Panasonic unveiled their next line of flagship products to the world yesterday in Frankfurt. The brand are well known in Ireland for their TV sets and they showed off the latest additions to their already extensive range.
Representatives from Panasonic discussed their membership in the UHD Alliance. This is the coming together of manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and LG with content producers such as Disney and Netflix to ensure the user has enough UHD content to watch on their UHD devices.
A Netflix rep took to the stage to discuss the importance of this partnership. It was explained that every step of the Netflix production process seeks to deliver the best quality content possible and that the UHD Alliance ensured that users have the devices capable of playing such high quality content.
"There is no doubt that the best quality TV is only available on the Internet. By 2030, Internet TV will have largely replaced traditional broadcast TV."
Firefox OS
The Japanese manufacturer has chosen to work with Mozilla on their new smart-tvs. The Panasonic 4K UHD LED VIERA TV will run Firefox OS and has a number of features including “My Home Screen 2.0”, which allows users to pin their favourite apps and channels to the main screen, making it easier to access the content you want.
The Firefox OS is open which allows for file sharing from phones, tablets or computers. This offers greater flexibility for consumer’s using various operating systems.
Once the TV is powered on the user is faced with a series of “decks”. These are small icons on the screen that help the user navigate their way into their content. The following decks are on display:
The Live TV Deck
Watch live broadcasts and build up a personalised ‘home screen’ of the most-watched channels.
The Apps Deck
Use the Firefox’s graphically rich platform to access the TV apps available through the platform. In time, these apps will include everything from the most popular video on demand partners to games.
The Devices Deck
Any devices connected to your TV, either by cables or WiFi, will appear in this deck, providing rapid access to external sources such as: tablets, smartphones, computers, Blu-ray players, SD cards, and USB storage drives.
