Nov-Dec Cover.qxp_SID Cover 11/27/12 9:16 AM Page 1 TV TECHNOLOGY ISSUE Nov./Dec. 2012 Official Monthly Publication of the Society for Information Display • www.informationdisplay.org Vol. 28, Nos. 11 & 12 ID ND12 Jaco pC2_Layout 1 11/27/12 9:38 AM Page C2 NEED HELP WITH YOUR DISPLAY SOLUTION? Embedded Computer Systems /ŶĚƵƐƚƌŝĂů>͛ƐĨƌŽŵϭ͟ƚŽϭϬϮ͟ Touch Screen Solutions Optical Enhancements Custom Enclosures LED Backlight / Driver Design EXPERIENCE MATTERS! PROVIDING DISPLAY SOLUTIONS FOR OVER FIFTEEN YEARS AS-9100 Registered ISO-9001 Registered www.jacodisplays.com 877.FPD.JACO / 877.373.5226 e-mail: [email protected] ID TOC NDec p1 11/29/12 8:11 AM Page 1 SID Information SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION DISPLAY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 ON THE COVER: Illustrated is a representa- DISPLAY VOL. 28, NOS. 11&12 tion of the color richness, high details of the world, and how each incremental improvement in television systems (represented by the correspond- ing labeled rectangles) opens up our view and enables us to experience the scene. In this scope, contents the original NTSC/PAL television would be like looking through a paper-towel tube. By includ- ing the red DCI (Digital Cinema rectangles), 2 Editorial: TVs under Pressure the cover properly represents what we would see in By Stephen P. Atwood the theater today compared to the latest television standards. 3 Industry News: Large-OLED-TV Makers Face Manufacturing Challengers By Jenny Donelan 4 Guest Editorial: A Look at Television Past and Future By David Trzcinski 6 Display Marketplace: Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent Selling TVs isn’t the profitable business it used to be. And it’s only going to get worse. By Pete Putman 9 Display Marketplace: The European TV Marketplace Western Europe is a mature market for televisions and a challenging one for set makers Cover Design: Acapella Studios, Inc. who hope to entice consumers to upgrade for the sake of new features. By Bob Raikes Next Month in Information Display 12 Frontline Technology: “Super Hi-Vision” as Next-Generation Television and Its Video Parameters Materials and Metrology Issue Future TVs, using a Super Hi-Vision system, will be able to deliver an enhanced and even unprecedented viewing experience in various environments. • The Materials Landscape • The Future of Thin Glass By Takayuki Yamashita, Hiroyasu Masuda, Kenichiro Masaoka, Kohei Ohmura, Masaki Emoto, Yukihiro Nishida, and Masayuki Sugawara • Quantum-Dot Wide-Color-Gamut LCDs • Amorphous Oxide Semiconductor 18 Frontline Technology: Holographic Television at the MIT Media Lab Materials and TFT Devices for Several recent advances point the way toward real-time holographic television for tele- Displays presence, entertainment, and teleoperation. This article introduces the concepts and • Update of ICDM Standard requirements for such systems, then presents the MIT Media Lab’s work to make them • Advances in 3-D Measurements practical and inexpensive. By V. Michael Bove, Jr., and Daniel Smalley INFORMATION DISPLAY (ISSN 0362-0972) is published 10 times a year for the Society for Information Display by Palisades Convention Management, 411 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor, New York, 22 Enabling Technology: Holiday 2012 TV Trends and Bargains NY 10003; William Klein, President and CEO. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES: Jay Morreale, Editor-in-Chief, Palisades Last year, the holiday shopping period between Thanksgiving and Christmas offered deep Convention Management, 411 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor, New York, discounts on televisions. This year, as manufacturers struggle to compete with each other NY 10003; telephone 212/460-9700. Send manuscripts to the attention of the Editor, ID. SID HEADQUARTERS, for corres- for market share, shoppers will find even deeper discounts on better sets in a retail land- pondence on subscriptions and membership: Society for Information Display, 1475 S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 114, Campbell, CA 95008; scape that has altered subtly from the year before. telephone 408/879-3901, fax -3833. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Information Display is distributed without charge to those qualified and to SID By Jenny Donelan members as a benefit of membership (annual dues $100.00). Subscriptions to others: U.S. & Canada: $75.00 one year, $7.50 single copy; elsewhere: $100.00 one year, $7.50 single copy. PRINTED by SID News: Second Annual I-Zone Calls for Cutting-Edge-Technology Demos Sheridan Printing Company, Alpha, NJ 08865. Third-class postage 27 paid at Lehigh Valley, PA. PERMISSIONS: Abstracting is permitted with credit to the source. Libraries are permitted to photocopy beyond the limits of the U.S. copyright law for private use of patrons, 28 Sustaining Members providing a fee of $2.00 per article is paid to the Copyright Clearance Center, 21 Congress Street, Salem, MA 01970 (reference serial code 0362-0972/12/$1.00 + $0.00). Instructors are permitted to photocopy isolated articles for noncommercial classroom use without fee. This 28 Index to Advertisers permission does not apply to any special reports or lists published in this magazine. For other copying, reprint or republication permission, write to Society for Information Display, 1475 S. Bascom Ave., Ste. For Industry News, New Products, Current and 114, Campbell, CA 95008. Copyright © 2012 Society for Information Display. All rights reserved. Forthcoming Articles, see www.informationdisplay.org Information Display 11&12/12 1 ID Editorial Nov p2,26 11/27/12 10:48 AM Page 2 Information editorial DISPLAY TVs under Pressure Executive Editor: Stephen P. Atwood 617/306-9729, [email protected] by Stephen Atwood Editor-in-Chief: Jay Morreale As the year draws to a close, we once again turn our atten- 212/460-9700, [email protected] tion to the consumer television marketplace, one of the Managing Editor: Jenny Donelan highest-profile and highest-volume segments of the display 603/924-9628, [email protected] industry. The driving force of everyone’s efforts since well before the beginning of the LCD and plasma eras has been Sales Manager: Christine von Steiger achieving a large-screen flat-panel TV that can hang on a 413/783-0473, [email protected] wall at a price everyone can afford. Well, here we are. Actually, we have been here for a few years now, but somehow it seems more like a total victory this year than ever before. Today, there are slim, bright, high-quality Editorial Advisory Board HDTVs in homes, businesses, public venues, and everywhere in between. Stephen P. Atwood, Chair If you are shopping for a new TV this year, the choices are almost endless and the Azonix Corp., U.S.A. prices lower than at any previous time in history. Pick a size, pick a brand, pick a set Helge Seetzen of features, pick a store, decide what you are willing to pay, and your holiday shop- TandemLaunch Technologies, Westmont, ping is done. It is safe to say that while there are many differences in features and Quebec, Canada performance among models, almost any set you find for more than $200 is capable of Allan Kmetz giving you a decent HDTV user experience. For less than $500, you can even find Consultant, U.S.A. 50-in. 1080p LCD and 720p plasma TVs at retail stores. Just a year or two ago, these Larry Weber similar sets were selling for twice those amounts or more. Consultant, U.S.A. With these historically low prices, TVs should be flying off the shelves and manu- facturers should be ecstatic, right? Well, not quite. The problem is two-fold. First, most consumers in many parts of the world have already recently made new big- screen TV purchases and there is nothing really wrong with the sets they have. So, Guest Editors demand is soft and sales are sluggish, pushing down prices and margins even further Materials to the point where the ink on the bottom line is turning more red than green. Second, Ion Bita, Qualcomm MEMS at these historically low prices, there is little or no margin left for the retailers, distri- Technologies buters, and manufacturers to make any profits. Downward price pressures brought on eReaders and Tablets by intense competition and weak demand have wiped out traditional markups, and this Jason Heikenfeld, University of has brought on waves of consolidation that are still under way. Cincinnati The hope is that buyers will be tempted by the latest LED backlight version, or Backlighting/LEDs maybe decide to upgrade to a 3-D TV with “smart” features. In those cases, prices Adi Abileah, Planar Systems jump up fairly rapidly based on size and features, with most options priced between Interacting with Displays $1500 and $3500, which feels more like what we were seeing a couple years ago. Geoff Walker, IMS Research Even hopes of selling large volumes of smaller-sized TVs for the kitchen, bedroom, TV Technology and garage are not very high this year because of all the competition from tablets and David Trczinski, Avid smart phones and other so-called “second screen” devices. Sales of those devices have exploded and for many younger people a high-end tablet computer could actually become their “first screen.” Plus, we should not forget that at least for North America Contributing Editors and Europe the economy is weak and TVs, like many other consumer products, are discretionary purchases. Alfred Poor, Consultant Author and industry analyst Pete Putman understands this well and explains how Steve Sechrist, Consultant this has evolved into a really tough period for set manufacturers, who are facing down- Paul Semenza, DisplaySearch ward price pressure and very little consumer demand for high-end features such as 3-D and Internet connectivity. As Pete explains in his Display Marketplace feature, “Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent,” steep price erosion coupled with sagging consumer demand has driven some major brands to exit the marketplace and severely impacted The opinions expressed in editorials, columns, and feature articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions the market share of many others.