A Singular Idea: Transforming the TV Experience

Today there are more options for viewing content than ever—cable TV, over-the-top (OTT) services, video on demand (VOD) and more—and people’s homes have grown cluttered with devices, remote controls and complicated services. But the latest line of Samsung Smart TVs cuts through the clutter, simplifying the viewing experience even while making it more responsive and convenient.

“We wanted to fix that problem, so people don’t have to worry about what to tune in, what services to subscribe to,” said Won Jin Lee, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “It’s really about what do you want to watch, and what’s the best way to watch it, and how the service is rendered to you in the most convenient way possible.”

Samsung’s solution has been to pare everything down to a single, unified solution. “A single experience, single remote, and single access point,” said Lee.

Single experience refers to unifying how people experience TV watching, so it is the same, regardless of the source. These days, people enjoy watching content on a wide range of platforms, such as cable TV, gaming, VOD, OTT and more. But Lee noted how those platforms are often like silos, forcing consumers to choose their options, walling them off from the rest. Samsung’s goal with Smart TV was to break down those walls.

But unifying those services meant getting a wide range of companies to come together, often for the first time. Samsung spent months building partnerships and getting everyone on board. Lee in particular recognized Dish Network and Time Warner Cable for their cooperation. “This was the first time in the industry that MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors] have chosen to work with a consumer electronics company in order to create this seamless and consistent experience,” Lee said.

The new Samsung Smart Control remote simplifies how people use their TVs and related services. Powered by Samsung’s Tizen platform, the Smart Control remote immediately recognizes set-top boxes, OTT boxes, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other connected devices. The Smart Control represents a major cleanup, greatly streamlining people’s homes.

Finally, the new Smart TVs offer a single access point, meaning people no longer have to learn and re-learn a different control system for each device they have connected to their TVs. Now all devices are presented to consumers in a simplified, uniform manner, controlled from one place.

The result was the Smart Hub, a new interface capable of bringing together all sorts of content and platforms seamlessly. Now consumers can search through their devices in a convenient and easy-to-use screen right on their TVs, on a customizable interface that offers their favorite entertainment selections.

“You want to have all those choices, but at the same time you want to be comfortable. It has to be simple, it has to be easy,” Lee said. Together, the Smart Hub user experience (UX) and Samsung Smart Control remote have simplified TV into a single entertainment solution. “This really takes the whole TV experience to a whole new level that has not been done before in the industry.”

For more information about CES 2016, please visit our exclusive page #SAMSUNGxCES2016