US Open Sponsor LG Taking 4K Video of Fans, But No Live 4K Streaming of Matches

As the official electronics partner of the US Open Tennis Championships that began Monday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, LG is sponsoring the 1,300-square-foot LG Winner’s Circle showing off TVs, smartphones and its Magic Remote.

An LG spokeswoman told us the company is working with the U.S. Tennis Association “to capture tennis highlights” in 4K, which it plans to use for in-store demonstrations of LG Ultra HD TVs “in time for the holiday season.” No sports networks are live streaming 4K from the National Tennis Center, she said, and LG’s understanding is that it’s the only CE company that will be using the footage for demo purposes. LG hasn’t finalized the media format that will be supplied to dealers, she said.

The LG event space at the US Open, which runs through Sept. 8, will include interactive areas dedicated to particular LG technologies. In the LG webOS Challenge, fans compete against each other in tennis-themed trivia contests using the LG Magic Remote and webOS-enabled TVs, the company said. Fans can watch their tennis swings live on an LG 84-inch Ultra HD TV and take selfies with the LG G3 at a smartphone station, the company said.

LG extended the US Open sponsorship to an app that became available Monday via the Google Play store. App users can participate in the “US Open Live Prediction Challenge” by calling what might happen next in a match to earn points toward prizes, including LG G3 phones, a 55-inch LG OLED Smart TV, LG Tone wireless stereo headsets and a trip for two to the 2015 US Open in New York, a company spokeswoman said. LG mobile device users can earn extra points and have exclusive access to an LG Leaderboard, the company said.

Panasonic used its sponsorship of the US Open in 2010 and 2011 as a demo ground for 3D TV and was able to supply both cameras and TVs and supported with 3D content broadcast by CBS. With no broadcast standard for 4K and no sports network streaming the event in 4K, LG is relying on a 4K camera in the event area to take footage of fans’ tennis swings so they can see the “precision and detail” 4K content can provide, the spokeswoman said.

At the Open, LG is showcasing both curved OLED and 4K Ultra HD TVs but not the two together, the spokeswoman said. The company is saving that news for IFA, coming up next week in Berlin, but it put out a news release Monday announcing that it began taking orders in Korea Monday for Ultra HD OLED TVs that were first announced at CES in January. In a statement , the company said it’s “reinforcing the commitment” to bring Ultra HD OLED TVs to market in the third and fourth quarters of 2014, with one change. The model number of the 77-inch Ultra HD OLED TV has changed to 77EG9700, said Tim Alessi, LG director-new product development.

Alessi didn’t give U.S. pricing for the upcoming 65- and 77-inch curved OLED TVs 4K Ultra HD models, but said marketing plans will be released in “coming weeks.” LG is holding a news conference Sept. 11 as part of CEDIA Expo in Denver.

Reports on various news sites Monday pegged pricing for the 65-inch and 77-inch OLED 4K models as more than double the price of the $3,499 55EC9300 OLED TV that LG began shipping to Best Buy last week ahead of a national launch. The 65-inch was said to cost roughly $7,000 and the 77-inch $11,700, according to published reports. The 55-inch LG 1080p model, meanwhile, won a TV shootout, held at AV specialty store Value Electronics in Scarsdale, New York (CED Aug 20 p1), last week -- against much more expensive models -- sanctioned by the Imaging Science Foundation.

"OLED TVs are expected to overtake LCD in sales,” said LG CEO Hyun-Hwoi Ha in a statement, citing curved OLED’s “superb value” in reproduction, contrast ratio, detail and viewing angles.