Scenario 2: The portable projector will become as prolific as the VCR has in both the professional and consumer worlds.

Today, VCRs are everywhere. A few years ago, I read a statistic that said there were more VCRs in the USA than there were homes. Apparently, this is because many of us have more than one.

But, one thing is for sure, the VCR changed the way we all watch and use TVs. But, it didn't start in the home. Like the projector market, the VCR started as a VTR (video tape recorder) in the professional AV/production markets. It revolutionized production, distribution and display of visual information. Everyone agrees with that.

But, will the projector change the viewing habits of America in the same way the VCR did? That's the question here.

Setting price aside (if you can, as the price of a projector is 10 times the price of the average VCR), it is possible. So, if the price of a projector were closer to the price of a TV, would the average American shell over $500 - $1000 to have a TV anywhere and everywhere they want to watch it?

Right now, we are limited to where we watch TV. Most homes have TVs in the family room or the den and each night we gather to watch the latest castaway on Survivor get booted or Regis make another Millionaire after suffering through 14 separate "Is that you final answer" monologues. But, what about the super-bowl or any big televised event for that matter? We gather around friends and most of us stare at 25" sets that pipe in cable-TV quality video (the second lowest form of video on the food chain of video - behind Hotel or Bar TV, of course) and we strain to see everything or jockey for the best seat in the house.

But, what if you could carry your TV around in the palm of your hand, plug it in anywhere and blast a video picture on any wall in the house or even on the entire wall? Seem impossible? Seem unlikely? Well, consider the rapid progression of light output in the average portable or conference room projector. In fact, a few manufacturers showed 1000 ANSI lumens, 3-pound boxes at INFOCOMM. Isn't that close enough?

Well, we still have the price to deal with, but if the projector keeps getting smaller and brighter and if technologies like LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) actually accomplish the $999 projector they are claiming will come by the end of next year, it could be closer than we think. If that does happen, that's 90 million homes in the US alone that are potential customers!

So, will it happen? No one can predict that, but it is possible that is may happen one day. There are a host of projector manufacturers hoping it will.

Stay tuned next Wednesday for Part 3

Read Part 1

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Gary Kayye is Principal of Kayye Consulting, a firm that specializes in providing marketing consulting, telephony integration and training development to the professional audiovisual industry. He spent 12 years at Extron and AMX as VP of Sales and Marketing before founding his own firm. He can be reached at www.kayye.com or via e-mail at gkayye@kayye.com. He is also the volunteer chairman of the PETC. He also founded KNews.