CES Diary: Day Three
By Gordon Brockhouse CES hasnÂ’t finished, but IÂ’ve already picked what for me is the highlight of the show: the SED (Super-conduction Electron-emitter Display) technology developed by Canon and Toshiba. Yesterday, Robert Franner and I had an opportunity to attend a closed-door briefing and demonstration of the new technology.
The demonstration featured a side-by-side comparison of 37-inch plasma, LCD and prototype SED displays, all with 720p resolution. The demonstrators would not say which plasma display they were using; the LCD was a current Toshiba model. The plasma is a current model, and according to the presenters, an upmarket unit (as evidenced by the fact that itÂ’s a high-def display). Still, based on its black performance, I would say IÂ’ve seen better plasma displays, though it was clearly much better than the milky-grey units that were the norm a couple of years ago.
Flat-Out Beautiful: In every respect, the SED unit outperformed the plasma and LCD displays. The differences werenÂ’t massive on scenes consisting mainly of mid-tones. But on very dark and very bright scenes, the SED display was far better. On dark scenes, blacks looked truly black; and moreover shadow detail was considerably better, allowing you to make out textures and details in dark fabrics for example. It was the same at the upper end of the brightness scale: more brilliant whites and better highlight detail. Motion was much better on the SED. Especially on the LCD, a sweeping metronome had noticeable blurring: it was completely clean on the SED.
Contrast and motion looked every bit as good as youÂ’d get from a top-notch CRT, which isnÂ’t surprising when you consider that the front surface of the SED display is basically the same as a large, high-resolution picture tube. Like a CRT, SED produces images by firing electrons at a screen coated with light-emitting phosphors. The difference is the source of those electrons. Instead of firing electrons from an electron gun and controlling their direction with an electromagnetic yoke, SEDs have a tiny solid-state electron emitter behind each pixel. The result is a very thin profile. The panel itself is only 2mm deep, and the entire display is 7mm deep.
In a nutshell, this was the best-looking flat-panel image that IÂ’ve ever seen (though some of the new LCD models from BenQ, LG and Samsung that IÂ’ve seen here also look stunning). Given that, IÂ’m not surprised that SEDÂ’s developers are hoping to take a 20 to 30% share of the global flat-panel market.
But it’s not going to happen quickly. Toshiba and Canon plan to begin producing a 50-inch-plus 1080p SED television later this year, but at low production volumes, around 3,000 units per month. Once full-scale production begins, capacity will increase to 15,000 units per month, gradually increasing to 70,000 per month by the end of 2007. To put those numbers into perspective, consider that among plasma manufacturers, Pioneer alone is currently producing 100,000 units a month. And while production ramps up, LCD and plasma manufacturers will continue to improve their products. The improvement in these displays in the past year underlines the fact that SED developers are chasing a moving target, so a 25% marketshare isn’t going to fall into their lap – even if they meet their production targets.
ThereÂ’s no question though that SED is a fabulous technology, and demonstrates that this is a great time to be in the technology business. And itÂ’s a great time to be a technology consumer.
