The tech buzzwords transforming our TVs

©Kobby Dagan via 123RF

This year’s conference, hosted at the Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, attracted more than 4,500 exhibitors and over 180,000 attendees from 150 countries, including international business pioneers and top-class thought leaders. In light of the cutting-edge releases and with the numerous marketing terms and acronyms to emerge from CES 2019, Jacques Bentley, Southern Africa sales manager at Skyworth, decodes the most prominent tech buzzwords and offers his insights into what they could mean for TV technology.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

If you don’t live under a rock, you’ve probably heard of AI technology by now and how it’s changing the way we live, work and socialise. New launches that come out of CES 2019, equipped with AI functionality, can do everything from cooking a chicken to analysing the facial expressions of the driver of a car to prevent sleep-induced car accidents.

These computer-generated algorithms are able to make decisions on behalf of humans, usually using machine learning to improve the features of products: for example, smart TVs that include voice search functionality, enabling your TV to search for tailored content for you at your request. According to Bentley, AI-driven TVs will eventually become the centre of every smart home.

Organic LED (OLED)

OLED technology marks a major improvement on older, flat-panel displays like LEDs or LCDs, which relied heavily on backlights to illuminate the screen. In contrast, OLED TVs don’t require lights behind the pixels because these are able to light up on their own individually and, in turn, switch off completely when they’re supposed to appear black.

"This results in a rich blacker-than-black colour and an overall brighter picture. The majority of the high-end TVs released at CES 2019 are OLED displays, showing that OLED is the gold standard for those who are willing to spend more money for a stunning, crystal-clear display," Bentley says.

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High-Dynamic Range (HDR)

In the same vein as OLED, HDR technology provides TV sets with improved picture quality, some of which include HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HLG. In layman’s terms, HDR enhances the difference in brightness between a set’s brightest whites and darkest blacks.

"It may sound like a marketing ploy, but HDR really makes a big difference when it comes to watching new content on streaming services like Netflix. A high-dynamic range screen is able to capture and reveal the extra image data built into modern-day series and movies, guaranteeing a heightened viewing experience when compared to a regular screen," notes Bentley.

Examples of HDR innovation that emerged from CES 2019 provide audiences with a truly immersive TV-watching experience.

"If the above buzzwords are anything to go by, it looks like the future of South African TV technology is bright (pun intended) and global elites in the household appliance industry will continue to improve the way we consume entertainment."