New York — JVC TV kicked off its recently announced sponsorship of the charitable NFL Alumni organization (NFLA) by revealing that it has selected 48-store national electronics chain Paul’s TV as a key partner to take the program, and JVC’s forthcoming Diamond-series Ultra HD TV line to the public.
AmTran Video (AVC), licensee of the JVC brand in the United States for TV sales and marketing, brought a trio of legendary former New York Giants (and NFLA members) — Joe Pisarcik (NFLA president and CEO), Ottis O.J. Anderson (NFLA New York Chapter president) and Sean Landeta — to New York City to help announce the launch of the promotion through Paul’s TV.
“I’m ecstatic to be here right now to announce that JVC is our first national sponsor of the NFL Alumni Football Legends Golf Tournaments,” Pisarcik said. “I feel the guys in this room – the NFL Alumni, JVC, Paul’s TV, want to give back, change people’s lives, kid’s lives, and the guys’ [struggling physically impaired former NFLers’] lives and try to help them out.”
Pisarcik explained the NFLA is a freestanding charity, empowered by former players who want to step up and use their knowledge and celebrity to be involved in service to their communities. It is not directly associated with either the NFL or the NFL Players Association.
Drew Pragliola, sales and marketing senior VP for AVC/JVC, said that in addition to Paul’s, JVC will be working with other dealers in NFLA active territories where Paul’s TV doesn’t have a presence, to help promote the NFLA/JVC sponsorship.
Through the two-year agreement, JVC is giving the NFLA JVC TVs to raffle off around special golf tournaments the organization coordinates through its 26 chapters across the United States.
The winning team from each of the chapter events competes in the annual nationwide Super Bowl of Golf, which AmTran will also sponsor.
Money raised through the golf tournaments is donated to local charities focused on caring for children in each respective region, including St. Jude’s Hospital, the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs of America, DARE, Special Olympics, YMCA, Make A Wish Foundation, Autism Speaks and more.
Pasarcik said NFLA members are also actively involved in their own community outreach, helping educate young football players, their parents and coaches on proper playing techniques to avoid football-related concussions and other injuries.
For its part, Paul’s TV has agreed to donate 10 percent of the sale of any JVC TV it sells during the week of Oct. 10-16 to the NFLA. Paul’s will promote the event in six NFLA represented areas where Paul’s has store outlets, including California, Colorado, and the New England area.
Pisarcik said the NFLA will activate member players in each region to make store appearances and help promote the program, along with JVC and Paul’s.
Babak Ghaznavi, Irvine, Calif.-based Paul’s TV president and CEO, said the chain plans to use JVC’s forthcoming Diamond-series Ultra HD TV line as a central component for in-store merchandising around the promotion.
“We are very excited to help [JVC] and the NFL Alumni benefit children,” said Ghaznavi. “We look forward to this promotion in October to get involved and see how we can help out.”
JVC used the promotional announcement to give invited press a demonstration of currently available Emerald-series FullHD 1080p Roku Streaming Stick-enabled TVs, and forthcoming 55- (shipping in October at a $999 MAP), 65- (shipping in September at a $1,999 MAP) and 85-inch (shipping in September at a $7,999 MAP) JVC Ultra HD TVs from the top-of-the-line Diamond series.
Pragliola said JVC expects to be one of the first companies to break the $1,000 price threshold when the 55-inch Diamond-series Ultra HD model ships in October.
The Ultra HD TVs all feature Roku Internet streaming (a Netflix Ultra HD streaming app will not be immediately available for the JVC line), 240Hz refresh rates, full-array LED backlighting with local dimming across 32 LED zones, LED backlight scanning, and an advanced up-conversion system developed cooperatively between AmTran and IC chip supplier Morningstar.
The system takes sub-Ultra HD-resolution content, such as FullHD images, and fills in missing pixels and pixel lines to complete the 3,840 by 2,160 Ultra HD picture with minimal artifacts, for near-native-4K Ultra HD picture quality, the company said.
JVC called its up-conversion system the best in the industry and a more than worthy contender for products from first-tier brand competitors.
The new Ultra HD sets are also said to produce up to an 85 percent full color gamut.
“This is totally risk-free,” said Pragliola, referring to the sets’ inclusion of the latest specs for HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2 and HEVC decoding. “It will have every single input/output and whatever is needed for this TV when native content becomes available. This product is ready to go. There is nothing that any consumer is going to have to do, which is unlike some of the 4K product that is on the shelves today.”
