- The much-anticipated Projection Industry Summit, produced by Insight Media and McLaughlin Consulting Group, took place on June 1-2 in Orlando. Panels of some of the industry's top experts addressed the evolving role of Pro AV solution providers, commercial/home market crossover products, the Asia supply chain, projector reliability, and market growth forecasts from top market analysts.
- Day one of the Projection Industry Summit focused on the business of projection system manufacture and will feature the viewpoints of component suppliers, system integrators and manufacturing centers.
- Day two focused on the market opportunities for projection systems (front and rear, professional and consumer) and showcased the viewpoints of market analysts, product manufacturers, and distribution channel partners.
- In a much-anticipated Sunday evening panel, "Projector Reliability Panel: Under What Conditions Is Microdisplay Panel Reliability An Issue?" the question of LCD microdisplay reliability was addressed.
- The panel was scheduled in response to a recent study unveiled by Texas Instruments, which called into question the viability of HTPS panels after several thousand hours of 24/7 operation.
- Speakers participating in the session were Pete van Kessel, Texas Instruments; Bill Bleha, JVC; and Tom LaDuke, Walt Disney Imagineering. Several LCD/ HTPS projector manufacturers were invited to participate, but declined.
- TI's Van Kessel kicked off the session by providing details about the long-term study conducted by the Munsell Color Science Laboratory (MCSL) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY). This study operated a limited sample of both DLP and HTPS projectors in a 24/7 environment for up to 4,000 hours.
- Measurements of picture quality were completed periodically to document any changes. The study found significant deterioration in the image quality of the LCD projectors, but negligible changes in the DLP projector image quality over the same test period.
- JVC's Bill Bleha followed up with reliability data that they have run on their D-ILA microdisplay-based projectors and panels. JVC uses a non-organic alignment technique, whereas most LCOS, and HTPS-LCD projectors (such as those in the TI study), use an organic alignment material inside the display panel. This organic alignment layer is thought to be one of the materials that are failing, causing image degradation. JVC thinks this technology, and the fact that they don't use sheet polarizers, another potential failure component, separates them from many others.
- Walt Disney Imagineering's Tom LaDuke then presented various operational results based on experience running D-ILA, DLP and LCD projectors in the Disney theme parks. LaDuke presented what he admitted was highly anecdotal findings about his company's experience with the various technologies, in extremely punishing environments. Although LaDuke said that his unscientific results in the field generally corroborated TI's findings that LCD/ HTPS tend to exhibit a more degraded picture after about 3000 hours of use, he stressed that so many other factors weigh on both performance and ROI considerations that the Disney theme parks find it useful to use a mix of LCD, DLP, and LCOS based projectors.
- For more information:
- Insight Media
- 203-831-8464
