SID Press Relations Office • Operated by Nutmeg Consultants
Tel: (203) 853-7069 • Fax: (203)
855-9769
Press Advisory
SID 2000: Last-Minute Updates and Factoids as of 4/30/00
LCOS Microdisplays go commercial, organic LEDs (OLEDs) are anointed "the display of the future," LCD television goes
large-screen, flat-screen CRTs take over, and plasma displays are more beautiful than ever at SID 2000
SID 2000 -- The Society for Information Display's International Conference,
Symposium, and Exhibition -- will be held May 14-19 at the
Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center (LBCC), Long Beach, California. The
Hyatt Regency Long Beach, a block and a half from the
LBCC, is the headquarters hotel.
At this writing, the Hyatt and other major downtown hotels are reportedly booked. But the WestCoast Long Beach Hotel (562/435-7676) has
vacancies, as does the Holiday Inn Long Beach Airport Hotel (562/597-4401). If you don't have a room yet and things get really grim, you can try
hotels in neighboring San Pedro.
The Press Rooms are Rooms 103A and B in the LBCC. There will be fax and phone service, and we will have a computer connected to the
Internet for quick downloads of exhibitor data sheets. The Press Room will be open Monday through Wednesday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, and
Thursday 9:00 am - 2:00 pm. Say "Hi" to our new Press Relations Specialist Dawn Ruehle. (Try to say it with a Texas accent.) She'll be taking
care of you and the Press Rooms. Pick up your press credentials at the press registration booth in the registration area.
The annual Press Breakfast will be held Tuesday, May 16, in the
Shoreline A Room at the Hyatt at 7:30 am, just prior to the Keynote Session
and the opening of the exhibits. We will feed you, provide a brief
overview of current display issues by Ken Werner (Nutmeg Consultants) and
Sam Matsuno (DisplaySearch), present a brief guide to events, product
introductions, and hot stories, and let you fire questions at our
tableful of industry experts (including keynote speaker Bob O'Donnell).
The Press Breakfast will conclude in time for all of us to make the very short walk to the LBCC for the
Keynote Session at 9:00 am (LBCC, Ballroom A). The keynote speakers are Jerry A. Pierce, VP of Universal Studios, and Bob O'Donnell, Research Manager for PC displays and
projectors at IDC. In "The Future of the Cinema: Is it Digital?" Pierce will summarize the results of two years of "D-Cinema" experiments, and look
at the issues and opportunities. In "PC Monitors: A Look Ahead," O'Donnell will look at the fundamental changes occurring in PC monitors and
interfaces - changes that are not always for the better.
The SID/Information Display magazine Fifth Annual Display of the Year Awards (DYA) will be presented at the
SID Annual Luncheon at 12 noon on Wednesday in the Regency Ballroom at the Hyatt. Senior executives from
Toshiba, Sharp, Pixelworks, MicroOptical, Silicon Graphics, and the
Digital Display Working Group will be there to accept their awards. Press get in free.
The third-annual Display Technology Showcase (DTS) will feature side-by-side comparisons of 28 displays representing a wide variety of display
technologies. Within each of five categories, the same images and test patterns will be shown on all displays at the same time. Compare a variety of
new microdisplays, see the differences between analog and digital interfaces side by side, see 20- and 28-inch LCD TV receivers, see remarkable
scaling engines and display-controller chips, including one that implements high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) for DVI. See the
latest plasma display panels, including HDTV panels up to 5 feet on the diagonal, and compare them with a large-screen front projector and a
microdisplay-based rear-projection TV set. Among the DTS participants are Plasmaco, NEC, Pioneer, Sharp, Mitsubishi, Christie Digital, Genesis,
Arithmos, Sage, Silicon Image, Colorado Microdisplay, Displaytech, Inviso, Three Five Systems, MicroOptical Corp., and U.S. Electronics. And
this year, as part of the Exhibitors' Reception, DTS will turn into a
sports bar at 6:00 pm Tuesday. See Super Bowl XXXII, the Ryder Cup, and
a special ABC HDTV demo tape playing on the high-tech displays at DTS.
This is the year LCOS microdisplays roll out in consumer products. To get the best possible understanding of all the technology and business
issues, don't miss the unique SID press event that established microdisplays as a coherent industry segment -- the fifth annual, multi-vendor
Miniature Displays Roundtable hosted by Displaytech, 10-11:30 am Wednesday in the Press Room. Earlier on Wednesday, at
7:00 am, Colorado Microdisplay will host a press breakfast in the Melbourne Room at the
Westin Hotel.
On Tuesday, Photon Dynamics will host a Press Luncheon in the
Press Room at 12:45. Photon is demonstrating its MuraTool freeware that
categorizes hard-to-detect "mura" LCD defects. The company will also discuss its MuraLook IP blemish image processor for high-speed on-line detection and categorization of mura defects.
In response to appeals from the press corps last year that less time be taken up with press conferences, we have made all press conferences 15
minutes long. Our original plan was to have all the conferences in a fast-paced block on Tuesday morning in between the keynote session and the Press Luncheon. That was the plan. The reality is that we had so many requests from companies for
press-conference slots that we had to open up two more blocks: one between 9 and 10 am on Wednesday morning prior to the Miniature Displays Roundtable; the other on Wednesday afternoon between 2 and 3 pm.
Press conferences will be held by Molex, 3M, I-Fire, Integral Vision, Quantum Data, Applied Film Corp., Silicon Image,
DisplaySearch, ColorLink, Inviso, Kurt J. Lesker, Sage, Agfa Gevaert, Applied Data Systems, and Nitto Denko. A full and updated schedule will be presented at
the Tuesday Press Breakfast, and will be available in the press room.
If you're around on Monday, don't forget the gala SID President's Reception in the
Hyatt Regency's Beacon Rotunda at 6:00 pm. The exhibitors will sponsor a
reception in the exhibit hall Tuesday at 6:00
pm, which will include the DTS Sports Bar.
At 8:00 pm Tuesday, following the Exhibitor's Reception, there will be two
panel discussions: "Display Electronics for High Image Quality,"
and "Flat Panel Consumer TV: An Oxymoron." Display electronics are critical to display performance, and are also a significant contributor to
display cost, which must be reduced. "Oxymoron" is sure to draw a spirited rebuttal from Sharp and other LCD makers. Questions of electronics
costs are likely to come into this discussion, too.
The exhibits at SID 2000 will once again be the largest
ever, with roughly 240 exhibitors occupying over 425 booths. Here are a few
examples.
Sharp will show its new 28-inch LCD TV and DYA-winning 20-inch LCD TV at DTS and perhaps on the show floor as well. They will certainly
be showing their large line of conventional and reflective LCDs for nearly every conceivable wired and portable application.
Kodak, a major inventor and developer of the exciting organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) technology, will be demonstrating and discussing the
OLED state of the art and OLED products.
Toshiba will show its 15-inch low-temp polysilicon (LTPS) LCD panel with a staggering 1600x1200 pixels.
Mitsubishi will introduce a bright, contrasty, lightweight, and video-capable 12.1-inch XGA TFT-LCD module for notebook PC applications. You
don't have to go to a 14-inch screen to get XGA resolution.
Nitto Denko will officially introduce to North American LCD manufacturers its award-winning PCF brightness enhancement film, which
increases luminance (or improves battery life) by 50% or more by reflecting and recycling light from the backlight.
Plasmaco will show its spectacular 60-inch plasma display panel both in DTS and on the show floor.
NEC and Pioneer will show 50-inch PDPs, which ain't shabby.
Vertex LCD is introducing a flat mercury-free backlight with an anticipated 100,000 hours MTBF. Is this competition for
Osram Sylvania's Planon™ lamp? You be the judge.
Both Genesis and Silicon Image have DVI chips that implement high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP), a specification that is intended
to accelerate "the transition of DVI into the high-speed consumer world," according to Genesis marketing VP Anders Frisk.
That leaves another 231 exhibitors for you to explore on your own, but we'll give you some additional tips at the Tuesday morning Press Breakfast.
If there are any editors who are coming to SID 2000 but have not yet arranged for their
complimentary press registrations, call Dawn Ruehle now.
For SID 2000 registration and hotel information, call Mark Goldfarb, Palisades Institute for Research Services, 411 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor,
New York, NY 10003. Tel: (212) 460-8090, ext. 202; Fax: (212) 460-5460;
email:
mgoldfarb@pcm411.com.
The Society for Information Display is an international society devoted to the advancement of display technology, manufacturing, and applications,
with headquarters at 31 East Julian Street, San Jose, California 95112.
Tel: (408) 977-1013; email:
office@sid.org; URL: www.sid.org.
