At CEDIA Expo 2026 in Denver, the SIM2 UltraNero 4S DUO received a 2026 CE Pro BEST Product Award in the Projectors category. The awards are judged completely independently by CE Pro editors and other industry experts, on design and technological innovation, the most important functional features of the product, and how it stands out from others in its category.
Two projectors. One image. Each seeing what the other cannot.
Every projector has to fit the full range of a mastered image into the light it can actually produce. Highlights are protected at the expense of shadows, or brightness at the expense of depth. One engine, one interpretation, one compromise, and on the largest screens that compromise becomes visible.
The UltraNero 4S DUO divides the work between two specialized imaging engines. They are not identical twins. One is tuned around the brilliance and energy of highlights; the other carries its own high-contrast optical configuration, its own lens and its own HDR calibration, tuned around depth, tonal separation and shadow detail. Each follows its own HDR curve and tone mapping.
What makes them one projector rather than two is everything built around them. Electrically controlled micrometric optical shift and precision warping hold the images in pixel-accurate convergence. The combined EOTF, HDR tone mapping and calibration were redesigned from scratch to manage the interaction between the two engines. The result is not simply double the brightness: it is additional luminance converted into usable dynamic range, with black level, highlight detail and overall balance preserved.
What the second engine actually buys. The measured color gamut stays DCI-P3, while the available color volume doubles compared with a single engine, so colors keep their richness at HDR brightness instead of washing out. In front of the screen the gain is larger than the measurement: viewers perceive up to 30% more contrast and up to 50% richer color saturation. That is where the sense of depth and realism comes from, and it is the reason the DUO is worth seeing rather than reading about.
Up to 12,000 lumen, operating noise below 33 dB, in a system compact enough for a private cinema rather than a projection booth.
This is what Seeing First means in practice. Human vision performs best within a specific brightness range: inside it, the pupil constricts, depth of field increases, detail sharpens and the retina resolves greater local contrast and richer color. The question SIM2 asked was not how many lumen can be produced, but how many of them the eye will actually turn into better image quality. The UltraNero 4S DUO exists to place the picture inside that range and keep it there.
The UltraNero 4S DUO is running in Sound Room #8 for the duration of CEDIA Expo, alongside two Seeing First presentations by Professor Alan Chalmers of WMG, University of Warwick, on Wednesday and Thursday, each followed immediately by a live demonstration in the same room.
It is also one of three new projectors SIM2 introduced at CEDIA Expo 2026, alongside the UltraNero 4S and the UltraNero 4S HC.
SIM2 engineering. Built around human vision.