CES 2010: That's all they could come up with
One of the more interesting CES marketing campaigns that
caught our attention on the showroom floor was Sharp’s introduction of
QuadPixel technology. Sure, the name sounds like a big new catchphrase
in the High Definition display market, but it’s nothing more than the
addition of yellow color to the current RGB (red-green-blue) spectrum
employed in the NTSC color gamut. All in all, we were amused by the
fact that the marketing campaign is titled “Hello Yellow.”
The company has one-upped the typical RGB color combination with the
addition of Y in its new flagship AQUOS edge-lit-LED lineup, dubbed the
LE820 Series. Sharp insists that by adding yellow into the color
spectrum with QuadPixel technology, its latest HDTVs are now able to
produce trillions of colors rather than a mere four billion or so with
RGB. In perspective, it can be viewed as a more direct approach to what
xvYCC technology intends to do with Deep Color through HDMI 1.3a.
According to the press release, “Four primary color technology enables
the display to reproduce colors that have been difficult to portray
using conventional LCD displays, such as the golden yellow color of
brass instruments. When combined with Sharp’s 1080p X-Gen LCD panel,
which incorporates UV2A Technology, the displays offer dramatic
reduction in energy consumption compared to conventional
fluorescent-backlight LCD TVs.”
The displays we spotted came in 52-inch, 60-inch and 68-inch diagonal
sizes. As expected, they will be available some time in Spring and it
should be possible to see them in person at BestBuy and other retailers
by May or June.
