It’s being widely published, Prysm, a San Jose-based developer of digital display technology, said it has landed $100 million in new funding to begin volume production of its Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology, which allows for life-size digital experiences from any viewing angle. The identities of the investors were not disclosed.

The company, which now has attracted more than $135 million since its inception, said its displays are already in use by brands such as American Eagle Outfitters and People’s United Bank in Boston, as well as CNBC’s Mad Money with Jim Cramer and Dubai Sports TV. Prysm’s laser technology is based on their patented method of using lasers reflected off a bank of micromirrors to excite pixels on the television screen in a similar way to cathode ray tubes.

“We are now in volume production and investing in training and support for our solutions in major markets around the world,” said founder and CEO Amit Jain. Prysm’s vice president of panel development and manufacturing, Patrick Tan, pointed out the fact that its technology has almost no requirement for new components gives the company a great advantage. All components, including the phosphors, mirrors and lasers are widely available, which makes development time short and reduces the time before production can be ramped up.

Visit Prysm.

Mitsubishi announced last week that it is restructuring the company through a plan that will see a reduced workforce, and a refocus to the production and sales of large-screen visual displays in both its commercial and consumer business units. The home model of its laser-powered Laservue (less than 73 inches) will be discontinued, but the company is determined to concentrate on micro display rear and front-projection systems measuring 73 inches and larger.

In other news, sources are reporting the Australian based Arasor International is close to folding. This claim comes nearly three years after the company allegedly reported false statements about key laser tv patents it held and its alliance with Mitsubishi’s marketing of the Laservue.

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Mitsubishi Electric debuts plans to release a Laser Backlight LCD TV in Japan later this year. Its backlight unit includes red laser diodes and cyan LEDs. Compared with Mitsubishi Electric’s existing LCD TVs, which use white LEDs for backlight, the color gamut of the new TV is about 1.3 times wider. It is a 126% color gamut on NTSC standards. The color red is realized by the laser light source and the colors green and blue are realized by the cyan LEDs.

The backlight of the prototyped 46-inch LCD TV is the edge-lit type. It uses a few dozen of the red laser diodes and several hundred of the cyan LED. Because of the divergent angles between a laser and an LED, Mitsubishi Electric developed an optical system for evenly mixing lights from them. As a result, the unevenness of color was mitigated, the company said.

Read more at Techon.

The Mitsubishi L75-A91 Laser TV is the ultimate HD TV experience. Powered by the crystal clear purity of laser light, this TV is currently selling for $5,147.00 on Amazon and comes 3D ready. To enjoy the dozens of 3D movies flooding the market, Mitsubishi is also selling a Mitsubishi 3D Adapter and glasses for owners to partake in the 3D experience. The Mitsubishi 3D Starter Pack includes a 3D Adapter, two pair of 3D glasses and matching emitter. The Mitsubishi 3DC-1000 3D HDTV Starter kit on Amazon for $320.

Mitsubishi introduced the LaserVue as the world’s first Laser TV. Precise and focused, the purity of laser provides twice the color of current HD TVs, consumes less power and provides the best 3D viewing experience.

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Polish researchers have discovered a cost-effective way to produce high quality crystals of pure gallium nitride.  Before you look away, you must realize this could revolutionize the manufacture of several high-technology products.

Polish crystal to revolutionize hi-tech products

Gallium nitride is a semiconductor commonly used in bright light-emitting diodes (LED). It can emit the whole spectrum of colors including violet, green, red and blue. A gallium nitride violet laser diode in used in the Blu-ray disc technologies and in game consoles. “Soon gallium nitride will be used to produce miniature laser TV projectors built in laptops, mobile phones or watches which will emit HD images,” Robert Dwilinski, Ammono’s president and founder, told IEEE Spectrum. “Laser projectors will probably oust big, energy consuming and expensive LCD TVs. It is estimated that the demand for laser TVs will reach up to two billion a year,” adds Dwilinski.  From thenews.pl.

In an interesting display of combining technologies, San Jose-based Prysm, has officially unveiled its laser phosphor display (LPD) TV.  Called the TD1, Prysm’s TV is composed of a glass matrix of which the inside is painted with vertical lines of excitable phosphor which glow red, green, or blue when painted with a soft UV laser.  The TD1’s lasers are housed behind the screen, pointing up toward a bank of small, rapidly moving micro mirrors.  The mirrors scan the lasers across the screen to produce the image.

The company says the technology will be competitive with plasma and LCD, the dominant players in today’s HDTV market, within three to five years.  LPD displays are similar to CRT TVs, but much more energy efficient.  Cathode ray tube TVs use an electromagnet to to control an electron beam that runs across an similar phosphorous field.  LPD employ a laser that turns on and off as the beam runs across the vertical phosphor field.

Read more about LPD TV

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Sharp and Mitsubishi recently announced plans to release 3D televisions this summer in Asia, competing with debut models from Panasonic and Sony. Sharp’s 3D LCD TVs will arrive in late July and will reportedly come in four sizes ranging from 40-60 inches. The sets will feature Quattron technology, which adds the color yellow to the primary colors of red, blue and green.

Sharp and Warner Bros. Inc. have entered into a promotional partnership that will include a sales campaign using the major Hollywood studio’s Clash of the Titans 3D movie. The Japanese firm hopes to have 3D TVs account for 5-10% of its domestic TV sales target of 7.8 million units this fiscal year, with an aim of boosting the figure to 50% next fiscal year.

Mitsubishi Electric plans an Asian release of its U.S. 75-inch 3D laser TV this summer at a price to be decided. Employing lasers as its light source, this rear-projection TV is said to have fast response times and vivid color representation. Mitsubishi Electric plans to launch 3D LCD TVs later this fall.

Panasonic was the first to 3D TV market, introducing plasma models this April. It added large-screen 65- and 58-inch models to its lineup last week with an eye toward grabbing a majority share of the domestic market. The TVs alternately display images for each eye, and the company promotes plasma sets’ high refresh rates.

Sony will sell 3D LCD TVs starting June 10. It will offer content produced by the group, including titles for the PlayStation 3 game console and movies.

Information from Nikkei.com

The small California start-up we wrote about last year is in the news again as more details about HDI’s laser-powered 3D TV are released.  HDI-US Inc. already has orders for its prototype 103-inch 3D HDTV and is now actively marketing itself as a television manufacturer and not just a 3D solutions licensor.  HDI’s platform is a laser-based projection system blended with proprietary optics and LCoS.  Glasses are needed for viewing in 3D, but reportedly the glasses are passively designed to provide less eye strain than the active-shutter models already in the market.

HDI is marketing heavily on the unique immersive qualities of large HDTV displays and 3D technology.  Steve Wozniak has praised the company and HDI’s future home models may incorporate such unique features as a 2D-to-3D processor, integrated soundbar and a personal 3D camcorder, all for less than $15,000.  Models can be purchased now for around $100,000 if you simply cannot wait until production begins in 2011 (tell them laser-tv.org sent you).

“We’ve witnessed 3D from a variety of sources, be it in a RealD theater, NVIDIA’s active-shutter 3D Vision gaming or Sony’s own active solution. Without a doubt, HDI’s 3D HDTV was the best in-home 3D product that we’ve had the pleasure of viewing.” Engadget

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. will showcase the flexibility and versatility of its 3D-ready TV products by displaying 3D content delivered by various video sources, including Blu-Ray players at CES 2010 in the “Experience 3D Tech Zone”. Mitsubishi has also announced a new 3D adapter which will provide Mitsubishi 3D-ready Home Theater TV owners with an easy and affordable solution to display 3D from a 3D Blu-Ray player. The Mitsubishi 3DC-1000 3D adapter will be available in late spring of 2010. MDEA will be located in CES booth #14548, Central Hall.

“As a pioneer in the 3D television market, Mitsubishi is bridging the gap for consumers to experience this break-through technology,” said Frank DeMartin, vice president of marketing, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “3D is definitely a large screen experience, and Mitsubishi offers the most models and largest screen sizes of 3D-ready TVs available today, including one of the world’s largest, mass-produced 3D-ready TV’s at 82 inches.”

At CES, Mitsubishi will be rolling in its massive and impressive 53-foot Mobile Marketing Showroom (MMS) into the “Experience 3D Tech Zone”. The MMS will provide a 1000-square-foot showroom showcasing a wide variety of new 3D content displayed on both LaserVue(TM) and Home Theater TVs. 3D entertainment will be demonstrated on a laser-powered television, using a 65″ LaserVue TV and MDEA’s Home Theater TV product line will be displaying cross-platform content on its 60″, 73″ and 82″ televisions.

2010 may be a watershed year for Laser TV as the entertainment market looks for new and exciting products to entice consumers and help the market forget lackluster sales in 2009.  Sony actually lost money for the first time in over 50 years.  2009 saw Mitsubishi on top as the sole manufacturer of Laser TV with its Laservue, which halted production earlier in the year, and now retails for less than $5,000 in some areas.  HDI Ltd. of Los Gatos, California introduced a giant Laser TV prototype which may someday give Mitsubishi its first real competition.

The 3D film, Avatar, represents decades of planning and waiting by the filmmaker’s for technological advances sufficient enough to allow expressive 3D rendering.  3D cinema and 3D TV are poised to change the way we view entertainment, and high-efficiency and low-power consumption laser-powered electronics could help drive the technology for 3D goods and content.