Displays have come a long way from CRT monitors to QD-OLED and OLED displays, which are leading the innovative charge, and products like the Samsung Frame keep surprising us with next-gen tech and features. However, whether it is a monitor or a TV, you always need an external sound system or a soundbar to get truly great audio, as built-in speakers aren't always the best and take up some space, which makes the design a bit bulky. This is something we noted in our LG G5 and LG C5 OLED TV reviews.

That being said, researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) were able to take the innovation another step forward and resolved this issue by creating a panel that displays video and outputs audio as well. Here is more information about it.

2-in-1 OLED panel for audio and video

A research team at POSTECH was able to create a Pixel-based Local Sound OLED technology, which means that the display can emit different sounds from the screen. They demonstrated this technology on a 13-inch panel, meaning that it can be used in tablets or laptops, but whether it is ready for commercial use and mass production, that is yet to be seen, and we think it'll be some time before we see this on the market as standard.

How they achieved this was by embedding ultra-thin piezoelectric exciters in the OLED panel and arranging them exactly in the way the pixels are set. Piezoelectricity is generated by materials such as crystals or ceramics when mechanical stress is applied, and exciters are devices that generate vibrations.

So, when electricity hits the exciters, they convert that signal into sound, and since they are mounted beneath the OLED layer, they don't take up much space, and you can hear audio coming from the panel.

However, there was the issue of cross-talk since the exciters were placed in the arrangement of the pixels, but the ingenious team at POSTECH tackled this issue and ensured that each pixel can be a speaker without interfering with the output of the neighbouring pixels.

So, one corner of the screen can output one sound while the other can be playing music, and there'll be no cross-talk, and the panel can be divided into multiple regions. This technology opens a world of new possibilities, and its implementations can change how we consume content. 

Whether this technology will be powerful enough to make sound systems obsolete, I don't think so, but in the future, can it move past that limitation? We'll have to see. Right now, it is a very interesting development, but it'll have to pass a bunch of tests, and like I said before, it'll be a while before we see this on the market.

About the Author

Ussamah Mehmood

Ussamah works as a content writer and editor at BGFG. He is experienced in tech, hardware, gaming, and marketing.