In the beginning was the LCD display, then technology brought forth the LED display. Sony is now introducing the Crystal LED display.

Sony, never one to leave well enough alone, announced at CES the next-generation of televisions with the crystal LED display. The company is using a 55-inch prototype model to show off the new technology.

The new display is self-emitting that uses Sony’s method of mounting ultrafine LEDs in each of the RGB colors, equivalent to the number of pixels. There are approximately six-million LEDs in full HD. The light source is mounted directly on the front of the display which will increase light use efficiency and more importantly, a much more vibrant and colorful picture. The display will be able to produce images with higher contrast, wider color gamut, superb video image response time and wider viewing angles when compared to current LCD and plasma displays. The power consumption is also extremely low at under 70W which is pretty amazing considering the technology.

The new technology is ideal for large screens with 55-inch displays only being the beginning. With any new display technology, smaller screens are the best place to start. The fact that the small start is a 55-inch is extremely promising. I would not be surprised to see this new technology leading the charge to ridiculous heights like a home theater system that’s equatable in size to an actual theater screen. Bigger is always better especially with televisions.

Sony wants to bring crystal LED displays to professional and consumer use at some point in the future, but we’ll just have to deal with giant 80-inch or tiny 4mm thick televisions for now. I think we can wait.