LG Shows 30-Inch Extra-Wide Transparent OLED At K-Display Trade Fair In Seoul

August 17, 2023 by Dave Haynes

The largest display industry exhibition in Korea is on right now in Seoul, with companies such as LG showcasing their latest product advances at what’s called K-Display.

Organized by the Korea Display Industry Association, the runs Aug. 16-18 and has roughly 170 exhibiting vendors. The trade show component, as you might expect, is dominated by LG and Samsung.

Samsung hasn’t pushed out PR that I can find, but LG has a dedicated web page that goes into what it is showing at K-Display, and staffers have also populated Linkedin with some visuals (but I saw those posts on my phone while sipping morning coffee, and do you think I can find them again???).

The most interesting item is a 30-inch “bar-type” transparent OLED that’s positioned as a “pickup showcase” in a concept area LG has at the show in partnership with Starbucks. The idea is that the counter-top OLED would sit between the barista and customer. Not overly convinced that has legs.

What maybe has more market potential is a large, curved transparent OLED used as the front face of a glass showcase at order counters – the area that restaurants use to show their baked goods or high margin items. The idea here is that animated overlays draw customers’ eyes and drive impulse buying.

LG is also showing larger OLEDs, including  77-inch and a 97-inch. Not sure of these are TVs or pro displays (probably the former), but the 77 has what LG calls META technology, a micro-lens array that hugely boosts the brightness on an OLED. Brightness has been a persistent knock against OLED, with more light meaning richer visuals.

I’d note what Samsung is showing but all I could find was a report in the Korea Times about the show. The most interesting product demos – though probably not relevant to pro AV applications – are perhaps a set of slidable monitors. There is a Slidable Solo, which extends a screen in one direction, and a Slidable Duet, which extends in both directions.