matthew@ittimes.co.kr
"If you are here to see the state of the art of information display you will not be disappointed," said Dr. Whang Ki-woong, chairman of the Korean Information Display Society, during the Opening Address at the 7th International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2007). August 28 was the first day of the week-long conference in which display industry experts from all over the world met in the EXCO convention center in Daegu.
Dr. Whang's Opening Address was followed by a Congratulatory Address by Dr. Larry Weber, president of the Society for Information Display. He spoke for only a few minutes and mentioned that competition between display companies need not be totally cutthroat. He emphasized that companies need competition to grow.
Third, Pak Bong-kyu, Vice Mayor for Economic Affairs of Daegu, gave a Welcome Address for everyone at the conference. This quick introduction was followed by the first Keynote Address, by Mr. Walter Zywottek. His address was titled Liquid Crystals - A Key Component of in LCDs.
He spoke about TFT-LCDs and how they remain the fastest growing segment in the display industry and will continue to dominate all important applications from notebook, monitors to TV. He pointed out that the LCD-TV market will show the strongest growth with a shift to larger screen sizes. Main areas for improvement are contrast, backlight, and moving picture response time. Liquid Crystals are the key component in TFT-LCDs to meet the technical requirements, he mentioned, like wide operating temperature range, lower power consumption, lower driving voltage, faster response time and higher reliability.
According to Mr. Zywottek, the recent progress and future trends for LCD monitors and notebook applications will be described using TN-TFT-technology. For LCD-TV application VA- and IPS-technology will allow faster moving picture response times. Examples for the development of new Liquid Crystals for all important technologies and applications demonstrate the significant and fast progress in the material development.
Next was a second Keynote Address by H.G. Lee of LG Electronics. He spoke about the current status of the display industry as a whole by saying: "It's painful to say, but fierce competition between manufacturers brought drastic price drops to the industry. Now consumers expect a continuous drop." There was a positive note to his speech, however, as he outlined that DTV demand and penetration continue to rise, with demand forecast at 152 million and penetration rate at 71% by 2010.
Actually the IMID2007 activities had begun one day before, with several helpful tutorial sessions to provide basic information about what turned out to be a highly technical conference. In addition, an IMID business forum allowed attendees to gain useful networking contacts in the display industry.
After lunch, a rigorous schedule of paper presentations began. Highly technical issues relating to a number of topics were related in six different forums every hour. It was impossible for one lone reporter to cover everything, but with the helpful suggestions of the conference organizers this reporter was able to make some sense out of the whole affair.
The exhibition was also quite interesting. LG.Philips showed a 47 inch multitouch display and a triple-view display solution. Since the introduction of the Apple iPhone multi-touch displays are the new hype. A 47 inch multi-touch display can be used with both hands, which as one can imagine will be very engaging.
The LG.Philips triple-display features three display panels. Gamers and designers can have three LCD monitors on their desk to play car or flight simulators or to edit large graphic files. A single triple-display solution would cut down on cost and space needed for immersive game play. The company also exhibited a 52 inch full HD panel with 120Hz technology.
Samsung SDI also announced that it developed the world's first Full High-Definition PDP using Single scan technology.
Full-HD PDP with single scan technology, which requires only one Driver IC for an image instead of two Driver ICs now used, makes Samsung SDI not only be ready to improve the high efficiency but also be satisfied with the best-cost reduction and its competitiveness in manufacturing.
