Samsung Highlighting New UHD TV Technology, Smart TVs and Milk VR Download Service at CES

Samsung pushed SUHD technology, new platforms for its Milk content franchise and home appliances at its news conference Monday before CES. Joe Stinziano, executive vice president, took the wraps off the company’s first SUHD TV, an 88-inch model dubbed the JS-9500. The technology is based on Samsung’s proprietary nano-crystal semiconductors, which Stinziano said delivers the “highest color purity and light efficiency available today.” He also touted brightness and contrast and said SUHD delivers 64 times the “color expression” of conventional TVs and twice the number of adjustment points for display accuracy. Samsung collaborated with 20th Century Fox to optimize content to meet premium quality SUHD standards, Baxter said, which will allow consumers to have an “unrivaled” UHD experience. SUHD is a combination of hardware and software advances, according to Stinziano. Wonjin Lee, executive vice president-service business, said Samsung launched the first smart TV seven years ago, and mart TVs have become nearly standard today. “Soon we won’t be talking about smart TVs anymore,” he said, comparing the prevalence of smart TVs to that of color TVs. He cited the Tizen operating system that’s the platform for 2015 TVs that can be controlled by remote or gestures. Lee also cited the integration between Samsung TVs and mobile devices, saying at a press of a button a user could go from watching content on a tablet to watching on TV using Bluetooth Low-Energy on 2015 smart TVs. The user interface in 2015 smart TVs offers “seamless integration” across videos, games and the Web, giving “more choice than ever on the TV screen,” he said. The 2015 TVs will borrow from the second-screen experience to provide ancillary viewing information such as stats for sports so the viewer doesn’t have to look away, Lee said. Samsung Chief Operating Officer Tim Baxter said the company’s Milk Music and Milk Video streaming media services will be available as apps on Samsung smart TVs, and Milk Music will be available on PCs. Baxter also unveiled Milk VR, which he said delivers a “daily stream of 360-degree videos.” Milk VR is available for download from the online Oculus store. Samsung is launching with 30 titles, he said. Partners include the NBA, Matador, Acura and Mountain Dew, according to a slide presentation. In Ultra HD TV, Baxter said Samsung secured 60 percent market share in the U.S. last year, and half of its Ultra HD sales were curved models “proving that consumers see the value of the immersive TV experience.” In 2015, Baxter said, the Ultra HD market is expected to grow by a factor of four, to a third of all TV sales.