History of the plasma screen PlasmaTV'sare just about the most technologically advanced type of
television
to date. The technology was originally developed for use
with large screens but has now become common-place with all types of
television.
The main advantage of the plasma screen,
and the reason for
it's growing popularity, is it's outstanding picture quality, feeling
of depth and the ability to reproduce billions of colours and shades in
a realistic fashion.
With the increasing availability of a wide range of high-definition,
digital video products such as HDTV, DTV and DVD, the need for a high
quality output device which could exploit them has been filled by
Plasma and
LCD
screens. However, the ability of the plasma
screen to
maintain it's brightness, faster response time, wider viewing angle and
a huge colour range provides more bang for the buck over it's close
competitor, the LCD
screen.
The development of the plasma
screen began back in 1964 with the design
of the first plasma
display panel at Illinois Universtity. The brains
behind the breakthrough were provided by Donald L. Blitzer, H.Gene
Slottow and a graduate student Robert Wilson who designed a
single-colour plasma
display for Plato Computer Systems.
For the next twenty years Plasma
Display Panels were only produced in
monochrome, usually orange or green. By the 1970's their availability
in huge screen sizes made them popular with organisations needing a
multi-screen display such as stock exchanges and other buildings
containing large halls.
As with many elecrtonic technologies, the Japanese took the concept and
ran with it. In 1992, the well known company Fujitsu developed the
world's first multi-colour Plasma
Display which also boasted a 21"
screen. Not to be out-done, another Japanese company, Panasonic bought
the American company, Plasma
Co. in 1992 and used it's new aquision's
expertise in Plasma
technology to manufacture plasma
display panels.
Even so, the consumer had to wait a further five years before Plasma
display panels became commercially available. Since then their
popularity has grown and the technology improved. In 1998 a plasma
screen was used to televise Olympic events and in 2006,
Panasonic USA
built the world's largest Plasma
TV at a whopping 103 inches.
The large-scale plasma
screen has now become common place and you can't
go far these days without seeing one strutting it's stuff. In airports,
large halls, hotels, banks, sports stadiums and as advetizing
billboards. Not least because LCD
screens of a similar size are
currently around three times the cost.
