Plasma Screens compared to other technologies

What is Plasma?

Plasma screen technology consists of two glass panels approx. 0.1mm apart that compress thousands of tiny pockets of gas called pixels. Each of these pixels also contains coloured red green & blue phosphor.

When a current is applied to each pixel, the gas inside reacts to form a state of plasma and Ultra Violet light is produced. This UV light reacts with the coloured phosphor to produce a range of up to 16 million colours on the screen.

As all of the pixels emit light at the same time so there is no screen flicker unlike traditional display technologies. There is no back lighting or electron beam so the image is much sharper, brighter and consistent from edge to edge.

Why choose Plasma?

Advantages

• Larger viewing angle, 160º compared to LCD 40º & rear projection 120º. (Allows a larger audience to be able to view the image reproduction)
• No projection throw distance limitations.
• Brighter & able to tolerate higher ambient lighting. More accurate & distortion free images. (As plasma screens are flat, unlike the curve found with standard televisions, this eliminates the edge distortion that can occur on curved screens).
• Universal Display Capability. (Most plasma models are able to accept video format. Typically they will include composite video (NTSC & SECAM), S-video & component video inputs, plus one or more RGB inputs to connect to a computer).
• Digital technology.
• Unaffected by magnetism. (Unlike conventional CRT displays, plasma screens do not use electron beams and so can be placed near loud speakers with out suffering any distortion).
• Thin Profile to save on space - 3-6.5 inches thickness
• Free standing or wall/ceiling mountable

• Clearer sharper image.
• Uniform brightness across the whole screen (no faded edges). (A CRT television will have what is known as a hotspot, where the picture is at its brightness, and then will fade out the nearer to the edge).
• Flicker free images.
• Consumes less power (some come with an ECO-mode).

• Brighter viewing angle.
• Better colour quality.
• Higher contrast ratio.
• Better picture.

What do I need?
Plasma screens from any manufacturer can be connected to a video source (VCR), TV, DVD player, satellite system or a computer. Most plasma screens don't have a built in TV tuner so for a terrestrial TV signal, a connection to VCR is required.
You can connect more than one device to a plasma screen at any one time so you can swap between a PowerPoint presentation and a video clip using the plasma screen's remote control. Switch boxes are also available that allow several computers to connect to a plasma screen at once. On the switch box is a button for each input computer, which when pressed, will show that computer's display on the plasma screen.
Some plasma screens also have split-screen and picture-in-picture options. This can be used to display multiple video clips or presentations on the same screen at the same time.

How long will they last?
This varies considerably between manufacturers but usually from 20,000 to 30,000 hours. After this time the plasma screen will only be at around half the original brightness. If you used your plasma screen for 5 hours a day every day it would last over 10 years.
At the end of the plasma screen's life, the screen will be very dull and you will need to replace the plasma screen with a new one. This is one advantage plasma screens have over LCD projectors, which have a bulb life of usually 2,000 hours before replacement.