This year’s CES focuses on automotive technology, said Joe Taylor, chairman and CEO of Panasonic North America when he took the stage. More than 25% of Panasonic’s North American sales are expected to be frpm the automotive sector this year, following a partnership with Ford announced in December. The companies have already produced an infotainment system together, but that is not all that Panasonic will manufacture.
Energy solutions are significant in the automotive industry today. Panasonic is heavily involved in this market, having been producing power sources for electric and hybrid vehicles for about 20 years. The company is the global top supplier for automotive Li-ion batteries, which are being used today in smart scooters from Gogoro. Additionally, Panasonic is partnering with Tesla on the ‘Gigafactory’ in Reno, Nevada. Batteries for up to 500,000 Tesla cars will be produced at this facility, which is powered by renewable energy, by 2020.
Julie Bauer – president of Panasonic consumer electronics company – said that Panasonic sees five ‘lifestyle pillars’: adventure, home, entertainment, digital imaging and personal care & beauty. Its products reflect these areas. For example, two new palm-sized UltraHD camcorders, for consumers, fit neatly into the entertainment category, while a connected monitoring solution is designed for the home. A great video of the solution being used to catch Santa Claus was shown.
Panasonic is a new member of the UltraHD Alliance, which was announced just moments before the press conference took place. While on the subject of UltraHD, Bauer introduced a new Blu-ray disc player capable of playing UltraHD and HDR content. A prototype version was shown on the stand – read on for more! (and see Ultra HD Blu-ray Plans Firming Up) A new TV, the CX850, was also announced, with coverage of 98% of the DCI colour space (on the 65″ model; the 55″ will cover 90%). The TV reproduces colour using six colour axes: RGB and CMY. It also features local dimming, supported by a solution called Dynamic Range Remaster.
Life+Screen is a sub-set of Panasonic’s Viera TV line, introduced at CES 2014 (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 3). This year, all of Panasonic’s Life+Screen TVs – including the CX850 – will run the Firefox OS (definitely swimming against the current, as other companies look to be switching to Android TV or Roku en masse – TA)!
Bauer also introduced a smart mirror, which can analyse a user’s skin condition to recommend treatments and cosmetics, before handing over to Jim Doyle, president of Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Company. Doyle did not discuss displays much, but did show a concept transparent screen technology, as well as an 8k display prototype (it seems that all Japanese companies are moving into this area, readying themselves for NHK’s broadcasts in 2020 – TA) and 85″ UltraHD multitouch display.
B2B (Almost) Precludes Consumers
Aside from a few TVs, Panasonic was largely focused on the B2B side of the business – which makes sense, as about 75% of Panasonic’s sales in North America and B2B.
There was a TV demo area, like the one that we saw at IFA, showing off the new CX850. A good demonstration area was dedicated to the local dimming and Dynamic Range Remaster technology. DRR enhances image reproduction and rendering capabilities in the high luminance range. Information of high-brightness image areas, which drop out during recording, are restored using DRR, reproducing both brightness and original colours. However, it is a ‘special LED backlight design’ and panel that produces the wide gamut coverage.
Outside of the demo area, we heard more about the Firefox OS inside the CX850. Running on a quad-core processor, Firefox OS is designed to make it easier for customers to access their favourite content, with the ability to ‘pin’ channels, devices, apps and web pages to the home screen.
Content discovery has been improved with the addition of the Xumo Guide, a search and recommendation engine. The TV also features voice search, UltraHD streaming support via HEVC and VP9 and is being considered for THX 4k Certification.
A curved UltraHD OLED prototype was also on show – the same as we had seen at IFA – part of Panasonic’s long-standing but currently stalled effort to enter the OLED TV market. We heard that there were still no plans to go ahead with production, although other sources say otherwise, claiming that a TV will be launched this autumn. Having given up on plasma in late 2013, it is possible that Panasonic is pursuing a new display technology, but OLED manufacturing is nowhere near as mature as PDP/LCD. We’ll find out at IFA, but won’t hold our breaths.
The other consumer product was the UltraHD Blu-ray player that we’d seen at the press conference. UltraHD and HDR are expected to be adopted in the next generation of the Blu-ray standard; as well as these, the player supports the BT.2020 gamut, HEVC compression technology and playback at a 100Mbps bit-rate.
Why Reinvent the Wheel?
In the signage area, we saw iterations on Panasonic’s existing technologies: primarily large displays and projectors. The 85″ UltraHD multi-touch screen from the press conference was being demonstrated as a wayfinding display for a theme park. The transparent window display was also present, using a rear projector. The window has 65% transmissivity when the projector is off and 23% when it is on. The demo ‘screen’ was 50″, but can reach 115″ in size.
An 8K 55″ screen was next to the 85″, which is relatively small for this resolution. It is still a prototype and unlikely to enter mass production, but will be available to order. It had an IPS panel with a-Si TFTs; a 1,500:1 contrast ratio; 120Hz refresh rate; and 178° viewing angles, as well as 400 cd/m² of brightness. Gamut coverage, we were told, was almost 100% of Adobe RGB.
Avionics is a huge part of Panasonic’s B2B business – the company considers itself ‘the brand behind the brand’. In a dedicated section of the stand, Panasonic was showing existing and conceptual seat-back screens. Available models go up to 13″, with USB and audio inputs and five or 10-point capacitive touch. They are already installed on aircraft from Cathay and will be on next-generation planes from United, Emirates and Delta. Eventually it should be possible to use these screens as external displays for passengers’ smartphones, tablets and laptops.
In the conceptual area, Panasonic was showing displays with resolutions up to UltraHD, flush with the seat back and featuring pro-cap touch.
