Having recently installed one of LG’s signature series “wallpaper” TV’s I thought I would give a run down on the process and the challenges we faced during this not so standard install.
The screen mount itself is pretty straight forward and not to dissimilar to a standard screen wall mount. Bracket on the wall first which in this case is a thin sheet of steel with two notches towards the top and the screen “hooks” onto these notches then sticks to the rest of the bracket with a series of magnets. Then comes the not so straight forward sound bar. In order to make the screen so thin all of the I/O, power and electronics are located in the sound bar with the screen being just a sheet of OLED’s. There is no supplied wall bracket for the sound bar and it is assumed that LG want you to install it onto a piece of furniture below the screen, even though their original promotional images show it mysteriously floating. Indeed this was requested by our client and because of the location there was no option to have a piece of furniture below so we had to come up with a solution. Having searched high and low we opted to go with a simple gloss black floating shelf and appropriate brackets to hold the weight. Fortunately we were able to find a shelf to match the width of the bar and also deep enough to accommodate the I/O connections and cabling. So with the screen position and sound bar mount dealt with then came the next obstacle, the ribbon cable. The interconnecting cable from screen to sound bar is a 40mm wide ribbon cable which is fixed into the screen and plugs into the bar with a serial like connection. LG say that the cable can be installed onto the wall as it is so thin it will not be obtrusive, but we wanted to have this cable out of sight just like the promotional images referred to earlier. This posed a number of challenges, namely the excess and the fact it is fixed to the screen. It comes in at around a metre in length and as we were mounting the bar just below the screen we had a ream of not so flexible cable to conceal. Fortunately we were installing onto a dry lined wall so with a bit of clever routing we were able to tuck it away but then we had to handle a very bendy £7K TV whilst feeding this cable through the wall. As you can see we acheived the desired result, the picture quality excellent and sound reproduction is as good as any other sound bar, but I just wish that LG would give the option of supplying the screen without the bar, but a tuner box in its place much like the first Panasonic plasma screens for those of you who can remember back that far. This would allow for more flexibility when it comes to the installation. As is the way of the tech world competition is fierce and hardware is constantly evolving so we shall wait and see how durable this design is and what comes next…
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TV’s, we’ve all got one and in most cases we don’t pay too much attention to the picture quality because it’s “OK” but there are differences out there and with the most popular broadcasters now offering 4K is it worth the hype?
It’s all about the Pixels or to be more precise the amount of pixels crammed into a TV screen, the more there are the higher the resolution the clearer the image. Standard Definition or SD with 704x576 pixels it is the lowest resolution and the majority of TV broadcasts are still in SD, if you’re not watching a channel with HD after it then it will be a standard definition broadcast. High Definition 1080p or HD with 1920x1080 pixels although increasingly popular still not every broadcast you watch is a High Definition channel which is incredible considering the first broadcast in the UK was over 10 years ago. Ultra-High Definition 4K or UHD with 3840x2160 pixels currently the highest resolution available, content is still limited but gaining traction in all formats. In answer to the original question “is it worth the hype?” well ultimately it is really down to personal preference but if you are looking to purchase a new TV in the upcoming festive period then there are some key things to look out for to ensure that it will be able to display those 4K images should you decide to subscribe in the future. UHD, 4K, HDR, HDMI2.0, HDCP 2.2 |
AuthorJon Knight is a director at Connected Home Systems with over 20 years in the Audio Visual and Smart Home industry and members of CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association). Archives |