Italian Company Sim2 has announce that it has agreed to work with Dolby Laboratories to develop prototype high-dynamic-range LED-backlit LCD TVs using Dolby’s local dimming technology and their C3X 1080 high-performance DLP projector.
Sim2 said it plans to start by developing a 46-inch LED prototype panel and to study the possibility of bringing the technology into the market by the third quarter of 2008.
Sim2 COO Alan Roser said that although the company has been known primarily as a manufacturer of high-performance home theater projectors, it introduced LCD flat-panel displays 2.5 years ago, “which at that time were very much on the cutting edge of the technology.” “We try to bring the latest technologies to market a good six to nine months ahead of the competition,” said Roser. “So we’re very excited about this new association with Dolby, because their high dynamic range LED backlighting system gives us the ability to offer the customer something that is different from the competition.”
Dolby first announced its local dimming technology at the CEATEC Show in Japan. Sim2 is the first implementation partner “that we’ve announced,” for their Laser TV technology according to Bharath Rajagopalan, Dolby image technologies business line director.
Dolby’s high-dynamic range LED, LCD systems use two approaches which Dolby is calling Dolby Vision and Dolby Contrast. Both integrate LED lighting arrays with drivers and algorithms to enable manufacturers to produce LCDs with both the highest-possible brightness and black levels, areas that tend to impede each other using alternative backlighting approaches.
Dolby’s system is said to produce deep blacks with a high degree of visible detail within those dark areas, while optimizing color. Dolby said its technologies were designed to leave implementation partners with a wide range of options to develop differentiated performance levels. The Sim2 C3X 1080 three-chip 1080p DLP projector, which was formally unveiled last September at CEDIA Expo. The projector is one of the first to use Texas Instruments’ DarkChip 4 DLP IC technology to integrate high contrast performance and 1080p resolution. DarkChip 4 helps the three 0.95-inch Digital Micromirror Devices achieve a combination of high contrast, color, brightness and resolution, Sim2 said.
