April Issue of Projection Monthly Released

First, let me shamelessly promote two conferences that Insight Media is helping to organize and present. First up will be Projection Summit to be held in Atlanta on June 7-8, just prior to InfoComm. Projection Summit is geared toward executives, senior managers, buyers, technologists, sales and marketing personnel, and product or market planners. Members of the projection supply chain, large-area display manufacturers, analysts, and ProAV dealers and integrators will all be on hand to discuss the key issues and opportunities facing the ProAV community. And there is a lot to talk about. We have organized the conference into a Supply Chain Track and a Channel/Market Track. Joint sessions will be used to hear keynoters like Kyle Ranson, president of InFocus, and Allen Alley, president and CEO of Pixelworks. Capping the conference will be the "Analysts Debate," where all of the major analysts covering the consumer and professional big-screen display markets will present forecasts for review and analysis. A small technology exhibition and networking opportunity will follow the first day's sessions.

Attendance for the two-day event is $1,095, and registration is open now click here. The Conference Sponsors confirmed to date include: Intel, SCRAM Technologies, Analog Devices, Pixelworks and Texas Instruments. Event Sponsors include Analog Devices, 3M Optical Systems and Carl Zeiss. Media sponsors include Presentations magazine, AV Magazine, ProAV and System Contractors News. For more on Projection Summit, including sponsorship and exhibition info, and the preliminary agenda, visit: http://www.insightmedia.info/PS04/conference.html.

Coming up on August 24-26 will be the HDTV Forum: Accelerating the Transition. Because of the positive response to last year's event, the conference has been expanded from two days to three days and will take place at the luxurious Westin Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Early sponsors and supporters already include LG.Philips, Zoran, CustomRetailer, Dealerscope and HighDef Magazine.

The event will bring together representatives from TV and cable networks, government agencies, satellite and cable providers, retailers, distributors, TV brands, TV OEMs, panel/tube/engine manufacturers and IC manufacturers for information exchange on the key topics facing the emergence of the HDTV era. It will also offer an opportunity to interact with the industry's movers and shakers. This will be a good one. For more about the exhibition, sponsorship, attendance, and the preliminary agenda, please visit:
http://www.insightmedia.info/HDTVConference/HDTV04.htm

Now to the news… The ability of the projection supply chain to meet expected market demands in 2004 continues to be a hotly debated topic. Driving concern is the success of the microdisplay-based RPTV market. Estimates for how big this segment will be in 2004 and 2005 are all over the place. This is a reflection of wishful thinking, over ordering and supply-constrained estimates.

Topping the list of concerns is the availability of lamps, followed by screens, and even optical components and projection lenses. In the current issue of Projection Monthly, we have news about the factors that are driving the lamp shortage and a story about Toppan's plans to increase screen manufacture. These topics are bound to be popular at both the Projection Summit and HDTV Forum, and are the areas of continuing research at Insight Media.

In electronics, we had a chance to hear more from Silicon Optix at the recent USDC-Needham Investors Conference in New York last month (We have a full report on the conference in the April issue). A new eWARP2 chip is in development that promises even more system integration and pixel processing power, aimed at easy engine and TV alignment, and allowing lower-cost optics to be used. The warping engine allows image imperfections to be corrected in silicon instead of glass. And there is more afoot on the integration theme that we hope to tell you about soon. The era of two-three chips to do all of the TV electronics is coming quickly.

Meanwhile, China is holding firm with its insistence that wireless chips sold in the Chinese market adhere to its new protocol. This has got the free trade advocates very angry as they feel it is a clear violation of the agreement. And the repercussions have started. Intel and Broadcom will no longer sell wireless products like the Centrino chip set in China. That could have a big impact, as perhaps 25% of the PCs in China use this Intel chip.

In projectors, perhaps the most interesting product this month was JVC's new 1080p projector. The DLA-HD2K offers resolution of 1920 x 1080, 500 lumens, 2000:1 contrast, and a $22.5K MSRP price tag - not cheap, but the performance is probably quite good. But the large number of manufacturers and brands in projection is starting to extract a toll. Philips has now decided to exit the front projection business on a global scale. It will concentrate instead on LCD- and PDP-TVs, as well as LCOS-RPTV.

There was also quite of bit of news in the 3D segment this month. Kodak burst on the scene with a new 3D display that features twin LCOS projection engines coupled to large spherical mirrors. The system creates two overlapped images that offer a high-resolution stereoscopic display system. NEC has joined Sharp with its first 3D notebook, and Hitachi has developed a fascinating display that creates a volumetric image on a rotating screen. The concept uses 27 mirrors around the periphery of the rotating screen to create the effect. But one of the coolest systems has just opened at the Las Vegas Hilton. Called "Star Trek: Borg Invasion 4D," the attraction features a slew of new 3D effects that include new 3D image capture and display techniques, and the first 2K digital cinema projection systems for such an attraction.

Meanwhile, NEC is seeking to assure its plasma display customers that it is not out of the game - it just sold its PDP manufacturing to Pioneer. NEC will continue to sell NEC-branded PDP-TVs and monitors and, in fact, will make a push into TVs again. But such a move seems a bit inconsistent with getting rid of your PDP factory. Could NEC be positioning itself to offer whatever big-screen display technology takes off and giving itself the leverage to source from the best suppliers?

Samsung has teamed up with the cable association, CTAM, to do a nationwide campaign and rebate program. This is significant as it is the first time a manufacturer has been able to lasso eight very independent cable TV operators to cooperate on a national campaign tied to specific manufacturers' DTV offerings. The idea is to get buyers of DTVs to bundle them with DTV/HDTV service over cable. We also liked what Samsung did with Academy Award nominees. It offered to give each one a 43-inch DLP-RPTV and VOOM HDTV satellite service. That's a pretty smart way to influence a group of core movers and shakers. No wonder the Samsung brand is climbing and scaring the heck out of its competitors.

On the regulatory front, FCC Chairman Powell appears to have reversed an early position regarding the analog switch-off. At CES, he stated that the 2007 US cut-off date for analog broadcast was just an "aspiration date," and that the switch-off would not occur until the other requirement is met - that 85% of households are equipped for digital transmission. Now the FCC is floating ideas that would push for a hard date to switch off analog - even if it has to play with the definition of 85% penetration. Apparently, the FCC is feeling the heat from broadcasters who want to eliminate dual broadcasting and from other groups that want to get the spectrum back as soon as possible for public safety and other critical needs. We will keep watching this one.

As usual, there's a lot more, but I'm done for now. Until next time…

Chris Chinnock

April Projection Monthly Table of Contents

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