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Clarity Visual Systems (Wilsonville, OR) (www.clarityvisual.com)
has been a pioneer in the nascent digital visual messaging market where
big-screen displays are linked to electronic networks to display ads,
menus or travel information. So far, it has offered several types of
electronic displays for signage, but now it will be one of the first
to embrace the largest LCD panels for this purpose.
The new display panel, dubbed Bobcat, is a wide-aspect, 1280 x 768 resolution
LCD panel sourced from Totorri Sanyo, a division of Sanyo Electric Co.
(www.sanyo.co.jp). "Sanyo
has committed to manufacturing this display, and can meet our rollout
schedule, which is why we will source it from them," notes Ed Kiyoi,
director of product marketing at Clarity Visual Systems. "The panel
will be available in November for $11,395."
Clarity already offers a 42-inch WVGA resolution plasma display panel,
but will now phase that out in favor of the big-screen LCDs. Both offer
the form factor that transportation, quick-serve restaurants and other
retail applications want. But LCDs have few of the performance disadvantages
of plasma panels.
For example, Kiyoi points to the phosphor burn-in, phosphor wear, high
operating heat, and low contrast in ambient environments as well- recognized
problems. "LCDs have none of these problems and a 50K- hour lifetime,"
says Kiyoi.
Clarity points out that simply looking at the brightness and contrast
spec of a panel is insufficient for understanding how well it will look
in a normal ambient environment (40 foot-candles). For example, the
phosphors in plasma screens reflect quite a bit of ambient light, about
15%. But LCDs' reflectivity is much lower, around 2.5%. The result is
that a plasma panel with 3000:1 dark room contrast will have an actual
contrast of about 38:1, whereas an LCD panel with 600:1 and lower reflectivity
produces an actual contrast of 109:1.
Clarity takes this "viewability" analysis one step further.
It defines a Quality Viewing Metric (QVM) as the product of the panel's
peak brightness times its contrast in ambient light. This makes good
sense to us as a more logical way to evaluate the actual image quality
of a display.
Accordingly, the 131 Ft-Lamberts of brightness for the LCD panel yields
a QVM of 14,370. The higher peak brightness of the plasma panel-- 228
Ft-Lamberts-- times a much lower ambient contrast produces a QVM of
8,990. This analysis says that the LCD panel looks better in normal
lighting conditions.
What this analysis does not factor in is cost. If we divide by the cost
of the panel, the QVM/C of the LCD panel becomes 1.26. Clarity's "Lynx"
plasma panel goes for $10,495, so its QVM/C is 0.85, which implies that
the LCD panel is also a better value. However, similar panels can be
purchased for other sources for a lot less, so in some cases, the value-cost
factor for the plasma panel may exceed the LCD panel - all other factors
being equal.
Clarity thinks demand for digital visual messaging is poised to finally
move beyond the "limited trial phase" that has characterized
the industry for the past several years. It cites market research that
estimates the business messaging market was worth $400M in 2000 and
that consumer messaging will reach over $600M in 2003.
As a result, it is quite excited about the prospects for its new Bobcat
display, estimating sales of 3K to 10K LCD panels in the first year.
Given the high price of these panels compared to PDPs, and the analysis
above, we think such sales estimates are too optimistic. Yes, we think
LCD pricing will drop faster than PDP pricing over the next few years,
but they are still more than twice the price of PDPs today. Any corporation
that plans to do a major roll out of digital signage will be taking
a very hard look at the significant cost differential between these
two options. Granted, there are benefits to using LCDs over PDPs, but
will it be worth the price tag? We will just have to wait and see.
Clarity, Ed Kiyoi, 503-570-0700, EKiyoi@ClarityVisual.com
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