As always, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is full of flashy new TVs expected to hit the market this year. To counter the plethora of new QLED, mini-LED and other OLED televisions releasing this year, Sony wants to differentiate its own OLED TVs with intelligence. Sony uses a new Bravia Cam with its A-series 4K OLED TVs, Z-series 8K and X-series 4K mini-LED models to optimise the picture and sound quality.
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The Bravia Cam is also used for video chat and gesture control. In conjunction with the camera, the TV can tweak the brightness, voice emphasis and sound balance based on your viewing distance and direction. It will also dim the display when you leave the room, or display a warning when your kids get too close to the screen. The camera is bundled with the flagship A95K and Z9K models, and is optional for all Sony’s other 2022 TVs as mentioned above.
According to Sony, all the functionality won’t ship with the camera and TV right out of the box – only the video chat will initially be enabled. Rather, you will need a firmware update, which it is expected to release early in this year.
If you are worried about privacy, there is a physical hardware switch to completely disable the camera. Neither the TV nor the camera will store any data locally or in the cloud, either. All positional data can easily be flushed from the TV’s cache as well.
Even without the addition of the camera, Sony’s new TVs come with a host of improvements. The new Quantum Dot OLED panel on the A95K can produce a larger colour range and also has more visible and wider viewing angles. The Z9K and X95K have smarter backlighting that reduces mini-LED’s characteristic light blooming without lowering brightness.
