Today, Leica — yes, the camera company — announced its first ultra-short throw (UST) laser projector at the big IFA show in Germany, capable of producing a 4K image of up to 100 inches with Dolby Atmos sound.

This isn’t Leica’s first foray into the digital projector it was once sold under pradovita brand. It is also collaborating with other projector manufacturers, including obscure UST model since last year.

The announcement was light on details, so my colleague John Porter followed up with a demonstration of an early Cine 1 prototype at the Leica booth. Here we learned from Ross Slavov, head of product management at Leica’s newly formed Smart Projection business unit, about the company’s current thinking on specs, pricing and delivery dates, all of which Slavov warned against. can change before release.

Photo by John Porter/The Verge

The first thing to know about the Leica Cine 1 projector is that there are actually two of them in development, both using Leica lenses. One can produce about 2500 lumens to project a 100-inch 4K 60Hz image at a distance of 30cm (about 12 inches) from a display wall, while the other produces 2100 lumens to project an 80-inch image from a distance of 15cm Can do. about six inches). Leica notes that each projector is tuned for each display size and doesn’t recommend moving them closer or further away from the wall. USTs look best with ambient light rejection (ALR) screens, which Leica will also be happy to sell you for about $1,800 for a larger screen, or about $1,600 for an 80-inch screen.

According to Slavov, the 100-inch Cine 1 model is expected to sell for $7,900, while the 80-inch projector will cost around $6,900. Yes, it is expensive for these specifications, but it’s leaky,

Leica partnered with Hisense for the Triple RGB Laser Light Engine, which is something of a trend As the originator of Laser TV. It uses a DLP chip from Texas Instruments. The latency is around 30ms, which is fine for some casual gaming.

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As for ports, the prototype has three HDMI totals (one HDMI 2.1 port with eARC), one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0, a built-in TV tuner, and a Common Interface slot. The US version will “probably” run Android TV. Leica is hoping that the projector will come with 4.2 Atmos-certified audio.

Remember, all this is the current thinking of the company and is, therefore, subject to change. Leica is targeting a Q2 2023 release for Europe, Q3 for China, and Q4 for the US.