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Hisense Takes A Shine To CEDIA With 100-Inch Laser TV

Hisense is making its CEDIA debut with its $9,999-UPP Laser TV, promoted as a disruptively priced “market-creation” product said to combine the ease of a projector with the picture quality of LCD TVs.

Laser TV consists of a short-throw native-4K 3,000-lumen laser projector with built-in Hisense smart-TV platform and ATSC tuner, built-in Harman/Kardon two-channel speaker system, and included wall-mount 100-inch passive projection screen. A wireless Harman/Kardon subwoofer is also part of the package.

“It is truly a TV because it has a TV tuner, smart-TV platform and speakers,” said Hisense USA marketing VP Mark Viken. “It looks and feels like a 100-inch TV set,” but at $9,999, it is “disruptive for the amount of picture that you get for the dollar.” Similar-size LCD TVs are priced up to $60,000, and many 88-inch LCD TVs are priced at $20,000, he noted.

“It’s an elegant way to put a 100-inch TV screen on the wall,” Viken said, pointing to a “clean” installation that doesn’t require wires to be run to the system’s rigid, passive screen. The screen weighs less than 50 pounds and requires no wall reinforcement, compared with the largest LCD TVs weighing from more than 100 to more than 200 pounds. The screen attaches to the wall via two brackets, which let consumers adjust screen height for the best viewing angle.

The screen also eliminates the glare that appears on the glass screens of typical LCD TVs, Viken added.

The system, which was revised from its CES showing, is targeted to “consumers looking for movie-theater quality picture and sound without giving up a room of their home or major, permanent wall space,” a spokesperson added. It ships at the end of October or early November.

The screen is said to enhance brightness levels to that of mainstream LCD TVs for use in bright living rooms. It needs to sit only 6 inches from the screen to project a 100-inch image.

TV features include HDR 10, 20,000-hour laser engine, and the Tiki Live app, which delivers local broadcast-TV stations through a broadband connection if users don’t want to add an antenna. The smart-TV platform comes with more than 40 preinstalled apps, including Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Vudu, iHeartRadio and Pandora. “We are one of three TV companies building our own smart-TV platform,” Viken noted.

To project sound, the Laser TV incorporates two Harman Kardon midrange speakers and two tweeters in a biamplified 4×15-watt configuration. The low end is filled in with a wireless subwoofer. The system also incorporates DBX sound processing.

The built-in speakers double as a center channel if the TV is connected to an A/V receiver driving separate left-right and surround speakers.

The company has developed an 8-foot-tall in-store display that’s only slightly wider than the TV screen itself and includes spots for the projector and the subwoofer. Hisense is expanding its field team to support the new product.

“We intend to make Laser TV a profitable product for the custom channel and support it with targeted advertising, training events and, if requested, product demonstrators that we will send in,” Viken said. “We definitely think the CEDIA channel is an important channel.”

The move to reach custom integrators follows Hisense’s launch earlier this year of its first commercial displays, some with embedded ATSC tuners. The Hisense Prosumer Connected TVs are available through distributor Almo, but Hisense is also talking to other pro-AV distributors, some of which also target residential installers, Viken said. The products were shown at the recent InfoComm show.

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