Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
"What we really need is a large - but compact - cheap, radiation free, flicker free, high contrast screen, which we can easily carry around and which uses hardly any power." - Fred Harris.
Micro Live considers the humble computer screen, and how it might be improved in future. At the recent Which Computer Show, there were some interesting new laptop screens on display, including a Sharp that uses a backlit LCD screen and a Toshiba that employs plasma technology. Both plasma and liquid crystal displays have their benefits, but also drawbacks - image quality, screen flicker, weight and power consumption. Is there a way to make a flat screen
Ian McNaught Davis visits the STL Labs in Harlow, where work is underway on a new type of display - one that can be viewed comfortably from any angle, with definition and contrast comparable to a printed page, and which does not need to be constantly refreshed. Might this be the screen that laptop owners have been crying out for?
Clip taken from Micro Live, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 24 January, 1986.
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"What we really need is a large - but compact - cheap, radiation free, flicker free, high contrast screen, which we can easily carry around and which uses hardly any power." - Fred Harris.
Micro Live considers the humble computer screen, and how it might be improved in future. At the recent Which Computer Show, there were some interesting new laptop screens on display, including a Sharp that uses a backlit LCD screen and a Toshiba that employs plasma technology. Both plasma and liquid crystal displays have their benefits, but also drawbacks - image quality, screen flicker, weight and power consumption. Is there a way to make a flat screen
Ian McNaught Davis visits the STL Labs in Harlow, where work is underway on a new type of display - one that can be viewed comfortably from any angle, with definition and contrast comparable to a printed page, and which does not need to be constantly refreshed. Might this be the screen that laptop owners have been crying out for?
Clip taken from Micro Live, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 24 January, 1986.
You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults.
Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss a single stop on our amazing journey through the BBC Archive - youtube.com/c/BBCArchive?sub_confirmation=1
You can also dive into plenty more BBC Archive on our website - bbc.co.uk/archive
