AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – No matter how good your TV looks, there will always be clutter around it.
Requires cable, power cord, cable box or streaming device.
That is, until recently. Several companies advertise “wireless TVs,” but they all require at least one power cable connected to the back of the TV.
Displace TV does not require a power cable. Or cables for that matter.
“This is a battery-powered TV,” AJ Kirsch said as he guided me through the company's OLED 4K TV. “He has two built-in lithium-ion batteries and four hot-swappable lithium-ion batteries.”
The external battery has a slot on the side of the TV and can be removed with the push of a button.
If the internal battery is depleted, simply charge the external battery and the internal battery will be recharged.
Kirsch said the TV can provide 180 hours of playback when all batteries are fully charged.
“No wires, no ports, no cords. It's the world's first true wireless TV,” Kirsch said.
So what about the devices you need to connect to your TV? Gaming systems, cable boxes or streaming devices, soundbars, antennas?
Where do they connect to the TV?
“There's a place to do it,” Hirsch said, pointing to a series of boxes that looked like modems. “This is what's sending the signal to your TV, and it's sent through Wi-Fi 7, so it's not a problem when it comes to coverage. You don't even have to be in the same room. You need to be on the same floor to communicate seamlessly with your TV. It doesn't even have to be.”
That's impressive, but that's not the only “wow feature” of Displace TV.
“There's no mounting or installation of any kind. It's air-tight to the surface,” Kirsch explained.
To demonstrate this, Kirsch pressed two buttons on either side of a television mounted on a large piece of plexiglass. The TV made a sound indicating it was ready to be removed from the wall.
Kirsch then pulled the television from the wall. The large suction cup on the back of the TV will stick to almost any surface. Hirsch said the only surface he doesn't recommend is brick.
Otherwise, the set will remain hung on the wall as long as there is power in the batteries.
What happens when the battery dies? At last year's presentation at CES, all we could say was that the Displace could crash to the floor. After a year of development, he found a solution.
“The TV detects a critical level of battery life. It sticks itself to a surface and slowly lowers itself onto the tethering system to avoid falling,” Kirsch said.
A demo video showed Displace TV slowly lowering to the floor and then lying face down. Another feature of Displace TV is the facial recognition camera on the top of the TV.
Learn the faces of people in the house. If you get up and leave the room while watching a movie, the TV will automatically pause until you return.
If you have multiple Displace TVs, the program will unpause on the other TV when it detects you enter the other room.
So how much does this cost? The 55-inch version costs $4,000, Kirsch said. A small 27-inch Displace TV costs him $2,000. The third version, his Displace Flex, is his 55-inch TV with a stand that charges the TV's battery, similar to a wireless charger for a smartphone.
Displace is currently accepting pre-orders on the Displace website, and Hirsch said the TVs will start shipping in June or July.
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