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The Amagasaki plasma TV screen production plant in Osaka has the air of a very efficient hospital. The corridors are spotless as dust and dirt are the enemy of the plasma screen which is two pieces of glass glued together with some circuitry, baked then filled with gas.
The few workers visible on the plant's 300m-long production floors look like doctors in their masks and white cover-alls. Automated Guided Vehicles do most of the work, shifting around what's called "mother glass", large chunks of glass substrate that are polished and cut to size. Today it's 42 inch screens.
Later the equipment will be reconfigured to handle production of Panasonic's most exclusive product, the world's largest plasma screen. Around 600 of the 103 inch behemoths are made each month. They're apparently very popular in Dubai and Las Vegas. Bill Gates and Tiger Woods own them. At around US$50,000, the screens are among the most expensive TVs available.
A laser-guided, GPS-like navigation system steers the robots around the facility. As clinical and precise as the process is, Panasonic's plants still experience on average a 10 per cent failure rate in plasma screens. The faulty ones are picked up in testing and recycled.
The multi-billion dollar facility is vast but it overlooks a site where the foundations for an even bigger factory are being laid. When the plant comes online in 2009, it will bring Panasonic's plasma screen TV panels capacity up to nearly 2 million a month, giving the company more than half the world market share.
If it looks like LCD TVs have trounced their plasma rivals as prices have tumbled and LCDs have become bigger, Panasonic is determined to keep alive its plasma technology, which it believes is better for TVs 42 inches and above.
Currently, LCDs out-sell plasmas by a rate of more than two to one and while plasma TV makers like Panasonic, Hitachi and Pioneer don't see that slice of the pie increasing greatly, there's plenty of business to go around. Global demand for flat-screen TVs in 2010 is expected to reach 200 million screens. Some 30 per cent of that demand will be for TV screens 30 inches and above.
Driving demand is the digitisation of TV broadcasts around the world as is happening in New Zealand with the launch of the Freeview platform. Broadcasts in high-definition are also pushing consumers to upgrade to screens capable of displaying HD images to take advantage of the better picture quality. When it comes to high-definition playback for TV broadcast, internet content or the emerging Blu-ray or HD-DVD formats, there's no difference between LCD and plasma as they can deliver the same screen resolution.
Still, there's hot debate over what technology is better and as Consumer Reports, the equivalent of New Zealand's Consumers' Institute, notes in its annual electronics issue published this month in the US,
Inch for inch, plasma offers more bang for buck than an LCD TV, so the same budget can buy a bigger screen, noted Consumer Reports.
The deeper black levels in plasma screens and a wider viewing angle still weigh in plasma's favour according to the group.
But it also found that LCD was a compelling option as the screens generally use less power and are more suitable for use with video games or PC monitors as there is no chance a static image will burn in.
LCD screens are also less reflective than their plasma rivals.
For very bright rooms, LCDs are generally brighter than plasma TVs and their screens are less reflective. That makes them better for daytime viewing in rooms with lots of windows or for night-time use in rooms with bright lights, Consumer Reports found.
But of the numerous TVs tested by Consumer Reports this year it was a US$2900 full high-definition 42 inch plasma screen that came out on top.
The engineers putting in time under the orange glare of the strip lights at Amagasaki will be pleased it was a Panasonic TV that took the number one spot.
* Peter Griffin attended Ceatec as a guest of Panasonic.