|
The changing tendencies in screen industry.
Deputy
chief editor - Michael Nikoulichev
(21.11.2002)
Manufacturing of large outdoor screens remains relatively young industry. However changes here are so swift and meaningful that need to be explained in detail.
A desire to take a large TV and install it in the street goes back to the 1970ies. As it frequently happens, the idea was first formulated in the USA and was immediately implemented there. First, engineers developed boards with running letters, later invented full-color lamp screens. The latter were cumbersome, consumed too much power, but compared to shy and silent static billboards, screens became a long-expected innovation.
|
|
|
|
| Large LAMP electronic outdoor sign. It couldn't reproduce fullcolor image. | Large LAMP electronic outdoor screen. It couldn't reproduce fullcolor image. | Large LAMP electronic outdoor fullcolor video screen. |
The only problem is that lamp screens have low resolution. The quality of advertising image on lamp screens is not very high. Engineers did not stop thinking: by mid-80ies they created an LED screen with much better resolution. But at that time they failed to make it into a full-color system. To mix colors and produce all shades of the palette it was necessary to use three colors: red, green and blue. In mid-80ies LED industry was unable to manufacture blue LEDs due to complex structure and large number of p-n transfer levels. Thus, for a long time LED screens were limited to a two-color variants and were primarily used as informational or banner screens.
Development of a blue LED in early 90ies was equal to the revolution in this industry. Now it was possible to manufacture full-color screens with excellent resolution. However the explosive growth in the number of such screens was held back by two reasons: prohibitively high prices and imperfect control systems that were unable to process huge information flows for large area images.
For this reason lamp electronic screens continued to develop and spread through the world. During 80ies and 90ies only in the USA there were 5000 lamp screens.
The outdoor animation advertising continued to be extremely profitable, advertising budgets for outdoor advertising grew fast and steady. Not surprisingly engineers throughout the world were thinking hard of ways to simplify systems and make them somewhat cheaper. At last, in mid-90ies new control systems appeared and the prices on LED screens slipped down. The number of screen systems in large cities started to rise. However overall prices were still high.
 |
 |
 |
| Large LED electronic fullcolor video screen in Brazil. | Large LED fullcolor electronic video screen sign display in New York (USA). | Large LED electronic video display at main stadium in Sydney during Summer Olimpic Games 2000. |
Then one more revolutionary solution appeared in the market: it allowed to use super-bright LEDs with narrow angle for outdoor screens. Special light filters widen the angle of the light beam and protect LED from adverse weather conditions. The brightness remains so high that LED screens can operate in bright sunlight. This new approach made it possible to bring down screen prices even further to make them affordable. Large LED screens with excellent resolution and high intensity have no competition. The solution was developed and patented by "ATV Outdoor Systems", a Russian-based screen manufacturer.
From now on, manufacturing LED screens became a viable option even for small-scale businesses. The show must go on!