Projectiondesign, which hails from Fredrikstad, Norway, is a quality high-tech manufacturer perhaps best known in the professional arena, but with a raft of mid-to high-end projectors intended for domestic use.

It goes without saying that the avielo range (no capital A: that's Scandinavians for you) is at the top end of its consumer offerings and is based on the architecture of its professional products, which are widely used in the movie-making process – including the post-production of Earth, which I ended up using as my main demo disc.

Projectiondesign's products are designed by the same people who create Koenigsegg cars and (more importantly) with the same unsparing ethos. These are not warm words: I have toured the factory (projectiondesign and Koenigsegg) and spoken to the boffins in the backrooms, and I know how meticulous they are. The machines are hand-built in-house, and internally calibrated to D65, with internal settings (should you need them) squirrelled away in cold store at the factory.

The optix reviewed here (no capital O either...) is one of the five-strong avielo range, second only to a three-chip DLP beast dubbed the helios. It's a single-chip model, using the latest high-contrast TI chipset, DarkChip 4, chosen over any of the LCD alternatives for various reasons, not the least of which is its inherent longevity.

The optix also takes an alternative approach to getting more light onto the screen, by using Projectiondesign's proprietary DuArch architecture. This involves two 300W lamps and two colour wheels, and allows the lamps to be hot-swapped if one fails, and gives good performance even from a single lamp. The disadvantage of this tech is higher electricity consumption, and a more-than-usually-powerful fan cooling system, which though not noisy, is certainly not as quiet as some less well-endowed PJs.

Setup and go

RealColor is Projectiondesign's implementation of an accurate colour management system for projectors. It allows reasonably simple calibration and setup to any desired white point and greyscale tracking, with a minimum amount of effort.

The RealColor software suite built into the unit's firmware gives access to necessary colour management adjustments; light output and contrast can be further tweaked in other ways, too, in particular using a dual iris which eliminates the usual step ladder geometric problems that are part and parcel of conventional digital keystone correction.

As for the unit itself, it's a bit of a looker, despite its hefty bulk. The optix is available in etruscan bronze (pictured here) or pearl white, and boasts some streamlined curves.

It's worth having a shufti at the backside, too. The connections are unusual, in that there's only a single HDMI input (the second digital option is DVI), and it's joined by BNC jacks, as well as the usual analogue sockets. Twin 12V triggers, an RS232 control port and a USB jack (for firmware updates) are also present. Biggest talking point is the tiny LCD screen, which lets you keep track of picture adjustments, source and lamp modes.

In use

It's not hyperbole to say I was bowled over by this model. The avielo optix is an astonishing projector, offering amazing detail and dynamics. Although small colour balance errors are not always obvious in practice, it was apparent from the beginning that the visual field was remarkably evenly-lit, and for reasons that are not entirely clear, there was less glare than experienced from other projectors. I have seen few others – if any – that can hold a candle to the optix in this respect. This beauty's pictures are unusually easy on the eye.