TCL's New Flat Screen TV Natural LightEnergy Saving Technology Takes the Limelight in CES Show

TCL's New Flat Screen TV Natural LightEnergy Saving Technology Takes the Limelight in CES Show

January 10th,2008

January 10th 2008, Las Vegas, Chinese LCD TV businesses have become the first to master world-class energy saving technology, stunning industry giants from many countries at CES, the world largest consumer electronics exhibition. Based on its world class product technology, including its natural light LCD TV technology, TCL Corporation is now competing on the same stage as international giants such as Samsung and Sony. TCL was the only Chinese firm to exhibit in the main exhibition hall, causing many international observers to look at the firm with new respect.

TCL independently developed natural light technology, which could achieve energy savings of over 46% for flat screen TVs globally, had generated a stir and was of particular interest to the audience in the main hall of CES, including consumers and business experts from many countries. Gary Shapiro, CEO of the American Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), noted that, his could improve our ways of living, working and entertaining, as well as providing the industry with a positive way of dealing with the issue of the environment.

Consumer electronics are one part of energy saving solutions, and this could help the next generation to inherit a healthy planet.

Increasing focus on energy-saving and environmental protection, led this CES exhibition to take "green environmental protection" as its annual theme for the first time, also adding a "sustainable technology section". Each manufacturer has produced its own variety of new environmentally sound products and technologies, such as the green laptops of Japanese company Fujitsu, which are produced from grain, or the low power televisions of Samsung, which make use of OLED flat screen technology.

However, the fact that TCL natural light LCD televisions solve the problem of high energy consumption in flat panel televisions worldwide at a fundamental level has granted them the opportunity to be shown in the main exhibition hall of CES, which has historically been the exclusive domain of international giants such as Microsoft, Sony and Samsung.

Dr Yan Xiaolin, a member of the National Flat Screen Display Expert Group and Director of TCL Industrial Research Institute, said that regardless of the image displayed, normal LCD televisions retain a constant high backlight brightness which not only consumes a great deal of energy, but also irritates the eyes to a significant degree.

TCL natural light technology, to which the company holds independent intellectual property rights, uses an intelligent control chip which actively adjusts the luminosity of the LCD backlight in each area according to the screen signal color brightness characteristics. This achieves contrast levels of 10,000:1 and significantly improves color levels, while reducing power consumption by 46%.

It also recreates the visual qualities of natural light by converting linear polarized light into circular polarized light, using optical path innovations. Experiments show that TCL LCD natural light technology can greatly reduce visual fatigue caused by long periods spent watching TV, and it is also consistent with the goal of developing energy-saving household appliances that are healthier, more natural and beneficial in terms of environmental protection.

At present, large, flat screen TVs, the bulk of which are LCD TVs, are being adopted all over the world at a rapid pace. At this year CES, big screen TVs of 58 inches, and even as large as 150 inches, were vying for the audience attention. This demonstrates that the current development trend is set toward larger screens, despite their high use of electricity.

The approximate power ratings of a 29 and a 34 inch traditional CRT TV, a 37 inch LCD TV and a 42 inch plasma screen are 150 watts, 160 watts, 200 watts and 350 watts respectively. Li Tienan, Director of the China Certification Center for Energy Conservation Products (CECP), an organization which has paid close attention to the issue of TV energy consumption for many years, gave these figures: "based solely on the number of new LCD TVs added by families in China in 2007, an additional 2.

33 billion units of electricity will be required. This is equivalent to the total electricity production of several large coal-fired power stations." From a global perspective, the energy demand created by the spread of flat screen TVs is even greater. "If they all used TCL independently developed, state-of-the-art natural light energy saving technology, it would be great news for our whole world.

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The greatest consumption of energy in a flat-screen TV occurs in the backlight. LCD screens do not themselves emit light, but depend chiefly on backlight devices to provide light. If this backlight technology is not improved, it is impossible to solve the fundamental problem of high energy consumption by LCD TVs.

Excluding TCL natural light technology, the vast majority of both Chinese and foreign manufacturers have limited their efforts to improving the power supply and on/off switch control stages, and have failed to solve the basic problem of energy consumption in terms of the machine as a whole. It is precisely for this reason that the internationally renowned display experts, the President of the Society for Information Display (SID), was extremely pleased to note the importance of TCL natural light technology.

He believed that TCL Corporation has solved the global problem of reducing flat screen TV energy consumption. "From TCL actions, we can see that Chinese businesses have a sense of responsibility to global consumers, and they are already at the forefront of the industry when it comes to energy saving and environmental protection.

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CES is held by the Consumer Electronics Association of America (CEA). After almost half a century of development, the CES has become the world largest, highest level and most influential consumer electronics exhibition, and is recognized as the "weathervane" of the international consumer electronics industry.

The main hall of CES is the most prestigious area of the exhibition, and the technologies or products of businesses requesting space in the main hall must have made an outstanding contribution to the global consumer electronics industry. Consequently, the main hall has historically been dominated by international giants such as Microsoft, Sony and Samsung, effectively making it an exclusive club for the most powerful consumer electronics brands.

Industry insiders believe that TCL entry into the main hall has broken this traditional arrangement, and signifies that Chinese consumer electronics businesses have already entered from a position in the mid-to-downstream production chain of product manufacturing into the key technology research and development field.