Atlanta – High-end TV supplier NuVision is using CEDIA Expo to
showcase its expanded lines of LCD TVs and video projectors, including some of
the company’s first 3D-capable models.
The 2010/2011 models were all designed to be “truly
customizable,” offering customers the ability to have handcrafted anodized-aluminum
bezels with the option for custom colors accommodating any color shade.
NuVision CEO David Hester said the company is targeting
well-heeled customers who demand top quality and personalization.
The company’s strategy appears to working. Hester said sales grew
100 percent year on year in 2010, while the dealer network grew 412 percent
since March 2009 to 520 retail outlets, including eight Magnolia Design
Centers.
The Magnolia presence will grow further, he said, to 57 Magnolia
Home Theater stores and Design Centers by year’s end.
Magnolia, Hester said, targets the same top 10 percent that
NuVusion does.
Meanwhile, the company’s product is now available to HES members
through the group’s Expert Warehouse. Among other retailers carrying the brand
are Sixth Avenue Electronics, Starpower, Gramophone and HiFi House.
For enhanced home integration, NuVision now places ports —
called NuControl ports — on every display it sells. This NuControl is a
bi-directional serial control port configured on an RJ-45 jack for the ease of
installers who wire homes with CAT-5 cable. The system uses the RJ-45 pins for
its own purposes, including allowing IR passthrough and repeat without carrier
for connection to an array of home-control systems, such as Control 4 and
Savant.
The RS-232 protocols are the same in all sets regardless of
screen size and allow complete control of all system functions.
Additionally, all of the company’s LCD TVs now offer FullHD 1080p
resolution and either edge-lit LED backlighting or full-array LED backlighting.
Expanding upon the previous Film Times Five (FX5) technology,
which used 120Hz motion compensation by repeating the first frame five times
over, NuVision has advanced to an FX10 system in large-screen models.
The system provides 240Hz or 480Hz motion-compensation technology
using a process of 5:5 pull-down and frame doubling.
NuVision sets also employ a proprietary Frame Forward Motion
(motion estimation and motion compensation) technology using algorithms for
level control to give users the ability to keep or eliminate intended judder
(used in some content to keep the look of film).
The FX10 lineup is comprised of LCD models measuring 40 inches and
larger, all of which are 3D-capable using active-shutter glasses.
The line starts with a 22-inch 60Hz 1080p model and transitions
to the FX5 series, including 32 inches (120Hz) and 40 inches (120Hz). All three
use edge-mounted LED backlighting, allowing a panel depth of 1.5 inches or
less.
The FX5 series also has a 55-inch (120Hz) model with mirror front
glass integrated into the LCD module to eliminate internal reflection.
The 22- ($849), 32- ($1,999) and 40-inch ($2,999) sets shipped in
the second quarter, and the 55-inch mirror TV ($8,499) will ship in November.
The mirror TV will be transitioned to 240Hz technology in
November or December of this year, said Chris Porter, NuVision engineering and
product management VP.
The FX10 series includes the 40-, 46- and 55-inch screen sizes,
all offering 240Hz and edge-mounted LED backlighting with the company’s True
Dimming technology that controls brightness levels for nine zones across the
screen while eliminating artifacts such as blotching. The models also include
3D processing and active shutter glasses support.
The 55- ($6,999) and 46-inch ($5,499) models ship in October, and
the 40-inch ($4,499) version will ship in January 2011.
The company will also introduce starting later this year a new
Connoisseur Series (CS) in the 55- and 72-inch screen sizes. Both will be
3D-capable and are to include full-array LED backlighting and native 480Hz
panels that do not require backlight scanning tricks to achieve the high rate,
NuVision said.
Both sets will use an 8mm LCD module that allows for a thinner
panel depth for full-array LED systems than are seen in edge-lit versions of
comparable screen sizes, the company said.
The 72-inch CS model ($15,999) is due to ship in December, and
the 55-inch CS unit ($8,999) will ship at the end of the second quarter of
2011.
The 710 series, including new CS SKU, will be based on a new “905
platform” that incorporates a dual-core processor (two 300MHz cores) to handle
all of the infrastructure of the TV, such as IPTV functionality running
compressed A/V content streams. The platform will support true 2D local dimming
in the CS models, with 240 zones of local dimming in the 55-inch model and 480
zones in the 72-inch version.
In front projection, the company introduced in May its ProVu P2 LED-based
one-chip DLP projector with Dark Chip IV technology and Gennum video
processing. It includes a dynamic iris producing a 100,000:1 dynamic contrast
ratio, instant-on/off with no warm up, and a long-life light source with an
expanded color gamut, reduced energy consumption and no need for a color
wheel.
NuVision said it plans to add a three-chip model in the first
quarter of 2011 that will substitute a UHP lamp for the P2’s LED light engine.
That will be followed by a 3D-capable one-chip DLP projector in April.
