Sony’s wonderful new OLED TV is mostly the work of LG Display
One of the highlights of CES for us this year was Sony’s move to finally embrace OLED technology for its flagship line of Bravia TVs.
Not only that, the Japanese company doubled down on the innovation by also
featuring an integrated audio system that turned the display into the speaker —
the new Bravia OLED literally vibrates the screen back and forth to generate
sound. But a great deal of that hot new tech bearing the Sony name actually
comes from Korea’s LG Display.If you’ve ever wondered why LG Electronics and LG Display are
two separate entities, it is precisely so that the latter can develop and sell
its technology, on a white-label basis, to other device manufacturers without
being in direct competition with them. The grand LG competes with Sony for big
TV sales, while the more focused LG Display only sells the displays and
components necessary to drive them. That’s how it’s possible for LG technology
to be winning one of The Verge’s Best of CES awards
under the Sony banner.
I attended LG Display’s CES 2017 exhibition during the same week
that Sony launched the Bravia OLED screen, and I happened upon the former
company’s Crystal Sound OLED TV. This was being demonstrated in two
orientations: the vertical TV was used to play back music and show off the
clarity and volume of the display functioning as a speaker, while the
horizontal TV had two piles of beads on top of it, to show that it is indeed
moving while playing back audio. I put a hand on both the edge and middle of
the panel, and it was apparent that the vibration was substantially stronger in
the middle — which is where the "exciters," motors used to drive the
panel back and forth, were positioned. But, try as I might, I couldn’t notice
any distortion in the picture as a result of the uneven vibration. On both
panels, the OLED TV image retained its integrity perfectly.Sony’s taken a leaf out of LG Display’s book by developing its
own variant of Crystal Sound, which it calls Acoustic Surface. It sounds and
performs almost the exact same way.But the sound of these TVs is the truly shocking thing. It’s
really, really good. Granted, it won’t replace a dedicated 5.1 surround sound
system, but it’s pure, crystalline, and more than loud enough for most uses.
I’ve seen many so-called transparent speakers that use a sheet of glass or
translucent plastic to generate sound, and they’ve all been distinctly sub-par.
Not so with this new OLED TV technology.There’s no shame in Sony rebranding or copying what is evidently
very good technology, and there’s still plenty of design and engineering that
needs to happen behind the OLED scenes to make a great TV that will last for a
long time. But the fact that LG Display can recreate all the hotness of the new
Sony Bravia should mean that we’ll soon be able to have our pick from a variety
of OLED TVs that double up as a good speaker system.
Correction: This article initially
hypothesized that Sony was using LG Display’s Crystal Sound technology for its
OLED TV speaker system, however the Japanese company has gotten in touch to
clarify that it has developed its own system. Sony’s Acoustic Surface works on
the same principles as Crystal Sound — and, having heard it during CES, sounds
just as good — but apparently "has nothing to do with LG Display."
The article has been amended to take that into account.
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