01. Open a new era of movie viewing and enter the tens of billions of cinema market
Data released by the National Film Administration on December 31, 2018 showed that the total national movie box office in 2018 was 60.976 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.06%. Correspondingly, as an important core component of the theater system, the growth of screens is even more amazing. The data shows that there were 9,303 new screens nationwide in 2018, and the total number of screens has reached 60,079. This number is still rising. The increase in the number of screens has given China the hardware conditions to become a major global film market.
The development of the film and television industry has brought more opportunities for film and television investment, and has also promoted the advancement of projection technology and the upgrading of equipment. Technically speaking, traditional projection technology has always monopolized the cinema market in the past. Since large manufacturers have launched laser projectors suitable for various cinemas, high-end movie projection technology has shifted to the laser type. But in essence, it is still an innovation in projection technology. There is no emerging display technology that can take a share of this huge market. The emergence of LED screen screening rooms has undoubtedly broken this status quo and given many domestic LED display companies the courage to enter the cinema market. After the rapid development of China's LED display industry in recent years, the products are relatively mature. The development of various application scenarios has entered a stable period. Competition has also begun to intensify and the concentration is getting higher and higher. Faced with such a new application scenario, many companies have seen another huge high-end display market.
02. LED display technology is changing rapidly and the future is promising.
From a technical point of view, most of the playback equipment used in traditional theaters is projection technology. Since the projection system adopts the principle of reflection imaging, the distance at which the projected light reaches the center of the screen and the surroundings are different, and the positions of the three primary color light sources in the projection tube are different. This feature causes the projection image to be prone to a small amount of pixel defocus and color fringing. In addition, the movie screen uses a white screen, which reduces the contrast of the picture.
In contrast, the advantages of LED movie screens are very obvious. The LED movie screen has a larger screen width, ultra-clear 4K resolution (4,096 x 2,160) and a peak brightness (146fL) that is 10 times higher than traditional projection equipment. Compared with traditional projection technology, the LED movie screen incorporates high dynamic range imaging (HDR) technology to achieve a more realistic picture quality effect. At the same time, it can also present perfect color accuracy (DCI-P3 color gamut) at peak brightness, presenting bright colors to the audience.
With "small spacing", my country's LED display companies have expanded their territory in the commercial display field and have achieved remarkable results. For Chinese display companies that sell LED products around the world and provide about 90% of the world's LED displays, we can see from the two exhibitions at the beginning of this year that many companies have begun to display their P0.9 products. Small-pitch LED displays have now achieved 4K and 8K, and entering the theater market is no longer a problem, at least in terms of clarity. And with the "Ultra-HD Video Industry Development Action Plan (2019-2022)" jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Radio and Television, and the China Central Radio and Television Station, the "Action Plan" clearly will follow the overall technical route of "4K first, taking into account 8K" to vigorously promote the development of the ultra-high-definition video industry and applications in related fields. Ultra-high-definition display will also be the mainstream development direction in the future. The maturity of technology and the introduction of national policies have given LED display companies full of expectations to enter the digital cinema market, and also provided the LED display industry with a good opportunity to enter the high-end display market.
03. It is too early to end the LED display screen in the projection era
A huge emerging market is undoubtedly a piece of cake, and the booming development of the theater market has allowed the LED display industry to see greater business opportunities. However, we cannot ignore the fact that no Chinese LED display screen can pass DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives) certification. In the final analysis, there are still some application problems in small-pitch LED displays that need to be solved urgently.
First of all, whether it is LED display or projection display, for cinema operators, maximizing profits is their ultimate pursuit. From a cost perspective, LED display screens are self-luminous devices. A sufficient number of LED lamp beads need to be installed in a limited space. This requires very high installation process and requires a relatively large cost. Furthermore, although the lifespan of LED lamp beads can reach more than 100,000 hours, due to its extremely high density, it is difficult to dissipate heat in a limited space and is prone to local failures. Facing such a behemoth, maintenance and repair alone are not a simple matter, and require a lot of manpower and material resources; and because LED displays are prone to dizziness when viewed for a long time, the experience effect is not optimal, which makes it difficult for small-pitch LED displays to enter the theater market. It is precisely because of these problems that most LED display companies in the industry can only "look at the cinema market".
Compared with the current choice of Samsung to use LED displays to leverage the digital cinema market, other mainstream digital projector suppliers are more likely to use laser projector layouts. The unique characteristics of laser projection technology such as high brightness, wide color gamut, low attenuation, and long life have made it widely popular in the majority of cinemas. Therefore, as an LED screen company, if you want to enter the digital cinema market on a large scale, in addition to solving the technical problems that the product currently needs to solve, you also need to understand the advantages and product characteristics of the main competing equipment in the competition to achieve accurate entry. When a new application scenario appears, only by in-depth understanding can we create our own opportunities.
To sum up, only by overcoming these problems will LED displays be able to enter the cinema market in a big way in the future, and then lead to an even larger civilian market. Samsung's LED movie screen is currently only a groundbreaking entry into the market. It has broken the position of traditional projection technology in the cinema market in the global movie market and has played a "leading brother" role in the entry of LED display screens into cinema systems and into the cinema market. Although it is currently difficult for small-pitch displays to enter theaters, it is not completely impossible for Chinese LED display companies to enter theaters. As far as display images are concerned, LED displays have huge technical advantages over projection screens. As long as we work hard to solve problems such as heat dissipation, maintenance, experience effects, and gradually reduce costs, LED displays will surely enter the theater market in a comprehensive way.
ANNA