[From the scene] Masters of colors and sound behind meticulous tuning of LG OLED TV

PYEONGTAEK, Gyeonggi Province -- In a 10-cubic meter dead room levitating in a bigger cube space at the LG Digital Park, a microphone stand is set in front of an organic light-emitting diode TV to catch sweep signals of 121 sounds coming from the TV.

The sound signals are represented as a linear graph on a computer monitor outside the dead room, which measures the balance of the sounds.

“LG’s sound identity is to keep the original sound as much as possible, while providing adaptive sound automatically controlled by TVs considering surroundings,” said an engineer who spent around 20 years tuning the sounds of LG TVs.

“LG’s sound engineers are masters who can catch any irregular sounds in 0.1 second and tune them to normal,” he said.

At the main research and development center for LG’s flagship OLED TVs in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, seasoned experts on sound and colors are dedicated to examining the visual and audio quality of finished TV products before being shipped out.

In another room that recreates an ordinary living room of a home, the engineers spend hours listening to various audio contents played on a TV in order to catch any distortions.

“TV sounds may be easily distorted by living room conditions, so LG’s OLED TV provides smart sound control that automatically measures and adjusts sounds itself,” the engineer said. 

“As OLED TVs expand in the market, manufacturers are now trying to differentiate their products with other features, and LG’s next differentiation point is definitely sound,” he added.

As for the quality of color display, LG runs a large room equipped with a picture quality performance system.

The equipment standing over 2 meters in height can mount up to 120-inch TVs and rotate them to the right and left, and up and down.

While moving the mounted TV on different angles, color experts examine more than 1,000 factors in each color, including brightness, contrast range, viewing angle and color reproduction range.

“While testing the colors, this room is closed with two layers of black-out curtains, and engineers are not allowed to carry their smartphones or any device that emits light,” said a senior engineer. “That is why OLED TV can produce perfect black compared to LCD TVs greyish black due to backlights.” 

LG’s OLED TVs won top spots in performance assessments conducted by 12 non-profit organizations in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal, Denmark and Australia last year, the company said.

This year’s OLED TVs have adopted to Alpha 9 machine learning processor that automatically analyzes images and adjusts color for optimal picture quality.

“The Alpha 9 has a graphic processing unit, and it is the first time for LG to adopt GPU in its TV products,” a company official said.

The Alpha 9 processor reduces noise in image signals in four steps, enhance three-dimensional effects and raises the accuracy of colors by sevenfold compared to previous OLED TVs.

“In a recent survey by Consumer Reports, OLED TVs snatched the top 10 positions among 279 TV products currently being sold worldwide, which proves the superiority of OLED TVs’ picture and sound quality,” said Jeong Jae-cheol, vice president at LG’s Home & Entertainment Business.

By Song Su-hyun (song@herladcorp.com)