Displace TV says its wireless OLED smart TV runs on batteries

Innovation in the electronics industry is often claimed, but rarely delivered. So when Displace told me it was creating an extremely innovative smart TV, I took the statment with a very large grain of salt.

But darned if they didn’t describe to me at least five innovations that I’ve never experienced in a TV. And in a couple of cases, these are concepts I’ve never even contemplated–at least not on a TV. While the underlying technology is far from new–the 55-inch, 20-pound, 4K TV is based on an OLED panel from LG–Displace is promising features that no TV manufacturer has ever brought to market.

Well, I should say has promised to bring to market. We don’t know when this TV will be offered for sale, or how much it will cost.

The Displace TV promises true innovation

Most surprisingly–the new Displace TVs will be entirely wireless. Not mostly wireless, as in Samsung’s OneConnect box, which uses a thin fiber-optic cable to bring both audio-video signals and power to the panel. We’re talking wireless as in entirely battery powered, with A/V signals streamed over Wi-Fi. And Displace says a full charge will yield a full month of use, based on six hours of viewing per day.

The next eyebrow-raising feature is related to how the TV gets mounted to the wall: With suction cups–or something like that. While I haven’t seen it in action, Displace founder and CEO Balaji Krishnan describes it as similar to the way a dash cam sticks to your windshield, or a shower rack mounts to the wall. Displace’s technology, however, is powered by the same batteries that run everything else. Given a sufficiently smooth surface, Krishnan says, you’ll simply press the TV against the wall and it will stick there.

Having had myriad shower racks eventually lose vacuum and fall off, I was immediately beset with visions of disaster. Sensing my dismay, Krishnan described a safety system that’s built into the TV: I kid you not: this TV has air bags.

A piece of tape will trigger the airbags when it’s stretched or snapped, and a second sensor will set them off it if detects negative gravity–much like a a free-fall sensor will protect a dropped hard drive. At least that’s my assumption as to the latter feature, which Krishman described as “traditional.”

Those two concepts alone make what some of the Displace TV’s other innovations seem almost mundane in comparison. First, you can send wireless streams from a single Wi-Fi 6e-powered box to multiple TVs. Second, the Displace TV is modular, meaning you can snap multiple panels together to build a much larger display. Who wants a 220-inch TV?! We’ve seen the latter in demonstrations–Sony’s Crystal LED, for instance, and Samsung’s The Wall–but not in TVs that the average Joe might consider deploying in the living room.

Displace says you’ll also be able to treat physically adjacent displays as discrete screens and watch different feeds from the base station on each one. Remember multiple tuners and picture-in-picture modes? They’re coming back. And 30-inch models are also in the works, which will be more suitable for smaller spaces.

Sending multiple high-resolution video streams over your Wi-Fi network will consume a lot of bandwidth, but a Wi-Fi 6e router and a high-speed broadband connection should be able to deliver that with ease. As far as we’ve been informed, Displace TV’s base unit won’t have an over-the-air TV tuner or accommodate cable or satellite TV connections, but we do know it has a Linux-based operating system, so such features could be added if the company sees fit. Displace did not provide us with an image of the base unit, and we haven’t seen any of this hardware in person; for that, we’ll need to wait until CES in January.

There is one unique feature of the Displace TV that I’m initially skeptical of: The TV will not have a physical remote control. Instead, you’ll control the set with hand gestures and/or voice commands. Gesture control will, of course, depend on a camera that’s perched atop the TV, but Displace says this component can slip down out of sight if you’re worried about privacy.

Displace TV is fascinating–and possibly game-changing

Personally, I could care less about doing away with a power cord or suction mounting. Those things might be super clever, sexy, and probably very nice to have, but they’re ultimately of peripheral concern in terms of TV-watching. Multiple wireless feeds and modularity, on the other hand, I really dig. You’ll be able to watch several games without changing channels!

But the one “feature” that gives me pause is the absence of a remote control. I’ve used all sorts of touch, gesture, and voice-control technology, and sometimes I just want to keep one arm at my side, maintain silence, and press a couple of buttons.

All that said, kudos to Displace for delivering true innovation in a product space that’s been rather moribund in terms of the user experience. I can’t wait to review one–and to find how much all this innovation will cost.