Sony recently unveiled a groundbreaking display technology that could revolutionize the TV industry. The new system, called “New RGB LED,” allows each of the three primary colors (red, green, and blue) in LEDs to emit light independently. This individual control results in higher color purity and enables images to cover 99% of the DCI-P3 color space and about 90% of the ITU-R BT.2020 television standard.
The technology also incorporates Sony’s “advanced backlight control technology,” which enhances the reproduction of specific hues and gradations. For example, when displaying scenes with bright autumn foliage, the TV can accurately portray various shades of red, yellow, orange, and other colors with great detail. Conventional high-brightness TVs often concentrate light on bright elements, sacrificing detailed images and nuanced hues in the process.
However, Sony’s new technology synchronizes screen luminance with color gradation, delivering stunning details without compromising vividness. The New RGB LED also boasts fast signal processing with a high bitrate of 96 bits, ensuring the “simultaneous expression of deep blacks and brilliant whites” and providing a wide viewing angle. This minimizes color shift and brightness variation, maintaining the clarity of the picture even from different angles.
Sony claims that their new tech can render scenes without visual errors such as white clipping or black crushing. While there is no confirmed date for the release of the New RGB LED televisions, Sony aims to begin mass production later this year in collaboration with industry partners like MediaTek. This new technology has the potential to be a game-changer for home entertainment, providing a display that genuinely reflects the cinematographer’s and director’s vision.
The anticipation for this innovative tech is high, and it will be interesting to see how it performs compared to existing models on the market. Sony’s RGB LED technology allows each color element to be lit independently, promising uniform color viewing angles and larger screen sizes. The company has paired this technology with advanced backlight control, specially designed to exploit the RGB LED panel’s unique capabilities.
According to Sony, the processing power developed for the new screens to avoid color shifting, ensure bright areas are vivid without “clipping,” and maintain color nuances in dark areas is twice as powerful as anything seen in conventional local dimming LED screens. A key aspect of this processing is the dynamic power allocation to each RGB “channel” based on the picture’s needs. This sophisticated power management enables peak brightness levels to exceed the 4000 nit benchmark set by Sony’s 2024 BVM-HX3110 professional mastering monitor.
As a result, even single-tone elements like blue skies or vibrant sports cars are rendered with stunning vividness and tonal finesse.
sony unveils independent RGB technology
The new technology, capable of 96-bit processing, aims to deliver a seamless representation of deep blacks, brilliant whites, and all the intermediate colors with meticulous precision.
By combining the color purity and immense brightness of the RGB LED panel, Sony claims that the new TVs can cover more than 99% of the DCI-P3 color space and approximately 90% of the larger BT.2020 gamut. This represents a four-fold increase in color volume compared to Sony’s A95L OLED TV. Sony acknowledges that it is not alone in the development of independent drive RGB LED technologies.
Competitors like Hisense have also showcased their versions at recent industry events. However, Sony leverages its extensive experience in TV display processing and historic innovations like the RGB LED Bravia 005 from 2004. For its new line of RGB LED screens, Sony is collaborating with industry leaders such as MediaTek for control processors, Rohm Co Ltd for LED drive ICs, and Sanan Optoelectronics Co, Ltd for LED design, driving innovation beyond its R&D department.
At a recent launch event, Sony illustrated its vision of the future by directly comparing the new RGB LED screens against its Bravia 9 and Quantum Dot OLED A95L models. With reams of cables streaming from the demo screens, the setup was unmistakably a work in progress, yet the picture quality was anything but. The new RGB LED screens outperformed the Bravia 9 and A95L significantly, demonstrating granularity and precision far superior to even the most sophisticated current backlighting systems.
This next-gen technology emphasizes not just pure brightness but also color gradation, achieving a remarkable improvement in the rendering of images ranging from simple tones to complex colorscapes. As such, Sony’s new RGB LED technology looks poised to redefine the standards of television display quality. The technology is new, and it remains to be seen how it will perform in real-world conditions.
One of the limitations of LCD technology is its inability to completely turn off individual pixels, which affects contrast ratios compared to OLED displays. However, with sufficient backlight zones and advanced processing, Sony aims to minimize these differences. Sony isn’t the only company exploring RGB backlights.
Competitors like Samsung, Hisense, and TCL are also developing their variants, eager to capture a share of the market if this technology proves successful. While Sony has yet to announce specific products that will use this new backlight technology, industry watchers are eagerly anticipating more details at CES 2026. If the technology lives up to its promises, it could represent a significant leap forward in TV display quality.
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