bit about BART. So you've been here for 18 years. So you're not very old now, are you? Uh depends on on your perspective. No, no, no, no. 42, 42 years old. So, what did you do before Barco? Were you in this industry or did you I was studying at university.
SPEAKER_01:So you came straight to university, wow. So given given my age, I would say that I'm rather an exception in the workplace these days. I mean, if I look at my friends, uh they've moved around three, four, five times, as in different companies, different employers. Uh, but I've just liked it here from day one. Uh, like I said, I started in procurement. Actually, my background is uh linguistics, language, literature, grammar, all of that stuff. Um, but then when it came to finding a job and you know finding out what do I want to do, technology, audio, video, music has always been, you know, my main interest ever since I was a little boy. And then Barco is basically in my backyard. I live about half an hour away from work, I would say. So it's convenient, won't lie about that, but it's super interesting. And there's tons and tons of experience in this company with people loving to share their experience, their knowledge, their wisdom. And I was happy and still am happy to soak it up as much as I can. So that brings me from a person with a background in languages to now working in residential, uh Barco residential, basically talking about film, cinema, music, audio, video, you you name it. So basically, if you would have told my 18-year-old self that one day you would have been earning your living doing what I'm doing right now, I would have said, sorry, but you're crazy. That's that's never gonna happen. Here we are. So funny how things can go.
SPEAKER_02:That's pretty unique. You know, you you very rarely hear of people being in that um uh in one industry or one uh employer for such a long time. But I suppose the the one thing that I've you know, so obviously you guys or the publicity team approached the HCA about coming over today, and there's been many other friends from Europe and the UK here, and I was a bit unsure what we were gonna get. Obviously, I know Barco, I know Barco projection because the industry I'm in. But what was quite interesting was was from the the tour. So from the immersive experiences um with you know the the the immersive room just over there, although it might be over there, such such a big building. Um the you know, you're sitting in there and it's completely immersive. We did get some video, so I'll put the video up of it. Um, into the healthcare, you know, talking about you know, voice activated, you know, uh equipment in operating rooms where they can't touch them. So um it was just a massive eye-opener, not specifically what I would do or be interested in. Um, although I've got to say, one of those monitors looks so good that would be really good for rendering videos on. I've just been looking at the moment, so it's like quick, get one of those in the van. Um, but uh it it is you forget how big a company Barco is and how many different fields that they operate in. Yeah. And then obviously, in our industry, the room we're in now, which is a uh what's it, 10-seater cinema. Yep. And then you've got the bigger 170-seat cinema, yeah. Was it? Blimey.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and 11-meter wide scope screen.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, that was stunning. I mean, what was really annoying was obviously because of copyright and what we were watching, we can't show you what we saw in there, but that screen in Barco HDR, uh, and where was it? Was it the was it the Vue cinemas are starting to use it in the UK?
SPEAKER_01:There's uh look, Vue star is starting to use it, and there's uh Cine World in Leicester Square in London that has has it already installed.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, that was mind-blowing. I mean, the the what they showed you was it was sort of reminiscent to some of the like Dolby will show you with some of their stuff. That that clip where the lady walks through the door, yeah, and this side of it's not in HDR and that side of it is in HDR. It completely communicates the message of Barco HDR to the end client.
SPEAKER_01:It's a nice form of storytelling, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And did you say is that some is that shown before the films? Or is that the one that's shown before the film?
SPEAKER_01:That's shown before the film is in the news, as my understanding, because you like uh like Lorenzo was saying, we have to show, we have to educate the audience what it is that makes it different, because otherwise people will just be like, yeah, this looks this looks great, but perhaps not taking away what makes it different or how we uh make it different. Just taking that red door, for example. Like I said, the one side of it was just SDR, Rec 709 callers, let's say, and then when the door goes open, you enter the HDR world, it's like whoa! Yeah, and they're really pushing the Rec 2020 envelope there. So, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02:And I think it's good to educate because I mean we've had many conversations on this podcast about you know uh names such as Dolby Atmos, and and they're band around so much and they're used on so many different products, you know, like you know, your mobile phones and things like that. But when you see it on a screen like that and you see it come to life, I mean I I can remember sitting in Dolby Soho and they're showing you the Dolby Vision, and and the voice on the screen goes, This is black. No, that's not black, this is black. And I think I must have been in a room with uh our friend Tom Garrett from Trinov and about 20 to 30, I would say high-end residential installers, and everybody went oh expletive because it was just like my god, you know, and and I think what's been interesting the especially today is the seeing it from both a domestic side and a commercial side where Barco, um I mean some of the projectors we saw downstairs which are being bench test, I mean, those things were huge. Um wasn't wasn't your colleagues the one of them, which was I think I got some a photograph or maybe it was a video of it, I'll put it up of they're using that Cameron, James Cameron's using that at the moment to render and the next Avatar movie or sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean that's just some of those projectors down there were amazing. So obviously, people watching this will know about projection, they may have a projection. Obviously, there's loads of brands in the market of projection. So tell me, where does Barco fit into residential? So rooms like this, um, why would a consumer look at Barco and you know what is sort of like where does the range start and sort of go up to in respects of like what we're using in here? All right.
SPEAKER_01:Well, the one of the main reasons would be picture quality, video quality, of course, talking from the perspective as the as the customer, the end user uh of the overall cinema. Because as you've just mentioned yourself, we are a visualization company through and through, both hardware and software, on different types of industries or in different types of industries. And then with residential, we're lucky enough to be able to sort of cherry pick the different technologies and then use them, deploy them in the products that we want, that we need, that we design for the residential market. So if you take a look at uh at our Heimdahl, the the latest one, for example, the chassis is shared with one of the simulation type projectors, so you get that hardware robust uh engines and whatnot. But then if you would look at the light engine, we are using an RGB laser light engine just as one differentiator, which gives us 98% Rec 2020 color gamut, whereas the F400 is designed for simulation purposes. So no RGB, no white collar gamut, it's just one difference. Uh dedicated Cinema scope models that we have because of Cinemascope screens, and there being a lot of demands to have those kind of experiences. Again, that is not typically something that a simulation uh partner is going to be looking for. So it's that differentiation in the products that we can bring, uh which will result in a nicer viewing experience for the customer. But also for uh the integration partner themselves, we we offer options, I always say. Like to come back to your question: where do we start in the range, where do we end up? Uh that is one option for sure, but also purely the technical side of things, as in installation, because there's a lot of rooms where, you know, if it's a refurbishment, for example, typically it's gonna be dictated where the projector is gonna go. As in the screen is over there, the projector is gonna be at the back of the room or anywhere in between, depending, in case of other manufacturers, depending on the lens throw capabilities. Whereas if you take a look at our product portfolio, whether it's the Braggie, the Balder, the Heimdahl, Hoder Njort, our DCI machines, Freya, Freya Plus and Nurtis, there's always multiple lens options to be choosing, uh to be choosing from. Like take the Norther Cinema scope that we have at the back. There, you have nine different lens options to be choosing from. Nine. So in theory, there's almost no installation that we cannot turn into a reality. There might be some engineering challenges, as in it might be, oh, we need to install the projector pretty close to the screen. Well, we can use a UST lens, potentially even 90-degree UST uh ultra short row lens that is. Um, that might mean that we need to think about okay, cooling, ventilation, um hushbox solution. But it's all a question of okay, can we do this? Do we want to do this? Is the customer on board? Can we physically make it work inside the space? Uh, but then again, the most uh most of the installations that we see are indeed the projector in the middle of the room, give or take, um at the at the back or outside in a separate projection booth.
SPEAKER_02:So that's quite interesting. So literally almost any size room with any size lens can fit any size screen, really.
SPEAKER_01:End theory, yeah. Because what we like to say is, what is it? So if we're talking to a customer, if you're talking to a to an integrator, we we like to ask what is the end objective here? What is the experience that the customer wants to have? Is it a three-meter wide screen, five, six, seven? Yeah. Um, because sometimes we get the question like, what's the best projector that you have? Clients after the best of the best. Okay, we always ask what's the room like, how many rows of seating, so we get an idea of okay, elevation and whatnot, because lines of sight, uh, making sure that the light is not clipped uh over people's heads, that's important. Laser safety is important, depending on which projectors you're talking about. So that's the hazard distance uh that comes into play. Um, but also talking screen size, you need to have a powerful projector if you're gonna light up a five-meter, six-meter widescreen. And that is also something that differentiates us from other manufacturers, I will say, because there's no other way to say, but I find it tremendously funny to see some specs where it's like this is a 2500 Tansi lumens projector, 3000 lumens projector, and you can use this on a screen size up to 300 inch. I'm like, what are these people on about? Because yes, there will be an image on the screen, but if you're gonna measure that, you're gonna be lucky if you have five or six-foot Lambert, which is peanuts. So taking into account for the audience that is watching, commercial cinema has a standard of 14 foot Lambert, one four with uh HDR by barcode that's 300 nits that we're talking about, peak brightness on huge screens. For residential, we have been for the longest of time recommending a target, it's a target of 40 foot Lamberts, 4-0 to get good HDR performance. And I say a target because there's also some personal preference involved when we have people over here, uh especially on the Freya Plus, we can demonstrate different light levels. Some people, some people will have a response like, Oh, this is this is simply too bright. We can turn it down, 30, 20. Some people are like, Yeah, can I have some more, please? So, yeah, we can turn it up as well. Just to say that there's no real wrong or right there, but anything below 30-foot Lambert, we would not, I mean, we don't consider as great for a good HDR viewing experience because you just don't have that punch for highlights and whatnot.
SPEAKER_02:So you're saying like the one we've got literally, I don't know if the cameras could pick it up, it's literally sitting there and it's so quiet.
SPEAKER_01:It's whisper quiet. It's 29 dB, it's it's unbelievable, and it comes in two versions, uh, four in total. But in terms of light output, you know there's a four and a half thousand ANSI lumens version and an up to six thousand ANSI lumens version. So that is a lot of laser power, a lot of light power, which does require its cooling for the projector not to overheat. But somehow our engineering team realized in on in in you know what I thought was impossible, but they made it a reality. It's stunning, which means that indeed, if for whatever reason it dictates that your room needs to have the projector inside because simply there is no space for a projection booth, for example, you can absolutely have that. You can have a four and a half meter wide screen without any issue whatsoever. You'll be hitting 40-foot Lamberts again, dip taking into account type of screen fabric gain, and so on and so on.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because if you like some of our friends of mine, um Tom and Owen, they're very into the, you know, like everybody should be, very into the finite details, you know, hush boxes, you know, pork glasses, and you know, get that noise floor in the room of making sure that you know it is as quiet as possible in the room, and there's nothing I mean that to be in the room here when we were in here having a conversation earlier and then watching a couple of clips. Yeah, if you were being really sort of like picky, you could just about hear it in certain seats. But um, but so explain to people um so it uh ANSI lumens and foot Lamberts. Let's get let's get really technical. So be bearing in mind that this podcast is watched by consumers as well as integrators. Explain the importance of you know uh the ANSI lumens and the foot lamberts on a projector.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they give an indication of what kind of performance you can expect from the projector itself. But like I said, it's it's really about a video system. So with projection you're working in tandem with a screen, so it's as an Important to determine what kind of screen fabric you'll be using, the size, the throw distance as well, and then do your calculations. Also take into account what again talking about what does the end user wish to have as an experience, because some people will some people might approach you and say, Hey Stuart, you know what? I'm looking for a fantastic home cinema. And you and I might be considering that as okay, a darkened room, fully light controlled, where people will watch a film, a show, play video games, whatever, with the lights completely turned off. That would be my understanding of a home cinema. However, if I were to ask my parents, for example, I'd know that they'd be more like, oh, let's have a nice, cozy living room with high-performing audio video for sure. But we want the look and feel of a living room. We might be wanting to watch some stuff with lights on, in which case, like we've done in our space, you can kill, you can program the lighting, design it first of all. But program the lighting that, for example, the first row of spots is killed, which means that there's no direct light hitting the screen. Um, the rest maybe dim it down to 50%, just saying something. But in that circumstance or in that environment, you have a more than a perfectly watchable picture. Um, but that only comes with again doing the proper design, screen, screen fabric gain, and then uh the right type of projectory in terms of forcepower.
SPEAKER_02:I think so many people, I think you're right in respects of what people's perception of a home cinema is. Um, and I know when if I look at the immersive side of my business, uh we've done jobs where people have wanted the cinematic experience, but in a media room or in a lounge. So they've got bifold doors down here or they've got windows, but they still want maybe a dual system with a drop-down projector. Um, and they still want the essence of a home cinema in their media room. Yeah. I can remember, uh, we were talking earlier, I can remember about uh Integrated Systems Europe in Amsterdam years ago, and and I can clearly remember walking through the door into the Barco residential suite, and I think you had maybe two actual rooms. Yeah, correct. And I remember casting my eye left in this very well-lit room, and this whole wall was taken up with someone playing, I think it was Battlefield, yeah, and and I remember looking at it, and it was literally like edge to edge, top to bottom, and the image quality was unbelievable. That you would have been looking at a screen, but it was just yeah, unbelievable to look at, and and I think that is a dictation to where you know um I mean behind us here or in front of us here, behind you people looking at this, we've got a masking screen, so 16-9 masked to 235, or sorry, have I round. Um so but people, the content we watch is so different. Um you know, people will watch content off of Disney Plus, and then next thing they'll be watching a you know a high-res film off a Kaleidoscape, and then the kids will come in and watch and want to play a computer game. Yep. So I think that's where you know, seeing today the the tests and everything that barcos are put through and the image quality that you get off of Barco, it just fits so many plethora platforms for people to watch content on.
SPEAKER_01:That's the thing. I mean, we're again what what is the concept of a home cinema to you, to me, to somebody else? It's about finding out indeed what does that mean? How are they planning to use it? Are there gotta be children in there? Silly things like that. I say silly things, but small things that people perhaps will not think about, but actually, if they want to have the most enjoy uh enjoyment or pleasure from that space, that are the those are the little things that we as a as professional partners we can help with. You asking those questions, us asking those questions. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether you're gonna be spending a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, half a million or or upwards. It's about did we do our jobs right as professionals? And if yes, then the end result should be an experience that goes beyond the expectations of of what the customer had in mind, really.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I I've always said it, I've always said to my clients, it's like the one thing I just don't want you to do is sit in this room when it's finished and regret the money you invested in it, or something's not quite right. So let's have that conversation at the beginning. What are you watching? Who's gonna use the room? Let's not even discuss budget. Budget is out of the question. Absolutely. What space do you have? How many people would you want to sit in it, and what's the content you like to watch? I mean, I had the demo room, luckily, over the COVID period, and as a family, we used it all the time. You know, the girls were my wife works from home, obviously, my daughter wasn't at school. So we used to microwave the popcorn at home, jump in the car, fly up to the office, and you know, we'd go up there and watch a film Saturday night. The girls might watch strictly. I sit and do some work because that was way more entertaining. Um, but it was yeah, those spaces, and and I think if you look at um a lot of the jobs that I've done in the last 20 years, and I and probably some of the rest of the HGA members, it they're so diverse to what people use those spaces for, and some people will use it for meditation, for fitness, video conferencing, yeah. Because they are, I mean, we've got a door open here at the moment, but they are just very quiet spaces. Absolutely. So tell me a bit about I mean, so one of the really, really interesting parts today was the tour upstairs, downstairs. I don't know where we went. I mean, all over the place. I tell you what, I I'm you I've always said you could spin me around the room and I could find my way, but I even I would struggle where that. Luckily the building's circular, so I would have found the car. That was just phenomenal. The the the testing that the products go through. I mean, you know, the one of the last things that we got shown was the projector being brought out of being chilled down to minus 15. Correct. And uh and I got some footage of just like the lens completely because as soon as it came out, it just frosted. Yeah. And then the anachoic chamber type room. That how far do Barco go with their testing of their products and and why?
SPEAKER_01:Well, as my colleagues were saying, we we go beyond the strict industry standards because those are good, but we want to make sure that there's headroom, so to speak. Uh, because in terms of EMC compliance, for example, it is indeed important that when we have a lead wall and an LED wall installed in your living room and you're watching something, that you can still receive a call on your cell phone in case of an emergency or whatnot, and we don't want that LED wall radiating and causing a disturbance, which then results in you not receiving that important phone call. So that is one and that's just in the residential sphere. On the professional side of things, of course, things can become really a matter of life and death, or life or death. So that is why we just go beyond the uh the standard requirements, I would say.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I suppose like when you say that, like you're sitting in your cinema with your LED wall and you can't get a phone compared to you're now on the operating table in a theatre and something is interfering with the equipment. Exactly. That's a big no-no. Yeah, no, we re- I'd I'd rather have the first one than the second one, definitely. But that that's what was quite interesting was just everything from interference to you know um altitude. So your colleague was saying about this that that box over there tests it to altitude. So if our products are getting installed in a uh like a cinema in Chile or somewhere like that, which is at altitude, we know it's gonna work into that very I mean that room which had far too many projectors in it where you were testing the life of them. Yeah, yeah. I mean, surely you could spare one. But anyway, um but I mean that was just phenomenal where you I don't know how many you had in there, but they were just running 24-7 just to test that life. And I think that's something that I'll coming back to one of our first comments about you know integrators bringing clients here. I think it's always quite nice, like if you buy a nice car, sometimes they might take you to the factory or they might take you to a test drive tail or something like that on a track. I think you know, if you're fortunate to be a Barco customer and you're fortunate enough to have a Barco cinema, just seeing that dedication behind the scenes, obviously there's compliance involved in that, but yeah, you take it way beyond compliance because you just need to make sure it's not one, it's not coming back, and two, it's not inconveniencing the customer, whether that be a client or an integrator.
SPEAKER_01:Correct. And we want you to enjoy the system for a long period of time. You typically don't buy uh or you don't invest in in an overall system because it's not just about the video, it's about the audio, nice seating, nice design, lighting as well, the home automation system as well. You typically don't invest in that for a year and a half and then decide, oh you know what, this wasn't it, let's turn this into a wellness area, for example. So we want that longevity there. Um, that's also uh one of our plus sides, I would say the the stability. I mean, with DLP technology, you're using inorganic material. The DMD itself has a lifetime of 100,000 hours. Wow. 100,000. But I mean, depending on which projector we're looking at, they the light engine has a lifetime of 20,000 hours, let's say. 20,000 hours. If you watch two to three thousand hours per year of whatever content that is, if you do the math, you're gonna have to make an effort to get to 3,000, even 2,000 hours, because there's also other areas in life. You need to live your life. What I'm saying is the lifetime of the light engine is gonna be far uh or uh more than sufficient enough compared to the lifetime of the DMD, and that gives peace of mind, I think, knowing that you're buying something which is gonna run stable for the duration which uh for which you'll have it in your cinema firmware upgradability as well. Uh, if you look at the Pulse platform, for example, and looking at uh Loki, which is you know, we end of put at end of life a couple of years ago. But if you look at a Loki, that was one of the very first models that we released onto the market, 4K models that we released on the market. So the functionality that we have added over the years, first HDR, then tone mapping, uh, then uh more different types of aspect ratios, because uh with the advent of streaming services like Netflix, for example, you saw more content being uh released in 2.0 to one aspect ratio than 1.90 to 1 aspect ratio. So with firmware upgrades, which are free of charge, we just provide uh added functionality through the or over the course over the lifetime of the of the product. You can you can compare it to like a Tesla. People that purchased the Tesla five, six, seven years ago are now saying, yeah, we are actually driving a better car because it's had it's got added functionality.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, one sometimes you can you know, obviously you go way beyond belief of the um of bench testing. Yeah. And that and that's that's a I've not been paid to say this. That was just literally by what I saw as an integrator downstairs. But yeah, you're right, to be able to say to someone that you know is constantly involved when it gets out into the market and you may have 10 to 10,000 of them out there, they're in so many different scenarios that it may develop a for or it may develop this. So software updates are they automatic or are they done by an integrator? Typically done by the integrator, yeah. And it and would the integrator do it on site or could they remotely do it?
SPEAKER_01:Depends on how you get access to the the local network, but could be done remotely, yes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, if you're anything like me, I like to go there. Yeah because I I'm I'm one of these very like, let me come and do it just in case it goes wrong.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say hands-on, nothing beats hands-on, because like you say, you can see what happens if something goes wrong, you're there to intervene and and solve it.
SPEAKER_02:And then you're not very quickly jumping in the car to fly to wherever just to fix it because it's hey, look, it's Friday at quarter past four and it's now gone wrong. So you touched there on um LED walls. Yeah. So LED walls is something that that Barco do. Um I noticed on the website the other day uh you have quite a range of LED walls. Right, yeah. How we had a we had a uh podcast actually went up this week uh with um friends of both of ours at a Procela. Um we did a bit in there where we talked about the LED the LED wall. Where do you see LED wall in the residential cinema? Do you what's your personal take? Um and and are you finding that jobs are opting for an LED wall over a projection-based system?
SPEAKER_01:Not really. It's more like an addition. Uh addition to um depends again, what is the use case? Because with the uh with an LED wall, you get the possibility to basically watch content. I hate the word content, but you know, watch films, watch series in the comfort of a living room. Indeed, let's say you have a magnificent view looking out over the seaside, the mountains, whatever it may be. I understand that you're probably not looking to sacrifice that and go inside a dedicated cinema. But again, it depends from person to person. And what we're seeing more and more is that the dedicated cinema will still be there as a requirement. Because, like you said, when you close that door, you're in a different space, you're in a different area, you're making a conscious decision of sitting down that you're gonna watch, enjoy something specifically. And you're still seeing those as very much projection. Absolutely, because there is, and we can talk about that, that that could be a separate podcast in itself, I think. But the whole thing with the audio and whatnot, yeah, there is a difference. With LED, you can get great audio reproduction for sure. Not for a cinema with seven or ten seats, but in typical residential environments, absolutely you can get great results. But if we're being honest, it's just not the same. It just isn't. But that doesn't matter because it's still great. And then coming back to what I said, the use cases, people are also like, ah, but actually, you know, a standard TV, good quality TV, 75, 85 inch, now coming up to 100 inch uh OLED televisions, which is nice, but that is not the same as having a four, five, six, and beyond meter-wide uh kick-ass television. So the only way to do that and being able to watch something with lots of ambient light is going with LED, and that's where we see that. So basically, a lot of the LED projects that we see are you can consider them as big televisions in living rooms. Then again, we also see them in dedicated cinema spaces where people are uh saying I want even higher brightness, uh, I want absolute you know black levels being pitch black. Um so it's it's not an what do we prefer or what's preference. Personally, if it were my house, I would do exactly that dedicated cinema with projection, and then a big LED wall in the living room.
SPEAKER_02:There's something just there's something nice about projection. You know, I mean this this one in here, you could say some people say there's something nice about the imperfection of projection. I'm not I I certainly didn't see any imperfection. I was gonna say, disagree on that. There's no imperfection in here today.
SPEAKER_01:It was like I think what they're describing is the perception of how we take in the light, projection versus LED. With LED, it's direct view, as in it's like a television. There's light being emitted, hitting your eyes. And I haven't sat down to watch something like, say, a full film for two hours on an LED wall, so I can't comment on the viewing experience. What I do know is the technology that we build in. Again, like I said earlier, we can cherry pick and use different technologies from our different divisions. In our LED view uh walls, we've got something called SteadyView, which is an algorithm that we developed based on the requirements, the use case for operators in control rooms who are watching these huge walls for many, many hours a day in their shift.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it cannot become fatiguing. Ice train is a big no-no because they need to remain focused. Like we saw the demo, for example, with the fire brigade and whatnot, those people need to be switched on. Uh so there's no let's say there's no room for dozing off and whatnot. So it's all about ergonomics in that. But that same thing we can deploy in the residential space. So if you want to do a marathon gaming session, knock yourselves out. Or go on because you asked. Yeah, okay. Let's go out here. Let's press record, stop even. But kidding aside, that is one of the benefits that we bring to that. But at the end of the day, it's still direct light hitting your uh your eyes. With projection, you're watching reflected light, which automatically makes it a bit softer, but softer does not equate to imperfection, in my opinion. And as we've seen with HDR by Barco, where we've got phenomenal blacks and we've got phenomenal highlights, everything in between, white colour gamut and whatnot. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, I mean, I I I've had a few jobs where I've done modular walls by one of the brands. And the biggest thing I hear from people that have used them is heat and eye fatigue after a c a continuous amount of time because you know they would say they sit in there and watch maybe a football match, or they sit in there and watch a film, and we we all know you know, with OLEDs, if you set them to vivid, which you should never do, um, you would will get eye fatigue. You will sit there and be doing this after a little while. So, yeah, I mean, I like my personal, yeah. TV's OLEDs, media rooms and lounges experience, maybe where you're dealing with ambient lights, but rooms like this, just the that size and that immersiveness of a uh projector-based screen, just you just can't beat it.
SPEAKER_01:No, and two more things because you mentioned heat and I I forgot about that, but that's another thing that we uh we also let's say we do differently. Uh because the first time that we demoed our TruePix uh LED wall in the residential context at IAZ a couple of years ago, many partners came up and were like, is this running at 100% brightness? And we're like, yes, yes, it is. Like, oh wow, this is amazing. It's not running that hot. And we were like, what do you mean? Because for us, this this is a given, you know. You you think about it, energy consumption. I mean, we have a responsibility to the plan, and we can think about that what we want. Some people may laugh at that, but we as Barker, we generally care about that, which is reflected in our sustainability efforts, which people can read about in our online yearly report. So it's all there, that's audited, those are facts and figures. But as a side, very nice side result, yes, they run much cooler as well than other uh competing products, I would say, which is just nicer for the planet, but also makes your life as an installer much easier in terms of how do I think about the HVAC uh solution for the space. Also, how do I make sure that my client actually isn't overheating and is like 40 minutes in? I need to take a break and turn on the AC or open the door. I mean, it shouldn't be like that. Um so that is important, I think, to take into account.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it was talking to your colleague earlier about the room downstairs, which was testing the longevity. Um, it was like he says something like that, it's a million watts or something like that. You know, and in the winter they use the air, the heat in that room to heat the building. Correct, yeah. I mean, that's just yeah, the hats off for the sustainability side of it. Um DCI content. Yep. Um I I did notice that one of your screens is now DCI compliant. Was that did I see that correctly? One of the LED screens.
SPEAKER_01:The LED, yeah, yeah, yeah, correct. Runar is the the product name. Uh we showcased that at Cedar. Uh, what are we, October still? Yeah, so last month we showed. It was ages ago, I know. I know, it's like all the travel in between. So yeah, we showcased that at CDF for the first time, and we will be showcasing at IAZ uh as well in Barcelona.
SPEAKER_02:So explain DCI content to anybody viewing this who doesn't understand what DCI content is.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, thank you. So DCI stands for Digital Cinema Initiative, which was a consortium founded at the end of the 90s, early 2000s, when the cinema industry was making the change from uh analog to digital, and then the industry needed to agree on standards. Plain and simple. What commercial cinemas are playing on their systems is DCPs, digital cinema packages. Now, if you want to have the best of the best, whether it be projection, because we have digital cinema uh DCI projectors as well, Freya, Freya Plus and Nurtus or with LED, again, we're agnostic on that front. What you will require is the hardware to be able to play back those DCPs because it's all about encryption and safety, because of course it's about anti-piracy. We don't want studios rightly rightly so do not wish to have that IP, which it is, to be leaked out because it's the highest quality of audio and video that that is accessible to the market. So with one of our three DCI projectors or with the Runar DCI LED wall, as a as a client, you can enjoy the best and the best in terms of audio and video in the comfort and the privacy of your own home.
SPEAKER_02:So there are a few systems out there where people can buy day and date, really, can't they? They can pay for access to you know Tron Aries like now or the upcoming wicked movie Wivid Reason.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say it depends from studio to studio, and there's different levels of access, let's say you can um, I mean, for example, Bel Air Cinema is a is a company that offers hardware and software and concierge services uh indeed to customers. Like you said, day and date, it's a rental model, so you don't own uh the film. Uh, but depending on the film, and again, depending on the studio, you can watch it as many times as you want within a 24, 48, 72 hour period, and again, it differs from film to film and studio to studio. Um, but then again, there are also clients of ours who are well connected in the cinema industry and who can get access to the DCPs that way, which opens up the type of let's say, or the number of studios uh from who they can get the content.
SPEAKER_02:I think that's this is a wealth that a lot of people watching this probably don't even realise exists. But also, I think a lot of people still think that when they go to a cinema, it might still be on film. And then I know that might be sort of like being insulting, but I I remember do uh working with a cinema, a commercial cinema near me, a family-run one, and and he was having the content turn up on drives, and he was explaining it to me. And this was very early in the days of um the the business, and that was a bit of like okay, so so what gets delivered on an encrypted drive, and you plug that encrypted drive in, and that gives you so many plays. And he's like, Yeah. I mean, and we're going back 10-15 years ago, maybe.
SPEAKER_01:It needs to be ingested into the media player into the projector, and indeed you need a KDM to unlock uh to unlock the encryption, let's say, and be able to play it back, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But as you say, you know, if you have a if you're lucky enough to be a an individual who can afford a cinema of a certain value with a projector of a certain value and that type, you're just getting the best of the best, aren't you?
SPEAKER_01:You are. I mean, we that's the nice thing about this demo space where we are able to demonstrate that thanks to the Freya uh Plus that we have at the back, or of course on the Nerftus in the big uh the big theater, where of course we will play back something from McCollide Escape and there's an Apple TV, so we can play Netflix or Amazon Prime, Disney Plus as well, so we can showcase that, which is probably gonna be the majority of the time that you're watching those sources. But then indeed, let's say when uh one battle after another comes out, uh, which is at Warner Bros. for example, and you want to watch that day and date, then yeah, you can do so. And then we can demonstrate on the Freya Plus. And whenever we demonstrate content on there, people go like, whoa, this is I didn't think that I would see or hear the difference, and this is non-technical, people making those comments, making those remarks, and then we're like, you know what the kicker is? This was just a 2K trailer, and they're like, No way, this has to be 4K, right? No, no, no, this is just 2K, and the audio that you were hearing was just 7.1. This wasn't even an Atmos mix because it was only a trailer, for example. But it's about compression. The whole thing about resolution is a bit overblown. Yeah, sure, resolution is important, but how was it filmed? How was it shot? How was it edited? Well, not necessarily edit, but how was the post-production done? Special effects, grading, the HDR grade itself, all those elements come into play. And I'm sure you you've got a few examples of your own, but we both could demo a title that is 1080p, just you know, Blu-ray or the HD version on Kaleidoscape, and then we could demo a title that we, you and I both know is has gotten a native 4K DI, digital intermediate. But then if you look at the results on the screen, the 1080p one will be the CRISPR one, whereas the 4K will be because it was maybe shot 40-50 years ago on a certain type of film stock, maybe the film stock or the original camera negative wasn't preserved all that well because of you know circumstances beyond anyone's control. But that those are the facts. My point being, if we then ask, you know, 100 people which one of these two did you think looked nicer, 90% will easily say oh the 1080p one, just because that one might have been shot digitally, super crisp with the clearest lenses, little to no RT uh RT you know post-production or anything like that. So resolution, yes, it's important, but it's only one element of the overall what we call image quality puzzle, which is why we can show you a 2K DCI trailer, and you'll believe that this is tremendous, but that's because of the compression there being on a completely different level than your standard consumer entertainment uh video compression.
SPEAKER_02:I think I've yeah, I mean I've been fortunate in the 20 years I've been doing this to go to like when it was DTS where like Bracknall, and I've seen I've had the privilege of seeing behind the scenes of some of it, and and I think you know, some of the rooms that you go into and see people grading this, you know, or listening. I mean, I remember going into DTS and there was a 32-inch Sony commercial grade monitoring screen, and there was a guy and all these speakers around him, and he was actually grading the audio, you know, he was doing the audio to make sure it was the right. I mean, this was David, this is before sort of you know the the immersive audio, so before DTS X like it is now, and you and it was just like mind-blowing that he was just watching it because for him the film wasn't the the thing that he was there to do. Oh no, and then they took us across the hallway to like your you know um commercial cinema over there, and then they were explaining about the metadata on the movie, and it was mind-blowing that you all of this goes on before you even get to see the screen in a commercial cinema or a private residential cinema.
SPEAKER_01:It's amazing. I had the good fortune of uh being able, being allowed to sit in on a grading session for an HDR by Barco film last year, and um not the whole day obviously, but a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon. But still, it was fantastic because you have the director, you have the person doing the actual grading on the desk with all the the hard and the software there, the director of photography, uh, a few other people on the creative team, and they really, really, really look at every single shot, every almost every single frame to determine okay, what are we gonna do here? Uh, a touch of red, uh, let's dial back the little contrast, let's increase the contrast, let's make that lampshade, for example, of that candle. Like, can we give that a little boost? Yeah, we can. Okay, how does it look in relation to everything else? It's amazing. The meticulousness of it all, it's mind-blowing. Mind-blowing. You you've or I've read about it, I've heard about it, but to to see it in action is just, yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:No, it is just a it's a different world. And these rooms are a different world. I mean, you know, we the HGA had developed an uh an incentive called International Home Cinema Day. Um, we aim to lot launch it properly in 2026, um, and and that is to open up spaces like this for people to come in. You know, you don't need any um you don't you don't need a bank balance to be able to buy one of these, but but it's just to sit in one of these spaces and be presented with a screen like that just completely blows your mind. You know, we talk about the grading, the filming, because I don't know, we're fortunate enough to have these spaces and we're we're we're spoilt because we have these spaces. Um and uh but I think these spaces are so um immersive to the individual to come sit in and experience. Looking off um ahead with Barco, obviously you can't tell us anything under NDA, but where do you see Barco going in the next five years, let's say? I mean, obviously, we're developing new incentives. This was uh open today, the new experience centre here. Is there anything on the horizon which is quite exciting for you to see which you can talk about? This is where you just say no to me or sorry, I can't say a word, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:I can talk about what we have on the market, but that's it really. Yeah. But I mean, look, you've seen you've seen what we have today on all different areas, uh, healthcare, control rooms, experience, immersive experience, cinema, of course, residential as well. So I would say we really are firing on all cylinders. Uh, based also on the feedback that we see from partners, not talking just residential now, but across uh across the company. We are, I mean, we are getting good feedback. So we'll we will continue to work on improving hardware, software, interaction, AI, of course, as you heard Piru uh mention as well, because it all ties together. We are an innovation company. When our CEO on stage in this morning was uh was uh doing the welcome for you and and you guys and doing the introduction, she mentioned it as well. Innovation is in our blood, it's in our DNA, always has been. I mean, we were founded in 1934, and here we are, 2025, still more than alive and kicking, grown, you know, from a company starting out manufacturing radios, which is actually what gave the company the name, BARCO, Belgian American Radio Corporation. Ah, okay, to where we are today. So B2B environment, and then with residential, we've got that touch point with the consumer uh electronic space or the B2C uh environment. But yeah, we're we're taking as wide a view as possible, I would say, um, all with the intention of delivering the best possible experience um for everybody in in involved there.
SPEAKER_02:I think when you have, first of all, our I if I haven't done so already, I'll insert some of the footage I got of those original um Barcomatic, wasn't mine? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I I took a bit of footage of those. Those those were those were brilliant. But um I think because you have so many rods in so many fires in the different things that you do here, from you know, control centers to click share to residential cinema to medical, obviously there is a crossover of all parties, isn't there? You know, something you might develop for Resi Cinema could be used in medical. Something that is developed for immersive experiences can come into residential or commercial cinema.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Let's take simulation for example. Thanks to our simulation warp engine or warp uh grade simulation grade warp engine, we can also use that inside our pulse-based uh projectors, which will make your live as an installer, as an integrator, easier. Because as much as, like I was saying earlier on, most of the cinemas have the projector in the middle, you know, standard procedure. But in some cases, you might be like, Oh well, if we want to give or obtain the big screen results that the client is asking for, the only way to go about that is potentially projecting placing the projector at the back of the room, vertically upwards, using a mirror mounted redirect right to the screen. And yes, we've got, like I said, a variety of lens options, a great amount of lens shift available as well, but there are limits to that kind of thing. So at a certain moment in time, you might have an image on the let's say the screen or the screen wall that is geometrically not correct. Thanks to WARP, you can correct that. Okay. Are we sacrificing some resolution? Yes. Are we sacrificing some light? Yes, but because the overall optical resolution of the complete system, talking about integrator rods, prism, uh lenses, all the optical elements combined, and then the power of the software, we can do that and still have a pixel perfect image. I mean, I can show you later on with the Heimdall what that means in reality. Some people call it voodoo and all those you know things, but it is mind-blowing and it goes way beyond standard keystone correction where just one click will destroy the definition on the screen. With warp, you can go pretty crazy. There we will tell you what the limit is in those kinds of uh project uh projects because we have calculators where we know okay, this is on the safe side, we can we can do this, and this is gonna still yield uh a high quality experience, whereas we also know where the threshold is. Well, we'll tell you don't go there, this will result in a sub-part experience. We should not be doing this. Here are the alternatives. Let's move the projector back 20 centimeters, things like that, and and do the evaluation.
SPEAKER_02:So to wrap the podcast up, um is there anything you want to mention uh about Barco, anything you've got coming up which might be exciting for integrators and consumers to see, you know, obviously we're getting close to ISC 2026.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Um so yeah, before we wrap up, is there anything you want to communicate?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for sure. I mean, by all means feel free to reach out to us on uh via the Barco website via your local distribution partner. Uh definitely come see us as IAZ because it's gonna be uh a nice demo of uh sorry, a nice set of demo experiences. Like I already mentioned, Runar DC I Lady Wall is gonna be there. We're gonna have the Heindal Plus in Muscope, and we're also gonna have our flagship Nerfus Projector again, simply because the reactions to that one uh last year, or sorry, this year, yeah, we're still 25, uh, were I mean we're off the charts and people were like, oh, we've never seen this, we didn't think that this was possible. And that's kind of the thing that we like to, let's say, elicit from people as a reaction like, I've never seen this before, I never experienced this before, I didn't know it could be this good, and so and and so on and so on. Um, apart from that, for integrators, we do offer training either here locally at Barco or we're happy to travel over to our distribution partners, two dealers on site as well, uh, for training purposes, be it design, sales, you name it. Um, because this industry, our industry, still needs that. I mean, we all benefit from from each other, learning from each other and from one another. Um again, I was gonna say silly things, but they're far from silly. But things like HDR, for example, what does it mean? How does it work? Um, also in the context of LED walls, because that's something that we, you know, that we're hearing, that we're seeing, people saying, you know, I have I've got an LED wall, it's got 1800 nit peak brightness, but still I'm watching this film and it's still looking dim, even though it's got 1800 nits. But the thing is with HDR content, it was always designed to be viewed in a darker environment. And then depending on the film, and again, depending on how the grading was done, take something like Goodfellas, for example, a few hundred knits, I forget, but it was two or three hundred knits tops in a 4000-nit container. So if your tone mapping is not right, well, that's gonna make the picture look even dimmer. But even if your tone mapping is right, the sad fact of the matter is, I say sad fact, the fact of the matter is that that film was graded to 200-300 nits. So indeed, if you're watching that in a living room with lots of ambient daylight flooding in, you are indeed gonna perceive that as being pretty dim. Yeah. Whereas if you're gonna throw on Aquaman to give another extreme, or the mech, for example, that's got thousands of nits pumped into it. So that is gonna that is gonna elicit the response like, oh see, this is what it's supposed to be like. But the thing is, it's not it, it is what it's supposed to look like, but so was Goodfellas, or so is Blade Runner 2049. It's just that, like I said, HDR was designed to be viewed in a darkened environment. So that's also something that we need to educate our partners on, and uh partners need to educate the end customer about because if the client is thinking um I'm gonna be watching Blade Runner 2049 in my uh in my living space, it's just not gonna yield the uh the viewing experience that they're after, most likely. In the nighttime, for sure, if they're gonna be watching cycling, the news, football matches, playing video games, you name it, let's say more SDR content or or stuff that we know is gonna be uh graded at a higher knit value, that is gonna be a different uh different topic. It's gonna be absolutely fine.
SPEAKER_02:But again, talking, explaining it's that initial conversation having with the discovery. The discovery, yeah, yeah. I always remember uh Greg, I think it was from THX, um, who used to do a lock training and calibrating course for CHX. Long story short, he calibrated a person's system in America, went back to where he was, gets a phone from the client, client turns around and says, What have you done? You've ruined my system. He was really confused, didn't know what he'd done wrong. As far as he was aware, he'd done everything within his possible remit to do it right. He knows he had his own m material that he calibrated the projectors to, jumped on a plane, went back to the client's house, and he said, Look, what's wrong? Client puts on the matrix, says it's green. Oh yeah. The projector wasn't calibrated well enough at the beginning to show that when Neo is in the Matrix, the film has a green tint to it. Didn't realise, so he thought it was completely wrong. Um, and there are, as you say, there's little elements like that in movies which will work in some rooms, will work, will not work in other rooms, or will work but not give you that experience.
SPEAKER_01:Same with the audio side of things, yeah. I mean, you can have the best sounding system in the world, best engineered in the in the most optic optimally acoustically treated room. But if you're gonna play some content that is heavily compressed, well yeah, it's probably not gonna sound or yield to the result that you're after.
SPEAKER_02:Well, like we we were saying earlier about the the compressed side of like Apple TV to the uncompressed side of obviously DCI but also kaleidoscape. Yeah, correct. So you're missing out on something like five times the audio quality when you're watching it via streaming than when you're watching it via a a stored physical device uh or stored media on a kaleidoscope.
SPEAKER_01:Bitrate matters. Also, you're not at the mercy of your internet connection. So those things indeed do matter.
SPEAKER_02:Excellent. Well, look, thank you for your time. Pleasure. Bit of a fun question, which I briefed your PR company on before I came out, but they didn't tell you about it. So we like to wrap up with a little bit of a uh a fun question. So if we pack all this equipment away now, I've got to get on a train, so I'm gonna go. Um but if you were gonna watch a film in this room this afternoon, what would you? What would your favourite film be? You can have a couple, don't worry, you can have two or three. But if you were gonna sit in this room this afternoon and watch your favorite film, what would that film be?
SPEAKER_01:This afternoon, I I'm feeling something like pulp fiction. Okay. Because the 4K version of that is just looks stunning. So that would be more for the film and the overall film experience. I mean, this isn't, you know, immersive audio demo and and whatnot. If we were looking to something more uh, let's say, you know, really putting your entire system uh to the test. Yeah, Blader 2049 is still up there for me. Yeah. Everything, the audio, the video, the story, it's it's one of those films.
SPEAKER_02:I listened to that at a UK distributor the other day. Um and I haven't heard it again in a while, and just yeah, where there's a scene where the car has a shortage and lands on a planet and yeah, and just the yeah, it is a phenomenal film. Suction cups, yeah. And when you watch it in a room like this and you've just got the sound Dune, you know, Dune's one of those ones which a friend of ours says that's a speaker killer, because in certain scenes the the bass is just so like you can feel it in your chest. But um, but no, well, look, thanks for today. It's been an absolute honour, and thank you for inviting us over. Um, it's been brilliant to see a space like this, but for me personally, the geek side of me, it's been uh it's been great to see all the other areas that Barco are in. Um and and also, yeah, you know, some people would say, some people would say, oh, that's the boring part of the tour, the lab tour. But for the for the geek, for the technologist, that was brilliant to see the the degrees that that Barco go to to test. I mean, the drop in a box for shipment, yeah, to to to electrical interference from one of their products. I mean, hats off to you guys. You all do a fantastic job in a stunning building. And I stayed in the town last night in a stunning town. Yeah. So but so thank you very much for your time and uh thank you. Hopefully, we'll pick this up at maybe at ISE 2026 and we'll we'll catch up then. Sounds like a pleasure. Excellent bar. Thank you very much for your time.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you very much for having me.
SPEAKER_02:Cheers, mate.
SPEAKER_01:Cheers.