Guan Jizhen, chairman of the LED Display Application Branch of the China Optics and Optoelectronics Industry Association, believes that with the continuous improvement of the overall level of my country's microelectronics assembly technology, the pixel center distance of high-density indoor LED displays continues to make breakthroughs, and the pixel center of indoor LED displays has entered the 1.Xmm era. In the next few years, it is likely to replace the video wall and become the mainstream display medium for large screens in monitoring centers. In terms of outdoor applications, 10mm has long been the shackles of the pixel center distance of outdoor full-color screens. In recent years, with the improvement of outdoor surface-mount LED packaging technology and the improvement of outdoor module protection level, the limit of pixel center distance of outdoor full-color screens is constantly being refreshed, and 5.Xmm outdoor full-color large screens have been applied in the market.
1. The present situation of LED small-pitch displays
The development of high-density small-pitch LED displays is inevitable
High-density small-pitch LED displays have become popular products, and several large-scale backbone companies in the industry are seizing this temporary blue ocean market in real time. Leyard and Unilumin have taken the lead in R&D and publicity, and other companies are catching up.
Lianjian Optoelectronics focuses on micro-density series products and promotes a thousand-screen strategic cooperation plan
What is more eye-catching about Lianjian Optoelectronics in September is its implementation of a thousand-screen strategic cooperation plan. Zhong Juying, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Lianjian Optoelectronics, said, “The highlight of the company’s LED screen business this year is small-pitch products. LED advertising machines and small-pitch high-definition screens will have greater growth. In addition, the company has proposed the "Thousand Screen Strategic Cooperation Plan", which will build 1,000 large outdoor LED advertising screens in 300 cities across the country. We began in-depth research and development in 2006 and successively developed a series of small-pitch high-density LED displays such as P4, P3.8, P3.9, P3, P2.5, P2.0, P1.6, and P1.2. The minimum spacing is close to 1mm. These high-density LED displays were named the Micro-Micro Series (VME), which opened a new chapter in Micro-Micro display screens.
The new Absen U2 product is suitable for indoor use, and the zero-steel C16 product is suitable for outdoor use
Absen also has its own layout in the field of high-density small-pitch LED displays. At the Optical Expo, it released two new products, the U2 high-definition indoor LED display with a pixel pitch of 2.5mm and the zero-steel structure-C16 outdoor LED large screen. U2's main market is still the indoor high-definition display market. Its independent and unique technology has successfully solved the problem of darkening in the first row and made the display picture better. Compared with several other major manufacturers that are in-depth research and development of smaller-density displays, Absen is relatively clear and only targets the actual market. Absen's outdoor fixed large screen C16 is positioned in a thin and light box, which can directly replace traditional inkjet advertising and realize outdoor naked installation.
Skyworth Optoelectronics focuses on specific markets
Skyworth Optoelectronics’ planning in the high-density small-pitch LED display market is to focus on specific markets based on its own advantages. Huang Yanghe, director of the domestic LED marketing department of Skyworth Optoelectronics, said that Skyworth Optoelectronics is also currently manufacturing high-density and small-pitch LED displays, and the application market is mainly in the commercial field. Since Skyworth Optoelectronics is both a TV manufacturer and an LED display manufacturer, from our perspective, I think there is still a long way to go for LED super TVs to move from commercial to civilian use, at least five to ten years. At present, the price of a 42-inch conventional TV is about 2,000. It is still very difficult for LED super TVs to eliminate the graininess like ordinary TVs and achieve affordable prices. However, there is still a lot of room for application in the commercial market.
Leyard LED Super TV holds high its smart sign
Leyard has always been a hot topic in high-density and small-pitch LED displays. The most advantageous way of publicity for Leyard is to continuously cooperate with high-end brand manufacturers to create high-end intelligent LED super TVs, striving to seize the indoor large-area display market. On July 25, 2013, Leyard released: the world's largest 288-inch 4K ultra-high-definition LED TV, the world's smallest P1.25 micro-pitch LED TV panel and other products. "One clear goal + more than 1,000 tests + 6 years of research and development + 3 strong alliances = the birth of Leyard LED TV" - this is how Leyard summarizes the birth of their LED super TV. In order to provide domestic commercial customers and high-end home consumers with a more satisfactory product experience, Leyard has also teamed up with three major companies, Everlight, Xiaomi Technology, and Ti, to jointly develop and use the world's leading semiconductor chips and smaller LED lights to make the product's image quality brighter and more stable. At the same time, it uses Xiaomi Technology's massive content resources to create intelligent products.
In addition to the research, development, production and promotion of LED super TVs, Unilumin and Leyard are the most dedicated. In addition, both companies said that they will soon launch the world's latest product of high-density and small-pitch LED-glasses-free 3D TV. It is reported that Unilumin Technology is about to launch the world's largest naked-eye 3D giant screen LED small-pitch TV that has attracted much attention. Wu Meng, marketing director of Unilumin Technology, said, "Due to the self-luminous technology of LED, the new naked-eye 3D giant screen TV has a higher color contrast, and the 3D picture is pure and clear. It can achieve an immersive three-dimensional effect without wearing any glasses. This is also Unilumin Technology's global originality in the field of LED small-pitch TV." Leyard said as early as March this year that it was developing a naked-eye 3D LED super TV and would officially launch it before the end of the year.
Unilumin UTV focuses on low brightness, high gray and high brushing
As we all know, the manufacturing technology of high-density and small-pitch LED displays is not only rigorous, but also extremely tests the company's process level. The representative of the high-density small-pitch LED display screen promoted by Unilumin Technology is its UTV high-definition series products. Compared with the general high-density display screens in the market, the biggest highlight of UTV is its low brightness, high grayscale and high refresh rate performance. Mr. Wu Meng, marketing director of Unilumin Technology, said that reducing the brightness of the display screen without losing the gray scale and refresh rate is crucial for indoor LED displays, and it is also extremely challenging. Unilumin's high-definition small-pitch UTV series products have top-notch brightness of 1300cd/m2 (adjustable), 16-bit gray scale, and 6400Hz refresh rate (no "ghosting" in both uplink and downlink), setting a new record for ordinary high-definition LED displays in the industry. Experiments have proven that when the brightness of the display is reduced to 30% of the original brightness, there is almost no loss of grayscale in the display screen, and the grayscale loss is also very small at low brightness - 200cd; at the same time, point-by-point chromaticity correction has been perfected, and the brightness difference after correction is less than ±1%, and the chromaticity difference is less than 0.003, which fully meets indoor close-range viewing. See the effect. From the main advantages of indoor low gray and high brushing to freely adjustable brightness, coupled with Unilumin's own control system, colorimetry, brightness correction system and video processing system, the visual effect of UTV products is quite shocking.
Ruituo’s retro and nostalgic LED super TV
At the Optical Expo, Dehao Ruituo unveiled its 300-inch retro and nostalgic LED super TV, which attracted a lot of attention. Hao Guangjun, vice president of Ruituo Display, introduced that as early as 2003, Ruituo Display launched the concept of LED TV at the ISA exhibition in the United States. As LED technology becomes increasingly perfect, the production and application of small-pitch high-precision LED displays become possible. Although the industry generally believes that it will take time for real LED TVs to be widely used in the civilian market, high-precision LED TVs are developing rapidly in the commercial field and the market space will be huge. Currently, high-precision series LED displays are being used in more and more professional and commercial indoor fields, especially in high-precision commercial fields above 72 inches. In addition to this LED super TV that combines retro and modernity, Ruituo also displayed its small-pitch P2 indoor TV and its P6 outdoor TV that was successfully customized for Sinopec gas stations in cooperation with Hangmei.
2. The future of LED small-pitch display
The critical point of market application from commercial to civilian applications
As most people in the industry believe, high-density small-pitch LED displays and their extended LED super TVs have great prospects, but with the current technology and price, it is still difficult to enter the civilian market.
Wu Meng, marketing director of Unilumin Technology, believes that the main areas for high-density small-pitch LED displays above 110 inches are industrial fields such as video walls and DLP. Only products below 110 inches can be used in the civilian and commercial markets. However, the civilian market not only requires size, but is also particularly sensitive to price. Wu Xiaogang, general manager of Shenzhen Chip Optoelectronics, expressed the same view. He believes that 4 square meters is the critical point for LED super TVs to be suitable for civilian and commercial use. More than 4 square meters obviously has an advantage in the commercial field, but to achieve civilian use, it must be within 4 square meters. If TVs with more than 4 square meters rise and become popular in the future, there will be a huge market for LED super TVs. But from the current perspective, Wu Xiaogang believes that this is something that is unattainable.
Price is the primary consideration. Just imagine that at present, several major TV brands have made a lot of efforts on price and performance. High-end performance TVs are emerging one after another, and the prices are all falling. If LED super TVs are to be rashly promoted into the civilian market, not only are the prices unattainable, but after-sales and other services are also not well-regulated, and various practical issues are factors that need to be considered in advance.
Technical issues still need to be improved. Companies in the industry said that many companies currently have the ability to develop high-density, small-pitch LED displays, which proves that related technologies are not difficult. However, the civilian market's requirements for LED super TVs are much more difficult. Whether it is grayscale, brightness, refresh rate, reliability, yield, etc., they all test the production strength of an enterprise. After all, TV products in the civilian market are large-scale and general-purpose products. Obviously, this is a level that current LED super TVs cannot achieve.
Integrated competition from product to system development in the commercial field
At present, LED display companies do not dare to rashly say that their products will enter the civilian market immediately, but they all say that the civilian market is the hope for the future. As a result, the commercial field has become a market that is currently being vigorously expanded by high-density and small-pitch LED displays.
There is no doubt that high-density small-pitch LED display screens are an important emerging market in the industry, and are also one of the markets with high product profit margins. Compared with DLP, LCD and other display products, the main advantages of high-density small-pitch LED displays are high-definition display, high refresh frequency, seamless splicing, good heat dissipation system, convenient and flexible disassembly and assembly, etc. Even when viewed at a relatively close distance, the display screen is ultra-clear, flickering-free and grain-free. At present, the main application areas are: commercial real estate, command centers, public monitoring and command systems, radio and television studio centers, conference centers, high-end hotels and hotels, command and control centers or studio venues in specific industries in the communications industry.
At present, some medium and large enterprises are intensively developing and producing high-density and small-pitch LED display screens, and seizing the indoor large-screen market has become a major feature of current competition. However, compared with the enthusiasm of enterprises, is the market response enthusiastic? Is high-density LED display screen ready for commercial use, and will it be able to defeat DLP, LCD, rear projection and other display products? Even if high-density small-pitch LED displays successfully seize the indoor high-definition market on a large scale, how can LED display manufacturers ensure their profits?
First, let’s compare vertically. We know that there are many kinds of equipment for large indoor display screens in the commercial field, among which DLP, LCD, and projectors account for the main parts. Compared with LED display manufacturers, well-known domestic display equipment manufacturers are all predatory companies, and their annual sales are much higher than those of display screen companies. According to statistics from the LED Display Application Branch of the China Optics and Optoelectronics Industry Association, there is currently no domestic LED display company with annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan. Therefore, if high-density and small-pitch LED display products want to truly win over other display devices, they still need to strengthen their own strength.
Secondly, from the perspective of sales data, currently, the total sales of high-density small-pitch LED displays used in the commercial field is about 200 million yuan, which is far less than one-tenth compared with other display devices. Although high-density small-pitch LED displays are improving product performance and aggressively attacking the commercial field, other display products are also combining the advantages of LEDs to continuously improve quality. Therefore, the development momentum of other competing equipment cannot be underestimated.
Again, compare from the side. High-density small-pitch LED displays have entered the commercial field and are mainly used for indoor large-screen control and display. This determines that not only simple LED displays are needed, but more rigorous and complex program control and system integration are required. Usually, project parties tend to give priority to the needs and opinions of system integrators when purchasing display equipment. However, currently LED display manufacturers are difficult to provide a complete set of solutions, which reduces their own profits and puts them in a more passive position. This is also the reason why many LED display companies currently have their own market share.
Regardless of whether high-density small-pitch LED displays can take the lead in the commercial field, or even enter the civilian consumer field, we must have full confidence in this emerging market. This is an area discovered and explored by the LED display industry itself. It is a route for product expansion in the market to break through price wars, and it is another hope for companies to find the commanding heights of profits. Similarly, we cannot be overly enthusiastic about this current market. What its future will be like, we can only leave it to the market to decide.
ANNA