Christie
Digital and Film Projectors For Any Application
“When we wanted to transition our older generation projector models to a more modern look and feel, Design 1st was a valuable asset. Given the depth of their design and engineering experience as well as their core competencies in areas such as injection plastics, tooling strategies and manufacturing, Design 1st immediately understood what was needed. They worked with our internal engineering team all the way through the process to provide us with compatible solutions to meet our needs.”
George Tsintzouras
Director of Product Management, Business Products
The industry is going digital in the cinema world. Movies now move from the studios to the theatres over the internet and arrive directly into each projector’s secure electronic brain. Musical events, business, government, houses of worship and entertainment venues require reliable, high quality projectors provided by manufacturers such as Christie. Design 1st has supported Christie with definition of the Industrial Design and in some cases the mechanical design for a variety of projector lines including Cinema projectors (Christie CP2000-ZX, CP2000-M) and the Christie M Series, an award-winning line of 3-chip DLP® business projectors.
Project
Christie required a design company that had both Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering skills to work with their already talented in-house optical, mechanical and electronics teams. Design 1st was hired for their leadership in Industrial Design planning and mechanical engineering knowledge to help develop the external housings for the next-generation of cinema projectors and event/business projector lines.
Summary
In 2006, the Christie team first approached Design 1st to transition some of their older generation projector product lines into the new generation look and feel. Starting with the visual cues from a wide range of existing Christie projectors, Design 1st maintained the visual ‘DNA’ and brought a clean classic consistency to the new products. Design 1st also brought value to the team as experienced large injection plastic part designers including introducing a new supplier. Working closely with the Christie development team the results were elegant robust designs in keeping with the product specifications and evolving brand requirements for the already well recognized global Christie brand. Three years later the Design 1st team continues to bring Industrial design planning to the newest of the Christie projector family. With over 75,000 projection solutions installed worldwide, Christie is a global leader in visual solutions for the entertainment, business, government and industry markets
Solution
Design 1st moved quickly from ideas to concept sketches, providing the Christie team with wide selection of rendered sketch families to choose from that also fit closely with the technical mechanical internal ‘engine’ that was being planned in parallel. From the form to color, keys, display and labelling, the Design 1st team pulled from the visual elements of the existing Christie line while extending the Christie brand with the refreshed and original designs.
Benefits
Working with the Christie team, Design 1st created carefully designed parts and assemblies that balanced cost, quality and manufacturing. Christie benefited from the ease of which the Design 1st team interfaced with their team and the Design 1st responsiveness including an onsite stay while the engineering was being finalized.
Company Profile
Christie, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ushio, Inc., Japan, (JP:6925), is a leader in visual solutions for world-class organizations, offering diverse applications for business, entertainment, and industry. A leading innovator in film projection since 1929 and a pioneer in digital projection systems since 1979, Christie have established a global reputation as a total service provider and the world's single source manufacturer of a variety of display technologies and solutions. With the acquisition of Vista Controls Systems, Corp., Christie offers the most complete and advanced solutions for cinema, live venues, control rooms, business presentations, training facilities, 3D and Virtual Reality, simulation and education as well as industrial and government environments.
