“Kameyama models” have now become their own brand, and the image of “AQUOS LCD TVs = Kameyama Plant” is becoming firmly entrenched in consumer’s minds. However, the LCD panels embedded in the first generation of AQUOS models were actually manufactured at the Mie Plant (both the Kameyama Plant and Mie Plant are located in Mie Prefecture). This was the center of development and production for TV LCD panels until the Kameyama Plant became operational. At the time, Mr. Nakamura was working on problems with LCD TVs that needed solving, including viewing angle, contrast and response speed. Ultimately, he and his team innovated a completely new Advanced Super View LCD system that revolutionized the LCD systems in use up to that time. It differed from conventional LCDs used for PC monitors in that it offered high contrast and vivid color with crisp detail, and in 2001, Sharp went on to develop the 30-inch AQUOS, and in 2002, a 37-inch model. In terms of both size and image quality, the LCD TVs that the Mie Plant produced had a level of performance that was in no way inferior to CRT TVs.

The launch of Kameyama Plant No. 1, an integrated manufacturing facility—from fabricating the LCD panel to final assembly of the finished TV set—was set for January 2004, with the goal of achieving stable, volume production of high-quality, large-screen LCD TVs. At the time, Mr. Nakamura was Chief of the Development Center, and while pursuing development of a new AQUOS series, he was thinking about one thing in particular—the development of an “LCD TV that could only be made at the Kameyama Plant.” The era of simply trying to make an LCD TV that could match a CRT TV had come to end. What was next? His answer: “large screens” and “high definition.”

High-definition television broadcasts deliver an extremely dense image using 1,080 scanning lines. However, in the HD LCD TVs of that time, it was the general practice among manufacturers, not excluding Sharp, to eliminate some of the 1,080 scanning lines (“decimate”) to bring the number of scanning lines down to around 760 when reproducing the picture image. There was no technology available to display all 1,080 lines, and the voices that said, compared to the quality of conventional TV images, 760 lines were beautiful enough, were also quite loud. Mr. Nakamura argued against this (760-line) HD TV. “When the sender is transmitting using 1,080 lines, the receiver side can’t be satisfied with 760 lines.” The normally mild-mannered Mr. Nakamura can become rather stubborn when it comes to LCD technology. The development of the 45-inch full-spec HD LCD panel, the world’s largest (at the time), sprung from his never-give-up attitude.

As might be expected, development proved to be extremely difficult. Right from the start, even before dealing with image quality and contrast, there were questions of being able to display an image at all, and the project was launched under a cloud of uncertainty. Television broadcasts transmit 60 still-image frames per second continuously and in rapid succession to reproduce a picture image. Neither conventional broadcasts nor HD TV broadcasts change the time interval required for a single frame. Therefore, the more the number of scanning lines is increased and the larger the screen, the greater the amount of image information that must be displayed at one time. Naturally, the time available to control the LCD panel grows shorter. Because it was a large screen, the viewing angle had to be further expanded. Time and again, it became a cycle of tearing down older technologies that Sharp had accumulated up to that point and starting from square one to develop new technologies. By the time a prototype was finally completed, 2003 was already drawing to a close.

The preview was held without delay at the Kameyama Plant at the end of 2003. People saw full-spec HD TV for the first time. “One of my motives for developing it was that I wanted to see what the world of true high-definition pictures, that is, full-spec HD TV, would look like. It was more beautiful than I could ever have imagined.” People who attended the preview say that, at the moment when the first picture was shown, everyone in the room gasped at its beauty.

The 45-inch Digital Hi-Vision LCD TV equipped with the full-spec HD LCD panel that was introduced in August 2004, was greeted with high praise from the Japanese market, even though it cost a considerable amount of money. And Mr. Nakamura was convinced that people were demanding a more beautiful picture, and the large screen would prove acceptable even in relatively small Japanese living rooms. It is no exaggeration to say that the success of this 45-inch LCD TV led to Kameyama Plant No. 2, whose goal was to produce a large-format LCD panel in the 40-inch class and above. Operations at Kameyama Plants No. 1 and 2 enabled Sharp to open up the market for large-screen full-spec HD LCD TVs befitting the era of digital images.

So, as an LCD engineer, does Mr. Nakamura still face problems? Mr. Nakamura answers: “Viewing angle, response speed, contrast, and color reproducibility—these are old problems that I had been trying to solve to achieve a better LCD, and now they have all been overcome. But, even when you solve one problem, and then another, the next problem always appears.”

He states that TV pictures are something special: “The era when merely enjoying content was enough for consumers has already ended. And the era in which we have to impress consumers has begun. The need to impress is never-ending.”

From here on, Mr. Nakamura will be stepping into uncharted territory in his work. Well, actually, not—since this is the same thing he has always been doing.