LG Display has carried out a reshuffle, reducing the number of its executives and business units by about 25 percent, in its ongoing efforts to improve deteriorating performance, the company said Friday.

The display maker said the latest reshuffle is aimed at raising business efficiency to better respond to the rapidly changing market environment and accelerate its shift to organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) from the failing liquid crystal display (LCD) business.

Main threat is the Chinese panel manufacturers and simple fact that both LG and Samsung had been literally thrown out of smartphones and monitors market in China. Seems like TV are following fast.

HP will separate 9,000 employees out of the current 55,000. This was announced by the firm in a statement that will be separated from 16% of its workforce in a large restructuring plan.

This layoff plan presented by Enrique Lores, future CEO of the firm that will officially take office on November 1st. The goal is to save $ 1 billion a year from 2022.

It is expected that HP will continue to replace workforce with temporary contractors that do not require any pension plans or social expenses.

On November 27, 2019, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Asahi Optical Industry Joint Stock Company (then), the origin of PENTAX, an event celebrating the 100th anniversary with users who have used and supported PENTAX products. The party format was 3,000 yen.

The main “PENTAX meeting” will be held in a buffet style. The company is preparing for events such as the sale of 100th anniversary merchandise, with a focus on "hot social gatherings between fans and our employees".

Strong industry rumors are that Ricoh is looking on the ways to silently kill Pentax brand, as well as all DSLRs lineup.

On the falling market it is no longer viable to support development teams as they are lagging years behind competition anyway.

Ricoh plan to stay in the profitable new markets of instant cameras and VR/360 cameras.

X-Rite announced that they will be collaborating with Adobe to give photographers a complimentary 1-year membership to Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan worth £119 when purchasing either an X-Rite i1Display Pro, i1Display Pro Plus, i1 ColorChecker Photo Kit, i1 ColorChecker Pro Photo Kit or i1Studio.

To claim this promotion you need to purchase either an X-Rite i1Display Pro, i1Display Pro Plus, i1 ColorChecker Photo Kit, i1 ColorChecker Pro Photo Kit or i1Studio before 31 December 2019 and then request the unique code before 31 January 2020.

For full terms and conditions and to claim your free year of Adobe CC Photography plan after purchase, visit the X-Rite Adobe offer page.

This offer is only available in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Business Transformation/IS Department to be reorganized to Corporate IS Department.

Dissolution of R&D Division Organizations (Application Technology Development Divisions 1 & 2, System and Platform Technology Development Divisions 1 & 2, Fundamental Technology Research and Development Divisions 1 & 2), and reorganization within R&D Center.

And lot of personal managers shuffle - https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/201909/19-096E/index.html

Rumors in the industry are that tensions between Sony and Samsung increase in sync with Korea-Japanese rising problems.

We can see open legal and price war starting in 2020. Samsung can dump top sensors price as far as 3 times getting 90% of orders for top smartphones.

Sony smartphones sensors department is last hardware related part of Sony that brings any profits and idea of Samsung can be push Sony into extreme stressful situation knowing that Japanese management usually is very bad in such. things

Will have 8K 24fps and 30fps modes.

https://www.sony-semicon.co.jp/products_en/IS/sensor0/img/product/cmos/IMX492LLJ_LQJ_Flyer.pdf

Samsung ISOCELL Slim GH1 offers 43.7 megapixels in an extremely compact package, ideal for slim full-display smartphones

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today introduced the industry’s first 0.7-micrometer (μm)-pixel image sensor, the 43.7-megapixel (Mp) Samsung ISOCELL Slim GH1. Thanks to advanced ISOELL Plus technology, the new ultra-high-resolution GH1 image sensor embraces 43.7-million 0.7μm-sized pixels in a super-small package, providing the optimum solution for slim full-display devices.

“Samsung has been stepping up in pixel technology innovation from the industry’s first 1.0μm-pixel image sensor, to most recently, 0.8μm ultra-high-resolution sensors at 64Mp and 108Mp,” said Yongin Park, executive vice president of the sensor business at Samsung Electronics. “We are pleased to deliver yet another breakthrough with the industry’s first 0.7μm pixel image sensor, the ISOCELL Slim GH1 that will enable sleeker and more streamlined designs as well as excellent imaging experiences in tomorrow’s smartphones.”

The ISOCELL Slim GH1 is the industry’s first mobile image sensor to adopt the smallest pixel size in the industry at 0.7μm. By utilizing ISOCELL Plus, Samsung’s latest pixel isolation technology that minimizes color cross-talk and optical loss, the tiny 0.7μm pixels are able to absorb sufficient light information to produce bright and vivid photographs. In low-light environments, the GH1 makes use of pixel-merging Tetracell technology that enables higher light sensitivity equivalent to that of a 1.4μm-pixel image sensor.

For video recording at 4K (3,840×2,160) resolutions, the ISOCELL Slim GH1, with a high resolution of 7,968×5,480, is able to take 4K videos with minimum loss in field of view (FoV), while most high-resolution image sensors crop or scale down full image resolutions that result in a reduced FoV. Using Tetracell technology, the GH1 is converted down to 3,984×2,740, a resolution that snugly covers the 4K (3,840×2,160) resolution, allowing users to capture more detailed backgrounds when recording high-resolution videos or selfies at 60T frames per second (fps).

For sharper photographs and video, the GH1 supports a gyro-based electronic image stabilization (EIS) and a high-performing phase detection auto-focus technology, Super PD, allowing fast and accurate autofocus. In addition, the real-time high dynamic range (HDR) feature delivers more balanced exposure and richer color even in mixed-light environments.

The Samsung ISOCELL Slim GH1 is expected to be in mass production by the end of this year.

Qatalyst Partners bank strongly urges Fitbit to sell, preferable to Google (aka Alphabet), as otherwise it can be too late.

As many investors of Fitbit are in the same time are present among top Alphabet investors such thing can happen fast.

Most probably Fitbit won't survive trade war and will go down within next year otherwise.

The next photokina will take place in May 2020

Imaging industry and Koelnmesse decide on new starting point for the new annual cycle

Following a successful photokina 2018, the German Photo Industry Association (PIV), as conceptual sponsor of the trade fair, and the event's organiser Koelnmesse have agreed not to organise the next leading global trade fair in May 2019, as initially planned, but in May 2020. From Wednesday 27 May 2020 to Saturday 30 May 2020, all the market leaders in the imaging industry are expected once again in Cologne. The decision to postpone the start of the announced annual cycle by one year is intended to give all participants the opportunity to further develop the new concept for photokina and to tap into new target groups among exhibitors and visitors in order to heighten the status of the trade fair as a global platform for the photography and imaging industry. "photokina 2018 clearly exceeded our already optimistic expectations with groundbreaking innovations and 180,000 visitors from 127 countries," explained PIV's CEO Rainer Führes. "As a result, we set the bar very high for the next event. It is therefore unlikely that, in May 2019 after just over seven months, we will once again be able to create the same enthusiastic atmosphere that characterised photokina 2018. This is why we have decided to start the planned annual cycle in 2020. The Photoindustrie-Verband would like to thank Koelnmesse for its willingness to quickly comply with this request. This shows once again the great professionalism and excellent customer orientation that has characterised our trusting partnership for decades now."

"We understand that even the most powerful technology companies cannot ensure that they will once again be able to bring such innovative strength to the exhibition halls as we experienced at photokina 2018 within an extremely short lead time of just seven months," added Koelnmesse's CEO Gerald Böse. "It is precisely these innovations, however, that shape the character of photokina as the world's leading trade fair - as does the presence of all the leading suppliers in the industry as well as important users, retailers and service providers worldwide. In order to make sure we can continue to fulfil this requirement in the future and meet the expectations of exhibitors and visitors with every event, we have responded flexibly to PIV's wishes. This will ensure the continued unique impact and public appeal of one of our flagship trade fairs in the future."

This year, photokina had successfully presented itself with a new concept, which included the increased involvement of new exhibitors from innovative areas such as mobile, imaging analytics, digital workflow and moving images, as well as a stronger focus on experience for visitors. This combination of experience and product presentation, which was very well received by younger target groups in particular, ensured full halls, overcrowded workshops and spectacular presentations on the event areas, in front of which large crowds of people repeatedly formed, despite the trade fair being shortened by two days. As a result, the trade fair was mentioned not only in conventional media but also in digital and social channels such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to a greater extent than in previous years. The newly created Imaging Lab, in which start-ups, investors and scientists presented and discussed new imaging applications, also proved to be an important impetus for the entire industry. Together with numerous groundbreaking innovations from established imaging companies, this resulted in a showcase of the great dynamism with which the imaging industry is positioning itself for the digital future and which will also shape photokina 2020.

The Consumer Technology Association and its member companies have announced the display definition and logo for 8K Ultra High Definition (UHD) TVs.

The logo and definition aim to help retailers and TV buyers identify products that meet the industry’s 8K UHD requirements, including attributes such as resolution, digital inputs, bit depth, frame rates and up-conversion capability.

“This 8K Ultra HD definition is the product of our Video Division Board’s dedication and hard work,” said CTA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. “As a result, retailers and consumers will know products that carry the accompanying logo deliver 8K UHD quality and performance.”

According to CTA’s latest biannual “Sales & Forecasts” report, 175,000 8K UHD TVs accounting for $734 million in revenue are expected to be sold by year’s end.

The 8K Ultra HD logo license and certification agreement will become available in the next few weeks. Companies may begin using the logo Jan. 1, 2020. The 8K Ultra HD logo program is an extension of the 4K Ultra HD logo announced in 2014 by CTA.

As it did in that instance, CTA convened major video sector companies to draft, discuss and approve the official 8K Ultra HD designation, it said.

Among the industry’s 8K Ultra HD defining characteristics are:

• A minimum of 33 million active pixels—with at least 7,680 horizontal by 4,320 vertical pixel resolution in a 16:9 viewable window;
• One or more HDMI inputs supporting resolution of 7,680x4,320 pixels; bit depth of 10 bits; frame rates of 24, 30 and 60 frames per second; HDR transfer functions and colorimetry specified by ITU-R BT.2100; and HDCP v2.2 or equivalent content protection;
• The ability to upscale SD, HD and 4K video and display it on an 8K UHD display; and
• The capability to receive 10-bit 8K images and render an image showing responsiveness to changes to any of the 10 bits.

Up-conversion - The display is capable of upscaling SD, HD and 4K video and displaying it at 8K display resolution or better.

Bit Depth—Has the capability to receive 10-bit 8K images and render an image that shows responsiveness to changes to any of the 10 bits. The exact manner of processing is not specified.

Digital Inputs

• Has one or more HDMI inputs supporting the following characteristics:
• Resolution of 7680x4320 pixels.
• Bit depth of 10-bits.
• Progressive scan.
• Frame rates of 24, 30, and 60 frames per second as well as at the associated 1000/1001 fractional frame rates.
• Frame rates of 25 and 50 frames per second for displays intended for use in 50 Hz regions.
• HDR transfer functions as specified by ITU-R BT.2100.
• RGB Colorimetry and the Non-Constant Luminance Y'C'BC'R signal format, as specified by ITU-R BT.2100.
• At least one of the 7680x4320 HDMI inputs shall support HDCP v2.2 or equivalent content protection.
• Bit Depth—Has the capability to receive 10-bit 8K images and render an image that shows responsiveness to changes to any of the 10 bits. The exact manner of processing is not specified.

at https://www.cta.tech/cta/media/Membership/PDFs/CTA-8K-UHD-Display-Characteristics-July-2019.pdf

Gibson Brands Inc. ("Gibson" or "the Company"), today announced it will be re-focusing the Company on the manufacturing of world-class, musical instruments and professional audio products and the continued development of the Company's portfolio of iconic, globally-recognized brands including Gibson and Epiphone, by reorganizing around its core businesses. The Company has reached a "Restructuring Support Agreement" with holders of more than 69.0% in principal amount of its 8.875% Senior Secured Notes due 2018, and its principal shareholders, that clears the pathway for the continued financing and operations of the musical instruments business as well as a change of control in favor of those noteholders.

To implement the agreement, the Company and its U.S. subsidiaries today filed pre-negotiated reorganization cases under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The filings will allow the Company's Musical Instruments and Professional Audio businesses to continue to design, build, sell, and manufacture legendary Gibson and Epiphone guitars, as well as KRK and Cerwin Vega studio monitors and loud speakers, without interruption. The Restructuring Support Agreement provides funding for the musical instrument and professional audio businesses, supports the Company's key vendors, shippers and suppliers, and provides for the restructuring of the Company's balance sheet. Gibson will emerge from Chapter 11 with working capital financing, materially less debt, and a leaner and stronger musical instruments-focused platform that will allow the Company and all of its employees, vendors, customers and other critical stakeholders to succeed. Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gibson Brands, and David Berryman, Gibson's President, will each continue with the Company upon emergence from Chapter 11 to facilitate a smooth transition during this change of control transaction and to support the Company in realizing future value from its core business.

The Company's Gibson Innovations business, which is largely outside of the U.S. and independent of the Musical Instruments business, will be wound down. The wind-down of the Company's GI Business is not expected to impact the Company's reorganization around its core Musical Instruments/Pro Audio business.

In conjunction with the restructuring, the Company received commitments for $135 million of debtor-in-possession financing from its existing noteholders. This financing, combined with cash generated from its operations, will provide the Company with the liquidity necessary to maintain its operations in the ordinary course during its reorganization proceedings.

Check more at https://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/18349/mergers-gibson-brands-or-branding-2#Item_2

Another blow for decaying brand (and I am big Pentax fan still!!).

Dealers talks is also not nice, as some of them expect brand to suddenly cease worldwide distribution of all cameras and focus on internal Japanese market and same time cutting lineup to 2 cameras only. This can happen any time from January, but most probably date is next summer.

https://intel.activeevents.com/sz14/connect/fileDownload/session/3446B9E71F4FD3D70D8FB478DA239801/SZ14_HSTS002_100_ENGf.pdf

So if I have a camera system of i.e. HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels the actuall resolution of this sample raster is only 960 X 540 pixels.

Yes or no? Actually somewhere in between?

It is the private agreement between Samsung and Sony, Sony agreed to transfer lot of their small sensor design knowledge and tech, as well as providing sensors for big discounts compared to open market. In return Samsung suddenly closed all large sensors design teams and manufacturing and moved out from consumer cameras market where Sony did not want such strong competitor. Companies will never admit existence of such agreement publically, as it is punishable crime and will lead to multibillion fines. But insiders confirm this.

With fast rising tensions the breakup of this agreement can happen very soon. It is strong rumors that Samsung secretly reestablished large sensor design teams around 1-1.5 years ago. Samsung also barely requires any Sony technologies now.

As US-China trade war will escalate Samsung will have no other choice but to dump Sony in the attempt to significantly lower sensor costs by using only their own sensors and not financing Sony last profitable division. Samsung also looking at providing sensors to Huawei (who also work on their own ones for safety!) and want to stop the fast growing Chinese industry that can be extreme threat to them.

If such things will happen we can see total disaster of Sony division (that already lost top managers who where assigned to do impossible - save the totally failed smartphone division). As costs of new sensors development, especially complex stacked ones, are rising and Japanese semiconductors factories are lagging more and more behind competition it can be impossible for them to do new competitive sensors, and hence to use mobile income to finance the camera department and developing of large sensors.

In 2-3 years we can see total Sony demise, as well as long time proposing merger of 4 leading Japanese camera brands into one company.

One of the camera industry insiders told that all leading Japanese companies are very worried now, especially considering Samsung moves in near future.

And yes, we can see $999 FF camera from Samsung in less then 2 years with around 40% probability.

Media Business Insight (publisher of Broadcast magazine) today announces that the fastest growing media show in London, the Media Production and Technology Show has acquired assets related to Broadcast Video Expo from ITE Group.

The Media Production & Technology Show is the number one event for all those working in content creation within the film, TV and video industry. The show plans to significantly extend and enhance its offering to more technology manufacturers, suppliers, content and new partners for the event.

Taking place on May 13-14th 2020 at London Olympia, MPTS will now be the UK’s biggest show for the broadcast production and technology sector.

MBI has acquired the rights to BVE’s intellectual property, marketing data, and marketing channels.

Charlotte Wheeler, MPTS Event Director said “Our visitor numbers were up by 25% this year and we had a record rebook level with exhibitors. We are building on the success we’ve had in developing our show over the last four years and the brilliant relationships we have with the industry and our customers.

“People in the market have often said they’d prefer one UK show and now we are able to focus on delivering the biggest and best event for exhibitors and visitors.

“We are looking forward to working with exhibitors and visitors who have attended BVE in the past to deliver a fantastic event for the whole industry in May 2020”.

MPTS will extend its features to include new industry partnerships, a dedicated Technology Theatre, a Technology Networking Zone and a larger Broadcast Sports Theatre & Zone.

MBI’s CEO Conor Dignam said: “We have been working hard to build the UK’s biggest and best event for the TV, film and video sector. We will take the best elements of BVE and include them in our offering next year, particularly in the field of technology.

“This is testament to the great work Charlotte and the team have done on the show – and their approach of really working closely with the industry and exhibitors to develop the show”.

http://www.mb-insight.com/mpts-bve-statement/

According to Nikon Rumors, the D3500, D5600, and D500 are three of the eight models that will not be replaced.

“They will most likely be replaced with mirrorless models,” Nikon Rumors says.

Cameras for which replacements are reportedly on the way are the D5, D850, D750, and D7500.

Sounds pretty optimistic, as it can be that we will see only pair of DLSRs, may be 3.

Last DLSR models for both Canon and Nikon must come in 2021 and it will be their sport oriented top models.

As usual, each company got some award. :-)

https://www.eisa.eu/awards/photography/

Second wave will include multiple lenses and at least one camera.

Most massive one with most cameras and budget lenses will be 3rd one.

All remaining stuff including accessories can have price jump around December 26th.

'We have received word that the Spark 2 launch that was scheduled for July 23rd has been postponed indefinitely. An industry insider told us that DJI sent out a memo last week stating: “due to a shift in priorities the July 23 event is now on hold until further notice." Unfortunately, no information was provided explaining the postponement nor was a new date announced.' - DroneDJ

Same thing happened with Phantom line few month ago.

It is rumors going in the industry that DJI will be among second group of US government targets, and that they got warning as early as late 2018.
DJI can be prohibited to sell any drones in US market and, after short delay, in the EU market, due to security concerns.
Hence DJI decided to not make big noise and do not make conflict public, as making it public could also harm them on Asia market and other areas.
They just postponed all releases, hoping somehow that may be it is all temporary. They could not be further from the reality.

Also this year it had been different organizer.

Thanks for Alvin from Zhiyun, here is some photos from expo.

• EOS Series (DSLR and Mirrorless)
• PowerShot SX70HS
• PowerShot SX740HS
• PowerShot G5XMarkII

Multiple Canon digital cameras (EOS series and PowerShot series) contain multiple vulnerabilities listed below.

• Buffer overflow vulnerability in PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) when processing SendObjectInfo command (CWE-120) - CVE-2019-5994
• Buffer overflow vulnerability in PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) when processing notifybtstatus command (CWE-120) - CVE-2019-5998
• Buffer overflow vulnerability in PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) when processing blerequest command (CWE-120) - CVE-2019-5999
• Buffer overflow vulnerability in PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) when processing sendhostinfo command (CWE-755) - CVE-2019-6000
• Buffer overflow vulnerability in PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) when processing setadapterbatteryreport command (CWE-755) - CVE-2019-6001
• Missing authorization vulnerability which may result in unauthorized firmware update (CWE-862) - CVE-2019-5995

Impact

• A specially crafted PTP command may cause buffer overflow, which may result in the affected digital camera being unresponsive or arbitrary code being executed by a remote attacker - CVE-2019-5994, CVE-2019-5998, CVE-2019-5999, CVE-2019-6000, CVE-2019-6001
• Specially crafted firmware by a remote attacker or unofficial firmware update may be applied without the user's consent since the user confirmation process before applying firmware update is not implemented in the software - CVE-2019-5995

Thing that we see here can be first step on killing Canon hacking activities, as some data suggest that this is exact things used to dump firmware by the team for years.

First, big warning:

The HUAWEI CEO said it will take just a day or two to migrate from Google’s Android to the new HarmonyOS if needed, but it will stick to Google’s platform for now.

Whole presentation had been toned down, and specially focus was away from smartphones.

Seamless: First-ever device OS with distributed architecture, delivering a seamless experience across devices

By adopting distributed architecture and distributed virtual bus technology, HarmonyOS offers a shared communications platform, distributed data management, distributed task scheduling, and virtual peripherals. With HarmonyOS, app developers won’t have to deal with the underlying technology for distributed apps, allowing them to focus on their own individual service logic. Apps built on HarmonyOS can run on different devices while delivering a seamless, collaborative experience across all scenarios.

Smooth: Deterministic Latency Engine and high-performance IPC

HarmonyOS will address underperformance challenges with a Deterministic Latency Engine and high-performance Inter Process Communication (IPC). The Deterministic Latency Engine sets task execution priorities and time limits for scheduling in advance. Resources will gravitate toward tasks with higher priorities, reducing the response latency of apps by 25.7%.

Secure: Microkernel architecture that reshapes security and trustworthiness from the ground up

HarmonyOS uses a brand-new microkernel design that features enhanced security and low latency. This microkernel was designed to simplify kernel functions, implement as many system services as possible in user mode outside the kernel, and add mutual security protection. The microkernel itself provides only the most basic services like thread scheduling and IPC.

Harmony OS’s microkernel design uses formal verification methods to reshape security and trustworthiness from the ground up in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).

HarmonyOS is the first OS to use formal verification in device TEE, significantly improving security. In addition, because the HarmonyOS microkernel has much less code (roughly one-thousandth the amount of the Linux kernel), the probability of attack is greatly reduced.

Unified: Multi-device IDE allows apps to be developed once and deployed across multiple devices

Powered by a multi-device IDE, multi-language unified compilation, and a distributed architecture kit, HarmonyOS can automatically adapt to different screen layout controls and interactions, and support both drag-and-drop control and preview-oriented visual programming. This allows developers to more efficiently build apps that run on multiple devices.

The HUAWEI ARK Compiler is the first static compiler that can perform on par with Android’s virtual machine, enabling developers to compile a broad range of advanced languages into machine code in a single, unified environment

Blackmagic Design today announced it will hold a live stream on August 8th, 12:00pm PDT to provide updates related to the company’s post production and camera products. Held by CEO and co-founder Grant Petty, the stream will be available from Blackmagic Design’s website, as well as on the company’s YouTube and Facebook pages.

Their Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCufB8sMVyP9JEScMjLz74YA