LG comes with a wireless TV – Except the power cord

At the Consumer Electronics Show we typically see two types of TVs: the kind that many people actually (can) buy, and the kind that is technologically impressive, but unattainable for many. The latter is therefore no less interesting, because that’s where we find the greatest innovation. This also applies to LG’s new Signature OLED M series, which it calls “wireless” TVs. No, it doesn’t get energy through the air through a tesla coil; it just goes with a cable. However, it has no doors. You connect all your sources to a separate box, the Zero Connect Box, which is then connected wirelessly to your TV.

Why would you develop it? Because you can place or hang your TV in a better way without having to deal with a mess of cables that needs to be sorted out. Competitor Samsung solves this problem with its OneConnect box and single thin cable, which in practice is a much simpler option. What LG has come up with now seems quite complicated, but that doesn’t make the concept any less interesting.

De Zero connection box

During a private session in a hotel room somewhere on the 60th floor of a Las Vegas hotel, we were able to take a close look at the OLED M and ask questions of LG’s experts. Unfortunately, it was sometimes difficult to find answers and technical details. However, we were able to find out a few things about how the whole thing worked.

For starters, LG claims to have developed the technology itself. We can interpret this statement in different ways. It could be something LG from scratch built, including all hardware, antennas, and full software stack. It is also possible that the manufacturer has expanded an existing standard and made changes. For example, there is the 802.11ay-specwhich supports up to 40 Gbit per stream and could serve as a basis.

Be that as it may, what was particularly striking was the stability of the system. I once wore a pair of wireless HTC Vive VR glasses that had been fed images via WiGig, and as soon as someone opened the line of sight smashed between the glasses and the WiGig transmitter as I passed by, the image started to waver. This is not the case with the OLED M at all. I tried for a long time to interrupt the signal by shielding the box with my body, but this did nothing with the picture on the TV. According to an LG expert, the system itself looks for the best “path” through space, though we don’t know exactly what that means under the hood.

It has also been said that the frequency used is the one that is not used by other devices in the house, but we don’t know exactly what it is. Given the high bandwidth required, this will likely be somewhere in the 60GHz region, just like with WiGig.

LG claims that the Zero Connect Box has a range of no less than ten meters. At the demonstrations we have seen, it was about three meters away. He’s a big guy and personally I’d rather hide him in a closet, but LG advises against it. It was jokingly said that you can put a plant in front of you, but the fact remains that it is something that strikes you. It is also not recommended to hide it somewhere behind the TV. On top of the box is a turntable which acts as an antenna and is intended to always point towards the TV.

On the back of the box, you’ll find all the connections you’d expect: three times HDMI 2.1, coax for the tuner, S/PDIF, USB, and Ethernet. There’s also support for FreeSync, G-Sync, VRR, and QMS, so the wireless connection doesn’t seem to affect the various features of HDMI 2.1. Except for the maximum frame rate at 4k, which is capped at 120 instead of 144Hz.

The main question we entered the session with was simple: is compression used and does it affect the quality of the image or audio? We got a rough answer to this question, but not quite. The LG expert reassured us that the quality is not affected by the wireless signal and that you can expect the same quality as an LG TV that simply works with a cable. However, we have not received definitive confirmation that there is no compression. By the way, the TV looked beautiful at first glance, so if there is lossy compression, it was not noticeable in any case. We also haven’t been able to get concrete answers about possible latency, although it will undoubtedly be there. How noticeable it is, will have to be seen in practice.

By the way, the OLED M doesn’t have the same panel as the new OLED G3. It features a series of microlenses and therefore has a significantly higher brightness. However, the M series, like the other new models, runs on the 2023 edition of webOS.

Is the Signature OLED M a great piece of technology? Surely. Does this seem like too complicated a solution? Even that. Ultimately, you still need to hide a power cord, so if you’re hanging your TV, you still need cable conduit. Plus, you get a black box that you have to give a place to somewhere. However, we can’t wait to put the OLED M through its paces in our test lab. It will be in the second half of this year when it comes out in sizes 77″, 83″ and 97″.