Philips’ press conference, since last year, is divided between three product areas: health, wellbeing and appliances; audio (since the relaunch of the Gibson brand at IFA 2014); and displays. Only the final area is really relevant to us, although we did see a new fitness tracker wearable called the Philips Health Watch.
Nico Vernieuwe from TP Vision, which licenses the Philips brand for TVs in Europe, introduced the company’s new TVs. He said that Philips has five brand pillars in this area: Ambilight; design; picture quality; sound; and Android TV.
New Android TVs, based on Android L (5.1) will be introduced this year, alongside a new “content-driven” UI. Philips is happy with the rate of connection; its data shows that more than 90% of Android TV owners have connected their TV to the internet. This means that apps are even more important, and Philips/TP Vision has launched a competition called ‘Your App on TV’, which aims to incentivise app developers (more information at http://tinyurl.com/ovouhvk).
Eventually, we saw some of the TVs that Philips has been working on. The 8600 series is an UltraHD LCD model, with four-sided Ambilight. Sound is a focus with this TV; the (extremely thin) left- and right-side speakers can be detached and positioned to form a surround sound set-up.
Philips/TP Vision is in the process of introducing 27 new UltraHD TVs this year, some of which feature HDR support. The flagship will be the 9600 series: these TVs will have UltraHD upscaling, high refresh rates through Perfect Natural Motion and micro-dimming. They will also be HDR-ready.
Finally it was time for the big reveal. Last year, Philips showed a prototype TV using its Ambilight technology, which featured pico projectors hidden in the bezel. The image truly did extend out from the display and across the walls. It was a breahtaking demonstration, and managed to win spontaneous applause from a room of hard-bitten journalists. Of course, such a TV was far too expensive to produce…
“Based on overwhelming reactions, both at the show and after it…[we decided] we have to pull this forward; let’s make the dream a reality”, said Vernieuwe. With that, he showed off the Ambilux 8900: a TV with nine projectors concealed in the rear. Although the demonstration wasn’t quite as impressive as last year’s prototype – it used fewer projectors, after all – the imagery was still very good. Ambilight is Philips’ ‘special sauce’, and it’s good to see innovation in the area. Of course, we hate to think about the cost!
