Latest TV tech trends & products from CES 2018
In order that AV Soul can best serve our customers it is important that we understand their passions and the latest AV and home theatre trends. Many of our customers are true AV enthusiasts, so it is important that we are able to fully understand their territory. That is why we make sure we do our best to try and be as passionate and knowledgeable about AV as you are!
It’s a tough call – as our customers really know their stuff… but one way we try to ensure we can best serve our customer’s requirements is to ensure we know about the emerging trends in AV, Hi-Fi and home theatre, before… or at least at the same time as our enthusiastic customers.
In this blog post we’re outlining some of the TV trends and new products to emerge from the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2018) held in Las Vegas every January.
OLED and MicroLED
Although OLED tech is now actually 10 years old – having finally settled into the consumer market the likes of Samsung and LG can’t stop talking about them.
OLED – Organic Light-Emitting Diode – is a type of display technology that makes it possible to reach dark black levels from ultra-thin screens, while at the same time making TVs more eco-friendly and efficient.
OLED also includes an additional white pixel as well as the usual red, green and blue sub-pixels, with the aim of delivering more varied and accurate colours, as well as increasing the display’s life expectancy.
Although CES 2018 featured many many OLED panels, there’s a new display tech in Vegas town called MicroLED. The tech is very similar to OLED, except it substitutes the “O,” which stands for “organic,” for an inorganic substance, and the subpixels (that create the red, green, or blue light) are very small.
MicroLEDs supposedly have many advantages over OLEDs, with better brightness, contrast and energy efficiency as well as better resistance to burn-in.
4K / 8K
4K is now essentially mainstream, so enthusiasts are looking to the next level: 8K. It’s still extremely early days for 8K — which translates to 7,680 × 4,320 or roughly 33 million pixels — but CES 2018 delivered a few displays to boast 8K resolution. Samsung displayed an 8K screen which should go on sale in the next year or so for an eye-watering price. Too bad there’s so virtually no 8K content to play on it… yet.
Evolved products – Walls / rollable TVs and vibrating displays
Although 4K and OLED dominated the TV tech at CES, there were a couple of other standout evolutions on products. Samsung’s The Wall, had a screen made up of micro-LEDs. The one on show was a 146in model.
Sony had TVs with no speakers — the sound comes from vibrating the display, a technology which against all expectations is very impressive. It’s had this feature before but it now comes on the AF8, a TV with a conventional stand.
LG demonstrated High Frame Rate, a coming technology which should make for smoother, richer TV sport. They also ‘rolled out’ a rollable 4K OLED TV, which when not in use rolls up and stows away in the TV base.
Standout product
Of all the TVs at CES, the standout picture quality was on an OLED screen from Panasonic, the FZ952, thanks to an advanced processor and improved panel. It will be on sale in spring.
Are you planning any upgrades to your AV setup? Get in touch.
If you are planning on making changes and upgrades to your AV setup and kit, have you thought about how to integrate the changes seamlessly and stylishly into your home. If you think we could help you in your planning or would like a new AV unit or media wall designing, do get in touch using our quote form or by using one of the methods on our contact page.