Product news
The room size, the width and length of the room, the size of the audience, the distance between the screen and the projector and where the projector will be placed are all important parameters to consider when choosing a projector that produces a TCO Image Size large enough. Use the diagram clic here to get the TCO Image Size you need.
Yesterday I promised all of you more information related to our latest certification TCO Certified Projectors 1.0. Today I explain the main reason to why TCO Development decided to develop TCO Certified for projectors. …..The amount of question on projectors increased– what to think about when buying a projector and how to adjust the projector to get the optimal picture were common questions. Good picture quality and low noise are key factors when choosing a projector. During our development we found:
• Product specifications presenting an extensive list of values that most people have difficulties understanding.
• Most values presented are measured with the projector set to its extreme to maximise this single value. This means that neither are the values true information nor are product specifications possible to compare.
• Trying to understand how to combine the values to choose projector for the intended use is a challenge.
We also know that some parameters need to be within a certain range to produce a high quality picture. Those are; light output, resolution, contrast, black level, luminance uniformity, colour temperature, RGB colour gamut and colour gray scale.
Another important parameter to consider when buying a projector is in what ambient lighting condition the projector will be used in. With these issues in mind we found that most users knows how big picture size they want to have and if the projector will be used for watching film or show PowerPoint’s on. The solution is TCO Image Size – the maximum area for which the projector has been tested with all important visual ergonomic criteria considered for producing a high quality picture. TCO Image Size is tested for two ambient lighting conditions office and video. With lightning condition office the room is enlightened to allow you to take notes. In lightning condition video the room is dark but not darker than you are able to get another cup of coffee without falling over you best friend.
Conclusion – when buying a projector in the future you only have to ask for TCO Image Size for office or video purpose.
Here you find more information on TCO Image Size and how TCO Certified for Projectors will support you.
Today at an NEC Nordic partner event in Saltsjöbaden, outside Stockholm, TCO Development handed over the first certificates of TCO Certified Projectors 1.0 to NEC.
We are happy to have NEC as our first customer on TCO Certified projectors. For me personally it was very rewarding to participate in the event and get positive feedback on all the work we have put in to this project for the last two years. There is more to read at our web site. will get back to all of you with more information on the products and how we hope the criterions will be useful for you when you consider buying a projector next time I am blogging!
Work noise increases risk of hearing loss but very few are aware of the fact that chemical substances increases the risk for hearing damage.
Some chemical substances, ototoxic substances, may affect your hearing. Solvents, some metals (lead, mercury and manganese) and respiratory inhibition substances (carbon monoxide and cyanide) have negative effects. A simultaneous exposure to noise, styrene and toluene increases the risk of hearing damage 10-20 times compared with only noise exposure. Other factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking and certain drugs neomycin and salicylates may increase the risk of hearing loss at noise exposure.
Working with solvents hazardous for your hearing http://www.hear-it.org/page.dsp?page=2339
Staying at our holiday home in the Stockholm archipelago and getting ready to watch my favorite TV program, Midsummer Murders, a bad or frozen picture is annoying. When Sweden switched to digital TV we purchased a set top box for our of CRT TV. Even during the analogue era the TV signal was poor but switching to digital transmission hasn´t fixed the problem fully. So now we need to figure out how to solve it and we started with a new rabbit style antenna, trying to find the best placement for a good signal strength - not always most preferable for other activities. In order to get a high quality connection we need to continue finding a solution in a systematic way. We have identified that a change to an employ a directional antenna outdoors, aligned with the transmitting location might solve the problem –hope it will work. I found easy to understand and useful information on digital TV and what equipment to use at:
Canada´s office of consumer affairs
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/oca-bc.nsf/eng/h_ca02404.html#SetTopBoxes
Which
http://www.which.co.uk/advice/digital-tv-options/equipment-for-tv/index.jsp
http://www.dtv.gov/
Listening to music at high volume in headphones and use of headsets in noisy environments could be the reason to increase of hearing impairments among youngsters. Stress and psychosocial factors is another.
According to figures published by Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Association of Hard of Hearing People, the proportion of hearing impaired people has increased by more than 14% between 1985 and 2005 and there is a trend that this figure is increasing. Another finding is that we normally connect hard of hearing with older people but today the greatest increase is among people below 30 years old. In order to get more knowledge on what causes this increase The Centre for Hearing- and Communication Research at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm has received 5 million Swedish crowns yearly for 10 years from Swedish council for working life and social research, http://www.fas.se/default____206.aspx.
Eight senior researchers will build three research themes:
1. Epidemiologic studies in order to find risk factor with connection to genetic conditions.
2. The connection between the body’s biological processes and how hearing damages arise.
3. Psychosocial factors.
TCO Development participates in the reference group and will be able to transfer research results to the manufacturing industry through our requirements and test methods in the TCO certification for headsets.
You find more information about the Center for Hearing and Communication Research at http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=15453&a=42598&l=en
Noise pollution is an ever-increasing problem in modern technological society.
It is well documented that repeated exposure to even moderate levels of noise can be dangerous for your health, but we often underestimate the more pervasive physiological and psychological effects. The World Health Organization has identified these main health risks that noise in the workplace can cause:
• pain and hearing fatigue;
• hearing impairment including tinnitus;
• annoyance;
• interference with social behavior (aggressiveness, protest and helplessness);
• interference with speech communication;
• sleep disturbance and all its consequences on a long and short term basis;
• cardiovascular effects;
• hormonal responses (stress hormones) and their possible consequences on human metabolism (nutrition) and immune system;
• performance at work and school.
In your workplace, think of these common sources of ambient noise: continuous hum from a ventilation system or a computer or intermittent noise from office equipment. Open office landscapes can also add to the noise level as phone conversations and general discussions are more audible throughout the office.
Some advice for creating an office environment with an acceptable noise level:
• Keep noise down to healthy sound levels in a 45 to 60 dB(A) range that neither affects the ability to concentrate without being distracted nor the ability to hear the spoken word (well below the range for possible hearing damage).
• Locate co-workers according to the organizational structure, work task and project membership.
• Allocate separate rooms for meetings, phone calls and quiet tasks.
• Furnish walls, ceilings, and other large surfaces with sound absorptive materials.
• Separate workplaces with sound absorbing screens.
TCO Development has a co-operation with Ecophon on solutions for sound in offices. For more information http://www.ecophon.com/ .
Projected images – you see them everywhere – in both public and professional settings for advertising, information to large audiences as well as home cinema for entertainment or replacing the TV. Projector users demand high image quality and top performance. With this in mind, TCO Development is in the process of finalizing a TCO Certified projectors standard – the first in the world to combine performance and environmental factors for this rapidly growing product group.
An important part of thee standards development process is to talk to product users. So
we asked purchasers and end users what they demanded from a projector. Their main answers were good picture quality and low noise. Then we asked how they decided what projector to buy. The most popular answers were high contrast and luminance values. We were surprised that almost no-one we surveyed knew about the importance of matching projector choice to the intended operating environment – lighting conditions, noise levels, viewing distance from the image etc. There was also very little knowledge about the actual energy consumption of a projector, for example in comparison to a big screen TV.
To get a better understanding of what to demand from a projector, TCO Development tested some projectors for light output, contrast, noise level and energy consumption, and found that the test results and values declared in the product information didn’t correspond. The declared values were often approx 30% higher than the test results on light output and contrast.
Therefore, TCO Development decided that there is a need for a label that makes is easy to choose projectors designed for both usability and environment and that accurately reports the performance of the product. The TCO environmental impact criteria set limitations on hazardous substances and energy consumption as well as requirements for recycling. The usability criteria aim to give the user high image quality and low noise. Today image quality is related to light output measured in ANSI lumen and contrast ratio. Most users have difficulties in relating image quality to these abstract values but they know which picture size they want to have a high picture quality with. TCO Development has developed a requirement aiming to provide a good picture on a maximum projected screen size, the TCO Image Size.
We believe that the TCO certification for projectors will be a useful tool for users to choose a projector that meets their performance needs and environmental goals.
