3M Touch was showing its latest 55″ procap touch monitor being used as a tabletop. The sensor technology is metal mesh (presumably 3M’s own – Man. Ed.) and can support up to 80 touches. That makes it ideal, 3M told us, for multi-user and collaboration applications. The speed for up to 20 touches is said to be as low as 10ms and that can make this kind of application very responsive. The display is available from the end of March as a complete unit or as a touch add-on kit.
Absen was showing its existing small pixel pitch LEDs.
Integrated monitor company Arthur Holm was showing its newest model, the Dynamic 1H (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 18). This 17.3″ or 21.5″ monitor is set flush in a surface and can raise horizontally using a motor, between 0° and 80°. The monitor uses a TN panel.
UK-based Anders produces the TinyGreenPC, a rugged signage media player with a five-year warranty. At ISE, it introduced the Solitaire; a player built around the Raspberry Pi – almost purely for the GPU. As well as producing graphics, Anders’ partner Silver Curve has developed software that can offload CPU tasks to the GPU. The Solitaire consumes just 2-3W of power, plays 1920 x 1080 content at 60fps and is available now in both OPS and standalone formats. It is certified for use in Europe.
The MEP320 is an entry-level digital signage player based on Android, from AOpen. It runs on an SoC and enables power management and two video outputs. The player is available now.
Aten showed off the VM6404H, its new seamless matrix switch for UltraHD signals. The 4×4 matrix supports UltraHD content at 60fps via HDMI and uses an FPGA architecture to process the resolution. The switch will be released in May.
Baanto had no news since its announcements at Gitex (including the NEC deal). However, the company told us that it is close to announcing adoption by an aviation company for a commercial airline cockpit application. This is a very demanding environment and the company is confident that the win will be a big endorsement. One of the key factors is apparently the system can keep working even if some parts fail. Watch for the company name before long.
BlackMagic made lots of announcements at IBC including the Smartview 4K – a rack mounted UltraHD (it also accepts DCi-4k) monitor that includes SDI input (up to 12G). There was nothing new at ISE, but the firm said that there would be more at NAB.
Refraction, brightness and colour areas divided Canon‘s stand. The refraction area, using the WUX400ST (Display Monitor Vol 20 No 22), highlighted the projector’s 75% lens shift capability. The WUX6000 (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 42) was used in the brightness area, with projectors at 3m, 4m and 7m from the screen, using different lenses, showing minimal differences in brightness. The most impressive section by far was the colour area, where eight WUX400ST units had been arranged in a panoramic display with content from AV Stumpfl. It was a very impressive edge-blending demonstration – if the content had been going any faster, I’d probably have fallen over!
Casio was showing off the Core, which was introduced at BETT (Casio Has Plans for Core Business), although the release date appears to have changed from April to May. The projector will cost £430 ($660). The company was also showing its first touch table, using one of its own LED-laser hybrid projectors and IR diodes from Germany’s HB laser.
Coretronic showed its existing professional AV solutions, but no new projectors.
Corning worked with Sakai Display Products Corporation (the G10 plant co-owned by Sharp and Hon Hai), showing SDP’s 70″ LCD module being used as an interactive whiteboard. The prototype used Iris Glass as its light guide plate; Eagle XG Slim Glass as its back- and frontplane; and Gorilla Glass as its cover. Resolution is UltraHD, with 10 touch points.
Daktronics‘ focus is on the reliability of its LED modules. The company was showing a working module, with IP67 protection, completely submerged in water. Some modules have been underwater at the company’s labs “for years”.
India’s Delta Electronics showed the world’s first rear-projection videowall cubes using laser DLP projectors. The cube is fitted with dual laser phosphor banks for redundancy and provides a 67″ image, 1,800 lumens of brightness and 1400 x 1050 resolution. A price has not been announced yet. While the company had many more products on show, none were new.
Digital Projection‘s newest model was the Insight Laser 4k (introduced at Infocomm in Display Monitor Vol 21 No 25): a 12,000 lumens laser model with DCI-4k resolution. It was being shown with the Insight LED 4k; an identical model with an LED light source. A pre-production 1DLP laser prototype model was on display in a separate area of the stand; it will be an entry-level laser projector with 1920 x 1200 resolution and 8,000 lumens of brightness.
Dynascan is an OEM focusing on high-brightness displays. This year, the company will introduce 55″ 7,000 cd/m² (DS551LT7) and 3,000 cd/m² (DS551LX4) models; and 32″ (DS321LR4) and 38″ (bar-type) (DS381LT4) 2,500 cd/m² displays.
Seven new projectors will be introduced by Eiki after ISE; the company shared preliminary specifications at the show. New models will include the UJT100, a 3DLP model (1920 x 1200, 13,500 lumens); the UHS100 and XHS100 1DLP projectors (1920 x 1200, 8,500 lumens and 1024 x 768, 8,000 lumens, respectively), which have two different colour wheels favouring colour and brightness; the LC-WXN200 and LC-XN200 (1280 x 800, 6,000 lumens and 1025 x 768, 6,500 lumens, respectively), which can be controlled via Zigbee; and the LC-WBS500 and LC-XB500 (1280 x 800, 5,100 lumens and 1024 x 768, 5,600 lumens, respectively), which feature 3D keystone correction, warp and stacking functionality.
Elo demonstrated its existing solutions, like the Intellitouch Curve (Elo Brings Robust Touch to Curved Surfaces, Display Monitor Vol 21 No 41). The company was also showing one of its 70″ displays, on which it has replaced the optical touch with IR touch. IR touch will also be used on 42″ and 55″ screens later this year.
HDBaseT/Valens had a lot of products on display including the LG 55LS75-5BB which has integrated HDBaseT and also had the PrimeView PEV494KLED OLED monitor that we reported would be shown. After several days of looking at LEDs and LCDs, the lack of brightness of the OLED stood out, although the contrast is, of course, good. As we reported a couple of weeks ago, the monitor uses an LG Display panel and costs $14,600.
Also being shown by HDBaseT was an Eizo RadiForce EX270W medical display which supports the interface. In this application, the single cable, including power, is a real advantage.
In April, Hitachi will update the CP-AW2503 to the CP-AW2504, extending eco-mode lamp life to 10,000 hours. The focus in coming years is ultra-short throw and high-end units; both areas have met in a new lens called the FL-900, which fits Hitachi’s 9000-Series models and enables a 120″ image to be thrown from 1.03m.
Holocube, who we saw last year, uses the Pepper’s Ghost technique to create holograms. This year the company took the holograms out of the cubes it is known for and applied them to a tablet accessory, which combines a mirror and display foil in a case with the tablet’s display to create the illusion. It will mainly be used for professional displays, but could also see consumer use. The price is €650. A scaled-up version of Holocube’s normal holograms was also being shown, using a Barco projector: it measured 2m x 3m, but can go up to 8m x 8m!
i-Chips is a developer of specialist chips for graphics and video processing. There were two new chips at ISE designed for broadcast and medical monitors. The IP00C733 is a quad channel 4k scaler that can support dual independent 4k/30p channels as well as 4k/60p graphics. Features include per-pixel uniformity correction.
The second chip is the IP00C706, which is a 12 bit de-interlacer and scaler. It supports YUV 4:4:4 and RGB with a 3D LUT and gamma and uniformity correction. Monitor applications include medical and broadcast, where quality is a consideration.
Although i-Chips has traditionally supported mainly projectors, especially where its warping and blending technology can be exploited, it has found that its high quality is being increasingly sought out for monitor and other display applications as UltraHD and 4k resolutions become more widespread. The firm told us that even its general HD video scaling technology is being requested purely on the basis of the quality of the output. I-Chips customers include Sony, LG and Samsung.
InFocus was showing its meeting room systems and described its situation as being on a “second start” in terms of its meeting room and conferencing business. It can now cover “all devices” and is starting to see adoption in video conferencing rooms.
The pro version of the Intel NUC has dual Mini-DisplayPort connectionsIntel had a booth to show the latest version of its NUC systems based on its 5th Generation i3 and i5 processors (Broadwell). The i3 NUCs started shipping about a month ago and the i5 ones should be shipping as this article goes to press. The NUCs support DisplayPort V1.2 for UltraHD support at 60Hz, or HDMI 1.4a for UltraHD at 30Hz. There are professional and consumer versions and the NUCs can be supplied with or without HDDs or flash drives.
We have reported on IntoPix of Belgium and its Tico “visually lossless” light compression system several times over the last two years, most recently from IBC. The company told us at ISE that it is continuing to develop the technology and that it is being taken into SMPTE for standardisation. The hope is that the standard will be completed by the end of the year. VESA has recently gone out to look for the second level of the DisplayStream standard (the first offered around 2X compression, but now 4X is desired) and IntoPix told us that it would submit a bid to be the chosen technology. One of the advantages of the IntoPix approach is that the compression can be performed with very low latency on a standard PC, although dedicated hardware is more likely to be the main use.
China’s Konka Group was present with new LED products, in 3.9mm (indoor) and 6.24mm (outdoor) pitches. The 6.24mm product (IP65/54 front/back) has proven very popular and sold out before ISE, we heard.
A new UltraHD dual scaler, the VP-772, was on show from Kramer. The unit is designed for projection and display systems at live events in large and medium venues. It can scale and process video and audio in/out to independent preview and programme DVI-I outputs. The scaler also feature features DVI-U inputs.
While Leyard was not showing many new products, it was highlighting how its LED displays could be used in different applications, such as control rooms. Last year (Display Monitor Vol 21 No 6) we saw an auto-stereo 3D display, which was also present on the stand at this year’s show; it uses a lens from Dimenco. Leyard has invested in Dimenco’s R&D to speed development of the lens. Finally, the company was showing a 108″ LED display for use as a home cinema screen. It has a 1.2mm pixel pitch and a glass overlay (and can also use the Dimenco lens). No price could be shared, but it is available now.
In a rare appearance, Microsoft took a stand at ISE to promote the Surface Hub (Microsoft Announces Surface Hub as a Collaborative Display Tool).
Multitaction is known for the iWall interactive videowall solution, and was introducing an entry-level turnkey version. The solution costs €45,000 and is intended for meeting rooms, rather than large lobby spaces like the original 12-display unit); it consists of three 55″ displays, which are stripped by Multitouch. The company then adds the touch functionality (IR cameras behind the display, for fast and accurate touch as well as Codice recognition) and new electrics. The wall has speakers, an Apple TV and is compatible with Barco’s ClickShare.
Muxlab was showing its new signal distribution products, with a focus on UltraHD. HDMI-to-HDMI matrix switches included 4×2, 4×4 and 8×8 models, while 4×8 and 8×8 matrices featured four HDMI-in and four HDBaseT-out, as well as power-over-ethernet (PoE). An 8×8 switch extended this to eight HDBaseT outputs. All HDBaseT products used the Lite implementation (70m range, no default power transfer).
NanoLumens was highlighting its NanoSlim LED display, which is just 5mm thick.
We have covered Pallas a number of times since we first saw the firm at ISE 2013. The company has a “transparent plastic lens, embedded with LEDs that sits over and between the bezels and displays the covered pixels using coloured LEDs”. The firm’s latest technology version looks much better than the first ones we saw a couple of years ago. From a distance of several metres and with the right kind of content and viewed from a point at right angles to the display, the black bezels pretty well disappear. However, when you get to acute angles, the lenses become very obvious. The company was not quoting pricing, but the solution has been expensive in the past.
