LEDs Continue On Rapid Rise, But Still Business For Flat Panels And Projection: Futuresource ISE Report

February 22, 2024 by Dave Haynes

The folks at UK-based research firm Futuresource Consulting always send a big team to Integrated Systems Europe, and one of the outputs from all that poking around is a great summary report the analysts put together about what they saw and the trends in evidence.

Even better, it’s a free download.

That Post-Show Report is now out and, like previous ones, it has a pile of useful information for industry people interested in LED, flat panel displays, interactive panels and projection. It does not get into CMS software.

You are best to download the report (you just have to provide your email), but here are some selected insights:

• LED continues to be the primary growth engine and should become the predominant Pro Display technology in 2027. However, LCD is expected to retain the price-per-pixel advantage through the end of the decade, when True MicroLED Chip on Glass (CoG) obtains economies of scale. While projection declines in value, it will remain a significant $3.5B global opportunity in 2027 due to its being the simplest and most cost-effective method to deliver a large-scale image.
• Despite solid alignment to the LED technology delineated on the right across suppliers and brands in private conversations, marketing misinformation was again prolific at ISE 2024 regarding which video walls are “MicroLED”. Even some Chip on Board, CoB, offerings were misclassified.This confusion could delay market adoption of the new technologies.
• True MicroLED, also known as Chip on Glass (CoG), is destined to dominate the LED marketplace and drive LED dominance over LCD technologies by the end of the decade. CoG is sub-100 micron chiplets mass transferred to glass or TFT with an Active Matrix. True MicroLED will eventually deliver high pixel density and improved visual performance comparable to Flat Panel Displays (FPD) today.
• Interactive on LED is now genuinely feasible due to ruggedized LED modules, with LEDMAN in particular showing fine pitch interactive screens.
• The LCD video wall market is fading away because of LED, but the flat panel market still has legs. The gulf in prices between LCD and LED screens is offering relative insulation from cannibalisation, and whilst segments such as Tiled LCD remain vulnerable, low hanging fruit, sizeable market verticals such as corporate meeting spaces remain a safe haven for now.
• With projection now having to compete with often more cost-effective LED solutions in the Corporate and Institutional markets, much of the emphasis for projection at ISE 2024 was on high-end visual spectacles, with immersive content and 3D mapping prominent at the show.