3LCD technology turns 20

The three-chip Liquid Crystal Display (3LCD), the first and only projection technology to surpass the 50-million chip mark, is celebrating its 20th year of innovation.

Epson, with a global market share of 20.9 percent of the projector market (Future Source, April-June 2008), is the inventor and pioneer of the 3LCD technology. Because of the 3LCD technology’s success, it has been adopted by other leading brands, boosting the technology’s market share to more than half of the global market.

3LCD is a sophisticated technology that highly improves and leads industry standards for vibrant, true-to-life and consistent images for the most demanding business and consumer audiences. Delivering unbelievably bright and natural color, amazing detail and road-tested reliability, the world’s leading projector technology offers brilliant quality images using its pioneering three-chip LCD.

Epson designed the 3LCD projector system by using a combination of dichroic mirrors to break the white light from the lamp into red, green and blue light.

Each of the three colors of light is then passed through its own LCD panel and then recombined by a dichroic prism before being projected onto the screen. This results in smooth-moving images with rich, full color, since all three basic colors are included in each pixel of the projected image at all times.

According to the report from the Pacific Media Associates (PMA) in the United States, 3LCD leads in all three front projection channels, namely the Pro AV, distribution and retail channels.

The Pro AV channel serves some of the most demanding markets in the projection business today. Pro AV dealers provide service and support to their customers and require outstanding performance and reliability.

The Pro AV channel overwhelmingly continues to choose projectors with 3LCD technology, selling them three to one over all other technologies combined, according to PMA.

In the two decades since front projection technology has taken a hold in the global market, 3LCD technology has emerged as a leader with outstanding track record of performance and reliability in the field.

With millions of projectors sold and in use today, 3LCD technology delivers where it is needed most: meeting rooms, classrooms, boardrooms, houses of worship and large venues around the world.

“We are excited to reach all these important industry milestones,” said Yasunori Ogawa, Epson general manager of VI Planning and Design Department.

“This achievement is a testament to the outstanding performance, reliability and innovation of 3LCD technology that has delivered to millions of projector users for over almost 20 years,” Ogawa added.

Epson Philippines Corp. is now set to lead the Philippine market toward a new standard in the projection industry with the 3LCD technology.

“Since 1989, the 3LCD technology has surpassed expectations and has become the technology of choice in the global projector market. As we celebrate the company’s 10th anniversary in the Philippines, this showcase on 3LCD as another leading core technology exemplifies our commitment to create and uplift new local industry standards,” said Epson Philippines Corp. senior general manager and sales and marketing division head Eduardo Bonoan.

“As a global leader in projector sales for the last seven consecutive years, Epson holds true to its dedication to ‘Exceed Your Vision’ as an innovator in business and in innovating strong products for the customer,” Bonoan added.