SUPER-SIZE ME

Steve Harper, Client Services Director at Philharmonic, argues today’s super-sized and integrated TVs offer a chance for installers to work closely with the design community.

Interior designers and architects that have clients who wish to include viewing TVs or other types of content in their living spaces need to find solutions that match the scale, design quality and aesthetic ambition of the project as a whole. Where else can they find these solutions and the support needed to deliver the installation other than from professional installers?

Understanding of cutting-edge television technology and viewing options amongst interior designers is relatively low, some understand that these days customers can have a large flat screen TV, essentially the same as a conventional TV, but very large - but not much knowledge exists beyond that.

However options that go way beyond the limitations of standard TVs from makers they will have heard of and ones they wont, are beginning to offer aesthetics they understand. What all these systems have in common of course is that they require specialist installation,can deliver incredibly high performance in terms of viewing, but are also a design led statement technology piece that will work with a vision for the whole property.

Looking around the industry there are some spectacular offerings that give our industry something to take to related fields that deliver something they probably wont have seen before.

Samsung is a company that has some strong options here using new technology built around micro sized RGB LED elements to deliver one of the most advanced screen technologies around. Designed with inorganic self-emitting elements, this technology can cope with a huge variety of projects and is particularly strong in areas with high-ambient light.

Products such as the 100in Samsung Micro Led Smart TV are designed around an ‘Infinity Screen’ created to remove the perception of borders between content and screen and between the screen and the wall the product is mounted on, matching any décor. When switched off the screen works as a canvas for a range of attractive artificial landscapes from Refik Anadol Studio allowing customised patterns or images to turn the screen into a gallery to personalise the space.

Another advanced supersize TV option that uses the same technology and has been getting a strong push from Samsung, is of course, The Wall. With new AI processing technology, 8K viewing quality, 120Hz frame rates and versatile installation. The way the concept is designed means that the customer can have almost any size of screen they want. Using modular technology, The Wall can be installed in a variety of positions, including concave, convex, ceiling, hanging, inclined and and L-type, giving the design community options to fit in with their vision for the space.

LG also has an option here, the suitably futuristically named MSD 3000. Like many of these products the concept is well suited to open plan designs with lots of either ambient or artificial light. The 136in product can be fitted into living spaces with a unique, Scandinavian designed free standing or wall mounted solution to provide an attractive aesthetic finish in contemporary interiors.

A final name is C SEED with its high-concept Monolith 1 or M1. This draw dropping product has been created for when owners do not want to see their super-sized viewing product on show until they are ready to watch.

Available in 165, 137 & 103in options, the C SEED blazes a trail for interior design friendly concepts and adds a spectacular feature to luxury homes as the entire product emerges from beneath the floor and gracefully unfurls into a high-performance 4K TV. The product was created by designer Stefan Pani, a University of Applied Arts Vienna graduate, he created a frame with an integrated soundboard that unfolds and then settles smoothly on a base made up of four plates. Function follows form here, visually very coherent, luxuriously minimalist and with an exciting, aggressively elegant tension. This innovative maker also has even larger options available for outdoor viewing created in partnership with Porsche Design Studio. Even if none of these options suit, at Philharmonic can reach out to our many industry contacts to create bespoke solutions designed to a specific brief. We can build LED video walls of any size, flat, curved, semi-transparent, ceiling mounted, specific shapes, all ideal for digital artwork or architectural features using technology.

For years film makers and sci-fi writers have imagined a future where super-sized viewing experiences enhanced the entertainment and information available in the home, products so advanced in their design that they are as much part of the home as the rest of the structure, well now our industry can make that a reality for the design community and their customers.