There is a very interesting article from Engadget, about a new large-screen laser-projected HDTV which was engineered by former laser show producer and ILDA Member Chris Stuart.  Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called it “the best 3D solution out there” according to Engadget.

I had the pleasure of working with Chris in 2001, at the Detroit Auto Show where the laser show was controlled from a hidden platform directly beneath three 1960′s-era Ford GT racing cars being throttled at full blast — the loudest thing I’ve ever experienced. At the 2008 ILDA Conference on the Carnival Imagination, Chris showed ILDA Members deep-blue Necsel diode lasers, which his then-company Novalux was working on for laser video projectors.

Chris Stuart shows a 6W deep-blue laser to ILDA Conference attendees

The Engadget article goes into great depth about Chris’s current project, a 103″ laser-projected 3D HDTV from his current company HDI where he is Director of Technology. The article describes watching 3D content and playing videogames on a 97″ prototype that has the screen in one room and the laser optics in another. (The final 103″ version will use “a custom curved optics solution that will bend and direct laser light within a 10-inch deep cabinet.”)

Chris is in the first Flash video on the site; he is on the right in the light polo shirt. In the video Chris takes Engadget’s Darren Murph through a 3D demo that HDI got “from a company up in Seattle” — maybe Lightspeed Design, also a major light show producer and ILDA contributor in the 1990s. Murph was very impressed. He wrote that “without a doubt, HDI’s 3D HDTV was the best in-home 3D product that we’ve had the pleasure of viewing … HDI has the immersive factor nailed…. it’s pretty safe to say that we’re fans of this whole laser thing.”

The article is interesting both from a laser standpoint and in describing how a startup tries to break into the big time. HDI talked with major TV companies such as Sony and Toshiba about licensing their 3D technology, but eventually decided to produce the set themselves. The 103″ version will cost between $10,000 and $15,000 which sounds expensive. However, non-3D 103″ sets out there from Panasonic and Bang & Olufsen currently sell for $40,000 to $95,000 which makes HDI’s 3D version a bargain.

Check out the article for many more fascinating details. And congratulations to Chris, one of the nicest people in the laser show and display industry!