By Paul Gagnon – Director, North American TV Research, DisplaySearch

From LEDs and power consumption to 3D, system architecture and connectivity, our first TV Ecosystems Conference was a whirlwind of information on the post-HD transition TV industry. Here are a couple of points that I found particularly interesting:

Mandatory or Voluntary?

Energy consumption was a hot topic in the morning. We had several speakers, including an LED maker (Cree), a TV brand (Vizio) and an industry consultant looking at energy consumption in TVs (WRT Associates). LEDs are a key trend in LCD TVs, and they reduce power consumption. As outlined by Ken Lowe, VP of Engineering for Vizio, LEDs are a key to meeting next generation Energy Star 4.0 proposed guidelines by next year and will be critical to meeting much stricter guidelines by 2012. The current proposed draft of the 5.0 guideline would even cap 50″+ screen sizes at 108W, whether 52″ or 70″.

These are just draft voluntary guidelines, but the California Energy Commission is attempting to enact mandatory energy consumption guidelines that many industry stakeholders (but not all) consider onerous and unfair. The debate is whether the regulatory environment should encourage or mandate lower power consumption. All sides agree that lower power consumption is a worthwhile goal, but how to do it without stifling innovation or proceeding slower than optimal is a fine line to walk.

3D Easier to Bring to Market than Previously Thought?

During the 3D panel, the topic of standards came up. Specifically, will a multitude of 3D display techniques in the marketplace-ranging from active to passive glasses of all varieties-hold back the development of content while the industry endures another format war? Surprisingly, the answer from Pete Lude of Sony was “no”!

It seems that regardless of the display technology, content developers, distributors and source device manufacturers are working towards a unified system of encoding the information and will leave the display free to independently decode and present the 3D image, regardless of technique. This bodes well for introducing 3D to consumers in a broad and meaningful way, sooner rather than later.