标签: tv

1. 我的工作   做了很多年的IC销售，不禁熟视无睹起来。订货、进货、库存、销售、回款；pull in, pull out，订单取消、客户拖款、坏账 …… ，林林总总，不一而足。   不过，有些工作值得重新再来。不需订货、没有库存，当然也没有pull in 、pull out，许多问题也就迎刃而解。   电视机、移动音响等产品风起云涌，时尚的潮流是：轻、薄、小。随之而来的问题就是音响效果普遍较差，声音干涩单薄、声场狭窄、人声含糊，最糟糕的是低音几乎没有。简单的道理是同等档次的喇叭越大、腔体越大，音质越好；反之就越差。   这个矛盾怎样解决？   从事音频电声行业的朋友一定脱口而出，用音效！哈哈，好回答！不过什么是音效呢？我向我服务的美国公司请教Sound Effect是什么？他认认真真地举例子告诉我：比如：电影中那乒乒乓乓的*声、轰隆隆的雷声，这制造的效果就是Sound Effect。   美国人说：我们提供的是Audio Enhancement，是帮助提高声音质量的玩意。这样，我看这个技术应该称为：音质提升。和Sound Effect有些南辕北辙了。不过，在和我客户的接触交流中，大家还是习惯用“音效”，我能明白他们的意思，也就入乡随俗了，呵呵。   说起翻译上的差异，不是身临其境，无法想象！我的老师从来没有教过我Restroom是什么？我望文生义是休息室，机场、商场等公共场所随处可见。而我们熟悉的WC、Toilet却遍寻不到。我问美国朋友WC在哪里？他们云里雾里！他们会用Man’s room或者Lady’s room，也可以猜出Washing room或者Toilet但是 WC，除非跑过江湖的美国人，他们确实不知道，真的不知道！     

In the late 1970s when I was still in college, I worked for a while as a broadcast engineer at a local TV station. Working a weekend sign-off shift allowed me to still go to classes during the day. Election night at a TV station is a true mad-house, with every scrap of equipment in use (and many personal bits and pieces in use, too), as they want to have as many remotes as possible. I'd drawn the assignment of "studio" (being physically handicapped sometimes has its own rewards). Of our four big studio cameras, two were out on location, leaving two at the studio. A little after 7:00 p.m., I noticed a problem with Camera 1, and after several attempts to adjust it failed, I told the directors that "Camera 1 just died"—not a welcome message, but they had to live with it. The chief engineer was "floating," and at the time he was at the studio, so he went out to the sound stage to see if it might be a quick fix, then shoved the camera over into the corner and forgot about it. A few days later, the engineer who normally worked on cameras started in on it, and after about two weeks, he gave up on it. The guy who normally worked on transmitters then spent about a week on it, with no more results. The chief engineer then spent about four days on it, with the same results. Then the guy who had the weeknight sign-off shift spent more than a week on it and still couldn't find the problem. Just before Christmas, I was getting a bit bored, since the only thing to do on a Saturday night shift was to take the hourly readings on the transmitter and record them. I figured since I (a) had nothing better to do and (b) had nothing to lose as I could do no worse than everybody else, I'd go ahead and take a shot at it. I did have two clues: First, by swapping heads between cameras, it had been proven that the problem was in the camera head (these cameras had a card case with a number of cards in the head, and about 30 inches or so of a 19-inch rack space of electronics back in the control room). Second, if the camera was left turned off for several hours, it would work for a couple of minutes when first turned on. So, I reckoned that it was some sort of thermal problem in the camera head. I dragged the camera out onto the newsroom floor, punched up so I could see the resulting picture from the camera on one of the newsroom monitors, went into the lab, and gathered up the board extenders for all of the boards in the camera head. I also armed myself with several cans of freeze mist and a heat gun. I started from one end of the card cage, putting one board at a time on the extender, then turning on the camera (fortunately, there was a circuit breaker on the camera head that could be used as a power switch), then waited for the camera to quit working. I then used the freeze mist to cool the board down to the point of it starting to get frosty, and observed the picture (or lack thereof). When there was no change, I powered down, returned the board to the card cage without the extender, and went to the next card. Eventually, I found one where cooling it did cause the picture to come back! AHA! The first real progress in many weeks! So I used the heat gun to get the board warm again, and the picture went away. Repeating the cycle, I was sure that I knew which board actually had the problem. I mentally divided the board in half, and by freezing only part of it, determined which half had the problem. I repeated the "divide and conquer" technique until I'd isolated it to about one square inch, whereupon I changed tactics. I brought out my trusty magnifying glass and carefully inspected that square inch. I discovered a cracked solder joint on a 5 watt resistor. Taking the board back into the lab, I broke out the soldering iron, and repaired the solder joint. Back in the newsroom, with the card still on its extender and power applied, the camera made a (sort of) nice picture even when the board was heated to "can't touch it" (maybe around 150 F). So, the basic problem was solved. I then spent the rest of that evening, and the next, having to readjust almost every setting in the camera, and finally had a really nice picture out of it. Clark Jones earned a BS in computer science in 1980 and worked in the semiconductor industry for 23 years. He worked as a principal design engineer for a start-up doing both hardware and software. He submitted this article as part of Frankenstein's Fix, a design contest hosted by EE Times (US).  

Engineering is central to my relationship with my wife. That's becuase I am continually fixing everything, a trait that won her over on only our second date. It is engineering that makes the world and our relationship go round. More specifically, it's my real-world application of the problem-solving process. In 2005 as 19-year-old college sophomores at the University of California, Irvine, my wife and I went on our second date to a party at my wife's friend's flat. A typical location for a party—a poorly decorated, sparsely furnished, sad excuse for domicile, but nevertheless, a place of freedom for kids our age. Since we had gone early to help setup, I being a college guy sat down on the couch to watch TV because I didn't cook and was therefore useless. That is, until I saw a strand of Hawaiian lights hanging in the window. Being a lover of electricity (yep, I'm an electrical engineer), I immediately noticed that the strand was burnt out. It was a typical condition for a single strand of twinkle lights poorly maintained by college-aged youth. I asked for replacement lights and guess what, there weren't any. (When have there ever been replacement bulbs when you really needed them?) Without time to take a quick trip to Ace, Home Depot, or even CVS, me having a never-quit, stubborn attitude (another trait that helped win my wife over—cue eye-rolling), I asked if they had any tools. Another "No" along with an eyebrow furrow. Sure they're college girls, but who knows, maybe a handyman parent left a tool-box with a wire stripper and some electrical tape. That answer still didn't stop me, so I asked for any scissors and tape and received just what I expected—a roll of Scotch tape, a pair of pink schoolgirl Fiskar scissors, and a sarcastic "good luck" (the sarcasm coming from my wife's friend). I'm not sure if it was the stubborn guy in me or the guy trying to impress the girl, but I knowingly went against any vague recollection of electrical or UL safety codes: I cut right into the strand of lights (yes, I unplugged it first) to bypass the one light whose semi-transparent brownish tint around the base of the bulb disallowed full transmittance of the backlight I held the bulb up to. Once the wires were stripped and twirled together, I was surprised at how well the Scotch tape actually held everything together, and I did try to put a big glob of tape on there to minimise any shockage. At the moment of truth, no fireworks, no blown fuses, just a beautifully lit strand of Hawaiian Christmas lights and a cool, demure "need anything else?" I was pleasantly satisfied by the looks of surprised amazement when the girls glanced up to a glistening decoration successfully resurrected from the dead. Triumph. Whether it's soldering a faulty diode into the back of a supposedly broken TV, swapping car window motors so it's not an icebox driving down the freeway, or problem-solving a disappointment, my engineering training and passion for the solution keeps it all going in the right direction. Eight years later and the journey continues. Chris Higgins is the CEO of SparqEE, the start-up that brought you the SparqEE CELLv1.0 on Kickstarter. He is a computer and electrical engineer who loves innovating across hardware, software, systems, networking—anything that advances technology in the world. He submitted this article as part of Frankenstein's Fix, a design contest hosted by EE Times (US).

3月9日，深圳华星光电(CSOT)研制成功的110英寸四倍全高清3D液晶显示屏“中华之星”在京正式发布，这是迄今为止全球最大的全高清3D液晶屏。(TCL集团网站信息，http://www.tcl.com/index.php/news/1489.html) 根据TCL网站发布的消息，“110寸“中华之星”集成了华星自主知识产权的HVA技术，4倍高清分辨率4K*2K，主动式3D技术，多点触控技术，智能动态背光技术，超高亮度800nits，超高色域NTSC 92%等一系列规格都达到了业内最高水准。显示面积达3.34平方米，为目前世界所仅有，同时产品还搭载了华星自主开发的FSP(Fine Stereo Performance)技术应用。项目实现了三大技术突破，即高端曝光制程工艺技术、超大尺寸偏贴技术及先进背光源技术。华星光电在研发过程中，整合各种资源，坚持集成创新，攻克了一个个技术难题，实现了高端曝光制程稳定。同时背光首次采用独特的LED 搭配，优化了彩色滤光片制程。，创新了高色度显示技术。110寸“中华之星”是我国目前技术最为先进的超大尺寸显示屏，可为消费者带来完全不同于传统电视的全新临场体验”。 应该说，上述描述还算相对客观。 但是，换一个角度，上述技术开发一定需要作这么大的屏吗？恐怕基本上都是否定的。8代线做产品，切55寸才能切6片，基本上算是经济切割的最大尺寸了。110英寸肯定不是作为产品开发的。算算经济账就会发现，这个110英寸的样品代价不菲，粗估一下大概得花费3000万以上吧。 那么，TCL做这个世界第一是给谁看的呢？细细想来，观众还真不少： 首先是政府。TCL在深圳，发布会放到北京，样品名字起的是“中华之星”，发布会出席的除TCL高管基本上是政府领导（广东省委常委、深圳市委书记王荣，发改委高新司綦成元司长，工信部电子司丁文武司长，商务部产业司李铭林司长，科技部高新司赵玉海司长、TCL集团董事长兼CEO、华星光电董事长李东生、华星光电CEO贺成明等领导），并且发布样品会赠送人民大会堂。从这些不难看出，这个世界之最是给政府展示TCL的技术能力，也给深圳市的大力支持有了一个很好的回应。因此可以说，是给政府看的。在两会期间发布，还真的有点献礼的意味在里面。 其次是公众和消费者。媒体报道也跟科学研究一样，第一的边际效益最大，第二就远远不如了（科学甚至根本不认第二）。要吸引媒体与公众眼球，同时在消费者心理建立起品牌的技术信心，是很重要的。这个样品一定要开发世界最大的才能有这个效果。无疑这对TCL而言是一次广告和公关。同时，还可以练练兵，真可谓一举多得。 分析起来，TCL此举是一箭双雕。 不过，值得提醒的是，TCL面对的真正挑战其实并不在于能否开发如此大尺寸的液晶电视。当初三星与LG在开发液晶电视的竞赛中曾经争抢激烈，把尺寸从32寸一直推到大约55寸，节奏才慢下来。后来三星80英寸和2006年LG的 100英寸的液晶电视之后，液晶电视的尺寸不再是关注的焦点。现在最大的挑战是生存下来，并且准备好下一波技术革新的挑战。TCL好像有所准备，但不能不说，强敌环饲，任重道远。

看到孙主编在谈论Android TV，就来啰嗦几句。 TV网络化，是一个趋势！ 我们对信息来源会追求越来越多的便利性，最简单和便宜的方式获取信息，是我们的动力。 可以想到的是，我们会有三个主要的渠道：1，PC，直接连通网络，这个是主线；2，手机，已经在从号码在线向IP在线过渡中；3，TV，我们需要消耗在电视前面的时间也是很长的，这个路径的信息特点是大容量，以多媒体为主。 在收看影视内容上，今天已经有许多人从广播的内容中转移到了自己选择的网络点播方式，这个趋势会放大和继续，与带宽和编码水平同步发展。 而在TV和STB中，添加网络功能的成本却非常低廉，如果仅仅考虑硬件的沟通，成本增加不到一个美金，如果加上内存的开销，性能的提升（现在到高清时代，网络功能已经不增加其他硬件成本了），增加的成本也是很低的，数美金而已。 水往低处流，便宜、方便又有用的东西会流行！ 增加网络功能后，电视功能能够提供给消费者许多新的功能，如随心的回看、录像、时移等等，这些会放大人们消费的欲望。 然后说，Android为什么会成功，在它之前，成熟又普通的操作系统就微软、苹果、UNIX、LINUX等等，这些系统中，商用的硬件开销巨大，很是不便宜，而免费的又复杂和不可靠。 Google改进了LINUX，优化和对开发方向、过程的控制，更加重要的是，他们进行了一般公司不能完成的标准化和QA，给我们使用时，一下子将我们的能力放大到以前我们不能达到的地方。 TV系统、STB系统都是需要OS的，以前多数是RTOS，复杂，但是不普及，而且几乎没有能够良好支持网络功能（包括像NOKIA推动的Symbian），到高清时代，无论采用什么OS，硬件开销几乎差别不大了。 消费电子行业要想优质合理地开发网络，几乎是不可能的任务，现在android帮我们达到了，全球的消费电子品牌都上去，Android难道不会成功？消费者难道不得益？