Get the Most From Display Week 2019

I bid you a hearty WELCOME to Display Week 2019! We're back here in San Jose, a strategic location close to Silicon Valley and one that has hosted this event with much success many times before. I can't wait to see all the innovative work on display here and all the great people who make it possible. The SID community is a rich fabric of players and technologies that represent so many diverse, but interconnected, threads of the display industry. Some of you are suppliers, providing materials, processes, components, services and know-how to major manufacturers to enable the industry. Many of you probably work for one of the large manufacturers of various core display technologies (LCD, OLED, LCOS, ePaper, etc.) or integrate those displays into a wide and almost countless variety of solutions for end users. A cross section of you may even be end users looking for the latest tech or investors looking for the next great thing. And most of you have at least some connection with the business side of our industry as well, because, of course, we're here to make a living and have some fun! No matter what part of the marketplace you come from, you are eagerly welcomed here. It's almost impossible to go more than a few hours in any day without directly interacting with an information display that controls or informs some aspect of your life. Just picture your home, your car, your workplace–it's obvious. We're in a world where much of what we do is directly affected, and usually substantially enhanced, by display technology. Being part of this industry is really exciting. And that's saying something while being in the shadow of one of the greatest geographical regions for innovation anywhere in the world. “Many people discover the Society for Information Display through Display Week first, then later on realize that SID is about much more than just one great event per year.” You can pick any topical area you like, such as augmented and virtual reality, automotive, flexible displays, signage and cinema, manufacturing, human vision, metrology, or anything else you can imagine, and there are technical sessions, seminars, workshops, and exhibits to see. If you signed up for any of the technical sessions you were automatically enrolled as a new SID member. That's great because not only will you get a full dose of everything you can learn while you are here but you'll also gain access to the amazing calendar of activities organized by SID and one of our 30-plus chapters worldwide. Many people discover the Society for Information Display through Display Week first, then later on realize that SID is about much more than just one great event per year. In fact, SID offers a calendar abounding with exciting international display-industry events, some focused on a particular technology or field of research and others that are almost as broad as the Symposium itself. For example, throughout the rest of this year you can experience other world-class display events such as EuroDisplay 2019, a biennial conference jointly organized by SID and the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. It takes place September 16–20 in Minsk, Republic of Belarus (https://eurodisplay2019.bsuir.by/en/home). There's also the 2019 SID Vehicle Displays Detroit, an annual symposium and expo presented by SID's Detroit Chapter in Livonia, Michigan, September 24–25 (www.sid.org), and the International Meeting on Information Display in Gyeongju, Korea, which will be held August 27–30 (www.imid.or.kr/2019). These are outstanding events and give you an excuse to see great parts of the world as well. However, some of the most important society activities are those that take place regularly on a local and regional level. It is hard to find any industrialized part of the world that does not have some chapter activities going on. And if all that is not enough, SID's publications, online resources, and network make the organization a truly indispensable tool to a successful display-industry career. Even if you attend only one additional SID event or only take partial advantage of your local-chapter activities and the online resources, you get the value of your membership back many times over. So, if you are new to SID, I hope you find it a truly enriching experience, and do not forget about your membership after Display Week 2019 is over. Display Week is a big event, and no one person can see it all. Hopefully you brought along some colleagues to help you divide and conquer everything of interest, but in case you can't, we have you covered. Information Display has invited a prestigious team of technology enthusiasts to report on all the happenings, and they will be hard at work covering everything they can. We will have daily blog updates on www.InformationDisplay.org and a full issue of post-show coverage later in the year. If you see anyone from our team (including me) walking around with a press badge with Information Display on it, please introduce yourself, ask questions, and share your interests so we can make sure we cover the things that appeal most to you. This issue of ID can also be useful for your planning, because it features our “Products on Display” coverage, which is assembled each year by our staff to help you get the most out of the exhibition. However, while good planning is essential, don't forgo the opportunity to just wander around the exhibits or pop in on a presentation you hadn't considered. Each year I find many surprises and new ideas that I can only discover if I explore as much as possible. It's a wonderful mix of the expected and unexpected that awaits you. I've never left Display Week without at least a handful of amazing new nuggets that have since proven invaluable in my day-to-day work. Our cover story this month features the winners of the SID Display Industry Awards, recognized in three categories: displays, components, and applications. As author Jenny Donelan explains, this year's winners can best be described as both “fun and compelling.” In other words, not only will they make your user experience better, but you really will want to use them more! The committee that makes these selections is a highly skilled team of technologists and they work very hard to pick the best from a wide array of nominations. Their efforts and integrity are worthy of much praise. Our technical article lineup this month includes three great features. Anders Ballestad et al. explore novel cinema projection, Udo Krüger et al. cover metrology of near-to-eye displays, and Dale Stolitzka analyzes HDR display performance specifications. All three of these features will give you new insights into the latest work and align nicely with some of the great things being presented at Display Week. On the business side, we have a market update on OLED market share and manufacturing capacity from longtime author Ross Young, and an engaging Q&A with startup company XTPL written by Jenny Donelan. Understanding the marketplace and focusing your business on the right targets are critical functions to maintaining resources for innovation. There are many more opportunities to learn about this through the business conference, investors conference, and several market focus conferences being held concurrently in San Jose. Further in our pages you will find an important Display Week message from SID President Helge Seetzen, selected new topics from our industry, and the latest SID news as well. I hope you enjoy this issue of Information Display as well as your week in San Jose. And don't worry, if you are one of the few who are not able to attend, we will have a complete wrap-up of all the happenings in our July/August issue so you will still have a chance to experience the best parts.