InfoComm, the trade show for professional audio-video guys, is going on this week in Anaheim adjacent to Disneyland. It has displays of every imaginable technology, most of them large. If you need a projector with lots of lumens, you can one with 30,000 lumens from Christie. If you want lots of pixels in a single projector, you can get 4K x 2K resolution in a projector from Sony (~8megapixels). JVC had their new 4K projector there too, but I haven’t had a chance to see it yet. If 4K resolution isn’t enough, Mersive is willing to show you how to blend a 5 x 3 array of relatively low cost HD projectors into a whopping 27 million pixels. The blending calibration for geometry, brightness and color is automatic and takes about 30 minutes for the 5 x 3 array. But what if you want a HDTV image with a hole in it for your next rock concert? A Toshiba LED display and controller may be just the ticket for you.

Matt Brennesholtz
Insight Media Analyst

TechnoRainbow is the Toshiba trade name for its line of LED display modules and controller. These modules come with pitches from 6 mm to 15 mm, and a related LED curtain has a 25mm pitch. The controller, the TR LC1050 accepts multiple video formats up to 1920 x 1080/30Hz progressive and will control a pixel array up to 832 x 640 pixels. To go to higher resolutions, you need multiple controllers.

Two displays in the Toshiba exhibit were really eye catching. One was a display that was flown high above its booth made up of TR2010E modules showing a nearly HDTV image plus the Toshiba logo. This was visible from all over that part of the trade show floor. The near-HDTV image shown on this display looked very good, with nice colors and no noticeable pixelization if you were far enough away to see the whole display. There was also no noticeable blockiness from the LED modules. The display was controlled by a single TR LC1050 for the full-motion video plus a second for the scroll at the top that included the Toshiba logo.

The second display that caught my eye was made from TR2006R modules. According to Toshiba’s Randy Green, these indoor-only modules are typically used for the rental and staging market, and the two biggest end user applications are rock concerts and auto shows. Each module has 64 x 64 pixels made up of separate red, green and blue LEDs in a triad arrangement with a 6mm square pixel pitch. The modules
can be stacked either in a square array for a normal image or with modules omitted and/or off-set from each other. A recent firmware upgrade to the LC1050 controller allows easy input of the exact location of each module, with 1 pixel accuracy, and the controller will then deliver the video to the right modules so the image is continuous around the gap, which can be either the size of a module, or larger or smaller.

These modules can also be stacked in curves, with a concave radius of 1.1 meter or a convex radius of 2.2 meters. It would make an excellent room divider, and at 230 watts/module, eliminate the need for central heat. Don’t expect energy efficiency at Infocomm, especially from displays that can generate 2,400 nits of luminance.

For complete coverage of InfoComm and Projection Summit from myself, Chris Chinnock, Ken Werner, Steve Sechrist and John DiLoreto, see the upcoming issue of Projection Monthly with Flat Panel Coverage.