Panasonic Targets Sim Projector Market

Panasonic just made a move that tells you everything about where the simulator industry is headed.

The company partnered with Purum L&T to supply 4K LCD projectors built specifically for the screen golf market — not adapted or repurposed, but engineered from the ground up for simulator bays.

When Panasonic — one of the largest electronics companies on the planet — decides to build purpose-built hardware for simulator bays, it’s not a trend anymore. It’s an industry.

What Panasonic Actually Did

The partnership, announced June 25, pairs Panasonic’s manufacturing muscle with Purum L&T’s South Korean service network. The target: commercial screen golf facilities that need reliable, high-resolution projection at scale.

The projectors themselves are 4K LCD units with laser light sources and a specific throw ratio (1.09–1.77:1) engineered for the unique demands of a simulator bay. They mount above the kiosk, putting the light path out of the golfer’s stance area. No silhouette on the screen. No shadow interference. That’s the single biggest complaint in indoor golf, and Panasonic solved it at the hardware level.

But here’s the detail that jumped out at me. The CEO of Panasonic Projector, Kim Dong-hyun, specifically called out the need to “scale maintenance and installation services” for commercial golf businesses. That’s a sign that Panasonic sees this as a long-term category, not a one-off product.

Laser light source means 20,000 hours of consistent brightness. No lamp replacements. No gradual dimming. For a commercial facility running 12 hours a day, that’s about four and a half years of maintenance-free operation.

Why This Matters for Home Builders

You’re probably reading this thinking “cool, but I’m building a garage sim, not a commercial facility.” Fair point.

Panasonic already has a dedicated Vivid Green mode developed in collaboration with golf simulation manufacturers. It enhances contrast, reproduces natural turf colors, and is tuned specifically for golf sim software. That wasn’t built for commercial centers — it’s built for the entire category. And it’s available on Panasonic projectors you can buy today.

The PT-VMZ6ST and PT-VMZ82 series are already on the market and used by home builders. The PT-VMZ82 puts out 8,000 lumens with WUXGA resolution and a laser light source. It accepts 4K input signals. It has a 1.09–1.77:1 throw ratio that fits most standard room depths.

When a company like Panasonic gets serious about a category, it does a few things:

It drives competition. BenQ already has the AK700ST golf simulator-specific projector that won the COMPUTEX Best Choice Award this month. Our best projector for golf simulator guide covers the full market, including 4K models, laser options, garage-specific builds, and new Optoma series. Now Panasonic is coming with dedicated hardware and a service network. That means Optoma, Epson, and LG are all going to have to respond. Competition is good for pricing.

It validates the market. Grand View Research projected the global golf simulator market would hit $2.3 billion by 2026. That number felt abstract. Now Panasonic is building projectors for it. That’s not abstract. That’s “we believe this market will exist for the next decade” money.

It creates options at more price points. Commercial-grade laser projectors start around $2,500 and go up to $6,000+. As more manufacturers enter the space and volume increases, those prices will come down. The laser projector that costs $3,000 today will cost $2,000 in two years. The one that costs $2,000 will be $1,200.

The Shadow Problem

Let me spend a second on the shadow issue, because if you’ve ever hit balls in a simulator with a poorly placed projector, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

You step into the bay. You address the ball. You take a swing. And your silhouette flashes across the screen right as the club hits the ball. It’s distracting. It breaks immersion. And in some setups, it makes reading your ball flight impossible until the ball is already past the shadows.

Panasonic’s solution is mounting the projector above the kiosk with a specific throw ratio that puts the light path above the golfer’s head. The new Purum L&T partnership makes this the standard for commercial installs.

For home builders, the lesson is: short-throw or ultra-short-throw projectors mounted above and behind the hitting area. That’s the setup that eliminates shadows. Don’t ceiling-mount a standard throw projector in the middle of the room and hope it works. It won’t.

The Korean Connection

This partnership is specifically targeting the South Korean screen golf market, which is worth mentioning because Korea is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the world.

Screen golf is massive in Korea. There are estimated to be over 5,000 screen golf facilities in the country. Golfzon and other Korean manufacturers have dominated the market there for years. But the projection hardware has been catching up — Korean facilities have been running on everything from consumer projectors to aging commercial units.

Panasonic is betting that the Korean market is ready for a 4K laser upgrade cycle. And if that bet pays off, the same hardware will find its way into North American and European facilities.

Golfzon’s own expansion into the US — the Pebble Beach partnership, the USGA official simulator deal, the Troon partnership — is creating demand for consistent, high-quality projection across a growing number of American venues. Panasonic is positioning itself to supply that demand.

What This Means for Your Next Build

If you’re shopping for a simulator projector right now:

• 4K is becoming the baseline. Not “nice to have.” The standard. Software is rendering in higher fidelity, and a 1080p projector is going to look dated within two years.

• Laser is the move. Lamp-based projectors have a lifespan of about 3,000-5,000 hours. Laser units do 20,000. If you’re building a permanent sim, the math is simple: laser pays for itself in bulb replacements alone.

• Throw ratio matters more than you think. Measure your room depth. Divide screen width by throw distance. That number needs to match the projector’s throw ratio range. Do this before you buy anything.

• Shadow-free mounting is non-negotiable. Overhead mounting, short-throw, behind the hitting zone. If you can see your own shadow on the screen while swinging, you made a mistake.

Panasonic entering the screen golf market isn’t going to change your life tomorrow. But it’s a signal that the industry has crossed a threshold. The projector you’ll buy for your 2027 simulator build is going to be better, cheaper, and more purpose-built than anything available today.

And that’s worth paying attention to.

Building a sim and wondering what projector fits your space? Check our best golf simulator projectors guide for room-specific recommendations. Or go straight to our complete simulator packages if you want someone else to figure out the math.

Browse all our projector guides → Projector Hub — 7 guides covering 4K, laser, short-throw, Optoma, BenQ, and installation for every build.