IFA REVIEW
to IFA for the first time since the pandemic, touted new display technology that I think could reframe the premium TV conversation. Surrounded by a faux film set, complete with Insta-friendly set piece and astronaut, Venice cinema camera and Director’s Chair, the Japanese giant unveiled its RGB LED prototype display to gasps and gawps.
26 Back in the driving seat
With jaw-dropping breakthroughs in TV technology and AI everywhere, this year’s IFA set the tone for a fascinating year ahead. Steve May reports from Berlin.
figures exceeding 220,000, with more than 1,900 exhibitors drawn from 49 countries. The buzz was loud, products shone and there were plenty of innovations to ponder. Small wonder the show’s management is
A Trends
When it comes to trends, AI continues to dominate.
Demonstrations weren’t shy about machine learning credentials, whether it was Bosch and
already cooing about strong pre-bookings for 2026. With dedicated areas for AI, robotics and lifestyle technologies, as well as expanded keynote activity, IFA looks certain to maintain its position global anchor for what’s likely to drive industry conversations - and retail sales - over the next 12 months.
ny suggestions that IFA may have left its best days behind were firmly quashed by this year’s show, which was back to its bustling best. Organisers reported attendance
Siemens showing kitchen appliances that learn family habits over time, or Miele fridges politely suggesting you make a pasta bake with the ingredients you’ve lazily left inside.
Unlike conventional MiniLED or QD-OLED sets, this panel ditches the quantum dot filter entirely in favour of a full-array RGB LED diode structure. The benefit is greater colour volume, richer purity, and an HDR performance topping out at a claimed 4,000 nits. Up close it looked startlingly bright. However, Sony’s Gavin McCarron insisted that this new tech isn’t just about raw luminance. It’s also a boon for colour accuracy, and, crucially he made a point of reminding anyone within earshot that Sony’s background in film mastering gives it a signal processing edge over rivals.
The display is able to cover over 99 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour space and approximately 90 per cent of the BT.2020 colour standard. A shootout between the RGB LED newcomer, and similarly sized Mini LED TV and OLED panels, confirmed the new screen approach, helped by Sony’s proprietary XR Backlight Master Drive, has the potential to be significantly brighter, with greater colour volume, than anything we’ve seen from the brand to date. According to Daisuke Nezu, Senior General Manager and Head of Home Product
Daisuke Nezu, Senior General Manager and Head of Home Product Business at Sony.
Hisense even fielded a troupe of dancing
robots, although several struggled to maintain grip on their pom-poms, which I found quietly satisfying. It seems we won’t be bending a knee to metal overloards for a while yet. Once again, screen tech was uppermost when it came to innovation. Sony, returning
Business, “RGB panel technology holds enormous potential to redefine how content is experienced.”
Sony claims its RGB LED tech offers four times the colour volume compared to QD OLED. Proprietary Color Booster technology enhances colour and brightness even further.
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