- Clipsal extends Iconic range
- Australia’s acoustic sensors market set for solid growth
- Energy storage specialist opens Australian office
- Firmware upgrade for measurement amplifiers
Arguably the first commercially viable OLED television was Samsung’s 21-inch version that it showcased at CES 2005. Since then, manufacturers have been working on improvements including making the blacks deeper.
So how does the technology work? OLED pixels can emit light on their own, which allows an OLED TV to create perfect shades of black and an infinite contrast ratio, which is impossible with your conventional plasma or LCD televisions. OLED pixels, for want of a better word, are ‘smart’. They emit the exact amount of light needed for their setting, which results in a crisp, clear picture.
LG recently held an event in Reykjavik, Iceland where is showed the technology at its zenith. Pictures of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) were screened via 40 LG OLED screens, which had more than 330 million self-emitting OLED pixels. According to attendees the result was spectacular.
Such an event using LCDs would not be as impressive because they use backlight panels, which means that light bleeds from the device. This in turn leads to inconsistent colour rendering. Even to a layperson this is noticeable when compared to an OLED screen.
The biggest issue of OLED compared to LCD is the price. As with most technologies, cost is the key to getting these types of screens to market and becoming the norm. While prices have come down from their commercial launch in 2012, LCDs, and to a lesser extent LEDs, will still have the marketshare for the immediate future.