Panasonic Avionics’ Astrova in-flight entertainment seat system, launched Wednesday, features 4K OLED displays with HDR and 67 watts of USB-C power for laptop PC charging. Passengers will be able to connect to entertainment systems via Bluetooth or wired connections, the company said. The system has programmable LED lighting, which airlines can use to change lighting according to flight phases such as food and beverage service, Panasonic said; they also will have the option to let passengers customize lighting to personal preferences. Astrova also will be enabled by Panasonic Avionics' global in-flight connectivity services, which will allow access to passengers' personal subscription services and content such as Apple Music, Spotify, Netflix, Disney+, YouTube and HBO Max, it said. The system was designed to provide “significantly more opportunities to immerse passengers in an airline’s brand experience,” Panasonic said, noting the average flight is five hours.

Bloated inventories are a “gale-force headwind” throughout the display industry that will continue to put downward pressure on prices and likely will lead to a “sharp slowdown in industry production” in 2022's second half, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. Throughout the display value chain, “the surge in demand generated during the pandemic’s early days, combined with shortages and transportation problems, set in motion a path toward building a mountain of inventory,” said DSCC. “Now that the pandemic demand peak has passed, that big mountain needs to be consumed before a normal supply/demand balance can be restored.”

LG introduced a 54-inch Direct View LED cabinet at Infocomm in Las Vegas that enables a seamless video wall with fewer signal and power cables, it emailed Wednesday. A traditional 4x4 video wall made from 55-inch LCD displays requires 16 signal cables and 16 power cables; a comparable wall using 54-inch DVLED displays requires four signal and eight power cables, the company said.

Hisense bowed its first Amazon Fire TV Tuesday, a 50-inch ULED 4K model available exclusively at Amazon.com. Features include Dolby Vision, HDR10/10+, 600-nit brightness and a game mode with 60Hz variable refresh rate and low latency, Hisense said. The $529 U6HF was to be available for preorder Tuesday; a 58-inch model is due in early fall for $599, it said. It comes with an Alexa voice remote.

AMOLED microdisplay supplier eMagin is in “active discussions” with several consumer tech companies, including Tier 1 OEMs, about “potential applications” of its direct-patterning display technology for augmented- and virtual-reality headsets, said CEO Andrew Sculley on a Q1 earnings call Thursday. The technology enables direct-patterning of “primary RGB” color emitters on a silicon backplane, rendering “ultra-high-brightness light output at ultra-high resolution, with brilliant colors,” he said. The 10,000 nits of full-color peak brightness, plus high resolution and high contrast, “that we have achieved is beyond the threshold requirements for immersive AR and VR devices, and will help to overcome inefficient optics and alleviate motion artifacts,” he said. The company is “on a path” to double its peak brightness to 20,000 nits in “about a two-year program,” he said. EMagin recorded a 15% product revenue increase in the quarter on higher shipments of enhanced night vision goggles to customers in NATO countries, said Sculley. “We can't say how much is due to the Russian invasion,” but the orders it accepted in April included a “very large percentage of bookings for NATO,” he said.

LG Electronics is partnering with Blackdove on digital signage displays integrating software and art from Blackdove’s digital art gallery and nonfungible token platform, the companies said Wednesday. The displays are targeted to corporate lobbies, galleries and luxury residences. Display resolution ranges from Full HD to 8K. The displays, with Blackdove’s software and curated art, are due this quarter.

The new Nanosys partnership with China’s Bready to mass-produce the world’s first barrier-free laminated quantum dot film-based components under the Nanosys xQDEF trademark (see 2204280035) “absolutely” will enable the commercial introduction of QD TVs starting later this year in entry-level sets, including private-label models, Nanosys CEO Jason Hartlove told us. “We’re definitely working with people who put those brands out,” said Hartlove. “They are super-excited about what this enables for them, because now we’ve taken out all that additional cost of the high-performance barrier-film plastic. This means they are able to get quantum-dot film at price points that are manageable for those mainstream sets.” The cost of barrier films to prevent “photo-oxidation” of the QD layer in an LCD TV has never really come down “close to the price of just optical-grade plastics,” said Hartlove. “We’re going to see, in 2022 and in a big way in 2023, a huge number of those private-label, big-box brands” enter the QD space, he said. “It gives consumers a lot more choices, a lot more options. This year, for the first time, we’re going to have some 32-inch TVs using quantum dots. Those are real mainstream in terms of the type of product that consumers are going to be able to access.” Nanosys is showcasing its xQDEF products at Display Week 2022, which opened Sunday and runs through Friday at the San Jose Convention Center.

The Nanosys xQDEF diffuser plate with air-stable quantum dots (see 2204280035) was one of several offerings winning display component of the year honors from the Society for Information Display, said the society Tuesday. As a “direct replacement” for diffuser plate components in direct-lit LCDs, the xQDEF diffuser plate “simplifies the display assembly process, allowing display makers to design and build the most cost-effective displays with the widest color gamut,” said SID. Display of the year honors went to Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR display in the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro for its ability to render “extreme dynamic range” with 1,600 nits of peak luminance. Winners will receive their awards during the May 8-13 Display Week conference in San Jose.

There’s “no respite” for the price declines of LCD TV panels, even with the pace of the decreases in Q2 bringing prices closer to panel makers’ costs, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. The combination of a continued surge in supply and “near-universally” weak demand continues to drive prices down, said DSCC. “Supply has continued to be robust while we face the slowest season for demand,” it said.

Sony will begin taking preorders in June for the hybrid quantum dot-OLED 4K TVs it introduced at CES 2022 (see 2201030004), said the vendor Monday. Pricing on the Bravia XR Master Series A95K TVs will be $4,000 for the 65-inch and $3,000 for the 55-inch. Summer preorders will be available on its Bravia XR Master Series Z9K 8K Mini LED TVs, priced at $10,000 for the 85-inch and $7,000 for the 75-inch. Sony’s Cognitive Processor XR “brain” is embedded throughout the Bravia XR TV lineup for 2022, said the company.