"Next Year" has Arrived

THE FRONT LINE

“NEXT YEAR” HAS ARRIVED
2003 Was a Watershed Year for
Display Technology and Video

by Peter H. Putman, CTS

Many years ago, a lovable bunch of baseball players known as the Brooklyn Dodgers used to go down fighting year after year in the World Series at the hands of the New York Yankees. Their rallying cry after each agonizing loss became "wait 'till next year!" Eventually 'next year' arrived in 1955, as 'Dem Bums' put down the mighty Yanks, 4 games to 3.

Even the most skeptical observers of the display and interfacing industry had to admit that 'next year' also arrived in 2003 with respect to large-screen imaging and video signal processing - and how! In fact, 'next year' not only arrived, it swept over the systems integration and Pro AV landscape with a vengeance.

Technologies such as plasma display panels, TFT LCD monitors, digital light processing, IP network signaling and control and wireless 802.11 devices have not only matured, they are fast becoming commodity products that are sold to the public through any number of retail channels.

One indicator that the pace of display technology is changing perhaps too rapidly is the number of people I run into at trade shows who suffer from "acronym-it is" asking questions about "D-ILP" and "rear projection plasma". And what an alphabet soup of acronyms there is to deal with, from DLP and D-ILA to TFT LCD, LCoS, and HTPS to 480p, 720p, 768p, "twelve by ten", 'SXGA plus' and '2K'.

All of this chaos has been brought about largely by the move from raster-based electronic imaging (which has served us well since the 1920s) to fixed-pixel imaging. By finally breaking the link between resolution and image brightness, fixed-pixel displays have brought entire categories of display products into existence, not to mention developing industries such as electronic cinema and digital signage.

This avalanche of fixed-pixel displays runs the gamut from super-small microdisplay imagers all the way to towers of LEDs; from a portable video/data projector that weighs less than 2 pounds to stadium signs and scoreboards that routinely exceed 100 feet in length.

Just as the displays have changed, so has the content shown on these displays. We're no longer saddled with composite interlaced video. Indeed, we can mix and match any number of video sources - progressive and interlaced - at virtually any input resolutions and switch, dissolve, mix, and even tile them at any output resolution.

The costs of ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) used in video scalers have also dropped and RAM has become super-cheap, allowing the development of powerful, high-resolution multi-image processors for all kinds of staging and command/control applications. In short, if you want to achieve a certain visual effect or 'look' at a given resolution, you can pretty much do what you wish with off-the-shelf components.

Here's a look at the significant developments in several product categories for the past 12 months.

PROJECTORS

There was a time (no, it wasn't 1955) when front projectors simply dominated the trade press headlines. The first front LCD projectors (640x480 resolution, 400-500 lumens) made an appearance in 1990. These big brutes weighed close to 100 pounds and used large, expensive high-pressure lamps.

Nowadays, you can pick up dozens of XGA (1024x768) projectors that weigh less than 10 pounds and will put an honest 2000 lumens up on the screen for less than $5,000. What's more, many of these projectors are being permanently installed in all kinds of meeting and classrooms.

The cost of these projectors and the technology turnover cycle has also led purchasers to think in terms of outright replacement instead of repairs when there are equipment breakdowns. While it may make sense to have a $5,000 projector serviced after a year of use (assuming the manufacturer's warranty hasn't expired), a model that is 3 or more years old is probably destined for the scrap heap.

As a result, projectors just aren't big news anymore. What draws interest now are the many add-ons such as wireless and wired network control, wireless presentations, and built-in JPEG/BMP/PPT file readers and players. But these bells and whistles merely serve to maintain price points for a little while - the market has too many players and pricing has become cutthroat.

Advancements in technology are pretty much peaking out in terms of brightness and reduction of projector mass. But there were still clear trends to be seen in 2003, not the least of which is the near-dominance of digital light processing in the home theater front projector market. The masses (and dealers) have voted, and competitive technologies such as high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) and liquid-crystal on silicon (LCoS) are fighting hard to maintain what little market share they have.

It's apparent that reflective imaging is the way to go as projector manufacturers creep up in resolution, fueled by the expanded interest in HDTV programming and high-resolution video scalers. The introduction of 2K (1920x1080 and 2048x1536) imagers from JVC, Texas Instruments, and Sony will only fan the flames. (Coincidentally, these technologies are spelling the end of CRT front projection.)

In the business, educational, and professional markets, you can pretty much buy whatever level of image brightness you wish. Trouble is, advancements in projector performance are incremental nowadays - an extra 500 lumens doesn't justify the purchase of new models when your older versions are already chugging along at 2000 - 2500 lumens.

Network (IP) interfacing to projectors is a real boon to distributed networks of projectors with corporate and educational campuses. Courses covering IP and AV "convergence" consistently have the highest attendance at InfoComm each year, and 2003 was no exception. Manufacturers including Sony, Epson, Sanyo, Barco, Mitsubishi, Christie, and InFocus/Proxima are all active in this area with interfaces and software for control.

The biggest news for 2003 is the continued downwards price spiral. Consulting the recent 2003 Projector Buyer's Guide, you'll see that there are now two-dozen models of SVGA and XGA front LCD and DLP projectors that retail for under $2,000. With street pricing, the number of projectors under $2K will likely increase by 50%.

That's not so good news for traditional dealers, nor are the expanding number of Internet sales outlets. But it is great news for previously underserved markets such as education and houses of worship. Toss in wireless 802.11 "goodies" and network control, and there are a raft of new installation opportunities and sales that can be built around these affordable displays.

FLAT SCREENS

Plasma and LCD monitors and integrated TVs have gone from expensive curiosities to mainstream products in just five years. Today, it is possible to purchase numerous plasma monitors in sizes up to 42" for well under $5,000, and 50" screens can be had for under $10K. Surprisingly, the largest retailer of plasma (as of this writing) isn't even a company in the Pro AV business, but is a big player in the PC world - Gateway!

Many Asian manufacturers have tied their company's future on flatscreen imaging technology. Over the past 7 years, several major players (Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Sharp, Sony) have either discontinued or announced they will discontinue manufacturing picture tubes in favor of plasma and LCD panels. How long before Toshiba and Panasonic follow in their footsteps?

Overproduction and a sluggish world economy have led to all kinds of OEM deals being made and lots of price cuts (tatamount to "dumping"). As a result, some major players in the home theater and pro AV spaces have decided it's simply easier to buy LCD and plasma "glass" from existing manufacturers, rather than develop proprietary manufacturing capabilities.

The mass migration away from tubes to flat screens has also driven the development of pure digital interfaces, such as DVI-D. Concurrently, issues of copy protection and digital content management have led manufacturers of plasma and LCD TVs and digital TV set-top receivers to adopt a 'secure' form of DVI - HDCP, or High Definition Copy Protection - as the interface of the future for the consumer market.

The biggest development in 2003 was the introduction of big screen TFT (Thin-Film Transistor) LCD monitors and TVs. Three companies (LG, Sharp, and Samsung) dominate this market and most OEM products come from these factories. All of them have shown the ability to manufacture LCD monitors in sizes over 50", with 60" around the corner.

The significance of this development is that, at some point in the future, customers will have a choice between technologies in a given flatscreen size. More importantly, manufacturers will also have that same choice and there is already talk that the 42" and under market segment will be conceded to LCD within a couple of years.

Head to head, LCD and plasma have an interesting competition. Plasma offers higher brightness and more saturated colors, but LCD counters with reduced power consumption and weight. More importantly, the backlights used in LCD monitors should outlast the life of the phosphors in a plasma monitor - all things being equal.

From a manufacturing standpoint, the choice to make one or the other may hinge on the development of yet another display technology - Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). Over 30 different companies are engaged in OLED R&D, including some familiar names as Sony, Samsung, LG, DuPont, Philips, Osram, Kodak, Toshiba, and Mitsubishi.

These super-thin, low-voltage emissive displays show great potential for use in small portable electronic gadgets, and ultimately as computer monitors and portable TVs, assuming issues with the cost of driving electronics and LED life can be resolved.

Here's the connection to LCD: The silicon controllers for both OLED displays and LCD monitors are largely the same. Not so with plasma, which involves switching of higher voltages than CMOS can withstand using pulse-width modulation (PWM) techniques. If a given manufacturer makes both OLEDs and LCD monitors, a single CMOS controller 'factory' can accommodate both fabrication lines.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that plasma technology might go the way of the dodo and hand-cranked engines within a decade. Not because its image quality is inferior (plasma still looks better than most LCD monitors do with video sources), but because of simple economics.

As with the projector market, the glut of product due to factory overcapacity is working hand-in-hand with OEM deals and many aggressive Asian re-sellers to force prices down. Pro AV dealers now have to compete with 1-800 and Internet sales outlets as well as discount retail stores like Costco and Sam's Club and big box retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy.

The good news is; many of these products are at the centerpiece of a custom install, whether it be a home theater or a conference room. So opportunities are still there to put together an integration job, even if the mark-ups of old have gone by the wayside. Speaking of integration, IP control of flat screens hasn't caught on quite as fast as in the projector world - but it is coming.

The preponderance of flatscreen displays has given birth to a new market of digital signage. The retail, command and control, public safety, and transportation industries are all over digital signage, using everything from datawalls made of tiled plasma to enormous LED displays that make up entire walls.

Oddly enough, only one manufacturer to date (Pioneer) has made integration of its products easier by offering expansion slots for aftermarket video/computer signal interfaces. Look for more plasma and LCD manufacturers to wake up and smell the coffee in this regard - some solutions seen at InfoComm 2003 (such as Panasonic's line of plug-in cards) were still proprietary, but are a step in the right direction.

INTERFACING

It no longer matters what source video you start with, nor what output resolution you want. There's a scaler out there that will fit your needs. In 2003, the big news was continued downward price pressure along with some amazing multi-channel image tiling and overlay systems, topped by Vista's Montage system.

Folsom Research also has shown panoramic image scaling and edge-blending products with individual channels of tiled video. These products are tailor-made for front projection (large venues, staging, concerts, special events) but are equally at home in command and control (network monitoring, public safety, process control, transportation).

Many dealers and integrators reported activity in retrofitting and new construction of small to mid-size conference rooms, augmented by some sort of front projection system and/or flatscreen display. (Many incorporated video and audioconferencing products, too.) As a result, the market for presentation switcher/scalers with audio follow continues to grow as prices drop.

The continued interest in IP networking is showing up in many interfaces. Companies such as Extron, Crestron, and AMX are bringing interfaces to market with IP addresses for AV networks (see the corporate and educational campuses from before). The main advantage of such connections is for remote monitoring, control, and status updates - very few end-users are sending still photos or PowerPoint slides along these networks.

The handful of projector and flatscreen manufacturers that provide aftermarket expansion slots for video and interface cards are supported by a few persistent companies, including Aurora Multimedia and Altinex. These slots let the end-user and integrator really customize the display and are perfect for IP signal and control, but it remains for more display manufacturers to get on this wagon.

DVI interfaces are also slowly appearing on more and more products, and there are now companies like Gefen that are cranking out DVI signal splitters, switchers, and distribution amps. The consumer implementation of DVI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is, as of this writing, still in its nascent stages with many issues to be resolved, not the least of which is compatibility between DVI-equipped signal sources (set-top boxes, DVD players) and displays that will not support HDCP.

In the recent plasma/LCD and projector buyer's guides, a majority of flatscreens larger than 31" and projectors over 6 pounds now include some sort of DVI connection, although each interface's compatibility with HDCP is not always made clear in the product literature.

The market for pure video scan converters continues to decline in favor of "do-it-all" boxes like TV One's ground-breaking (for the price) C2-770 video scaler/scan converter/format converter. Such a product fills a wealth of needs all in one chassis, and many of these all-in-one video Cusinarts now offer SDI interfaces as an option.

CONCLUSION

In many ways, "next year" has already come and gone. Get used to commodity pricing for every type of display product, except for high-end projection and flatscreen systems. The Pandora's box of lower pricing has been opened; it can never be closed again. However, with all of these competing products that look alike and are priced within a few dollars of each other comes a great deal of end-user confusion about the advantages of one technology over another.

The trick now is to combine the video signal sources with the best interfaces and the most appropriate displays to seamlessly integrate a given project. Any plasma screen can show video, but many of them need serious help with de-interlacing, motion compensation, and pixel scaling. Ditto front projectors. There's no shortage of bright images, but signal processing is still all over the place in terms of quality.

What will drive the market in 2004? The continued expansion of such markets as digital signage, command and control, education, and the whole "networking thing". Some companies such as Sony are endlessly optimistic about IP connectivity and every piece of Pro AV gear they make will have an IP address. Other manufacturers are not so easily convinced.

But there can be no doubt that pure digital signal distribution is the new "next year", whether it be a variation of high bit-rate SDI and HD-SDI, a visual interface such as DVI, or a network interface. Look for more display products to incorporate one or more of these interfaces in 2004 and expect to hear lots more hype and news about IP network control as we slowly move away from analog signal distribution.

After all, even those loveable Brooklyn Dodgers eventually moved -- to Los Angeles...

Copyright ©2003 Peter H. Putman / Primedia Business Media.
This article appears in the December 2003 issue of Sound and Video Contractor.


						THE FRONT LINE
					“NEXT YEAR” HAS ARRIVED 2003 Was a Watershed Year for Display Technology and Video


					by Peter H. Putman, CTS Many years ago, a lovable bunch of baseball players known as the Brooklyn Dodgers used to go down fighting year after year in the World Series at the hands of the New York Yankees. Their rallying cry after each agonizing loss became "wait 'till next year!" Eventually 'next year' arrived in 1955, as 'Dem Bums' put down the mighty Yanks, 4 games to 3. Even the most skeptical observers of the display and interfacing industry had to admit that 'next year' also arrived in 2003 with respect to large-screen imaging and video signal processing - and how! In fact, 'next year' not only arrived, it swept over the systems integration and Pro AV landscape with a vengeance. Technologies such as plasma display panels, TFT LCD monitors, digital light processing, IP network signaling and control and wireless 802.11 devices have not only matured, they are fast becoming commodity products that are sold to the public through any number of retail channels. One indicator that the pace of display technology is changing perhaps too rapidly is the number of people I run into at trade shows who suffer from "acronym-it is" asking questions about "D-ILP" and "rear projection plasma". And what an alphabet soup of acronyms there is to deal with, from DLP and D-ILA to TFT LCD, LCoS, and HTPS to 480p, 720p, 768p, "twelve by ten", 'SXGA plus' and '2K'. All of this chaos has been brought about largely by the move from raster-based electronic imaging (which has served us well since the 1920s) to fixed-pixel imaging. By finally breaking the link between resolution and image brightness, fixed-pixel displays have brought entire categories of display products into existence, not to mention developing industries such as electronic cinema and digital signage. This avalanche of fixed-pixel displays runs the gamut from super-small microdisplay imagers all the way to towers of LEDs; from a portable video/data projector that weighs less than 2 pounds to stadium signs and scoreboards that routinely exceed 100 feet in length. Just as the displays have changed, so has the content shown on these displays. We're no longer saddled with composite interlaced video. Indeed, we can mix and match any number of video sources - progressive and interlaced - at virtually any input resolutions and switch, dissolve, mix, and even tile them at any output resolution. The costs of ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) used in video scalers have also dropped and RAM has become super-cheap, allowing the development of powerful, high-resolution multi-image processors for all kinds of staging and command/control applications. In short, if you want to achieve a certain visual effect or 'look' at a given resolution, you can pretty much do what you wish with off-the-shelf components. Here's a look at the significant developments in several product categories for the past 12 months. PROJECTORS There was a time (no, it wasn't 1955) when front projectors simply dominated the trade press headlines. The first front LCD projectors (640x480 resolution, 400-500 lumens) made an appearance in 1990. These big brutes weighed close to 100 pounds and used large, expensive high-pressure lamps. Nowadays, you can pick up dozens of XGA (1024x768) projectors that weigh less than 10 pounds and will put an honest 2000 lumens up on the screen for less than $5,000. What's more, many of these projectors are being permanently installed in all kinds of meeting and classrooms. The cost of these projectors and the technology turnover cycle has also led purchasers to think in terms of outright replacement instead of repairs when there are equipment breakdowns. While it may make sense to have a $5,000 projector serviced after a year of use (assuming the manufacturer's warranty hasn't expired), a model that is 3 or more years old is probably destined for the scrap heap. As a result, projectors just aren't big news anymore. What draws interest now are the many add-ons such as wireless and wired network control, wireless presentations, and built-in JPEG/BMP/PPT file readers and players. But these bells and whistles merely serve to maintain price points for a little while - the market has too many players and pricing has become cutthroat. Advancements in technology are pretty much peaking out in terms of brightness and reduction of projector mass. But there were still clear trends to be seen in 2003, not the least of which is the near-dominance of digital light processing in the home theater front projector market. The masses (and dealers) have voted, and competitive technologies such as high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) and liquid-crystal on silicon (LCoS) are fighting hard to maintain what little market share they have. It's apparent that reflective imaging is the way to go as projector manufacturers creep up in resolution, fueled by the expanded interest in HDTV programming and high-resolution video scalers. The introduction of 2K (1920x1080 and 2048x1536) imagers from JVC, Texas Instruments, and Sony will only fan the flames. (Coincidentally, these technologies are spelling the end of CRT front projection.) In the business, educational, and professional markets, you can pretty much buy whatever level of image brightness you wish. Trouble is, advancements in projector performance are incremental nowadays - an extra 500 lumens doesn't justify the purchase of new models when your older versions are already chugging along at 2000 - 2500 lumens. Network (IP) interfacing to projectors is a real boon to distributed networks of projectors with corporate and educational campuses. Courses covering IP and AV "convergence" consistently have the highest attendance at InfoComm each year, and 2003 was no exception. Manufacturers including Sony, Epson, Sanyo, Barco, Mitsubishi, Christie, and InFocus/Proxima are all active in this area with interfaces and software for control. The biggest news for 2003 is the continued downwards price spiral. Consulting the recent 2003 Projector Buyer's Guide, you'll see that there are now two-dozen models of SVGA and XGA front LCD and DLP projectors that retail for under $2,000. With street pricing, the number of projectors under $2K will likely increase by 50%. That's not so good news for traditional dealers, nor are the expanding number of Internet sales outlets. But it is great news for previously underserved markets such as education and houses of worship. Toss in wireless 802.11 "goodies" and network control, and there are a raft of new installation opportunities and sales that can be built around these affordable displays. FLAT SCREENS Plasma and LCD monitors and integrated TVs have gone from expensive curiosities to mainstream products in just five years. Today, it is possible to purchase numerous plasma monitors in sizes up to 42" for well under $5,000, and 50" screens can be had for under $10K. Surprisingly, the largest retailer of plasma (as of this writing) isn't even a company in the Pro AV business, but is a big player in the PC world - Gateway! Many Asian manufacturers have tied their company's future on flatscreen imaging technology. Over the past 7 years, several major players (Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Sharp, Sony) have either discontinued or announced they will discontinue manufacturing picture tubes in favor of plasma and LCD panels. How long before Toshiba and Panasonic follow in their footsteps? Overproduction and a sluggish world economy have led to all kinds of OEM deals being made and lots of price cuts (tatamount to "dumping"). As a result, some major players in the home theater and pro AV spaces have decided it's simply easier to buy LCD and plasma "glass" from existing manufacturers, rather than develop proprietary manufacturing capabilities. The mass migration away from tubes to flat screens has also driven the development of pure digital interfaces, such as DVI-D. Concurrently, issues of copy protection and digital content management have led manufacturers of plasma and LCD TVs and digital TV set-top receivers to adopt a 'secure' form of DVI - HDCP, or High Definition Copy Protection - as the interface of the future for the consumer market. The biggest development in 2003 was the introduction of big screen TFT (Thin-Film Transistor) LCD monitors and TVs. Three companies (LG, Sharp, and Samsung) dominate this market and most OEM products come from these factories. All of them have shown the ability to manufacture LCD monitors in sizes over 50", with 60" around the corner. The significance of this development is that, at some point in the future, customers will have a choice between technologies in a given flatscreen size. More importantly, manufacturers will also have that same choice and there is already talk that the 42" and under market segment will be conceded to LCD within a couple of years. Head to head, LCD and plasma have an interesting competition. Plasma offers higher brightness and more saturated colors, but LCD counters with reduced power consumption and weight. More importantly, the backlights used in LCD monitors should outlast the life of the phosphors in a plasma monitor - all things being equal. From a manufacturing standpoint, the choice to make one or the other may hinge on the development of yet another display technology - Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). Over 30 different companies are engaged in OLED R&D, including some familiar names as Sony, Samsung, LG, DuPont, Philips, Osram, Kodak, Toshiba, and Mitsubishi. These super-thin, low-voltage emissive displays show great potential for use in small portable electronic gadgets, and ultimately as computer monitors and portable TVs, assuming issues with the cost of driving electronics and LED life can be resolved. Here's the connection to LCD: The silicon controllers for both OLED displays and LCD monitors are largely the same. Not so with plasma, which involves switching of higher voltages than CMOS can withstand using pulse-width modulation (PWM) techniques. If a given manufacturer makes both OLEDs and LCD monitors, a single CMOS controller 'factory' can accommodate both fabrication lines. It's not out of the realm of possibility that plasma technology might go the way of the dodo and hand-cranked engines within a decade. Not because its image quality is inferior (plasma still looks better than most LCD monitors do with video sources), but because of simple economics. As with the projector market, the glut of product due to factory overcapacity is working hand-in-hand with OEM deals and many aggressive Asian re-sellers to force prices down. Pro AV dealers now have to compete with 1-800 and Internet sales outlets as well as discount retail stores like Costco and Sam's Club and big box retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy. The good news is; many of these products are at the centerpiece of a custom install, whether it be a home theater or a conference room. So opportunities are still there to put together an integration job, even if the mark-ups of old have gone by the wayside. Speaking of integration, IP control of flat screens hasn't caught on quite as fast as in the projector world - but it is coming. The preponderance of flatscreen displays has given birth to a new market of digital signage. The retail, command and control, public safety, and transportation industries are all over digital signage, using everything from datawalls made of tiled plasma to enormous LED displays that make up entire walls. Oddly enough, only one manufacturer to date (Pioneer) has made integration of its products easier by offering expansion slots for aftermarket video/computer signal interfaces. Look for more plasma and LCD manufacturers to wake up and smell the coffee in this regard - some solutions seen at InfoComm 2003 (such as Panasonic's line of plug-in cards) were still proprietary, but are a step in the right direction. INTERFACING It no longer matters what source video you start with, nor what output resolution you want. There's a scaler out there that will fit your needs. In 2003, the big news was continued downward price pressure along with some amazing multi-channel image tiling and overlay systems, topped by Vista's Montage system. Folsom Research also has shown panoramic image scaling and edge-blending products with individual channels of tiled video. These products are tailor-made for front projection (large venues, staging, concerts, special events) but are equally at home in command and control (network monitoring, public safety, process control, transportation). Many dealers and integrators reported activity in retrofitting and new construction of small to mid-size conference rooms, augmented by some sort of front projection system and/or flatscreen display. (Many incorporated video and audioconferencing products, too.) As a result, the market for presentation switcher/scalers with audio follow continues to grow as prices drop. The continued interest in IP networking is showing up in many interfaces. Companies such as Extron, Crestron, and AMX are bringing interfaces to market with IP addresses for AV networks (see the corporate and educational campuses from before). The main advantage of such connections is for remote monitoring, control, and status updates - very few end-users are sending still photos or PowerPoint slides along these networks. The handful of projector and flatscreen manufacturers that provide aftermarket expansion slots for video and interface cards are supported by a few persistent companies, including Aurora Multimedia and Altinex. These slots let the end-user and integrator really customize the display and are perfect for IP signal and control, but it remains for more display manufacturers to get on this wagon. DVI interfaces are also slowly appearing on more and more products, and there are now companies like Gefen that are cranking out DVI signal splitters, switchers, and distribution amps. The consumer implementation of DVI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is, as of this writing, still in its nascent stages with many issues to be resolved, not the least of which is compatibility between DVI-equipped signal sources (set-top boxes, DVD players) and displays that will not support HDCP. In the recent plasma/LCD and projector buyer's guides, a majority of flatscreens larger than 31" and projectors over 6 pounds now include some sort of DVI connection, although each interface's compatibility with HDCP is not always made clear in the product literature. The market for pure video scan converters continues to decline in favor of "do-it-all" boxes like TV One's ground-breaking (for the price) C2-770 video scaler/scan converter/format converter. Such a product fills a wealth of needs all in one chassis, and many of these all-in-one video Cusinarts now offer SDI interfaces as an option. CONCLUSION In many ways, "next year" has already come and gone. Get used to commodity pricing for every type of display product, except for high-end projection and flatscreen systems. The Pandora's box of lower pricing has been opened; it can never be closed again. However, with all of these competing products that look alike and are priced within a few dollars of each other comes a great deal of end-user confusion about the advantages of one technology over another. The trick now is to combine the video signal sources with the best interfaces and the most appropriate displays to seamlessly integrate a given project. Any plasma screen can show video, but many of them need serious help with de-interlacing, motion compensation, and pixel scaling. Ditto front projectors. There's no shortage of bright images, but signal processing is still all over the place in terms of quality. What will drive the market in 2004? The continued expansion of such markets as digital signage, command and control, education, and the whole "networking thing". Some companies such as Sony are endlessly optimistic about IP connectivity and every piece of Pro AV gear they make will have an IP address. Other manufacturers are not so easily convinced. But there can be no doubt that pure digital signal distribution is the new "next year", whether it be a variation of high bit-rate SDI and HD-SDI, a visual interface such as DVI, or a network interface. Look for more display products to incorporate one or more of these interfaces in 2004 and expect to hear lots more hype and news about IP network control as we slowly move away from analog signal distribution. After all, even those loveable Brooklyn Dodgers eventually moved -- to Los Angeles... Copyright ©2003 Peter H. Putman / Primedia Business Media. This article appears in the December 2003 issue of Sound and Video Contractor.