3D moves into the home

Dubai: Panasonic plans to show visitors to Gitex how it will bring 3D movies, a fixture in theatres since the 1950s, into the home.

The company will showcase what they claim is the world's first 3D plasma home theatre system, which includes a 103-inch plasma HDTV and a Blu-ray Disc player on Sunday. The consumer launch of the 3D home theatre system is still a year away however.

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Currently there are only 31 titles available in 3D, but over the next couple of years the catalogue of movies with 3D content could grow to about 80 to 100 titles, according to Seiji Koyanagi, the managing director of Panasonic in the Middle East. He also noted the popularity of 3D titles in theatres this summer, such as UP and Monsters vs. Aliens.

"[Titles] will come," he said. "The launch of the HD 3D TV will be one year from now, and during that time we have the cooperation of Hollywood and so on, so the titles will come."

According to the company, the technology used in the theatre system eliminates the issues such as image degradation and the need for special encoding of DVDs, the industry faced with the introduction of 3D into the home. The televisions will also be able to play Blu-Ray and normal DVD, too.

5 years to go mainstream

Depending on whether or not consumers like the new technology, it could take 5 years for the consumer demand before 3D content becomes mainstream, Koyanagi estimates.

Large television, much as Panasonic's 103-inch model, are already big sellers in the Middle East.

"When we introduced the 103-inch for the first time, we were expecting that project business would be the main player for that. But in fact individual customers bought more."

Sales for the big-screen models held steady over the last year, a time when sales growth dropped in most consumer segments across the region. "Especially in this region, the demand for the 103-inch television is very consistent," he said

Panasonic said their expectations going into this year where for 30-per cent growth, but few product lines have even come close to meeting that goal. Many products lines have dropped from double into single-digit growth.