With the 8K Association’s recent announcement of a new 8K Performance Standard, integrators and manufacturers salivating at the latest display technology. LG is already there. At CEDIA Expo, the company showed its new 88-inch LG 8K OLED TV with 33.2 million densely packed pixels that produce hyper-realistic images with higher perceived brightness and contrast, sharper edges, greater depth of field, and greater tonality.
“Right now, we are just on the cusp of launching the new resolution standard for 8K. There are only a few products on the market, so introducing an OLED 8K is a milestone,” says Tim Alessi, head of home entertainment product marketing at LG Electronics.
“OLED is already seen by most as having the best picture quality. So being able to combine the great picture quality that OLED already has, with the latest 8K resolution, is really a win for the customer, the installer and for the electronics industry.
Barry Schurr, COO at Osbee Industries, a custom integration company based in Harrison, N.Y., is also bullish on the 8K and OLED combination.
“The OLED line has been fantastic. It is a real gamechanger for the display industry,” says Schurr. “4K is already the de facto standard and 8K raises that bar even further. And while there is not 8K native yet, the upscaling is certainly notable and it provides additional opportunities for great visible content.”
Alessi and his team showcased the new 88-inch LG 8K OLED at CEDIA Expo 2019 in Denver. The display retails for $29,999.
“It is the largest OLED screen that has ever been released, and it is definitely needed to accommodate the 33 million pixels that 8K delivers,” says Alessi. “Other than the resolution, it has the same features as other OLED, meaning it is an emissive display. No backlight is needed, it is ultra-thin, and every individual pixel can be controlled. The real benefit there is you will have no light leakage… so perfect black levels, no halo effect, and great smooth motion.”
Alessi admits not every customer is going to have the space to accommodate a giant 88-inch LG 8K OLED TV, so he sees a strong spillover effect from the 8K OLED down to the other display 4K sizes: 55-, 65- and 77-inch TVs.
“8K is casting a great technology halo over the entire business,” he adds.
