Milestone-Proposal:Outdoor large-scale color display system, 1980

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Docket #:2015-04

This Proposal has been approved, and is now a Milestone


To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation?


Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? Yes


Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1980

Title of the proposed milestone:

Outdoor large-scale color display system, 1980

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

Mitsubishi Electric developed the world's first large-scale color display system and installed at Dodger Stadium, USA in 1980. High-quality moving image was realized with lighting tube as pixel based on CRT technology including flat matrix CRT and furthermore newly developed LED matrix. The installation had expanded from baseball stadium to various sports facilities and public spaces around the world as essential system to entertain a large number of people.

200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.


IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.


In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

IEEE Fukuoka Sction, Japan

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):


IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:


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Milestone proposer(s):


Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

517-7 Hamada-go, Togitsu-cho, Nishisonogi-gun, Nagasaki 851-2102, Japan

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need.


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Details of the plaque mounting:


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What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include justification here. (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)

The historical significance of this work is the development of world's first large-scale color display system and the impact on society, global market and technology. 1) Development of world's first large-scale color display system Mitsubishi Electric developed the world's first large-scale color display system and installed at Dodger Stadium, USA in 1980. The breakthroughs were R (Red), G (Green) and B (Blue) of lighting tubes based on CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) technology and the system to arrange the tubes as pixel in a matrix. The first system was going to debut at Dodger Stadium for all-star game on July 8th in 1980, however, the system was attracted the attention before installation. It was already announced in February to be unveiled at summer’s all-star game; moreover, the photo of system taken at 100m distance was published with the scene of factory acceptance test before shipping in June [N1]. The official debut was announced by Dodger Stadium on July 8th in 1980 [N2]; after that the outline of specification like screen size, lighting tube, image quality, viewing distance etc. and video system were reported in the newspaper [N3] and journal articles [1,2].

2) Impact of the system on society In TV age, the people could enjoy the sports on TV at home; the large-scale display system impacted on the way to enjoy sports and played an important role to gather a large number of people to the stadium and entertained them. The system had video equipment like monitor cameras, videotape recorders, display character generator etc. and controlled by computer system so as to service the attractive contents. The contents were instant replay, close-ups of key plays, news of games in another stadium, entertainment with effective animations and character information to encourage the team and lift the people in the stadium [N2]. The application was not only sports but also concerts, variety of events and advertisement etc. The services to lift audience with attractive color image at outdoor created a new image culture to provide the common information for a large number of people. The application for billboard is changing the landscape of city, for example the electronic billboards at Times-Square in New York had been developed into LED screens in 1990s; now, standing in the middle of intersection and looking around, more than 50 billboards are operating. The high image quality billboards are conspicuous and world’s largest 4K display system is installed and photos were reported in Asahi Shimbun [N4]; the origin is also the system at Dodger Stadium.

3) Impact of the system on global market The first installation of system created the new market of large-scale display system; some manufacturers entered into market and the installation of systems at baseball stadium spread to various sports facilities like race track, arena and public space including billboard etc. in the world. Mitsubishi Electric played a leading role in the industry and developed the lighting tube into flat matrix CRT and furthermore newly developed LED matrix, which improved the performance like resolution and brightness of large-scale display drastically and expanded the application. The LEDs were available for purchase and many manufacturers entered into global market. As cost of screen drops with LED, it had been getting larger in screen size and higher in resolution; some of the systems were recorded in the Guinness World Records in size and resolution.

4) Impact of the system on technology The system at Dodger Stadium also impacted on research and development of supersized display system. After the first installation of system, some manufacturers developed similar systems with their own lighting tubes such as incandescent lamp with RGB color coating film and fluorescent lamp [3]. As the market expands including indoor use, the lighting devices which include three colors in a device were developed for higher resolution system to enjoy the image from short viewing distance. The technology to tile small display panels like Liquid Crystal Display was researched for high resolution supersized display, and recently seamless tiled organic LED display system was developed [4]. One of the applications was 6-metre diameter OLED globe at science museum.

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

The obstacles needed to overcome for large-scale color display system were high brightness with lower power consumption, high image quality at various illuminance levels and high reliability for outdoor use. 1) High brightness with lower power consumption and enough life time The conventional electronic scoreboard which arranged the incandescent lamp in a matrix had defects like higher power consumption due to the low luminous efficiency. It was critical for high resolution screen with high density array of the lamps. The lighting tube by Mitsubishi Electric achieved high luminous efficiency with three primary colors based on CRT technology (p1), which realized only about one-tenth of lower power consumption of incandescent lamp[1, 2]. Moreover the lifetime was 8000hr typically and much longer than incandescent lamp system [N1].

2) High image quality at various illuminance levels 2-1) High image quality against sunshine The appearance of phosphors was whitish through clear glass for R, G, B of lighting tube; the reflection of sunshine at phosphor was too large to notice the emission and it was difficult to enjoy the image under sunshine. The colored glass with dye of R, G, B was applied to block the reflection and pass the color emission efficiently; moreover the system applied shading for each lighting tube to avoid exposure to direct sunlight. As a result, the reflection of sunlight was reduced and enough contrast under sunshine was achieved for the first product at Dodger Stadium. The colored glass with dye had some variation in color and the new glass was developed with rare earth and applied in common with R and G lighting tubes. B lighting tube used the cobalt glass. These new glasses transmit the color emission selectively and absorb external light; the mass production of lighting tube was established with same performance of colored glass [3]. 2-2) High image quality at nighttime The image under sunshine was too bright for nighttime application; the system established the suitable brightness adjustment for daytime and nighttime. The features of lighting tube was not only low power consumption but also high response speed and suitable to apply the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). The turning on and off of pixel is controlled to make cumulative on time proportional to the luminosity of image [P2]. The gradation of image was 64 gray revel which was controlled with 64 unit pulses; the width of unit pulse was controlled finely with the help of high response speed of CRT. The same 64 gray revel for bright image with wide unit pulse at daytime and dark image with narrow unit pulse at nighttime were controlled for excellent full-color moving image at various illuminance levels.

3) High reliability of the system at various applications for fine and wild weather The large-scale display system had been exposed directly to outdoor condition like fine or wild weather; the electronic devices especially the lighting tube should have enough reliability for high temperature and high humidity operation. The electrodes of lighting tube were extracted from rear surface portion and the distance between each electrode was close within the diameter 28.6mm. The anode electrode was 10kV for phosphor and discharge between electrodes along the glass surface due to residual material at high humidity was the problem. The molding process and cleaning process of glass with electrode were optimized to clean the glass surface. Moreover the electrodes were covered by stem base with adhesive for Insulation; as a result the excellent insulation performance and high reliability for outdoor application was realized.

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?


Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.


Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.


Please email a jpeg or PDF a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property, and a letter (or forwarded email) from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application to ieee-history@ieee.org with the subject line "Attention: Milestone Administrator." Note that there are multiple texts of the letter depending on whether an IEEE organizational unit other than the section will be paying for the plaque(s).

Please recommend reviewers by emailing their names and email addresses to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please include the docket number and brief title of your proposal in the subject line of all emails.