Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM AUGUST 2022 54 H ere on the East Coast, summer is when we live the good life – la vida buena, relaxo en todo! We all have our own way to celebrate the warmest months, whether it's poolside, away on vacation or with a dip in a lake or the ocean. But for us tech enthusiasts at Expert Warehouse (EW), the electronics distribution arm of the AVB BrandSource buying group, August and September still mean spending time by the grill while getting mesmerized by the beauty and convenience of outdoor TV. EW has had a longstanding relationship with outdoor entertainment. Outdoor TV has been a mainstay in our catalogs and for a long time remained a key segment all year round. A couple of years back Samsung released its Terrace TV series and has moved to the top of the food chain with its current all-weather offerings. What a picture! The key performance indicator for any outdoor TV is the measurement of the very thing you are fighting against: brightness. You see, the sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic thermonuclear furnace. That means a visual source like a TV must somehow cut through the glare. To view the same clear, crisp picture you are used to seeing indoors while enjoying the great outdoors requires some serious lumens. And let me tell you, the Terrace TV delivers, emitting 2,000 nits of luminosity. That's more than four times the brightness of the entry-level competitor and more than double the step-up series. And did we mention that there is an even brighter "full-sun" version (we call it the T9) that is even more brilliant in the 65- and 75-inch screen sizes? The Terrace is also a smart set, which oddly is not something that seems as important to other manufacturers when implementing streaming features and is IP55 water rated as well. While not entirely weatherproof, it is nonetheless water resistant, making it a formidable ally in the fight against inclement weather. It also brings over Samsung's proprietary Quantum Dot LED heritage from the company's QLED indoor TV range, meaning that a film of quantum particles is placed over a traditional LED-backlit screen. These particles help improve picture display by emitting their own colors. Different colors have different-sized dots, helping refine the color wavelength and increase the brightness. Samsung claims that this technology can effectively produce over a billion different color wavelengths, which surely sounds like it can provide a vastly improved picture source. This summer also brought a beast to indoor TV as well: The monstrous OLED97G2 monolith from our friends at LG Electronics. All models within the G2 series offer what LG is calling EVO panels, which feature a creative heat dissipation that solves the single greatest weakness of OLED technology, which once again is brightness. Moreover, while some insist that size doesn't matter, LG's advantage over Sony and Samsung, with their limited OLED offerings, boils down to size selection. From the introduction earlier this year of a 42-inch panel to the new 97-inch behemoth, LG simply has the scale to manufacture more sizes, since this is their technology, after all. The OLED97G2 is meant to be hung on a wall – it's razor-thin and gorgeous, has an artwork mode like the Samsung Frame, and there's no base for this monster anyway. OLED presents perfect black levels, is free of judder and presents a color spectrum that is breathtaking to behold. And let's face it, a 97-inch screen is basically a wall of television. If you have the room (and, ahem, 30 large), you too can be the envy of videophiles and film nerds alike and probably the rest of your ZIP code as well. Stephen Paczkowski Consumer Electronic Trends SUMMERTIME AND THE LIVING IS EASY (With some help from consumer electronics) Stephen Paczkowski is a product manager at Expert Warehouse, the consumer tech distribution arm of the AVB BrandSource buying group. RO Made in the Shade: Samsung's Terrace TV packs a powerful 2,000 nits of luminosity, enough to take on any poolside glare.

• Cover