While market research indicates that rear-projection TVs are currently seeing a wave of renewed market enthusiasm, particularly in North America, models were not noticeably in evidence at Computex Taipei, in June. One interesting exception was RPTV models shown by Inshon, a company within Taiwan’s First International Computer (FIC) group. For now, Inshon has chosen to focus on digital light processing (DLP) technology, which uses a digital micromirror device (DMD) supplied by Texas Instruments (TI). Long-term, company president Dr. Johnson Lin says that LCOS and other technologies could also be on the Inshon roadmap.
DigiTimes.com spoke recently with president Lin, as well as with TH Lin Ph.D, VP for R&D, about Inshon’s business model and role within FIC, the RPTV product lineup, the technology and prospects for the future.
This is the first part of a three-part interview. Part II will follow on 15 September.
Q: Inshon is a TV specialist company within the FIC Group. Can you give a quick snapshot of Inshon and the business background? Is Inshon a "DLP only" company, or will it be developing and using other technologies and solutions?
JL: Inshon is a startup company based in the US. Invested by the FIC Group, its role is to add technical differentiation to FIC’s audio-visual (A/V) products business. The business model places a heavy emphasis on FIC as a total solutions provider in the full range of TV display technology, including plasma and TFT LCD. FIC also aims to be a solutions provider in global logistics, and we have established an infrastructure with a global base – including in the US, Europe, Asia and South America. Inshon is a small part of that global effort to be a solutions provider. What of course is unique about the Inshon brand is that it is focused on providing rear-projection TV (RPTV) solutions.
Although FIC is not a display-panel maker, with Inshon now part of the group, FIC can provide PDP, TFT-LCD and RPTV products – pretty much the complete spectrum of the TV technologies one could find in the marketplace today. But our objective with the Inshon brand is not to duplicate what everyone else is producing. We want to offer RPTV products that are clearly differentiated in their market positioning.
To put this in layman’s terms, if I can supply you with a certain product, then compared to other suppliers, our costs will be lower. If Inshon can supply you with a product at the same cost as other suppliers, then the performance will be higher.
Another way in which we are differentiating our products is the development of a rear-projection TV that is less than four inches thick. Not only that, we are targeting a thickness of less than 1.5 inches, using rear projection.
The end-user doesn’t care particularly if it’s a TFT-LCD or PDP or even a DLP unit, so long as the quality of the display is good, it’s slim, and it’s lightweight enough to be hung anywhere – all at lower cost. So that’s the type of TV we are going to supply, and that’s how we intend to establish our company in the market. Right now, Inshon is only two years old, but we are targeting revenues of US$100 million within another two years.
Our revenue target of US$100 million translates to about 10,000 TV sets a month. But of course that’s just for rear-projection units. That’s just one arm of FIC’s overall global supply of TV displays.
THL: We also have a unit in the US developing goggle displays for personal and home-theater applications.
JL: Yes, those are ultra-portable displays. They are targeted for the games-console market – for the Xbox and Playstation type of devices. The idea is to provide industry and the consumer base with a much higher-end yet cost-effective display alternative, a goggle display at a minimum resolution of SVGA. I think the market has been waiting for this type of product.
Q: You could even use this type of display on an airplane flight?
JL: Yes, or even for watching football games. With one eye you could see exactly what the commentator was talking about. Or at the Indy 500 – you could watch the complete race with one eye, as well as see what’s going on directly in front of you.
Q: But your mainstream technology, currently, is DLP. Why did you decide to focus on DLP?
JL: The primary reason we decided to go with DLP is that it has a faster turnaround, and we need that capability for our first products. For the ultra-thin TVs and goggles, we are still evaluating different technologies.
Q: So it’s possible you might also look at something like LCOS?
JL: Yes. Actually, one of our clients in Dallas could be a potential LCOS provider for us. We are also looking at UMO and other companies, such as Silicon Display, as potential suppliers.
Q: As I understand it, the Inshon business model includes both brand and OEM production. Is that correct?
JL: Any IP that we create would be under the Inshon brand. Otherwise, what we produce is part of a much larger spectrum of FIC business that includes TFT LCD, plasma, OLED and so on, where we are functioning as an OEM solutions provider.
Q: What are the advantages of using DLP for RPTV? Is there likely to be a cost advantage over LCOS and FLCOS for RPTV?
JL: Yes, it is a lower cost solution than the liquid-crystal type of projection.
THL: Anything that involves the use of three panels, which is the current situation with LCOS, involves yield, alignment and shipping problems. And of course with LCOS, you also need special materials for the optics, and that increases cost. These materials can include those required to remove bi-refringence, for example.
JL: A key advantage is that DLP uses natural light. Liquid crystal requires a polarizer. Anytime you use a polarizer you lose light, and that then translates into additional cost.
Q: What about the cost of the DLP chip? Are you seeing any cost savings, there?
JL: We are seeing some reduction in the cost of the DLP chip. TI monopolizes the DLP market, but they are implementing scheduled cost reductions each month. I can’t speak for TI, but that’s something we are certainly seeing.
In addition, TI is trying hard to make the area of the silicon chip smaller; they are trying to reduce the die size, so that you get more chips per wafer. For example with the standard 720 (HD2) DLP chip, last year the size was probably around 0.85 inch on the diagonal. Their next-generation 720p chip, announced for this year, will use a so-called piezo pixel and be at 0.45 inch, representing a 70% reduction in the size of the die.
I’m not pretending to be a spokesman for DLP. At Inshon we have the capability to use LCOS, plus some more recent technology, as well as DLP. But we do see a concerted effort in the DLP camp to bring down the costs of DLP.
THL: And in order to compete with LCD technology, TI will be migrating DLP to 1080p resolution, using so-called “smooth pixel” technology, with the die size at 0.65 inch on the diagonal. This is scheduled for either the second or third quarter of 2006. They might even migrate to 1440p on a 0.85-inch DMD, perhaps by the end of 2006.
JL: For the human eye, a 1080p display is more than enough. You and I would not be able to see any difference in the displayed image above 1080p.
THL: I think anything higher than 1080p would be simply an attempt to prepare us to compete with LCD.
This is the first part of a three-part interview. Part II will follow on 15 September.
The size consumers prefer? Shown here is a 53-inch DLP TV from Inshon.
For those with large living rooms – 100-inch DLP TV from Inshon.
This 4:3 aspect ratio model will replace CRT displays at a KTV chain.
Article edited by Chris Hall
