InfoComm '07 Report

Touted as "the biggest AV tradeshow in history," the annual InfoComm conference was held last week in Anaheim and we were there. If you are not familiar with InfoComm - heaven knows it seems to receive 1% of the media coverage of CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) - it may be because the organization still uses that oh-so-70's term AV (audiovisual) in its press releases.

A good example are the monitors in the airport that post arrival and departure times. These units usually have some network connections so they can be monitored and controlled from a remote location. Even the TVs in a hotel room can be specialized for the needs of the hospitality market.

So to find a consumer HDTV often took some sleuthing. But the hunt was worth it, especially when I turned up the great new Pioneer plasma, which is soon to sparkle in a videophile's eye. As usual, I don't like discussing this or that specific model or technology until I can see how it performs in our testing facility.

What I do want to write about is a concept TV that I saw at the Sharp booth because it personifies the current state and the future of the HDTV industry. In the midst of all the big screens, this 64" TV did not look particularly meaningful as I zipped by it on the way to an event. But when I stopped to examine the image on the screen and read the banner above it, I realized that I was looking at what may be the next step in the evolution of high definition.

The resolution of the TV was four times that of a 1080p display. Wasn't it just last year when 1080p was considered the holy grail of HDTV? Ah, technology marches on.

This TV was displaying 3840 x 2160 (or double 1920 x 1080) lines of resolution. If you do your multiplication, that's four times the number of pixels. The marketing people like to tout 1080p as Full HD. What will they christen this, Quad HD? One term already used to describe this pixel population explosion is 4K, which stands for 4000. (Indeed, a common 4K pixel count is 4096 x 2160.)

Now I said this may be the future. Here's the cloud in the crystal ball. And it's a pickle that the Product Managers at Sharp (and other companies that are developing similar technologies) must resolve. Who will be creating the 4K compelling content that will spur the demand for a Quad HDTV?

It's taken ten years and an act of Congress, to drag broadcast television stations kicking and screaming into the digital age. And the highest resolution we can expect from them is 1080i.

Blu-ray and HD-DVDs are still in the early rounds of slugging it out for market share. And again, we only have 1080p.

That's not to say content is not already out there. Anyone who has bought a digital camera in the last year may be shooting 4K (8 megapixel) snapshots of their Fourth of July picnic.

Of course, a $25,000 or more (Sharp has not set a price yet) digital frame for your family photos may be a bit ostentatious.

I could imagine a professional photographer or an ad agency would love one or two in their offices. But I'm talking about displaying still images.

Panasonic's 7 1/2' Tall Plasma
Digital Signage

Of course, don't expect a product available for the consumer until at least InfoComm '08. A reality which leads me to a statement about our editorial content.

Readers email and comment that we should be covering emerging technologies, like OLEDs or laser TVs. For me, the keyword is emerging. It's fun to dream about the future and imagine what we'll have in our home theater in 2010. But as you can see from this 4K report, it's just speculation - not exactly what you need to make an informed purchasing decision right now.

Looking at the past three years of HDTV development and the future that is being revealed at conferences like CES, InfoComm, and CEDIA, the progression will be evolutionary. Will the picture quality of HDTVs be improved next year? Definitely. Will you be able to notice the difference? Not necessarily. Are there new, better technologies around the bend? Indubitably. Is it worth postponing a purchase? That I can't answer for you.

I can tell you that I loved the 4K TV. But even at this leap of resolution, it was not revolutionary - at least for my eyes. And before I give it a 5 Star rating, I want to get a working model in to our testing facility. Only then will I feel comfortable about reviewing a new technology. Anything else I would write would only be conjecture.

Stay tuned.