With some many premium products already unveiled this year, Panasonic decided to concentrate on its already-available TVs, headphones and the like for its IFA booth this year. However, it did reserve one zone for more conceptual technology and that's where we spotted a particular gem - a wireless OLED TV that is so light that it can hang by a single wire.
We were told that it is 50 per cent lighter than a usual 55-inch OLED TV - mostly because it doesn't have any of the digital TV or smart gubbins inside. Instead, it is a display primarily, with just a single power cable needed to keep it working. The rest is contained in a completely wireless transmission box that was hidden amongst a rack of books underneath.
The box sends the picture and (we assume) sound signals to the 4K HDR display. And, from the looks of the images on screen during our demo, it is plenty good enough.
We learned that the box wasn't connected to any particular source though, so the test videos were likely stored on an internal hard drive. We were told that streaming services could be the answer here - meaning you could completely forego extra kit or cabling.
There are some ports on the back of the concept TV, to be fair, including an eARC-capable HDMI, but there is definitely scope in having a TV purely served by streaming. In fact, it's almost a certainty at some point.
Our big question though is whether this wireless TV concept will become reality? Gut instinct suggests not. Although, like with the concept cars we cover, there will undoubtedly be elements that Panasonic will look to incorporate in consumer tech.
We can't see a reason why it wouldn't look to use the wireless transmission box with a future set, for example. Maybe have it as a separate box with source inputs that subsequently sends the video and audio information to a (largely) cable-free TV. We've seen similar separates from other companies in the past - albeit with thin connectivity in-between. This seems a natural next step.
We hope so anyway.
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