Samsung announced the Premiere 4K ultra-short-throw laser projector in 120- and 130-inch models. It's the first projector with Filmmaker Mode, said Samsung, the feature introduced at the urging of Hollywood directors last year (see 1908270001). The projectors have HDR10+, Samsung’s Smart TV platform, built-in woofers and Acoustic Beam surround sound. Peak brightness is 2,800 ANSI lumens.

LG Technology Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of LG Group, made an unspecified strategic investment in OTI Lumionics, a supplier of advanced materials for OLED displays, said the companies Wednesday. OTI will use the funds to speed adoption of cathode patterning materials for mass production in mobile devices and other displays starting in Q4, they said. Cathode patterning can enable new display applications for OLEDs, including transparent displays, under-display cameras and sensors, foldable displays and automotive displays, said OTI.

LG Display supplied transparent OLED displays for subway train windows in Beijing and Shenzhen, it emailed Friday. The 55-inch displays offer real-time information about subway schedules, locations, transfers, flights, weather and news. The transparent display market is expected to reach $4.93 billion by 2024. Applications will become more diverse, said Chang-ho Oh, head of the TV business unit, saying LG will supply products for a wide range of industries.

LG is shipping a 27-inch UltraGear gaming monitor, a 4K in-plane-switching model with 1-millisecond gray to gray latency. The 27GN950 ($799), with Nvidia G-Sync compatibility and an AMD FreeSync Premium Pro processor, has a 144 Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color and VESA Display Stream Compression technology. It has RGB Sphere Lighting 2.0 to match with the sounds and visuals in the game, said LG.

Samsung held the top TV brand share globally in Q2, despite a decline in shipments, but TCL surged past LG for the second spot, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. Samsung shipments fell 6% from the 2019 quarter to 8.5 million sets, said DSCC. TCL shipments increased 27% to 5.6 million, while LG shipments fell 25% to 4.4 million, its lowest level since before 2016, it said.TV shipments from the top 15 brands declined 2% from the 2019 quarter to 38 million sets, said DSCC. Shipments to North America increased 39% to 9.5 million, and shipments in China climbed 5% to 11 million, it said. Shipments to Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa increased 22%, 35% and 31%, respectively, it said.

There needs to be “lots of innovation for various display technologies” so they can adapt to “our new normal life” of COVID-19 work-from-home and remote-learning mandates, Frank Ko, president-chief operating officer of panel maker AU Optronics, told the virtual Display Week conference. His keynote was prerecorded and screened for the first time Friday. Telework and remote learning means people will spend a great deal more time with their displays than before the pandemic, said Ko. AUO is responding by bringing more “eye care display technologies” to market, he said. E-paper displays are “more natural for humans” because they have no backlights and no “light emissions,” he said. “AUO has launched notebook and desktop displays with low blue light.”

After delays caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and “demand volatility,” LG Display announced Wednesday the start of mass production at its Gen 8.5 OLED panel fab in Guangzhou, China. LG has been sending 900 “core engineers” by chartered flights to Guangzhou since March, it said. Plant capacity is 60,000 sheets per month, supplementing the company’s 70,000-sheet capacity at its OLED panel plant in Paju, South Korea. The “high-efficiency” Guangzhou plant will produce 48-, 55-, 65- and 77-inch “high valued-added” and “extra large” OLED panels, it said. Monthly capacity is expandable to 90,000 sheets, based on market demand, the company said. LGD is able to produce more than 10 million OLED TV panels annually based on a 55-inch panel by maximizing production capacity of its Paju and Guangzhou plants, it said. OLED profitability is expected to improve through economies of scale. LGD will supply OLED displays to global customers from its Guangzhou plant, including panels for diversified product categories. It hopes to collaborate with other industries to provide “differentiated and premium values unique to OLED,” it said. “Large-size OLED business is the essential growth engine of LG Display for the future,” said CEO Jeong Ho-young. The company plans to differentiate by widening the "technological gap between the company and the other following players in the industry.” Some 19 TV brands are manufacturing OLED TVs, with about 4.4 million units forecast to sell this year worldwide, LGD said, citing Omdia data. About 12 million units are forecast to be sold in 2025. LGD Q2 revenue increased 12% from Q1 on spiking laptop, tablet and desktop monitor panel sales amid the COVID-19 demand for telework and remote-learning connectivity tools, said the company Thursday.

Global shipments of microLED displays are expected to “soar” to more than 16 million units by 2027, from “negligible levels” this year, reported Omdia Tuesday. Smartwatch and TV applications will drive microLED growth, said the former IHS Markit research company. It expects microLED display shipments to the smartwatch industry to top 10 million units in seven years. Shipments to TV makers will exceed 3.3 million units in 2027, it said. MicroLED is expected to become “the next self-emissive display technology” of choice, following OLED, said Omdia. “Numerous startups, display manufacturers and consumer brands now are developing their own microLED displays, devices and process in various sizes, ranging from medium-to-large sizes to ultra-small dimensions.”

Vizio denied it’s walking back support for Filmmaker Mode, the UHD Alliance initiative launched last summer to render TV movie-watching closer to the creator’s intent (see 1908270001). Though the feature “won’t be available at launch” on Vizio’s 2021 TV line (see 2006300052), a Filmmaker Mode firmware update will roll out “once the specification has been finalized,” emailed a Vizio spokesperson Tuesday. “We are currently working with the UHD-Alliance on the final specs. In the meantime, consumers can use the ‘Calibrated Dark’ picture mode” on their 2021Vizio TVs, “which offers an image that is faithful to a director’s original intent.” Vizio didn’t respond to further questions Wednesday about its statement suggesting the Filmmaker Mode spec was in flux. UHDA finalized Filmmaker Mode specs about a year ago, and other TV vendors already have brought the feature to market in products conforming to those specs (see 2004090062).

Q1 smartphone panel revenue grew 3% globally, topping $9 billion, reported Strategy Analytics Monday. Samsung Display had a 51.8% revenue share in smartphone panels, followed by BOE (14.3%) and Tianma (8.2%), it said. The smartphone display market has continued demand for premium OLED panels that drove revenue higher, said SA. Demand declined for smartphone LCD panels due to the industry oversupply, it said: “We expect the display panel market to continue to observe a slowdown in smartphone panel demand due to disruptions in supply chains of customers along with a strong decline in demand for end-market products owing to COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that the display panel vendors will continue to differentiate their portfolio with innovative display technologies among customers.”