Live from CES: LG Electronics intros new UHD lineup, expands OLED offerings

LG Electronics was first up at CES press conference day and its TV plans for 2015 include increased commitment to OLED technology with seven new OLED sets and 34 new UHD sets that will help deliver 4K content to living rooms around the world.

“In 2015 60% of our total TVs will be 4K capable, from a 105-inch set down to a 43-inch set and a wide range of price points,” said Tim Alessi, LG Electronics’ head of new product development for home entertainment. “And with ColorPrime Nano Spectrum we are expanding the color gamut by up to 30% which is useful for brightly lit rooms.”

Greg Peters, chief streaming and partnership officer for Netflix, took to the stage to announce that this year Netflix will be expanding the dynamic range of its 4K content to further improve the quality of video.

“It’s not just more pixels but better pixels,” he said.

Alessi added that WebOS, the operating system within LG TV sets, will be enhanced to add features like My Channel to embed favorite channels into the user bar and also improve the response by 60%. And consumers can expect more partners to join the WebOS service, including GoPro.

With respect to OLED, Alessi said that LG will quadruple its commitment to OLED set development to the tune of $600 million as it expects more than one million OLED sets to be sold in 2015.

“OLED is recognized as the pinnacle and the future of TV and we have it right now,” he explained.

The company’s belief in OLED is a result of one key factor: that because each pixel can be turned on and off independently it can offer true blacks as well as perfect color.

“One of the main challenges engineers have been striving to solve for years is black level and with OLED’s emissive layer that generates light for each pixel.

OLED sets will include screen sizes as large as 77 inches.

“It is quite simply the best TV ever and LG is the only company that is able to get OLED out to people’s hands today,” he added.

At CES 2015, LG’s OLED TV leadership is being recognized by the Consumer Electronics Association with 2015 CES Innovation Awards for LG’s 77-inch Flexible 4K OLED TV (Model 77EG9900), 65-inch Floating Art Slim CURVED 4K OLED TV (Model 65EG9600) and 55-inch Floating Art Slim Flat 4K OLED TV (Model 55EF9500).