Christie Sapphire and Spyder-S: Reshaping broadcast and AV
From the biggest music festivals like Coachella and Glastonbury to spectacular projection mapping shows and theatre performances, live events have the power to engage audiences and deliver memories that last a lifetime. Delivering the stunning shows that audiences expect—the lights, dazzling displays, and all-encompassing sound—requires robust technology. Crucial to the success of these events is AV solutions that are designed to create seamless, reliable workflows and stunning visual displays.
Christie AV technology, including our new 3DLP hybrid RGB laser projector and multi-screen windowing processor, is engineered to meet the demanding requirements of live events. Let’s examine the technology and how it’s designed to meet the needs of rental and staging companies and event producers.
High-brightness projectors for demanding applications
Live events require flexible, reliable display solutions, and this is where Christie excels. We understand that the market is different from others—it requires robust solutions that can withstand the rigours of events. We know the biggest challenge in events is never letting a show go dark.
That is why we developed projection solutions like our new Sapphire 4K40-RGBH, which combines an RGB pure laser light source with a dual laser phosphor system into the world’s first high-brightness, hybrid laser projector. It offers 36,400 lumens of brightness, native 4K clarity, and DCI-P3 colour to create the vivid visuals that audiences expect.
With all the connection you need built in, the Sapphire 4K40-RGBH is an ideal solution for live events.
The Sapphire 4K40-RGBH offers front- and rear-projection versatility and is equipped to help you deploy the projector into events with confidence: Rental and staging companies with Christie projectors in their fleet will be pleased to learn that Sapphire is compatible with all Christie 3DLP 4K ILS4 lenses and Christie Griffyn Series rigging handles.
Electronic colour convergence (ECC) allows you to easily adjust colour alignment via remote control (which means no more climbing ladders to make manual adjustments on a rigged projector!). With our TruLife+ electronics, the connections you need are built in, including quad 12G-SDI with full-size BNC’s, three HDMI connections, four DisplayPort connections, and more. For events that require multi-projector arrays, built-in Christie Twist provides image warping and blending.
The Sapphire 4K40-RGBH, the world’s first high-brightness projector with hybrid illumination, made its debut at ISE 2025.
Raising the bar for compositing and processing
Creating complete source-to-display solutions is our forte. We recently introduced Spyder-S Series, a new multi-screen windowing and image processing technology that works seamlessly with display solutions from Christie and others on the market.
Spyder-S Series, with five variants, turns everything you know about multi-screen windowing and processing upside down. Its modular, distributed architecture lets you create exactly the system you need—nothing more – to move beyond traditional “one-size-fits-all” solutions.
For example, a smaller event might need only one or two Spyder-S nodes, while a larger event could use four or more. And different Spyder-S models can be selected to match an event’s requirements. The Spyder-S HDMI 2.0 model can be used with a show that’s all HDMI. If you have a mix of signals, different Spyder-S models can be combined to create exactly the system that you need.
Spyder-S Series features two modes that are not exclusive to each other. In canvas mode, you can create pixel space or pixel spaces from multiple displays where sources can be displayed at any size or anywhere. The unique distributed architecture uses 100G network connections to join up to 16 nodes and expand inputs, outputs, and canvas size, allowing you to create an almost infinite number of configurations.
Spyder-S allows you to assign each output to display sources as Full (aux out), Quad-Split, or 4×4 multi-viewer. Sources can be assigned to any of the destinations simultaneously, placed at different locations, and you can use a mix to transition to a new source.
With multi-viewer functionality on all regular outputs, sources aren’t shown over a background, and you can subdivide your sources into different arrays. Sources are shown at the sizes you choose during configuration, allowing you to switch or mix the source into any output, quadrant, or multi-viewer tile. Each tile, whether half or quarter-sized, can transition between two sources.
Content management for live events
Like the Spyder-S Series, our Pandoras Box series of software and hardware tools works behind the scenes of live events to deliver on-stage or on-screen magic. Pandoras Box Software is a powerful tool for show set-up and control that enables operators to bring elements of a show together including lighting, audio, real-time special effects, and content, and to ensure that the display technology outputs a perfect image.
Pandoras Box pairs with our ID Tags, which use an optical transmission system, for smooth real-time tracking for interactive projections, camera automation, audio and stage tracking, and lighting controls. Each tag can be addressed with a unique ID, and users can track up to 256 unique IDs within a single setup in real time!
For events of all kinds, Christie has the robust, reliable, and flexible solutions you need to leave a lasting impression on audiences. For more information, check out our solutions for live events.
Learn more about Christie Spyder-S and Sapphire below:
