LEDs, OLEDs, Stroopwafels And Vedett Extra Whites – Headed To ISE 2018

February 2, 2018 by Dave Haynes

I’m headed back to Amsterdam this weekend and will be at Integrated Systems Europe all next week, so posts may be spotty. I have a few booth tours set up but mostly I avoid that sort of thing, as appointments very quickly chew up all of my time. I get more out of just wandering around and making my own decisions as to what’s interesting and different, versus what PR handlers and sales VPs tell me.

I did something like 16 podcast interviews at ISE last year, and am not repeating that – mostly because I was still running February interviews in May! I do have a few chats set up, and hope like last year to also create some audio digests of quicker 10-minute chats at booths.

My biggest interest this year is LED. I want to see what the big guys from China and elsewhere have in the way of new display tech, like micro LED and Chip on Board. I’m hoping Samsung has The Wall, the micro LED product shown at CES. I know Hong Kong’s Deepsky will be showing a 0.9mm Chip On Board/Micro LED product. I assume some other companies will also have product that pushes beyond the conventional fine pitch technical design.

If fine pitch LED is your thing, you can download for the low, low price of free a 70-page independent report on the tech. It just came out this week and has already has 100s of downloads.

OLED will also get some attention – as I want to understand where that tech is at in terms of addressing some lingering technical issues like image retention, color fading and operating lifespan. I have HEARD that while those have indeed been real issues, a lot of progress has been made. I’m not sure as much progress has been made on cost, however, which is crazy-high.

Maybe LG will have a version of the OLED canyon it had at CES. Doubt it, but will have a peek Monday when I go get my press credentials at RAI.

I’m also interested in seeing how many more CMS software companies I can find from Scandinavia (found several last year I didn’t know existed).

ISE managing director Mike Blackman is expecting a bigger crowd than last year, so I might be fighting for taxis, tram seats and wifi with about 80,000 people. Yikes.

And, of course, I will be at the Digital Signage Awards on February 7th.

If you are traveling over there, I hope the journey is seamless and safe. Direct flight for me, and after a couple of China trips in 2017, 7.5 hours to Schiphol feels like a commuter flight. Best way to reach me is WhatsApp while I am there. I get an overseas data sim and deprive my Canadian wireless carrier of their insane roaming fees.

Looking forward to reacquainting myself with a couple of these …  I was going to go to an Ajax game, but ticket prices are nutty. Pffft.