And Philips said, let there be Ambilight

BERLIN, Germany – If at last year’s consumer electronics fair Internationale Funkausatellung (IFA) high-definition TV (HDTV) was a promise – one that would change the entire industry and consumer behavior – it was clear at IFA 2006, held early this month in Berlin, that HDTV has most definitely arrived. At Messe Berlin’s exhibition halls, IFA banners were all about HDTV – which company has the biggest-sized TV, which has sharpest images and colors.

Here’s one for the books – something that would qualify on the old TV show The Start of Something Big, about small inventions and accidents that have resulted in successful products that could potentially change the way we live. The story goes that one Philips employee in the US was entertaining friends at home – the usual ballgame (or perhaps it was a movie marathon) over beer and snacks. He put a lamp behind his TV for effect and then dimmed the lights in the room. At one point, he turned off the lamp and his friends jumped from the couch demanding that he turn it back on. They loved it – maybe because of the ambience the backlighting or maybe they found watching TV with it easier on the eyes. Whatever it was, a new idea for innovative technology was born. He quickly recognized it as such and built a prototype – the start of something very big.

So big that at IFA, it was the one unique feature that stood out from the sea of HDTV offered by different consumer electronics companies.

Thus, Philips takes the HD experience a step further with Ambilight or ambient lighting, creating an "immersive" and a much more relaxed viewing experience with lighting around the TV matching the video content. If the image on your screen is of blue skies, the lighting around the TV turns blue; if it’s an orange sunset glow, the color around turns orange.

Rick Harwig, CEO of Philips Research – a division composed of about 1,600 people from multiple disciplines spanning physics, chemistry, medicine, engineering and psychology – says Ambilight was invented about three years ago. "We were the only one to put a ‘lamp’ behind the TV, which a lot of people thought was totally crazy."

Look how far this crazy idea has come: Philips predicts that before the year ends, it will sell its one millionth TV with Ambilight worldwide, accounting for one billion euros (about P66 billion); last year, this Dutch company’s Consumer Electronics division had a turnover of 35 billion euros (P2.31 trillion).

"Research shows us that for 87 percent of viewers, watching TV with Ambilight backlighting is a perfect way to relax," says Rudy Provoost, CEO of Philips Consumer Electronics. "If you want to reduce your stress levels watching television, Ambilight is your ideal option because it significantly reduces eye strain. That’s what consumers tell us and that’s what eye surgeons tell us."

Ambilight Full Surround, which has light emanating from all sides of the TV, increases the quality of the picture and further involves viewers in the movie or TV show. This, says, Provoost, ties in with the company’s brand promise: sense and simplicity. "It’s all about understanding what people really want: advanced products designed around the user and easy to experience. Consumers want exciting experiences, not hassle with technology. We put the consumer left, right and center. Take our high-definition products, for example. Consumers tell us that picture quality is by far the most important factor when they buy a new television. No wonder the transition toward HD is taking place faster and faster. In 2008, more than 80 percent of all flat TVs sold in Europe will be HD-ready, up from 50 percent in 2006. HD broadcasting is picking up, too."

HDTV proved its worth as a medium at the FIFA World Cup last June where Philips installed giant HDTVs around host country Germany. It was the first ever tournament, all 64 games, to be broadcast in full HD quality fed to over 70 countries around the world. The audience response to clear, crisp, high-def images has spurred more networks, TV studios, and other content providers to produce shows in high-def. After all, there’s not much use for an HD-ready TV if you have no HD content to watch.

"We are clearly leading in the HD revolution," he says. Philips shipped the most number of LCD TVs worldwide in the first half of 2006, according to market research organization DisplaySearch. It has also won design awards for its TVs from EISA

At IFA, Philip’s stand occupied an entire hall of about 8,000 square meters. There, it unveiled the company’s 100-inch Ambilight Full Surround HDTV prototype – coming a full decade after the company introduced the world’s first Plasma flat TV in 1996.

Today there are two new versions of Ambilight on the market: Ambilight Full Surround, which projects ambient light on all four sides of the TV, and Ambilight Surround, which features lighting units on three sides.

One story I love to retell is about watching an old (and I mean old) rerun of the TV series Mission Impossible. The villain threatens the MI team to back off, saying, "I have in my hand the codes to launch nuclear weapons" – and he waves a six-inch floppy diskette. A diskette that we all thought was so wonderful in the ‘80s yet it did not even have the capacity to store one megabyte!

Today, the talk is all about Blu-ray Disc’s 50 GB capacity – the equivalent of hundreds of those floppy diskettes, 72 CDs and 10 DVDs. It still amazes me how far technology has pushed media storage in the past 25 years.

As in any consumer electronics fair in recent years, IFA became a venue for the continuing debate on the future format of playing movies at home. Will it be Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD? (It seems like a million years ago that the same type of question was being asked: Will it be Beta or VHS?)

Philips throws its support behind Blu-ray. Provoost says confidently that Blu-ray "embodies the future for playing movies, for storing personal HD content, and for recording and playing back HD TV programs."

Philips has supported Blu-ray as a standard from the very start, being a founding member of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which is composed of 170 members reading like a who’s who of consumer manufacturers – 90 percent of the CE industry and most of the IT industry. Blu-ray, they say, is the real convergence medium for TV home cinema and PCs.

"It is by far the very best optical storage solution for the HD era because it offers the highest quality, the largest storage capacity, and the backing of the consumer electronics industry and the studios," says Provoost.

Blu-ray discs have the capacity to store from 25 gigabytes (GB) to the dual-layer 50 GB, as opposed to HD-DVD’s 30 GB dual-layer, allowing for the distribution and recording of HD video in the highest quality (CDs offer up to 700 megabytes, DVDs up to around 4 GB) and also interactive features to create ultimate user experience.

IFA visitors saw the first range of Blu-ray products, which included the new BDP9000 Blu-ray player, the Triple Writer PC drive, and packs of 25 GB recordable discs.

It all sounds wonderful, but what does it mean for the consumer? For computer users, it means you can store your entire hard drive in one disc – music, photos, videos; for gamers, it means high-resolution 3D games; for home movie viewers, it means watching movies (1920x1080 pixels) recorded on HD – super sharp images and sound. A lot of people seem to forget that it is not just the quality of the picture that will improve, but also the sound.

At the IFA press conference, film clips from Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven were shown and you could tell why Blu-ray has got the whole industry all agog over what it has to offer. Imagine having the capacity of 10 DVDs on a single BD – nine hours of HD movies or 23 hours of standard definition TV programs. BD will also use the easy drag-and-drop style to store data.

Blu-ray discs are the same size as DVD and CD, and Philips’ recently announced players will be backward-compatible. What about the price? Because many manufacturers will be selling their own BD players, competition for consumers will ensure that it will go down – just like how DVD players have become so affordable through the years.

Other products that Philips showcased at IFA were its Showline Media Center, a key product in its Connected Planet portfolio. This allows you to access all types of content on your TV, including Internet-based services, from different rooms in your house. You can check your e-mail, play music, view photos, and, of course, watch TV. The new Media Center that Philips will launch in autumn will have a Blu-ray Disc drive, too.

"It’s the hub for all your digital content," says Provoost. "It is also a clear expression of ‘Sense and Simplicity’ at work. If somebody were to ask me, mention one, and only one, differentiator that sets it apart from others, I would say, ‘Ease of use.’ With a single remote control, you can navigate around all your equipment."

The question is, do people want such a product? "Many, many people do. Because they have an ever growing volume of digital pictures, movies, music and recorded programming that they want to access hassle-free from different rooms in their homes. As broadband and wireless technology are driving further increases in stored content, the need for a Media Center to manage this content will only increase."

For a more basic product to play your songs, there’s the Wireless Music Station, which can store up to 1,500 CDs on 80 GB capacity and play songs from anywhere in the house. It can also be connected to the Philips’ GoGear MP3 player, an iPod and other USB music devices.

Another interesting product that’s a bit Harry Potter-esque is the digital photo frame, which stores and displays photos form a memory card. Now, you don’t have to change the pictures in your frame, you can just click a button and voila, your picture with your wife comes onscreen the moment she steps into your office to pick you up.

At IFA, it became clear that the world is right smack in the middle of a digital/high-definition evolution (we had the digital revolution years ago) and this time, as technology behind products is becoming more complicated, products are becoming surprisingly easier to use.

Welcome to the 21st century, high-definition style.