The extremely fast smart projection finally ushered in its “laser” era

The joys and sorrows of the home appliance industry are not the same.

At a time when the color TV industry is experiencing its darkest moment, smart projection is growing rapidly.

The projection is upward and the color TV is downward

From 2020 to 2023, it is a three-year period that many people do not want to mention, and it is also a gloomy three-year period for the color TV industry. According to data, starting in 2020, the retail scale of China's color TV market began to decline, with sales that year falling 9% year-on-year to 44.5 million units; sales in 2021 were 38.35 million units, which was the first time in the past decade that it fell below the 40 million unit mark; in 2022 , the retail sales scale was 36.34 million units, returning to the level of 2009 (34.5 million units sold), and the retail sales scale was 112.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.9%.

Today, the decline shows no sign of stopping. According to data from Aowei Cloud, the retail volume of China's color TV market in the first quarter of 2023 was 7.442 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 15.7%.

This has also filled the color TV industry with “pessimistic” sentiments. However, the rapid popularity of the smart projector industry can be regarded as one of the few rays of light in home display equipment. According to statistics from Luotu Technology, global projector shipments will reach 17.83 million units in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 15.2%, and it is expected to exceed 20 million units in 2024. In the economic downturn of 2022, projectors have gone completely opposite to TVs and seem to have become the new favorite among home audio and video products.

But those who pay attention to the smart projector industry should know that the past few years when projectors have been rapidly popularized have also been years of frequent problems. Poor experience, limited scenes, and varying image quality are obviously fatal problems for a display device, which has to make us re-examine this new thing.

The reason why such a problem occurs may have something to do with the brand structure. It is understood that the brand pattern of smart projection equipment has been very stable in recent years, and the market share of the top brand is even greater than the top 2-4 combined. It seems that it is difficult for other brands to achieve market breakthroughs under such a brand structure. This will inevitably make some brands feel pessimistic, lose the motivation to innovate, and acquiesce in the existence of some unspoken rules. If things go on like this, this newly emerging category may fall as fast as its rapid development. After all, consumers vote with their feet.

Vidda three-color laser technology leads industrial change

The industry is in dire need of a game-changer.

And this game-breaker is Vidda. Vidda, which first entered the smart projection market in 2022, hit hard. Regarding the hidden rules that have long existed in the industry, such as false brightness standards and random brightness standards, Vidda pointed out pointedly at the press conference without any hesitation.

The reason why Vidda dares to be the person who flips the table is because of its confidence in the power of its own products.

It is understood that most products in the projection market at that time walked on “multiple legs” in terms of display technology, light source indicators and other dimensions. Either laser and LED light sources are mixed and matched, or DLP and LCD are used in display technology, which makes the image quality of projection products uneven.

Vidda proposed a brand new solution, three-color laser technology. It is reported that the three-color laser technology has an ultra-high color gamut of 110% BT.2020 and an ultra-high color accuracy of ΔE≈0.9. When used in projectors, its image quality can surpass traditional projection light sources such as light bulbs, LEDs, and monochromatic lasers.

Vidda entered the projector market with three-color laser technology, which not only demonstrated its technical strength to the outside world, but also brought the smart projection industry back to the order of healthy competition. It is understood that from December 2022 to now, 11 new laser projection products have been released in the domestic market, of which 6 use three-color laser technology.

It seems that Vidda has become an innovation leader and technology benchmark in the projector industry with its three-color laser technology.

But Vidda's ambitions are obviously greater.

On May 18, Vidda held a new product launch conference and released three projection equipment aimed at different groups of people. Among them, the Vidda C1 Pro, known as the “King of Machines”, raised its projection capabilities to new heights.

It is understood that Vidda C1 Pro has once again raised people's attention to the new features such as 2350ANSI/CVIA lumens measured ultra-high brightness, 110% BT.2020 ultra-high color gamut, 1700:1 high contrast ratio, and the world's leading speckle elimination solution. Projector awareness.

Such an improvement is intuitive for consumers. After watching it in the experience area, my first thought was that the picture does have a bit of a “flavor”. In a relatively suitable viewing environment, the picture of Vidda C1 Pro The expressiveness looks as good as its big brother’s laser TV.

Smart projection, what’s missing on the road to popularization?

Data shows that by the end of 2022, the average daily activity of smart TVs will increase by 16% compared with 2021, and the average daily boot time will increase by 21 minutes. It can be seen from this data that people's demand for home theater entertainment is growing, so a display device is still needed in the home.

This also means that projectors have the opportunity to continue the previous growth trend, and even have the opportunity to become a must-have item in the home like traditional TVs. Why do you say that? Because it not only has the same functions as a TV, but also has some advantages that traditional TVs do not have.

For example, portability. Compared with traditional TVs, which are often 50-80 inches, they not only take up a lot of space, but are also difficult to carry. Especially in first- and second-tier cities, there are many users who need to move frequently. When moving a TV, there are many disadvantages, both in terms of disassembly and assembly costs and transportation costs. The projector is relatively small and can be easily taken away once you move. Just like the C1 Air recently released by Vidda, it is 40% smaller and 28% lighter than the C1. It is also equipped with a handle made of Nappa first-layer calfskin, making it more convenient for moving or traveling.

Another example is the excellent audio-visual experience. Compared with traditional TVs, projectors have greater freedom in display size. Whether it is a giant screen viewing experience or a small screen experience, it can be well satisfied. In addition, compared to traditional TV products, the projector is closer to the user, so it can also perform well in terms of sound effects, especially after each company has specially “tuned” the product.

For example, Vidda's new product is equipped with a HiFi sound system customized by JBL, bringing a unique viewing experience of audio and video to the majority of young people.

In addition to the above advantages, projection equipment is more economical for users. Taking the newly released Vidda C1 Pro as an example, the product power is only 180W, but it can provide a screen of up to 150 inches. Of course, not all projection products have such low power. If traditional LED projection products want to achieve the same level of brightness, they need to add a technical solution for laser mixing. This also brings about the problem of overly complex systems, and the power consumption has also climbed to 280W. , which also means that the brightness of traditional LED projection has come to an end. Despite this, it is also better than traditional TVs. Taking a 100-inch TV as an example, its power is as high as 550W, which means that using a projector can also save a lot of money on electricity bills for a year.

However, the product also faces some difficulties if it wants to be fully popularized. For example, how to allow users to change the inherent label of the projector's image quality. Although Vidda has launched a wave of image quality “innovation” in the projection industry, the shortcomings of projection in terms of image quality have been qualitatively improved.

But how to reach users so that users can intuitively experience the advantages of the product and the changes it brings to movie viewing is critical. Therefore, whether projection brands can provide more experience areas in offline stores so that consumers can truly see, use, and experience the changes brought about by the products and the changes in image quality, can they better open up the market.

Of course, there is still a long way to go before smart projection equipment can truly enter thousands of households like traditional TVs, such as solving the problems of limited use scenarios, how to coexist high image quality and cost-effectiveness, and how to better touch the screen. To reach users, these issues must be considered. However, Vidda has obviously opened a hole.

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