Some random conclusions from my visit to ISE:
- The RP cube market is not dead or even dying. While Leyard and Christie have exited the market, Barco and Mitsubishi maintain a strong position going forward. Eyevis – well, it has financial problems but if it pulls through it is likely to remain in the market.
- All projectors over 5000 lumens going forward and all mid-range and high-end projectors under 5000 lumens will be laser-based. (Canon is out of step here, introducing new high-end installation projectors with lamps.) For the time being, these will be laser/phosphor and only specialty projectors such as some RP cubes and ultra-high end projectors will use RGB lasers. As the price of red and, especially, green lasers comes down, this may change, but not this year or even next.
- Projection is being challenged at small screen sizes by LCDs and at large screen sizes by LED videowalls. For small screens, the LCD is winning, except in specialized applications like projection mapping for retail applications and in applications where the portability of a projector is needed. At the large sizes, projection is holding its own and will continue to hold its own until the price of LED videowalls drops significantly. Yes, there are some digital cinema theaters with LED videowalls but they are more like demonstration systems than products that are expected to turn a profit from the sales of movie tickets.
- The LED videowall manufactures are moving from only making commodity LED modules to integrated systems such as poster displays and large screen direct-view LED TVs.
- AR and VR have a long way to go before they have a significant impact on the integrated systems market addressed by ISE.
- While the pro AV market is changing toward a more IT-centric model, the market is still healthy and ISE will grow in 2019, and in the years beyond 2019.
- Very few new mid-range or high-end systems, whether projectors, LED walls or controllers, are introduced that cannot be labeled “HDR.” This trend can be expected to continue. The high peak brightnesses that LED videowalls are capable of making them particularly suited for HDR content.
- Most displays driven by HDR signals are not set up bright enough to properly show off HDR, even when they are set up by AV professionals.
- Amsterdam is a nice place to visit but, maybe, February isn’t the best time.
-Matthew Brennesholtz
To these, I would add
- Collaboration continues to develop and improve, enabled by better touch and lower cost displays
- High brightness LCDs will continue to have applications
- This is the year that digital signage LCDs start to go UltraHD at a good rate
- OLED still looks great but is not yet ready for widespread commercial use
- CoB LED is not going to wipe out SMD technology, at least not for while, yet.
- Video over IP continues to gather momentum
- The press room would be better if as much attention was paid to the Wi-fi as is paid to the the great hospitality!
Bob Raikes
