I keep hearing about how the consumer market for the Plasma monitor is getting ready to explode. Sony, NEC, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi and Philips have all invested millions preparing for the day you all get up one morning and decide to spend what amounts to a fortune on a skinny monitor. All in the name of HDTV and to save space.

Well, let me say for the record that the Japanese need not hold their breath as it’s not going to happen for a long while. OK, the plasma monitor is sure here to stay. It will certainly eventually occupy the space in most living rooms (in 4-6 years). But, not this year, not next and not even the next. Not even close.

But, read on, as the future for us is bright; actually super-bright! The best application for plasma to day is, by far, the ProAV rental and systems install markets. Booth and stand space is sold at a premium in most trade shows. Display monitors that show a larger view of a computer screen or of a videotaped presentation is a must to grab attention and to keep it on a trade show floor. No question about it. So, the plasma display is awesome for this application.

A rental company can justify the added cost over a traditional 27” or 35” monitor based on any number of factors such as space (the average plasma is only 4 inches thick), weight (the average plasma is 30% lighter than a CRT monitor) and even resolution as plasmas enjoy a much higher actual display resolution than just about every presentation monitor in the world. So, rent away.

As for the permanent installation systems market, right now the projector dominates the market for installing displays in small boardrooms, conference rooms and training rooms. ProAV companies install hundreds of these rooms a month where a screen is mounted to a wall and a projector is either hung in the ceiling or mounted behind the screen (in a rear-screen room) and computers, VCRs and DVD players are connected to make a system.

But, the biggest issue still troubling the average installation is light. There’s a lot of light in the average room (via windows) and in some cases, the environment of the room dictates that the room lights need to remain on (i.e. training rooms). A lot of projection light (thus the projected image) is lost when ambient light is in the room unless you have a rear-screen projection room. Rear-screen projection rooms a great problem solvers but they’re expensive, dead-space (can’t be used for anything else) and not all projection technologies can be accommodated by a rear-screen room.

So, the plasma is perfect for this application too. Unless the room requires a screen bigger than 50” diagonal (the current plasma screen size limitation) then plasma will do great. Since it’s a fully enclosed environment where no projected light is lost and it’s a direct view display with little or no glare, plasmas work in just about every environment.

Plasma displays debuted more than five years ago but really started becoming available and affordable in 1998. Fujitsu currently holds over 80 percent of the market as they not only manufacture their own line of displays but they also currently make raw components for Sony’ and a host of others. The rest of the market is shared between Philips and Mitsubishi. Although over 30,000 units were sold last year worldwide, that’s less than the number of TV sets sold worldwide in one month alone.

Plasma displays work remarkably like a CRT (the traditional glass based monitor almost everyone has in his or her home to watch TV on). Although they don’t use a vacuum tube like a TV, they do use phosphor that glows using a light; just like a CRT. The phosphor is painted in vertical stripes of red, green and blue (as all colors in display technology emanate from the three primary colors of red, green and blue). The color is illuminated and glows depending on what is supposed to be on the screen at any given time. If it’s a football game where the grass is green and the lines on the field are white, then where the grass is, only the green phosphor will glow. Where the white lines are pained, then all three colors glow as 100% red, green and blue make white.

What makes it glow? Well, a neon or xenon gas mixture provides an almost perfectly white light source that, when charged, makes the phosphor in any given area of the plasma glow.

What’s the big deal with plasma? Well, for starters, they are shaped like a movie screen and like HDTV. A regular TV screen is a 4:3 aspect ratio (four units wide by three high). On the other hand, plasma has an aspect ration of 16:9 (closer to that of a movie and exactly the specification for the impending HDTV signal standard. So, it’s future-ready.

Next, the plasma is a lot brighter than a traditional TV. Because it uses a neon gas mixture to produce light, the light is uniform (equal all over the screen), remains constant over time and produces colors that are brighter. However, keep in mind that it is phosphor based and, just like with a CRT, phosphor has memory and will “burn-in” an image over time. A phosphor is flat and thin. Unlike most TV’s plasma is a flat-screen display making it a better display in high-light environments, as it doesn’t glare as badly. In addition, when mounted on a wall (assuming you wall can withstand 100 pounds of weight hanging from it) it takes up almost no space as it’s less than 4” thick.

As for the rental and systems markets, plasma is a great substitute for a projector in a small environment. But, keep in mind that it’s a new technology (less than 4 years old) and, unlike LCD, has not been proven over time yet. Yes, they will eventually become the display TV we use in our homes, but for now their niche is either the ProAV market or people with small houses and power outlets mounted waist high (so you can plug it into electricity without having a black power cord hanging from it).


Do you have any questions about plasma screens? Discuss it on our worldwide users group!

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Gary Kayye is Principal of Kayye Consulting; a Chapel Hill, NC - based firm that specializes in providing marketing consulting and training development to the professional audiovisual industry. He writes for a number of US and European publications as well as teaches projection technology for ICIA at the INFOCOMM shows. And you can contact Gary directly via e-mail at gkayye@kayye.com.