Walt Disney World uses sharper projection in new holiday shows

Wow! The photos of the Chinese theater projections are amazing. Are the projectors using laser?

I'm not sure if they're using laser powered projectors (which is a weird term because while the light source may be a laser, it's not really a laser when it's "unfocused"), but the article was referring to the typical laser show stuff they do over the plaza. The projectors themselves are plainly visible in huge boxes on the ground in front of the theater, assuming they're using the same setup they did for the Star Wars shows.

They are using Christie Boxer 4K30 projectors that have a 30,000 lumen output. No lasers involved :)

I figured they weren't laser based, but only because the stuff I've seen in pictures has been housed in racks. And 30,000 lumens, holy crap. I'd love to know the lamp budget on those things!

I can't recall the lamp price offhand but unlike projectors used in the past these new ones use six smaller lamps instead of one big one. So replacement shouldn't be as costly and can be done in stages. These projectors have only been in use for a few months so a replacement hasn't been needed yet. Also these are the same model that Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, and Disneyland/CA use.

The lamps for those are under $1000 each. The first time we replaced ours we'd do it when they still had 1/2 of the hours remaining on them, then used those ones for spares. That way in the future you could get away with spreading out the cost by replacing 1/2 at a time instead of having to replace them all at once. Also the bulbs do lose brightness over time, so if you alternate replacing half of them, the dimming isn't as noticeable. I imagine Disney doesn't have my budgeting concerns, however.