Smart TVs everywhere you look

Visits to IFA (the massive Consumer Electronics show in Berlin) and IBC, (the almost-as-huge broadcast conference) in the last two weeks shows the staggering amount of emphasis – and money – that is being staked on connected TV.

Just take a look at the Samsung branding below – they took over a whole exhibition hall in Berlin – and smart TV (TV with apps provided by partners including LoveFilm, YouTube, iPlayer, Blinkbox, Muzu, Betfair and many more) was at the centre of everything, wherever you looked.

Having seemingly coined “smart TV”, Samsung are now finding it has become the generic as every CE manufacturer promotes its own version – often with many of the same partners providing the apps.

The app download statistics are likely to remain the property of the apps providers currently, and (based on a few conversations to date, including with LoveFilm) it seems unlikely that this will be released in the short term. Suffice to say the early adopters’ reaction has varied significantly from one app to another – Muzu we gather is one that has fared particularly well on the Samsung platform.

The remote needs to be smarter too with all this interactivity, so the pattern is for the viewer to download an app, which then acts as the remote (see Philips below) for use on mobile or iPad.

Interestingly, early research from the US suggests that this may be having a small but notable effect on second screen usage – the logic is some of the time you use the app on the TV screen instead now. However, Virgin has announced a similar app to work with its TiVo-powered set-top box. The application will also allow you to use your iPad as a second TV screen to watch on-demand programmes (even if the TiVo box itself is showing something else at the same time).

Or you can work your TV as you do your Wii. Point at the movie you want on the on-screen guide, motion for more info and motion for it to play. They call it natural user interfaces.

Here is a quick precis of some of the other selected smart TV offerings (pretty much everyone offers YouTube, Twitter and Facebook):

• Grundig – Launches in two months. Offers its own EPG; several app partners including TripAdvisor, Picasa, Viewster, Funspot.

• Philips – Launches very soon. Download a smart TV app, which acts as your remote and can control sets in other rooms too. It has its own EPG.

• LG – heavy focus on films; partners include iPlayer, 50 global movies partners and 50 others. “Premium content” is those apps that have premium positioning on the screen (mostly films again).

• LG was also promoting its recently launched smart TV upgrader (€129), which would upgrade any HD TV to become a connected TV.

• And thinking online rather than TV for a moment, Samsung was showing smart object recognition, where your screen can recognise cards and shapes and movements – more natural user interface.

• 3D has not been forgotten either – with queues at IFA to view glasses-free versions 3D; and designer 3D glasses available from the likes of Calvin Klein and Jill Sander too!