Society for Information Display's Annual Display Week Hits the Red Carpet With a Blockbuster Line Up

CAMPBELL, Calif., March 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society for Information Display (SID), the leading global organization dedicated to the advancement of electronic display technology, today announced a blockbuster line up for its 49th annual SID International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, also known as Display Week, which will be held May 15-20, 2011 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.  

Display Week returns to Hollywood and is the world's premier display technology event – bringing the display industry's top minds and companies together to showcase the display innovations that will enable the exciting commercial products of tomorrow.  To this end, this year's keynotes will provide a vision for how display technology and products will be shaping the future in entertainment, communication and energy-efficiency.  Fittingly, given this year's location in Hollywood (which happens to be SID's birthplace), the keynote sessions will open with a look at the latest in 3D entertainment from Phil "Captain 3D" McNally of DreamWorks Animation.  McNally will focus on the evolution of 3D technology and how the entertainment industry is deploying 3D to mass media.  McNally is credited for visual effects in seventeen 3D productions, most recently Monsters and Aliens and Kung Fu Panda.

With demand for improved display technologies tied to the availability of high-quality telecommunications networks, there are some amazing new capabilities in network technology underway.  As such, Yasuhiro Koike, a notable professor at Keio University will also serve as one of the keynotes this year—sharing his vision of breathtakingly realistic face-to-face communications through the use of 3D and super high resolution 4k real-time video imaging.  The morning keynotes will conclude with Shuji Nakamura, professor of materials development at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Nakamura will discuss how high-brightness LEDs and visible laser diodes have led to new display application areas such as LED-backlit TVs and DVD blue-ray players.

The keynotes kick off the four-day Symposium, which runs Tuesday, May 17 through Friday, May 20, and features 72 sessions with 265 oral and 200 poster presentations that address a broad range of leading-edge topics.  Some of the must-sees this year include:

• 3D—One of the most popular and commercial topics in the display field in the past few years has been the arrival of 3D-ready TVs.  They have arrived, but researchers are nowhere near finished exploring the possibilities they open up for consumers and businesses.  Researchers continue to pursue the different approaches of active-shutter vs. passive glasses technology, and glasses-free viewing is a major challenge that many experts believe must be met in order to make 3D displays truly successful and accessible to all consumers.  This year's presentations also cover topics such as holographic displays, crosstalk reduction, measurements for 3D performance, and numerous other issues related to both OLED 3D and LCD 3D displays.  SID will also host a 3D cinema event on the evening of Tuesday, May 17.
• Green Technology—Energy efficiency, eco-friendly materials and recyclability are still key issues in display development as display technology continually advances to provide more resolution, larger size and better performance at an increasingly lower cost.  Environmental and legislative forces as well as social trends are combining to ensure that manufacturers use the greenest-possible processes to create the most energy-efficient displays.  Attendees will hear about the anticipated production and end-of-life issues for the display technology industry and how they can be addressed.
• Solid-State Lighting—Solid-state lighting has begun to fulfill its promise with regard to the benefits of saving energy and providing design flexibility.  However, LEDs have made more commercial inroads in mainstream markets in this area than OLEDs, which are currently available only in high-end architectural applications.  OLED papers are therefore featured prominently in this year's solid-state lighting sessions, as the industry pushes to develop higher efficiency and higher performing OLED panels.  Other solid-state lighting papers will focus on trends in and applications of LED illumination.
• Touch Technology—Since the launch of touch-enabled mobile devices several years ago, touch has become an increasingly crucial component for numerous display products.  Yet, the industry is still searching for the ideal touch technology solution.  This year's papers reveal the diversity of approaches used in this evolutionary phase of touch technology: projective-capacitive, optical, and many more.  Display Week touch sessions will discuss which touch technologies hold the most promise and the next applications or technologies on the horizon.
• Flexible Displays—Flexible displays offer the guarantee of ultra-thin, robust displays that will fit into compact form factors, paving the way for innovative devices and applications previously unavailable outside the realm of movies and dreams.  Most importantly, flexible OLEDs and electronic paper have the capability to open up completely new markets.  Attendees will learn about novel backplane materials, flexible electronics, and innovative processing techniques that open up the possibility of this new class of displays.

Aside from these show stoppers, the SID Symposium stars the latest advances in active matrix displays; applied vision and human factors; display applications, electronics, manufacturing, measurement and systems; along with emissive, field-emission, liquid crystal and projection display technologies.  Held in conjunction with the Symposium, the Exhibition portion of Display Week will feature more than 300 companies showcasing the latest display developments, many of which will be integrated into the next generation of consumer electronics products in the near future.  Hours and dates for the exhibits are:

• Tuesday, May 17:  10:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, May 18:  9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
• Thursday, May 19:  9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

The whirlwind of activity that marks Display Week isn't limited to the content-packed Symposium and Exhibition.  Below is a list of additional activities and events.

AWARDS AND SPECIAL EVENTS

Awards Banquet—The Honors and Awards Banquet honoring outstanding contributors in the display industry will take place at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, May 16.

Awards Luncheon—The annual Display of the Year Awards will be presented at this luncheon, scheduled for 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18.  In addition, and debuting this year are The Best in Show awards, which will honor the most noteworthy new technologies and products shown on the exhibit floor during Display Week.  Winners will be announced in the categories of small, medium and large organizations.  During this luncheon, Douglas Trumbull of Trumbull Ventures LLC will keynote this event, sharing his thoughts on current trends in motion-picture and television production and exhibition technologies—with a special emphasis on 3D, high-frame rates and large-screen presentations.

CONCURRENT CONFERENCES AND OTHER TECHNICAL EVENTS

Business Conference—The premier event at Display Week for strategic planning and marketing executives involved in the display industry, the Business Conference is organized by DisplaySearch.  The all-day conference is slated for Monday, May 16.

Market Focus Conference Series—Developed in conjunction with IMS Research, the series of market conferences will be held on Wednesday, May 18, and Thursday, May 19, and will comprise three different events concentrating on critical market development issues:  The Future of Touch & Interactivity (May 18); Green Displays Conference (May 18); and The e-Reader & Tablet Market Evolution (May 19).  

Investors Conference—Co-sponsored by Cowen & Co., LLC, this conference, set for Tuesday, May 17, will feature presentations from leading public and private display companies designed to appeal to securities analysts, portfolio managers, M&A specialists and display company executives.

Sunday Short Courses—These four-hour workshops on Sunday, May 15, cover the fundamentals of information displays.  Two sessions run in parallel from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and two in parallel from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Display Technology Seminars—These 90-minute seminars on 16 diverse display-related topics will be held on Monday, May 16.

Application Tutorials—These six hands-on, practical tutorials span a range of topics.  Scheduled for Monday, May 16, they will be held in parallel over three time periods: 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Display Week Contact Information:

• Media interested in attending Display Week, please contact Marie Labrie at [email protected]
• Companies interested in exhibiting/sponsoring at Display Week, please contact Christine von Steiger at [email protected]

About Display Week

The 49th SID International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, or Display Week 2011, will take place May 15-20, 2011, at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles.  Display Week is the premier international gathering of scientists, engineers, manufacturers and users in the field of electronic-information displays.  For more information on Display Week 2011, visit www.sid2011.org or follow us on Twitter at @DisplayWeek.  Share Display Week-related tweets using the hash tag #SID2011.

About SID

The Society of Information Display (SID) is the only professional organization focused on the display industry.  In fact, by exclusively focusing on the advancement of electronic-display technology, SID provides a unique platform for industry collaboration, communication and training in all related technologies while showcasing the industry's best new products.  With more than 6,000 members worldwide, the organization's members are professionals in the technical and business disciplines that relate to display research, design, manufacturing, applications, marketing and sales.  To promote industry and academic technology development, while also educating consumers on the importance of displays, SID hosts more than ten conferences a year, including Display Week, which brings industry and academia all under one roof to showcase technology that will shape the future.  SID's global headquarters are located at 1475 S. Bascom Ave., Ste. 114, Campbell, CA 95008.  For more information, visit www.sid.org.

SOURCE SID