The Future of TVs - Paper Example

Introduction

The evolution of technology has brought forth several devices that could virtually replace the television; such as iPads, Smartphones, and Tablets. However, TVs have survived the test of time and are still relevant after all that period; this arose because they have continuously evolved, adding advancements and increased versatility. The television has come from being a small fat cathode ray box with poor quality black and white pictures to advanced wallpaper TV's less than half an inch thick. For an extended period, the technology mark-timed at the cathode ray tube with few advancements in the availability of color. The most recent times have however witnessed a significant breakthrough in the technology introducing LCD and plasma that were the starting point of the fast-paced advancements. Since the era of the plasma, the technology has changed to LCOS, LEDs, OLED, 4K, and quantum dots. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that happens every year is a platform where several electronics companies display their future technology trends in the electronics industry. TVs are a major attraction in this event, and it is a proof of what the coming years will bring in the industry. It is therefore clear that the future has good footstool and will consequently better TVs for the market.

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Future TVs Technologies

Quantum Dot Light Emitting Diode (QLED)

QLED technology introduces the first combination of quantum dot technology and the OLED. Quantum dots are a priced technology in the display market because of their ability to give different colors according to their sizes. Thence, they can produce brighter, more diverse and more vibrant colors (Kim and Dong-Kyu 486). OLED has an advantage over quantum because of the contract ratios; it provided. A combination of these two technologies will see the TV maximize the benefits of the two technologies. The product is of better clarity with deep blacks, superior color gamut and brightness, and a 40% luminance efficiency with lower power consumption. Samsung is the primary muscle behind the development of the technology. The unveiling of the proper QLED television technology will be an activity in the future one year.

MicroLED Technology

MicroLED is the new technology that came after the OLED. The technology combines millions of smaller LEDs into a display screen. OLED technology used a separate LCD layer and the LED backlight; the microLED, on the other hand, combines the two (Chen et al. 168). When looking at one pixel of the mricoLED, it is three LEDs each producing a pinprick of detail. The image has more vibrancy and depth since the light generated by the diode allows for them to turn off entirely when creating an entirely black image. The advantage of OLED is that they could be slimmer, brighter, burn-in protected and less expensive than their OLED counterparts. The technology is still under trial by Samsung, Sony, and LG to produce even better and cheaper TVs.

Image Quality

8K Resolution

The current resolution of TV went from full HD to 4K within the past two years; considered the most significant leap TVs had in image quality. The expected new leap will be four times better than the 4K TV. The pixels of the 8K TV will be 7680* 4320 creating an indifferentiable pixel structure. The definition of the TV will be Ultra High Definition with images of 8000 pixels wide (Hack et al. 48). The HD TVs offer a 2-megapixel image quality, the 4K offer 8-megapixel but the expected 8K TV will provide 33-megapixel image quality. Sony is the company behind the development of the 8K and has already presented their prototype. The technology, however, faces a problem as main broadcasters have not unveiled the technology fit to transmit such image quality. The primary drivers of the transmission technology are Japan public broadcasters, NHK. They are targeting to unveil the technology for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (Kim and Dong-Kyu 486). Therefore, the technology will reveal to the rest of the world after 2020.

Audio

Immersive, Personalized Audio

The current audio standards of TV are low and are incapable of reconciling the initial mono sounds from broadcasts. The future, however, holds excellent prospects with continuing research into the development of the ATSC 3.0 audio standards. The sound standards aim at offering personalized sound and the creation of a more immersive sound environment. The sound standards build a surround system that takes it to a full of 7.1+4 implementation (one plane containing seven channels of sound; one for the subwoofer and the last four ones for the overhead) (Hack et al. 48). The new Sound standard conveys directionality thus could specify the direction of flow of the sound. The future ATSC 3.0 sound will flow directly to the listener, then overhead before moving away. It will thoroughly fit the 3D environment and improve the user experiences by accommodating even the sophisticated sound scenarios. The sound system will enhance the viewership and the TV experience.

Speaker-less TVs

The future of TVs will see them produce sound without the traditional speakers. It will, therefore, reduce the space and result to ultrathin screens. The TVs will use bending waves paired with rigid elements that vibrate thus producing accurate sound through the removal of unwanted timbral coloration. The TV has exciters behind the QLED displays that cause the sound to vibrate the screen and be directed to the audience (Robbins et al. 24). The advantage of the technology is that the vibrations are invisible and there are no image distortions on the screen. The image producing the sound and the waves are paired to make it look like the former is coming out of the picture. LG and Sony presented their prototype for the speaker-less TV early in 2017 CES trade show. The drawback they had was that the TVs could not produce quality bass. However, with advancement in the coming years, the TV will hit the market producing product that will revolutionize the TV and audio experience.

Physical Properties

Flexible TV

LG was the first one to prototype a flexible OLED type of TV, but the advancement into a fully functioning TV is not yet possible. Use of OLED technology will provide a platform for flexibility of TVs within a few coming years. The idea that led to the development of the 'rollable' TV is the technicalities that were involved in the transportation, installing, and moving of big screens. The flexible TV also comes with the capability to show only a section of the whole screen; m21:9, the ration that could display notifications, or allowing for the playing of music when the entire screen is not needed (Hack et al. 48). The flexibility does not affect the viewing quality of the OLED TVs. Once unfurled into an upright position, the TV still showed the deep blacks, viewing angle and rich color gamut associated with OLED.

Transparent displays

LG has been the primary perpetrators and manipulators of the OLED technology. At the CES 2017, they also brought forth the transparent OLED TV prototype for the future. The OLED technology display has higher light remittance the other technologies such as quantum atom and LCD. OLED uses organic materials that emit light when electricity passes through them (Chen et al. 168). It doesn't need any underlying backlight and therefore has the option of being transparent. Thus, the only change that is required to achieve the seamless TV is the use of see-through materials to create the OLED. When in use, the TV displays images as a regular TV but when turned off the screen resembles a window. The future will benefit from the use of the transparent TV in commercial places such as for heads-up vehicle displays, shop windows, and on containers and vending machines.

Reduction in Thickness

The proof-of-concept of a TV screen less than a millimeter thick appeared in the CES 2018. Currently, the only available thinnest TV is more than 10millimeters. Reduction of the TVs thickness has been the primary goal of technological advancement since the phasing out of the CRTs. The available OLED and QLED technology allow for thinner materials used in creating the displays (Kim and Dong-Kyu 486). Further, the elimination of speakers from the TV set and using on-screen vibration to produce sound allows for the thinnest size of TVs. Sony and LG have prototypes small screens of as low as 3mm that could fit on the wall like wallpaper. The TVs are mounted on the screen by a unique magnetic flush installation. In the future years, the thickness will reduce from the 3mm to even thinner ones.

Modular Display

The use of MicroLED technology will allow configuring of several small screens to form a large screen of any size and through their modular connection combine to show a fully developed image. Therefore, the future will see people order TVs the size of their specifications, unlike the currently defined ones. The market for the modular TVs will be the commercial locations such as cinemas, offices, seminars and other areas that need a more extensive display (Hack et al. 48). The advantage of the underlying technology of modular screens, microLED, is that even with the modulation and the big size, the image doesn't lose coloration, brightness or the perfect black features. At the CES 2018, Samsung presented the TV dabbed "The Wall" that was 146 inches. Production of such TVs will take more than two years to start, but the prospects of the TV are promising.

Converting TVs to Lifestyle

The new trend in the TV industry is adopting the look and lifestyle of the home or office. Samsung presented a TV prototype in the 2017 CES that resembled wall art. The idea behind it was customization of televisions into models that the owners prefer. In the case of the prototype, it was meant to fit into the living room design; it acted as a TV when on but when off, it displayed pictures. The idea is yet to unveil, but it is meant to make TV owners choose their designs for an extra amount so that the TV would fit into their location or lifestyle. The new form of smart TVs would also provide the art mode that would allow it to double as a piece of art or photographs or a picture. Further, the technology would integrate motion sensors only to display the art, photos or paintings when someone is around; thus, helping to save on the power.

Prices

OLED technology entered the market in 2008, and as of 2012, only LG produced the TVs. It is because the production process was laborious and there were several bottlenecks into their production process; such as problems in sourcing of the organic material for the screens. However, the recent years have seen Sony and Panasonic venture into the production. The research and production improvement methods have increased, and the outcome is that there are newer and cheaper ways that will go into the creation of OLED TVs. Entry of several players into the OLED market will drive the production costs down due to new found efficiencies (Chen et al. 168). The demand for the OLED TVs is high, making it lucrative for other entrants to join the market. Another plus of the TV market is that the expensive plasma technologies are faced out slowly. Cheaper technologies such as the LED and quantum atomic are the ones used. If the trend continues, then the prices of TVs will drop further.

Conclusion

The display advancement has taken a high in the last two decades with several newer technologies emerging. It has been relentless, and the noticeable significant is that it is not about to slow down in the coming decade. There is still a pursuit of visual perfection, the decrease in sizes, improvement in display technology, and improvement in its audio systems. Most companies have come forward to the show their expectations of the future of TVs in The International Consumer Electronics Show. The main perpetrato...