LG Reorganization To Be Done By CES, Vandenbree Says

LG will “have the organization realignment” that it recently announced (CED Dec 1 p5) completed by CES, Jay Vandenbree, senior vice president of home entertainment, told Consumer Electronics Daily Tuesday night as the company provided a sneak peek at a small number of the new products it will spotlight at CES. LG also unveiled a five-story LED Times Square billboard it said is “dedicated to the distribution of good news” in keeping with the company’s “Life’s Good” motto.

LG Electronics North America CEO Wayne Park will also become president in the restructuring, which sharply defines the company’s major appliance and CE businesses, LG said Nov. 30. The changes mark an end to a company experiment combining major appliance and CE sales organizations that began in early 2009 but started to unravel in fall 2009 when regional sales for major appliances were made separate (CED Oct 14/09 p3).

It isn’t clear whether LG will keep its separate sales regions -- eastern, central and western -- and whether there will be sales vice presidents for major appliances and CE in each region. “We'll have that all finalized around the CES time frame,” said Vandenbree, who shifted from senior vice president of consumer sales in the reorganization. It also isn’t clear whether roles will change for Tim Kavanaugh, vice president of distributor sales for major appliances and CE, or Marc Sorkin, senior manger of CE marketplace operations.

LG showed one of four new LED-backlit LCD TVs using Nano lighting technology that Tim Alessi, director of product development, said will ship from Q1 to early Q2 of 2011. A 55-inch model in the LW9500 series, the 55LW9500, was shown, but he said the top-of-the-line model will be a 60-inch set in the series. LG will also field 47- and 55-inch models in its LW7700 series, he said. The company didn’t provide prices, saying they will be announced at CES.

Nanotechnology “produces LG’s brightest, clearest and smoothest picture yet,” the company said. A very thin film “printed with a proprietary light dispersion pattern combined with a full array of LEDs disperses light more evenly across the screen, creating pictures that are brighter and more uniform than conventional edge-lit LED sets,” it said. An anti-reflection panel on the screen “minimizes reflection from external light sources, including sunlight,” LG said. “By ensuring a more uniform distribution of light from the LED backlight panels,” the technology “illuminates the screen more effectively for 3D pictures.” The new TVs also feature “improved localized dimming in both 2D and 3D” via a Micro Pixel Control feature, the company said. “By manipulating individual LED blocks, Micro Pixel Control adds even greater range and life to colors,” it said.

The LW7700 models feature LG’s TruMotion 240 Hz, and the LW9500 models boost the hertz to 480, Alessi said. The new Nano TVs are “undergoing THX 2D and 3D Display Certification,” LG also said. But LG is playing down the 3D functionality of its TVs. Alessi referred to the new Nano sets as “3D-ready,” and the company is describing such TVs as models that offer 3D as just one of many features. That’s in response to the consumer confusion that was created after 3D TVs started rolling out this year, Alessi said. “A lot of people” mistakenly believed that the TVs could only play 3D images, and not 2D, he said.

The company also took the wraps off the HD Sound Bar, a home theater accessory it said was “designed to elevate audio performance, complement LG’s advanced flat panel displays and deliver a superb home theater experience.” The product will ship in Q1, Alessi said. The Sound Bar features 280-watt output, and adds speakers and subwoofer capabilities to produce strong 2.1 channel “virtual surround sound,” LG said. The LSB316 includes six speaker drivers housed in a speaker bar that it said can be placed just below a TV or be mounted on a wall. The Sound Bar also features a wireless subwoofer, said John Karalis, LG Electronics U.S.A. retail training specialist for the east region. Its “slim design” of 80mm in height and 50mm in depth “allows for easy wall mounting, which matches up perfectly with a 42-inch class screen,” which LG said is “one of the most popular class sizes sold” in the U.S. Bluetooth capability enables the user to wirelessly stream music from Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, tablet PCs or MP3 players to the Sound Bar, LG also said. There’s a headphone jack on the back for connection to iPods and other devices, Karalis said. HDMI inputs and outputs aren’t featured. The Sound Bar offers two optical inputs.

LG didn’t show Google TV products, and declined to say whether it will introduce any at CES or later in 2011. The company said at CES in January that it’s deepening the use of NetCast in its LCD TVs (CED Jan 6 p). Toshiba at CES will join the list of vendors supporting Google TV, said retailers briefed on its plans (CED Dec 14 p5).

The new LG Times Square billboard spans 81 feet, stretching around a corner, is 47 feet high and covers 4,200 square feet, an LG spokesman said. The screen is a “fully interactive attraction that allows” people passing it “to become part of the Times Square atmosphere,” LG said. The billboard features a fictional character, Gil, who serves as LG Good News Ambassador, the company said. The billboard is “partially powered by LG solar panels,” it said. Young and Rubicam New York, BrandBuzz and North Kingdom of Stockholm, teamed up with Dynamic Digital Displays to integrate real-time 3D animation based on Unity technology, RSS feeds, weather feeds, Twitter and SMS, LG said. “Because the 3D animation” featured on the billboard “is created in real-time, instead of just using loops or pre-rendered animations, Gil can actually respond differently to messages, weather reports or news feeds” throughout the day, LG said. The character “can also be manually taken over, so that a live person can manipulate Gil in real time, giving him a completely new level of customization and real time responses,” it said. The billboard’s “entire architecture has been designed so that the project can evolve and grow over the next two years,” it said.