Philips Says Goodbye To Watching Movies In The Dark

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), the global leader in lighting, has launched a new digital projection technology that removes the need to turn off the lights or close the curtains. Philips ColorSpark is three times brighter than existing LED projector technologies and provides sharp pictures and vivid colors on big screens in any environment. The technology will come to market in Q4 2015 and was voted best digital projection technology in consumer research published in June 2015.

Philips ColorSpark High Lumen Density (HLD) LED is a user friendly technology that powers up and down instantly, requiring no start-up or cool-down time, and provides the ideal color representation for home entertainment, as well as classrooms, conference rooms, entertainment venues, retail stores and malls. The scalability, ease of installation and maintenance, energy use, cost and overall performance should prove highly appealing to the digital projector market.

“Until now the projection market has not seen projectors capable of exceeding 2500 Alm with LED technology,” said Leo Schouten from Philips Digital Projection Lighting. “Now, for the first time, LED based projectors will also be able to compete with non-projection display technology in any environment with the lights on and curtains open.”

Philips ColorSpark HLD LED technology works by concentrating LED light into a very small area, thus boosting the projector’s light source by several factors.  The HLD rod present in this new breakthrough innovation is set to transform the use of LEDs in projection, creating a new light source that converts and focuses LED light to match the latest in projector imaging technology. The new technology is three times brighter than existing LED projectors because of the unique way blue LEDs are converted into green. This enables a larger and wider color gamut that delivers the purest color components for green combined with red and blue.

This innovation from Philips, the global leader in LED lighting and a projection market leader for twenty years, underlines the company’s commitment to deliver meaningful innovations that improve both business value and people’s lives.

Philips ColorSpark HLD LED will be officially unveiled for the first time by Dr. Peter Vankan, R&D Manager at Philips DPL, at the Display Summit 15-16 June – the precursor to InfoComm in Orlando Florida

 Notes to Editors

• Philips ColorSpark HLD LED was the clear winner against three other leading solid state lighting technologies in independent research conducted in May 2015. Over 300 people participated in the survey to evaluate the image quality of four unmarked projectors.  The survey showed that Philips ColorSpark HLD LED was preferred by 68% of respondents for color accuracy, best contrast, best picture quality and most pleasing colors, compared to 30% who preferred Laser-phosphor technology.
• Projectors are Etendue limiting systems – referencing the property of light in an optical system which characterizes how “spread out” the light is in area and angle.
• A perfect optical system produces an image with the same Etendue as the source. Until now this has not been possible using existing LED technology. Now Philips ColorSpark HLD LED technology is able to provide a high lumen density on a small imaging device (referred to as Etendue limitation) for the first time.
• The breakthrough of this innovation is to use a HLD rod, which converts the light of blue LED’s and improves the light source focus (Etendue) to match the projector:
   1. Blue light from the LEDs is collected in the rod.
   2. Inside the rod the light is converted to Green and forms a new light source.
   3. Via internal reflection the light exits through the nose.
   4. The nose surface and the exit angle determine the light source Etendue.
• Philips ColorSpark HLD LED enables a larger and wider color gamut because it delivers the purest color components for green combined with red and blue together.
• Philips has a long and distinguished history in the projector market having invented Ultra High Pressure (UHP) projector lamps more than 20 years ago. UHP projector lamps continue to be an important technology and Philips’ commitment to innovation in the projector market is unparalleled.