Crystal View To Replace Vidikron
By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 6/24/2002
HILLSIDE, N.J.— High-end video projector manufacturer Vidikron America dissolved this month after the firm's only secured creditor, Markland Technologies, elected to pull its funding. But a new company formed by Vidikron's service agent and its former general manager has risen from the ashes.
The new company, Crystal View Inc., was born last week after David Wolff, former Vidikron general manager, and Gary Guidi, president of HI-REZ Projections, the service company for Vidikron products, purchased Vidikron's inventory and service and parts departments.
The new company will continue to service Vidikron projectors (and will honor standing warranties) at its Ashland, Mass., facility and will also begin selling new projectors under the Crystal View brand from its sales office in Ambler, Pa. (215-643-6300), Guidi said.
The relationship between Guidi and Wolff started after HI-REZ Technologies was chosen to handle Vidikron's warranty and support services "and began turning things around," Guidi said.
"The old [service] problems they had were disappearing, the dealers were beginning to see the difference, but then the funding was pulled. We are going to pick up [with Crystal View] exactly where we left off [with Vidikron]."
Guidi said that his Hi-REZ Technologies has serviced Vidikron products for 12 years, and had been selling on the Internet updated, remanufactured projectors based on the same Vidikron chassis.
"I know that chassis very well," Guidi said.
Initially, Crystal View will carry three CRT-based front projector models [tentatively named Crystal View 1, Crystal View 2 and Crystal View 3]. They are expected to sell for between $28,000-$60,000. Though they correspond to the Vidikron's Vision 1, Vision 2 and Vision 3 projectors, Wolff said the Crystal View projectors have been updated and improved (explaining the somewhat higher prices), and will carry two-year warranties instead of Vidikron's one-year warranty policy. The company will distribute its lines to custom home theater installers, and will calibrate projectors to Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) specifications after the installation is complete.
Guidi vowed that all Crystal View projectors would be quality-control inspected before delivery, and will feature all of the technological superiority of prior Vidikron designs, "along with service support beyond [the dealers'] wildest dreams."
