CES 2007: Pioneer reinvents plasma TV

Pioneer's Ken Shioda laid out the company's new approach to plasma at Sunday's CES 2007 keynote

Pioneer 's message at its press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ) this morning was clear - if you think you know high definition TV, then clearly you ain't seen nothing yet.

The basis for its claims was a completely new generation of plasma TVs which the company claims its redeveloped from the ground up to deliver the best flat panel picture quality in the world - bar none.

Ken Shioda, general manager for product planning for display products at Pioneer said:

"This revolutionary new technology will change the competitive market place for flat panel TV."

He then went on to claim that Pioneer's new set would best current LCD and plasma technologies as well as Canon and Toshiba 's SED, which is conspicuous by its absence at this year's CES.

Mr Shioda said that the arrival of the new generation of plasma TVs from Pioneer was the result of paradigm shift in how the company approaches new products. He said that Pioneer was no longer interested in producing evolutionary products that built on previous models, but wanted to produce revolutionary products instead.

Mr Shioda said Pioneer's new display was the result of a year's work and 12 years of research and development into flat panel at the company. He said the new TV was originally to have been launched in time for the China Olympics in 2008, but that the first next-gen plasma sets would go on sale in the US this summer instead.

We'll bring you our first impressions of the display and more details once we've seen it on the show floor tomorrow.