Abstract of speech given by Mr. Hajime Takashima, Managing Director of Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (parent company of JVC worldwide), at Infocomm 2001, June 13, 2001, Las Vegas, NV. U.S.A.

Photo of Press Conference

Photo of Press Conference

[translated by David Gifford]

[Mr. Hajime Takashima is here to give you an overview of JVC's Direction and strategy.
Important themes include the position of the US market for JVC, a short background of DILA development, the synergy of current advanced DILA technology, the priority of DILA for JVC, Home theater, Digital Cinema, The JVC manufacturer family, the Future of DILA. ]

Today, please let me introduce myself, I am Hajime Takashima, a Managing Director of Victor Company of Japan, JVC. On this busy first day of InfoComm 2001, I am very pleased that you could come here to our JVC Press conference.

2. The JVC exhibit.

Although you may know something of the JVC lineup, I would like to mention that we are extremely proud to show here in this booth a JVC world PREMEIRE of our PROTOTYPE QXGA projector.

As well we display a sample of our current lineup of products, the high contrast DLA-M5000SC, the new middle range DLA-M2000SC, and the home theater targeted DLA-150HT. As well we are showing Plasma Displays and our Presenter camera tables, but the main thrust here at InfoComm is to show you our D-ILA line-up for your benefit, as I am sure you are very interested in this.

3. America and JVC

For JVC, it is obvious that America represents the biggest market and most important market for JVC. Also, the most influential and largest movie market is of course Hollywood. As well the US has the most advanced and powerful computer market. Our DILA success is closely related to our success in these particular markets, according to my belief.

4. DILA History

Let me review a bit of the history of the ILA, In 1992 we began the development of the ILA super projector together with Hughes. I have known the reputation of ILA for brightness and high definition has been very high since that time.

After this, the technology of ILA has advanced tremendously and we moved on to improve the size and flexibility for many applications, and improve the cost, and thus came to the new DILA technology as of 1998. This D-ILA technology has now been developed completely by JVC itself.

As of last year I have become the key person with the responsibility to promote the DILA projection technology

And I have begun to review every possible DILA feature and application. Especially the film like image representation properties have presented a great potential.

Today, the DILA demonstrates special and incredible high contrast and very detailed gradation and also very high speed refresh rates, with very silky touch like quality. This adds up to a film like look not normally associated with a digital projector. And this is the essential unique DILA feature. A great synergy is obtained when these features are combined with the special balance in the QXGA projector of 7000 lumens high power and high over 2000 line resolution.

As another example the new DLA-DS1 contains a very unique optical system that provides small size with high SXGA resolution, and together this is a great combination. So if we look at the extended JVC DILA line up, similar synergies are being applied to new digital projection markets.

DILA is a JVC only developed key technology and represents JVC's contribution to the state of the art along with the world trend toward Digital Presentation. Therefore, we are putting this at the center of our future business strategy. DILA is really the highest priority business for JVC.

5. About QXGA

The current QXGA projector is not just built to show what we can do; it was built because we intend to sell this product. That reality is the significance of showing this projector with the worlds most incredible 2048 x 1536 resolution with a brightness of 7000 lumens and 1000:1 contrast, and it is a very significant world premiere; for the first time 1920 x 1080 full HDTV specification.

Of course this is a prototype, so it is still under development in detail, but we are showing it to you here with the current features at this stage. Basically we are working with every effort for the goal to commercialize and bring this projector to market in December.

At this same moment we are demonstrating the DLA M5000SC projector. The resolution is SXGA, and the brightness is 5000 lumens, but the contrast is an incredible world first 1000:1. Therefore with these qualities plus the higher resolution of QXGA you can see that we are in the strong position with this lineup to follow the large venue market.

6. Digital Cinema

Recently you can recognize much talk about Digital Cinema. There are many different patterns by which to go; for example digital distribution or packaged distribution, and considering issues of cost.

We are going to develop the digital cinema business field with our QXGA and other DILA technologies. Already we have many proposals for business partnerships from famous companies. We feel that with these technologies JVC can contribute to success of the digital cinema business field.

7. Home Theater

DILA does not only apply for the large audience; it is also applicable for the smallest venue: the Home Theater. There are many, many users of this type in the US market; it is natural to want to see the big image in ones home. This is the common worldwide desire of movie lovers everywhere. Until now LCD and CRT have not fulfilled these needs effectively. Problems of maintenance, high definition and small size have not been good enough.

But the DILA has the special quality of a film like high resolution with small panel size; therefore you can recognize and believe that DILA is suitable for the Home Theater market. The pioneer product the DLA 150HT projector being shown today is an example of an ultra high end Home theater projector, that we believe will also have a role as the screening projector of choice for the cinema related professional market.

Also JVC has one more strong theme for home theater. This is D-VHS. Of course JVC is well known as the company that invented VHS. D-VHS has the advantage of the whole history of VHS technological development, plus a high density of data storage, and content security.

Therefore only JVC can now provide the powerful combination of the advantages of D-VHS and DILA for home theater

8. D-ILA family

Including, but not just for Digital Cinema, many other companies would like to use the DILA device for rear projection and other systems or fully integrated sets for their own business and we have received many offers. Some companies have already reached the stage of designing wholly operable and practical products, and you can find some evidence here at InfoComm and on display in nearby hotels. It is our goal to make DILA the standard for film like image projection.

Therefore the creation of a DILA family of manufacturers is a very important JVC strategy. From now we would like to broaden the development of DILA including these kinds of business partnerships.

9. DILA future and conclusion

Lastly, I would like everyone to recognize the essential point that the DILA is still at the beginning of its development potential. For example on the topic of resolution, we have now reached the level of 3 million pixel devices, as referenced by the now demonstrated QXGA level projector. But in the JVC laboratory we have already developed and demonstrated 4K x 2K, 8 million pixel devices. In Japan, NTT, JVC and other powerful companies have come together to make a Digital Cinema Consortium. JVC is contributing its expertise of the 4k x 2k device to this industry study and research team.

Therefore I would like to reiterate that DILA is the most important business for JVC. From now we will focus our whole power on DILA to develop this for the future.

Thank you for your consideration to hear our story through.