Texas Instruments is embarking on its most ambitious ad campaign to date to promote its proprietary DLP micro-display HD technology and the array of various DLP products now available on the market.
The Dallas-based firm plans to spend up to $100 million dollars on the promotion, much of it to sponsor a trio of various sports programming leading into the holiday selling season this fall.
Under the umbrella moniker of “DLP Products,” TI will sponsor portions of “Monday Night Football” on ESPN, Saturday college football on ABC, and Nextel Cup NASCAR racing on various networks.
DLP technology is centered on an optical semiconductor chip invented by Dr. Larry Hornbeck at TI in 1987. Each chip contains a rectangular array of nearly 2 million microscopic mirrors (each about one-fifth the width of a human hair) that are mounted on tiny hinges.
When introduced to a digital video signal, a light source and a projection lens, the micro-mirrors reflect digital images onto a screen, which TI says results in better quality imaging, more varied and subtle colorization, and far less blurring than typical LCD and plasma screens.
The ad campaign’s new TV spots were previewed by the media at a Sept. 17 event in New York.
