CES 2020: Samsung Sound & Display Takes A New Direction
Samsung chose to do their own thing to a select group of journalists at CES instead of an all in press conference on the traditional media day, the concept worked as it allowed the Company to position their new technology expanding their new display and sound offering without the pressure of have to cover a lot of products in 45 minutes.
While Samsung is allegedly set to run with a hybrid QLED-OLED it’s MicroLED that is the hot new technology.
Up until now Samsung has pushed Quantum Dot TV’s to rival OLED at the top end of the market and when put side by side it’s hard to see a difference.
This year Samsung has a new 2020, 8K and 4K QLED TV line-up that deliver new sound capabilities that link the speakers in the TV with one of their soundbars.
Samsung who were also the first to launch 8K TV’s in Australia and this has helped them captured the lion’s share of the 8K TV market, now the Company has expanded its 8K TV line-up for 2020.
They include at the top end the Q800T and the flagship Q950TS which comes with a stylish new design and I suspect a big price sticker when it launches in the second quarter of 2020.
At last night’s event I was impressed by Samsung’s new, zero-bezel ‘Infinity Screen’ which utilises 99 per cent of the screen and is only 14.9mm-thick.
Despite this slim look it has eight speakers around its frame as well as a tweeter and midrange on each side, two tweeters at the top, and a subwoofer at the bottom.
In Australia we constantly hear that consumers are having problems hearing audio in drama series; this is about to end claims Samsung.
The all new Q950 delivers some of the best TV audio on the market and when combined with Object Tracking Sound+, which uses AI-based software to match the movement of audio sound with the movement of objects on the screen, the Q950 can deliver crisp and clear 5.1 channel surround-sound.
The Q950 can also adjust the volume of dialogue in response to common sounds like a blender or vacuum cleaner.
Active Voice Amplifier (AVA) helps consumers who say that these sounds tend to distract them while they’re watching TV by detecting these noises and automatically enhancing voice clarity.
The Q950 is also capable of using its built-in speakers as an additional audio channel when connected to a 2020 Q Series soundbar like the Q800, a 2020 CES Best of Innovation honouree. Q-Symphony pairs the audio from both devices together to create a dynamic and multi-dimensional soundscape.
The latest top-of-the-line soundbars from Samsung won’t just replace your TV’s speakers, they’ll also be able to work together with your built-in TV audio, provided you’re using a new Samsung TV.
Announced at CES in Las Vegas, Samsung’s upcoming Q-series soundbars boast support for a new audio technology called “Samsung Symphony,” which allows the soundbars to work together with the top speakers on Samsung’s newest 8K TVs.
By syncing up with the “object-tracking” sound in Samsung’s latest, six-speaker 8K TV sets, Samsung’s 2020 Q-series soundbars—including the Q800T, a 3.1.2-channel soundbar with a wireless subwoofer and Samsung’s Acoustic Beam audio technology—are designed to deliver a “much more immersive experience” than on previous models, Samsung reps said.
Remember Tizen the Samsung house brand OS software it’s back powering TV’s after it flopped in Smartphones.
The new TV’s leverages the power of enhanced AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology to improve audio, video and smart capabilities via Tizen, making it easier than ever for consumers to use voice commands and access new features like Tap View, Digital Butler and Samsung Health.
Ironically their Bixby another house brand audio technology is now sitting alongside Google Assistant and Amazon Voice capabilities however I don’t understand why users need Bixby when they have the choice of Google or Amazon technology.
“8K resolution has the potential to transform our industry. Screens over 75” are the fastest growing segment in the market, and that segment is where 8K resolution matters the most,” said Joe Stinziano, Head of Consumer Electronics Business at Samsung Electronics America.
“Our 2020 8K line-up demonstrates the power of this potential. Its unprecedented immersive capabilities and unparalleled smart features empower consumers to pursue their passions more simply and more comprehensively than ever before.”
New Samsung AI technology is also delivering new upscaling capabilities by adding a ‘deeper’ algorithm on top.
Samsung calls this Deep Learning Super Resolution.
It’s a database of images with numerous layers of algorithms, each of which provides a different interpretation of the data that the TV can use to help create the most realistic upscaled picture. Essentially, Deep Learning SR is a more intricate way of processing data and has been created to make upscaled content look better than ever. That’s the theory, at least.
The 2020 TVs with full array panels, the Q80T and above, should benefit from efficiency improvements that Samsung has made to its Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) system too. By redistributing power from the darker areas of the panel to the brightest areas that need it most during a scene, Samsung claims that highlights can be up to 20 per cent brighter.
As for the edge-lit QLEDs TV (the Q60T and Q70T), they now have a row of both warm and cool LEDs at the bottom of their screens so both can be used, or some more than others, to change the colour temperature of the backlight to best deliver the specific scene on-screen.
This is being called Adaptive Picture+, a move that automatically optimises the brightness of the TV based on the lighting in your room.
Samsung has also introduced active tone mapping on a per-frame basis for HDR material, too, essentially bringing dynamic mapping to HDR10 so that it works like the intrinsically dynamic HDR10+.
Last but not least, we’ve good news for gamers, too: Real Game Enhancer+ claims to improve motion performance by 40 per cent, while a new multi-view allows owners to play a game while, say, watching a YouTube tutorial at the same time.
