Projection Summit to Focus on Competitive Strategies

InfoComm 05 Features PS'05 for Fourth Year in Las Vegas June 6-7

March 14, 2005 - The time has come for all the players in the professional audiovisual market, generally, and for projection system suppliers, specifically, to be sure their strategies will help them weather the increasingly competitive environment for big-screen displays. Three major forces are making profits more difficult to come by:

The emergence of the low-cost education projector market, the success of the IT channel, and the maturing of the mainstream enterprise front projector market have all led to the commodity-like status of projectors, stagnant revenues, and extreme price pressures.
Falling prices for big flat-panel displays have dramatically increased competition in other ProAV markets where projectors have historically dominated.
While the recent successes in home rear-projection televisions have been a bright light for the projection industry, flat-panel makers predict that they will reverse the gains over the next few years as their new big-screen fabs come onstream.

As a result, the projection industry is shifting from a performance-driven industry to a price-driven industry. More and more, the ProAV market is being influenced by the consumer market instead of the other way around. The rules are changing. The Projection Summit conference offers industry leaders an intensive two days of technology and market sessions to gain insight into these critical trends and re-evaluate, or validate, their strategic direction.

Projection Summit will open at InfoComm for a fourth consecutive year, with a stimulating executive-level conference, featuring presentations, panel discussions and networking opportunities for professionals in the display industry. Speakers from the projection supply chain, display manufacturing base, analyst, consumer, ProAV and IT system integration communities will provide meaningful insights and dialog, with immediate value for attendees.

Projection Summit 2005 will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Insight Media (www.insightmedia.info) and McLaughlin Consulting Group (www.mcgweb.com) have partnered with ICIA (www.icia.org) to organize the conference.

On Monday, the conference sessions will focus on the key technology and supply chain programs that are ongoing to both extend the market for projection displays, as well as improve competitiveness with big flat-panel displays. In the morning, innovations in LED projection lamps, improved arc lamp performance, new video processing and electronics capabilities will be highlighted, which improve system lifetime, as well as performance and price. Microdisplays will be the afternoon focus, with DLP, 3LCD and LCOS leaders discussing and debating what they see as the path to improved competitiveness with flat panels.

The Tuesday agenda will take up the issues of new technologies and products, as well as new market opportunities for projectors, and will conclude with the market analyst forum. The new technology sessions in the morning will look at two extremes of possibility for projection: pocket projectors and eCinema. The critical question for both is the same. Are these simply niche market opportunities or the start of major market segments that can represent multi-million-unit opportunities? During the afternoon, the Summit will again present the opportunity to listen and interact with the leading analysts of the ProA/V, consumer and projection space. This year, the analysts will be encouraged to look beyond their differences in the forecast and to agree on the key challenges and opportunities for the industry. The insight and wisdom of these market gurus could inspire conference goers to define new and exciting strategies for the increasingly competitive world they work in.

A preliminary agenda for Projection Summit 2005 is viewable at: http://www.projectionsummit.com

Following the Projection Summit, attendees can close out the day at the annual InfoComm Manufacturers Forum, Opening Reception, and Awards Banquet. More information on the InfoComm exhibition, which features over 10,000 audiovisual communications products and services, as well as events and courses, is available at www.infocommshow.org.

Discounted, early-bird registration is now open through InfoComm at:

http://ww4.expocard.com/inf051/summit/registrant.asp

Conference Sponsors include:

Scram Technologies, Pixelworks