The U.S. Display Consortium (USDC) and Insight Media announce 3D@Home Consortium, a non-profit alliance to speed the commercialization of 3D home entertainment. The 22 international founding members of the Consortium were revealed at an opening meeting during NAB and include Disney, Philips and Samsung.

Driven by the success of 3D in digital cinema, an entire new ecosystem is forming to develop the hardware, software, content and delivery mechanisms to bring 3D entertainment into the home. They hope to include 3D gaming, sports, movies and other entertainment.

The intent is to run four steering teams (ST1-ST4):
ST1 for 3D Content Creation and Production with high priority as 3D Content Creation (quality vs. quantity) and as mastering 3D content for the home vs. cinema.

ST2: 3D Content Storage, Transmission & Distribution with high priority as file formats, compression, transmission and liaison with standards bodies and other consortia, (requesting actions as determined) e.g. DCI, MPEG, SMPTE, IEEE, 3D Consortium, 3D4YOU, 3DIDA and others

ST3: 3D Promotion with high priority as the common naming conventions and vocabulary - industry level

ST4: 3D Displays with high priority 3D display quality metrics - ghosting, dimensionalization, brightness, etc.

Go http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=866418&msgid=99056&act=R33P&c=170431&admin=0&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.3DatHome.org

According to ABI Research’s Mike Wolf, “Networking connections have gone from being ‘nice-to-have’ to ‘necessary’ for some categories of devices such as portable media players and gaming consoles. We expect that as more devices get tied to content services, other categories will follow the same route, and we are already beginning to see this today.”

ABI says the leading devices for embedded networking in consumer electronics will shift from the early market leaders – game consoles – to TVs and DVD players. They forecast the number for networked TV shipments alone will grow to 65 million units shipped by 2012 (from 3.6 million in 2008).

“While many TV manufacturers have been evaluating the integration of networking features into devices for some time, only recently have manufacturers such as LG, Sony and HP begun to ship products en masse with embedded networking,” says research director Wolf. “While Japan has had networked TVs for some time, other regions are beginning to receive such merchandise too, as TV manufacturers begin to see the value of future-proofing their products with IP connections.”

While portable devices such as portable media players and game consoles will have mostly wireless networking connections such as Wi-Fi, fixed devices such as TVs, set-top boxes and other devices will have a mix of both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections.

Alternative LAN technologies will also see some penetration, as both HomePlug and MoCA based technologies make their way into STBs. Overall, Wi-Fi media connections will lead with total Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics reaching 329 million shipments by 2012.

Go ABI on Home Networks

Rumor has it the two inventors from London South Bank University got fed up with using their mobile phones to light up their doorways when coming home late. So they built a prototype of an electroluminescent rug that lights up when you walk across it.

“Responsive surface” such as their “Footlume” may be the NBT (next big thing) in interiors. Think about the applications: a rug that lights up when you step on it could replace night lights around the house, in kid’s rooms and bathrooms.

Or they can provide ambient mood, flash in time to music, or simply act as a talking point at a party."

The electroluminescent rug uses rechargeable batteries and that may be its weakest sales point unless the lady inventors from LSBU can also figure out a different wireless power supply.

Go Footlume

Sony will invest US$204 million to strengthen its OLED panel production technology by accelerating the shift to medium- to large-size OLED panels.

Sony began researching OLED technology in 1994, and has since positioned OLED as a future-generation display technology. Sony launched the world's first OLED TV, "XEL-1" in Japan and had a big hit at CES with their smaller OLED models.

Go SONY OLED

LG Philips LCD will become LG Display after approval at the company’s GM on February 29.

The new corporate name reflects the reduction of Philips’ equity stake and LG’s intention to pursue display technologies beyond LCD.

They debuted the world’s highest res 14.3-inch flexible color E-paper display at CES 2008. The 14.3-inch E-paper display, the size of an A4 sheet of paper, has a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels, and an ability to display 16.7 million colors, making it perfect for use in high end multimedia apps. The displays are less than 300 micrometers thin, and the use of metal foil and plastic substrates (rather than glass substrate) makes the display bendable and durable.

The flexible display market is projected at a US $5.9 billion market by 2010, rising to US$12 billion by 2015.

LG Display, is also planning to roll out 18.9-inch 16:9 LCD monitor panels at the end of Q3.

Go LG Display

The second annual 2008 EMEA+InAVation Awards were announced at ISE in a Gala Dinner just before the show opened.
Lead by InAVate magazine and supported by significant media (including us), the industry voted for those vendors and installers) most deserving to be recognized.

• Audio Product for Residential Use (Non-Loudspeaker)
  Escient Fireball FP-1
  
  
• Video Signal Processing or Distribution Product for Residential Use
  Kramer Electronics VS-42 HDMI
  
  
• Loudspeaker Product for Residential Use
  Genelec AOW312
  
  
  
  
• Display Product for Residential Use
  Mitsubishi HC6000
  
  
• Control Product for Residential Use
  Stardraw Control 2007
  
  
• AV Accessory (Commercial & Residential)
  NTI Minirator MP Pro
  
  
• Residential Project (Small – Medium)
  Dark Side of the Room – Marmonier - France
  i.life solutions –  Bristol Cinema - UK
  IAV (India) Pvt Ltd - Prakash Residence - India
  
  Winner: Smart Business - Alberto Aguilera - Spain
  
  
  
  
• Residential Project (Large)
  AVI Pro – Grand Cinema – Spain
  Design Logistics – Hertfordshire – UK
  DSE Digital – Heathfield – UK
  Global Technology & Control Solutions – Quinta Verde – Portugal
  Marmann Bau GmbH – Niedrigenergihaus – Germany
  
  Winner: SmartCom – Villa Oasis – France