Improve Your Next Training Seminar with Monitor Rentals

Check with a Tech Travel Agent when you’re planning for your next training seminar. With Tech Travel Agent you can be sure you’re getting everything you need where you need it. Delivery and installation is available in over 1000 cities worldwide.

Your Tech Travel Agent offers monitors in all types and sizes so you can get exactly what you need for your seminar. We can provide many smaller LCD monitors for individual training, larger plasma screens 80” and larger for demonstration and display purposes, even mid-sized plasma and LCD screens for booths at trade shows. We offer monitors from all major manufacturers like Panasonic, Sanyo, Samsung, and many others. We will deliver and install anything you need anywhere in the United States and many locations worldwide.

There are many advantages to renting. First, it is much cheaper than buying all the equipment, and it is often cheaper than relocating equipment you already own after wear and tear is factored in. Second, you don’t have to worry about the logistical nightmare that is installing and setting up your equipment. Countless hours are wasted in training seminars due to improper installation and setup or other technological problems. In addition, your Tech Travel Agent is very flexible. If you need to extend your rental for any reason, you can do this without any hassle. If you realize you didn’t order enough equipment for your seminar, your Tech Travel Agent can supply additional equipment as quickly as possible. We work hard to handle the tech aspect of your seminar so you can focus on conducting your seminar as quickly and efficiently as possible.

So, whether you need 4 Bang & Olufsen’s 40-inch BeoVision 8 LCD TVs in Las Vegas for a 4-day convention or 100 27-inch Dell UltraSharp U2711s in Miami for an 8 week seminar, your Tech Travel Agent can help!

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Your Tech Travel Agent isn’t limited to monitor rentals. We also rent projectors , desktops and laptops, and anything else you may need. Just visit us online or call 1-800-736-8772 for your tech rental needs.

So You Need a New TV?

Buying a new TV is a lot harder than it used to be. There are so many types and brands to choose from and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. For the most part, new TVs aren't cheap, so before you go out and spend a small fortune on one for your home, there are a few things to take into consideration.

There are three types of TVs to choose from: LCD, LED, and Plasma. Each one has its small differences from the other, but it can be difficult to decide which one is right for your home and your family.

Plasmas

Plasma TVs are flat-panel TVs that once ruled the TV market. They are heavy, which means wall mounting needs to be more secure and they're also very fragile. You'll most likely want to have it installed professionally. If your wall doesn't have easily located studs, you'll need reinforcements. But of course, you can always place it on a TV stand or other type of furniture.

Plasmas rule the TV market when it comes to contrast ratio (making your whites white and your darks dark) and are great for watching moving images. If you're a movie-watcher, you won't see a lag in the big chase scene. Also, you can see your plasma well from various angles, which is great for living room set-ups where chairs and sofas are positioned around the TV.

On the downside, if glare bothers you, plasmas do reflect light, but you can purchase anti-glare screens for your TV. Image retention and burn-in can also be a problem with your plasma. Also, if you live in an altitude over 6,500 feet, your plasma could experience a buzz.

LCD

LCD TVs are also flat-panel TVs and they aren't quite as heavy as plasmas. Contrast quality isn't as great as the plasma, but it's close. LCDs are great for viewing still images. Many computer monitors use LCD technology for this reason. They're also catching up to plasmas when it comes to color. The highest quality plasma will have the most rich color, but a high quality LCD is a much better option than an average or low-quality plasma.

If you're worried about using energy and being "green," then an LCD might be for you. They use half the power of a plasma. Plasmas use neon gas the requires more energy to light up. On the downside, LCDs are known for having stuck pixels, which appear on your screen as tiny pinpoints of light. Sometimes, a manufacturer will replace your set if this happens early on in the TVs life, bu tnot always.

LED

LED TVs are a newer technology. While the competition between LCD and plasma has lowered prices, LEDs are still relatively expensive. They are lighter an thinner than plasmas and LCDs and the quality is outstanding. Instead of fluorescent bulbs, LEDs use backlighting, which makes your blacks darker and your color more saturated. They also use less power than their plasma and LCD counterparts.

These guys have been on the market for only about two years, and are technically just LCD TVs with the LED lighting inside. They are sure to become more popular in the future as more competition enters the market, driving down prices.

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Planning your next trade show or big event and looking for a Plasma Rental, or large screen Monitor Rental? Then call 800-736-8772 for affordable AV Rentals nationwide!

2009 Sees Growth in Flat-Panel Market

Let's face it, 2009 won't exactly go down as a positive year for business, growth, or prosperity. Foreclosures were widespread, businesses were forced to close their doors, people lost their life savings, and many industries saw little or no profit. But believe it or not, one industry saw growth and sales: the flat-panel TV industry.

According to DisplaySearch, "a leading provider of reliable information, highly insightful analysis, and industry events specifically focused on the display supply chain and display-related industries," the flat-panel TV market saw a growth in excess of 32%. The growth rate is similarly to that of 2008 and that type of growth is expected to continue in 2010. Due to new technology such as LED backlights, internet connection, and 3-D, will grow 10 million to 228 million units this year.

DisplaySearch believes LCD TVs will see the strongest growth this year with a 24% increase from 2009. Plasmas are expected to increase around 6% this year, shipping more than 15 million units. DisplaySearch also says that CRT TVs will eventually fade from the market all together. In 2009, they saw a 40% decrease and this year, a 36% decrease is expected.

One reason for last year's dramatic increase is thought to be price. The average LCD TV price fell about 24% last year and this year, they are expected to fall another 5% (10% for plasmas).

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Planning your next trade show or big event and looking for a Plasma Rental, or large screen Monitor Rental? Then call 800-736-8772 for affordable AV Rentals nationwide!

Panasonic G20 HDTV

Many people today think that the way of Plasma is coming to an end. However, more and more information is coming out to prove that that statement has been severely exaggerated. A perfect example is Panasonic's latest and greatest G20. The tv has already been put through a serious of tests to which the G20 barely broke a sweat. The G20 has an insane 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio as well as infinite viewing angles, rich colors and deep blacks all without the annoyance of any active cooling fans.

When companies improve from one model to the next, their improvements are generally considered revolutionary. However, the G20's improvements over the G10 are said to be evolutionary. The black levels are around the same and there have been slight improvements to the network functionality. Last summer, Panasonic acquired KURO technology from Pioneer and people are excited to see if the company has benefited from it.

The G20 comes with a very nice spec sheet with many features resembling the already popular G10 series. The G20 has a panel size of 42" with a native resolution of 1920x1080 and a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It has 16.7 million color support with an 8-bit signal processing for each color. It has infinite viewing angles in both the horizontal and vertical formats and the panel type is Plasma G13 (Panasonic). Full dimensions come in at 65.4cm x 102.9cm x 8.2cm without the stand. Input formats for the G20 include 480p/i, 576p/i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p.

The G20 has a slew of inputs that includes one VGA, one Audio In, two indgange SCART, one S-Video, one Composite, 4 HDMI and one HDMI 1.4. Output wise the G20 has one Audio Out, one SCART and one S/PDIF (optical). It also has Analogue, DVB-T, DVB-T (MPEG4), DVB-C and DVB-C (MPEG4) tuners. The G20 does not have an actual DVI input but that can be converted through HDMI.

Overall the G20 from Panasonic looks to be a solid device. Viewing angles are great and performance all around is top notch. The G20 truly shows us why plasma is not dead.

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Planning your next trade show or big event and looking for a Plasma Rental, or large screen Monitor Rental? Then call 800-736-8772 for affordable AV Rentals nationwide!

LG Skinny Frame Plasma HDTVs

LG is giving us another reason to keep believing in Plasma tvs with their new pair of Plasma HDTVs dubbed "Skinny Frame". The name skinny Frame comes from the less than 25mm thinness of the plasma screens. Now 25mm isn't ridiculously thin but I don't think anybody is going to hate on it because of that.

LG is offering up 2 different models for the Skinny Frame, the 50-inch 50PK550 and the 60-inch 60PK550. Both models share the same spec sheet which is seems to be pretty solid. Both models offer 600Hz technology refresh rate, mega contrast ratio, automatic contrast adjustment based on lighting conditions, full HD resolution 3 HDMI ports and one USB port.

The Skinny Frames will both be able to display images in full HD and will also be able to play photos and videos via the USB port. The specs on these models are good but the price may say otherwise as the 50-inch model comes in at around $1,500 with the 60-inch pricing at around $3,325 US. Neither model is available in the United States yet but both are available in Korea.

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Planning your next trade show or big event and looking for an AV Rental? Then call 800-736-8772 for affordable Audio Video Rental soltions nationwide!

Panasonic's New $30,000 85-inch Plasma

If you want a really big Plasma TV, Panasonic's got the deal for you! For a mere $30,000, you can purchase Panasonic's TH-85PF12U, which is being called the industry's first 85-inch, full-HD, 1080p plasma.

The body depth is 3.9 inches and it weighs approximately 260 pounds. Screen dimensions are 74.4 inches by 41.8 inches. According to CNET, the screen size would be the equivalent of putting four 42 inch plasmas together. But according to Panasonic, the TV is still much thinner and lighter than most Plasmas.

While large Plasma Televisions don't usually provide the best quality, this model has been said to do just that as it features Panasonic's NeoPDP technology. This technology has been used effectively in smaller Plasmas and provides not only a quality picture, but uses a lot less energy.

Ghostbust Your Plasma

Have you ever turned off your TV or monitor and there was a ghostly image on the screen? This ghost is referred to as plasma burn. Plasma burn occurs when there is uneven wear in phosphors on a phosphor based screen, whenever a static image is left on the screen for too long; especially a high contrast image the potential for burn in is there.

Newer plasma based tubes include burn-in reduction features. Screen savers and pixel shifting help with the prevention of burn in. Pixel shifting is a slight unnoticeable shift in the image a by one or two pixels. If a ghost does happen many new sets can blast a burn-in with a white image for several minutes to hour. Cable and satellite service providers help with preventing burn in by giving you the option of changing pillar boxes that can also burn in by changing them from black to grey.

Potential for burn-in is greatest during the first 100 or so hours of use, during that time if you keep the contrast low and avoid showing static images or letterbox bars on the screen for long stretches of time it will help prevent any burn-ins. You might get some image retention once in awhile if you look hard enough after hours of static images, but even then it's temporary, not permanent. Video games may be a worry because of static logos that are in the corner of the screen but as long as you wait till after the first 100 hours before any long use it should be fine. Just keep mixing it up. Also, cheaper models of TVs are more prone to burn-in like the Insignia, but a good rule is not to go too cheap if you want to play it safe.

Welcome to our Monitor Blog

Having noticed that display technology is with each passing day becoming driven deeper and deeper into specific verticals such as Plasma, LCD, DLP, etc. we wanted to help bring it all together again and get back to basics.

Those basics being that consumers and corporate users of all types want quality display output at an affordable price. This Monitor Blog will endeavor to review and explain any and all forms of monitor and display technology and help put into perspective which of the myriad of options on the market make sense for any given application.

We hope you find our articles enjoyable, we encourage you to comment, and if you have any information you would like posted here please feel free to e-mail us at web@xponex.com.

Sincerely,

Andy Wendt
Xponex Media Services