How long is 50,000 hours in years?

Baumann: Well, we're looking at about 8,000 hours a year, about 8,760 is the number of hours in a year, so we're well over six or seven years, running 24/7.

Is Burn-in still a problem with displays?

Baumann: Burn-in is an issue. In LCDs you have something called image retention, and it's a slightly different phenomenon in terms of what's happening, but the overall effect is similar to what happens in plasma where the pixels get burned from having a static image up there for a long period of time. In LCDs the displays tend to have memory. The cells get twisted by electrical current, and that allows light to come through. By being static in the one position for a long time, they kind of develop this memory, and it takes a while for them to dissipate.

So running an image 24/7, particularly a static image, has that potential. We do a couple of things unique in the industry to our displays to minimize that problem. One is to put in heat barriers within the panel itself that will protect the screen from the heat of the electrical components, and that, we've found, is one of the key drivers of image retention.

We do have some other technologies that we build into the displays to be able to orbit the image around, and we can also adjust the contrast. One of the other factors in image retention is when you have high-contrast, where you have dark color next to a light color. That line, that contrast tends to be retained, and so even after you get rid of the image on the screen, you still kind of see that line of demarcation.

What we can do is we can gradate gradually to shift that contrast right in that area. We've designed it so that it knows that there's high change in contrast from one place to another, and we soften that line.

And plasma screens have a slightly different problem, right?

Baumann: Well, plasma, what happens is that it uses phosphors and electrons -- there's an electrical charge that gets sent to the screen -- and those phosphors start glowing. Well, over time, if those phosphors are continuously on, they tend to get burned, or used up, like using up a fuel. Eventually your colors start washing out and the image tends to stay there -- you've basically damaged that pixel so it's no longer able to respond on and off, and so you just end up seeing this burned-in area.

Plasma is generally not recommended for static images that will be up for extended periods of time. There really is no good way to protect the display in that type of an environment.

So you wouldn't recommend plasma screens for call centers at all?

Baumann: No, generally you wouldn't, unless you're showing motion, video -- which isn't typical of a call center application. You can orbit the image around, and move it around in a figure-eight pattern, and that kind of shifts the pixels that are being excited, and therefore, tends to reduce the effect of that. But over time, it's still not the ideal technology anymore. I think it had a lot of application when the price differential between LCD and plasma was so high that you could afford to burn up a couple plasmas before you would reach the cost of one LCD.

But the price of the LCDs has come down so drastically that it really becomes the technology of choice.

What about viewing angle?

Baumann: Viewing angle is really important because it obviously affects the number of displays you need to put into an environment.

A couple of things can happen when you change your viewing angle: one is that your colors can disappear, so when you're looking straight on, it looks like color and you see all the colors nicely, and when you get off to an angle, off to the side, it suddenly looks like you're looking at a black and white type image.

That is something that is affected by pixel design and coatings that you put on the screen. LCD and plasmas generally, at the high end, will have very good viewing angles, and from both directions.

Our off-axis viewing is now limited by the bezel thickness. The bezel is maybe a millimeter or two sticking out from the screen, so your viewing angle is about 179 degrees. Which is pretty good.

There are some lower-cost panels that will give you a better viewing angle side-to-side than they will up and down so if you have these mounted on a pole on the ceiling, you may not be able to see it if you're underneath it too much.

That is something that should be tested in a side-by-side comparison. [Do not] rely upon the manufacturer's specs, because it's notorious in our industry that people are playing games with specifications.

You really need to put them side by side and have them in the environment with the ambient light that you may have and the type of lighting you'll have in the room.

Brightness can be played with, too. You don't necessarily need high brightness in an area that doesn't have high light, but if you have windows, certain displays tend to look washed out because they may not have good anti-glare coatings.