CES is always a major event for TV tech, and last month’s event in Las Vegas didn’t disappoint. Even though Sony didn’t show off its next TVs, we were still overwhelmed with new models and innovative tech demos from Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL.

These are all makers of the best TVs around, and all like to push the envelope with cutting-edge TV tech at CES. Some of this tech will appear in models available this year, while some will just be shown as proof of concept, hopefully to be used in future sets.

What we see at CES shapes not only the TVs that arrive in 2025, but those that will come in 2026 and beyond, as the companies battle to outdo each other and as high-end tech trickles down into more affordable models.

Below, here’s the tech I saw at CES 2025 that I think will have the biggest effect on the best OLED TVs and best mini-LED TVs in the future.

1. RGB Backlighting
This tech is probably the TV takeaway from CES 2025, and was shown off by Samsung, Hisense and TCL, all at slightly different stages. It’s a new way of doing LCD TVs and it works the same as current tech: a backlight of LEDs shines through a grid of color-filtering pixels. Except in current versions of the tech, the backlight is a single color of LED (usually blue), so the color-filtering layer has to do a lot of work. This saps energy from the light, limiting brightness.

In RGB backlights, each LED has red, green and blue elements, meaning it can shine in the right color for what’s on-screen before it goes through the color-filtering layer. This means the color filter can be much less aggressive—TCL even confirmed that it’s dropping quantum dots from its version of the tech—and the light can shine through more efficiently.

The result is even brighter TVs, or TVs at the same level of brightness that use less power. And at the same time, the color gamut is wider, meaning more vibrant and rich images in just about every way.

Samsung said its version of the tech (which it’s calling RGB Micro LED Backlight) shouldn’t really cost more than its mini-LED TV. Samsung’s version is likely to come in a 4K TV later this year, though the version Samsung showed us at CES was an 8K TV. TCL said its version of the tech will arrive in 2026, but there was a prototype at the show.

Hisense has the edge here—it unveiled a 116-inch TV that uses the tech, which it’s calling “TriChroma RGB Backlight.” We were very impressed by the Hisense 116UX upon seeing it in person.

2. Four-Stack OLED
There’s a new type of OLED panel in town, and it’s all fours. The latest OLED TV panel from LG Display, which makes OLED screens used by every TV manu­facturer that offers them, is a leap forward for the tech. It adds an extra layer of OLED pixels into the panel, on top of the three layers used in previous generations.

This adds a load of extra brightness and aids color reproduction, with the screen being up to 40% brighter than the previous highest-end OLED panel from LG—and that’s without the micro lens array (MLA) tech that has been used to boost the brightness of the screens previously.

This panel is used in the LG G5 and Panasonic Z95B, and appears to be the panel used in the 83-inch version of the Samsung S95F.

This four-layer panel will likely become the norm that future panels are built on, and hopefully it’ll be possible for it to trickle down to the mid-range panels—something that never happened with MLA.

3. Wireless Connection Boxes
LG has offered a TV with a wireless connection box for a couple of years now, but it’s been its highest-end OLED TV—inherently very niche. This year, LG has expanded it to its mini-LED QNED range as well.

Meanwhile, Samsung has introduced a wireless connections box for its highest-end 8K TV, and for The Frame Pro art TV, as well for its 8K Premiere projector. And Samsung’s box is much smaller than the big beast of LG’s unit, making it feel much more like tech a normal person might have in their home one day.

So suddenly, the wireless TV connection arms race is on. The idea of these boxes is that your TV can sit on the wall or on a stand with just a single power cable running to it, and the direction of that cable doesn’t have to be determined by the positioning of your consoles and set-up boxes. You’ll be able to hide all your gadgets away and have a clean TV area—total aesthetic and tech freedom.

Samsung has said that if the wireless boxes are well-received, it will roll them out to more TVs—it said this about its OLED Glare Free tech last year, and it proved to be true, with the tech being added to mini-LED TVs in 2025. So we’ll have to see if this year’s wireless boxes work well and if people are happy paying a premium for them—and, if so, we’ll see whether other TV companies follow suit, and whether LG starts offering it in more of its own OLED range.

4. On-Device AI That’s Actually Useful
TV companies have been talking about AI features for several years now, and it’s been largely meaningless—it basically meant that machine-learning-based image processing had been applied.

But now that people tend to mean generative AI when we talk about AI, that’s being added to TVs too—and in some actually smart ways. On its TVs last year, LG introduced the idea of a chatbot that you could speak to naturally, and the TV could find the setting to help you. So if you said to it, “The picture is too dark,” it would bring up the brightness options for you. That proved to be a bit of a false start, but this year it’s looking better. The updated version will be combined with AI-based voice recognition so that whenever you use the voice control of the TV, you get personalized responses, and even personalized picture settings.

Samsung, meanwhile, is putting an AI button on its remotes, to act as a kind of voice control button. One of the best features it showed off is the ability for the TV to live translate from a show’s native audio language into subtitles for another language. It supports Korean, English, Spanish, French and Italian so far, and appears to work really well—a great boost for accessibility, and again, something I expect to see lots of brands picking up.

5. Ultra-Precise Backlight Lenses
Last year, Sony showed off a new backlighting tech for its mini-LED TVs. It used really smart lens designs to provide strong brightness levels that don’t leak from bright areas into dark areas, and offered amazing nuance in the picture contrast. This year, we’re seeing a backlight from TCL that looks like an even better version of this—and this will be the future of the more midrange mini-LED TVs if RGB backlighting will be the new high-end tech.

TCL’s backlight is kind of incredible to see—the company had a demo where you could see just the backlights in motion, so you could compare the new 2025 backlight to the previous year’s backlight and a more basic one.

You can basically just watch TV on the new backlight; it has so many LEDs, and such strong control of contrast and tones, that it’s actually detailed. TCL showed this tech off the best, but it’s something other makers are absolutely working on too—expect to hear a focus on well this year’s mini-LED handle blooming and contrast.

This article initially appeared on TechRadar, sister website to TV Tech.

SAN FRANCISCO—If the last year has proven anything, it’s that broadcasters are a resilient bunch. In March 2020, when newsroom stations began to be shuttered, news staff scrambled for ideas to pull off productions at home. 

Despite some hiccups, many stations across the country pulled off a successful, on-the-fly runaround because newsroom production technologies proved up to the task—the ability to pull in content, edit proxy material, upload graphics, cache locally—all with the final goal of covering breaking news faster even though they weren’t in the newsroom at all. 

Consider the obstacles: security restrictions, VPN hurdles and the related problems of less-than-adequate broadband connections, licensing limitations, news workflow disruptions and more. Despite all that, the work needed to be done. 

THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF CLOUD

“While anyone can bring an on-premises editor into their house, it’s the team collaboration, news production workflow and management of files that is problematic. There is simply no editorial process or metadata management [in place],” said Raoul Cospen, director of product strategy for news at Dalet.

For any station pushed into a pandemic workaround, access to the cloud proved key as did a way of managing many reporters and editors in multiple locations. 

“We had a number of news customers asking for help to support their remote workforces and adjust their infrastructure so that it could support editing from home,” said Bea Alonso, chief market officer at Dalet. The company’s answer to newsroom shutdowns was Dalet Galaxy xCloud, a cloud-based newsroom solution, she said.

“[It] allowed our customers to offload some of their teams to work on Dalet-hosted infrastructure while being away from the physical newsroom,” Alonso said. “Other clients used it as an extension of their on-premise Dalet installation, to provide business continuity to reporters, producers and editors.”

One interesting element about Galaxy xCloud, Alonso said, is that it provides tools familiar to anyone familiar with working in a physical newsroom. This meant there was no additional training required to enable people to produce, edit, write scripts and collaborate with their teams from their homes, Alonso said.

One broadcaster that made quick use of this tool was France Télévisions, the national television network of France, which employed Galaxy xCloud to enable news workflows from home. The SaaS-based system helped facilitate end-to-end remote news production workflows, giving them the flexibility to support remote work for its more than 300 journalists. 

In addition to concerns over bandwidth, security and licensing issues, working from home created another speedbump: how does a broadcaster handle team collaboration, news production workflow and management of files when your team is no longer in the same room? 

By working with Amazon Web Services and their cloud capabilities, Galaxy xCloud securely connected staff at home to the Dalet Galaxy five on-premise media asset management system. This gave journalists during the pandemic access to tools like the Dalet OneCut news editor so they could search the production system, collaborate with producers and edit growing files. 

“It’s seamless integration whether you are at home, in the newsroom or in the field,” Cospen said.

News organizations also tapped into new mobile applications such as the Dalet On-the-Go mobile newsroom application, which  enables a remote reporter to connect to their newsroom with a mobile device and write scripts, upload content to the newsroom and use the mobile device as a teleprompter. 

“User demand during the pandemic accelerated the development of this mobile app,” Alonso added.

GOING VIRTUAL

But newsroom production technology wasn’t the only tool that stepped into the abyss during the early days of the pandemic.

When U.K. radio station talkRADIO wanted to create video programming to stream online alongside its radio programming, it considered using a virtual set system, but this was made trickier by the fact that guests had to stay socially distanced while in the studio or had to call in by Zoom. 

“We were looking at innovative solutions to engage our audiences and satisfy our advertisers, over and above what other radio broadcasters are doing,” said Nick Prater, head of broadcast technology for Wireless Group Media, which operates 11 radio stations in the U.K. “We determined that virtual studio technology was now mature and could provide the unique advantage we needed.”

The answer turned out to be a StarTracker Studio virtual system from Mo-Sys. The broadcaster only had a small space to convert into a studio, Prater said, “but we wanted it to look big, to look luxurious,” he said. As part of the virtual set, talkRADIO installed Panasonic PTZ cameras and the Unreal Engine from Epic Games running on standard HP workstations. 

The system is combined with a preconfigured rack of switching, keying and the graphics power to sustain photorealistic virtual environments in real time. Using three tracked cameras—one on a rolling tripod, one on rails and one on a jib —customers can set up a variety of shots and scale up to 16 cameras. 

PARTY OF ONE

Beyond the new realities imposed by the pandemic, advanced visual storytelling remains a key goal for many newsroom systems. Vizrt’s Newsroom Solution Suite, a cross-platform newsroom content creation system, allows journalists to independently prepare, script, plan and create with graphics, video, stills, data visualizations and maps. With this system, one journalist can be a one-person production crew.

Journalists can scale and adjust the tools they need based on the volume of required output and the type of content needed for a specific platform, and can also create data-driven election graphics and submit breaking news stories and publish as needed to different platforms. 

That’s the simple reality: The pace of the news cycle has never been faster, said Daniel Nergard, president of Vizrt.

“Today’s journalists need to be able to create on multiple output formats, often at the same time, in order to reach and engage their audience,” he said. Nergard added that Newsroom Suite simplifies workflows and offers easier access to a comprehensive set of tools, making it so that journalists can focus on what matters most: Telling the story.

“Vizrt Newsroom allows journalists to scale and adjust the tools they need to the volume of required output and produce any type of content for any kind of show, program or platform,” said Gerhard Lang, CTO for Vizrt. “Content production teams can create anything from data-driven election graphics and breaking news stories, to social media aggregation, and republish and adapt to any combination of output needs.”

Using Vizrt Newsroom’s browser-based interfaces, journalists can plan, create and edit stories from either their newsroom, the road or from home. This feature proved vital during the early days of the pandemic. 

“During the pandemic we saw creative use of virtual technology not only from broadcasters but also the corporate world,” said Andre Torsvik, head of marketing strategy for Vizrt Group, referring to a corporate event organized by Janssen, an immunology company that saw its Covid-19 vaccine receive emergency use authorization in the U.S. in early 2021. 

The three-day corporate event took place using Vizrt virtual environments. The company used Viz Arc to control graphics and handle virtual camera transitions. All material was produced in the Amazon Web Services cloud and controlled from three international locations, Torsvik said.

“We have seen some brilliant work from our customers in leveraging software-based solutions to break through old hardware-based limitations,” he said.

Vizrt also recently released the Vizrt XR Extended Reality system, which gives journalists virtual, augmented, mixed and extended reality storytelling capabilities. Used in the studio or at a home location, the virtual set can be reset from one show to the next in a matter of minutes. A wall at home can serve as a blank canvas allowing for interaction between presenters and graphics objects. 

According to Nergard, the system is designed to make it easier to run immersive, extended reality shows. State-of-the-art camera tracking and AI keying technology create hyper-real, precise graphics. Virtual views, 3D camera flights and myriad analysis tools let the presenter break down a sporting event interactively, either by offering insights on a touchscreen or virtually inserted right on the wall.

HAMILTON, N.J.—No longer cartoonish or fake looking, virtual sets now display remarkably realistic HD and 4K environments that surround on-air presenters or give the illusion of an immense scene extending beyond the studio walls.

Recently, a new live virtual graphics technology has taken center stage—augmented reality (AR)—where 3D objects appear to leap out of a video wall, rise up from the floor, or animate into the scene in visually appealing ways.

Virtual sets and augmented reality are becoming increasingly popular—both among networks and local stations—because they offer creative new options for spicing up the look of live shows quickly and cost-effectively.

AUGMENTED VIRTUAL SETS

“By having virtual elements magically appear in the middle of the set, broadcasters can present very trendy, eye-catching studio looks and tell better stories to viewers,” said Ofir Benovici, senior director of broadcast products for Avid. “With sufficient processing power, augmented reality can now generate realistic virtual objects, such as virtual video walls that rival their physical counterparts. And, while physical video walls and touchscreens are expensive and complex to maintain, virtual video walls are easier to implement, with lower costs over time.”

Avid’s ProSet virtual set system can be implemented as a full turnkey solution or flexibly configured with third-party components.

One factor driving demand, according to Benovici, is that processing engines are more capable of highly complex, yet credible, live virtual sets and effects. Another factor Benovici cites is, “precise camera tracking, which is also essential to having virtual elements correspond properly with physical elements in a holistic way for a unified visual effect.”

Avid’s ProSet virtual set system can be implemented as a full turnkey solution or flexibly configured with third-party components, such as camera tracking technology. Benovici added that virtual sets could maximize physical studios by allowing multiple shows to be produced in the same space quickly and cost-effectively, each with their own distinctive, aesthetic broadcast look.

VIRTUAL SET WORKFLOWS

Broadcasters are blending physical and virtual elements for a more dynamic look. For example, instead of having large monitors and video walls on a physical set, augmented reality displays, like virtual monitors or data-driven graphics, can rise up from the floor and be waved away when no longer needed.

“When on-air presenters are talking about something displayed on a greenscreen backdrop, they tend to have their backs to the audience, which is not visually engaging,” said Dave Larson, general manager for virtual solutions at Ross Video. “But with augmented reality, a meteorologist can tell viewers about an impending tornado while a virtual tornado is spinning right in front of him for a real wow factor.”

Ross offers the entry-level Ross Trackless Studio or complete turnkey system. The Ross virtual studio workflow typically includes a Ross Xpression real-time motion graphics system, Furio and CamBot robotic systems, Solid Track for camera tracking, UX for virtual systems operation, OverDrive automated production control, Carbonite production switchers, Ultrachrome HR keyers, and the new Acid camera, which was designed specifically for greenscreens.

According to Larson, augmented reality implementations are accelerating since the technology can be adopted quickly and cost efficiently, without making changes to an existing studio. “While virtual sets require upfront hardware costs,” Larson said, “in most cases they could be designed and built for one-tenth the cost of physical sets, which can often off-set the incremental hardware costs.” He adds that by swapping out virtual sets, back-to-back shows could be produced from the same studio, which reduces production costs.

IP-DRIVEN WORKFLOW

With the introduction of its TriCaster Advanced Edition software last year, NewTek added the ability to integrate 3D augmented reality graphics, objects and text within the virtual studio. With sophisticated control of layered keying, these virtual objects can appear to be floating in the midst of practical fixtures in the physical studio.

“What we’re witnessing is an evolution, possibly a revolution, in the way that broadcasters blend virtual, graphical and physical elements together to produce fresh, novel, imaginative studio looks,” said Will Waters, director of product marketing for NewTek.

“Using dynamic, graphically intense virtual sets will help broadcasters compete for viewers, especially those in the coveted younger demo who tend to be visually and graphically oriented,” Waters said. While the NewTek TriCaster has its own integrated virtual studio, and library of hundreds of 3D virtual set options, it also interfaces with major third-party virtual set systems by Brainstorm, Vizrt and others.

With the new Network Device Interface (NDI)—an IP-based workflow that NewTek developed and provides to other manufacturers for free—NewTek is expanding live video productions with TriCaster and these benefits impact both virtual studios and augmented reality.

With NDI, TriCasters can send hi-res video over a standard Gigabit Ethernet IP network to virtual studio systems like Brainstorm and Vizrt for processing and the resulting virtual/augment reality effect becomes a TriCaster source, with no additional latency. “We’re continually expanding our live branding and studio toolkit to empower our customers to be as creative as their budgets and ambitions allow,” said Waters.

RAZZLE DAZZLE

David Jorba, president of Vizrt Americas, cites many factors that are driving the growing augmented reality trend, including advances in technology, such as video boards and graphics, and GPUs capable of HD and 4K, Specific to the Vizrt Viz Virtual Studio, he cites Vizrt’s new Viz Tracking Hub for easier set-up, and Viz Engine for faster processing and rendering of HD and 4K virtual sets.

At the NAB Show, Vizrt demonstrated augmented reality in conjunction with its Viz Virtual Studio on a 7.2-meter video wall.

“Broadcasters can now create engaging virtual studios, graphical looks and effects easier and at a price-point that wasn’t possible just a few years ago,” he said. “With augmented reality, on-air presenters can appear to toss 3D objects off the video wall behind them—such as popular sports figures or NASCAR cars—and create a seamless transition to bring the objects in front of the anchor desk for a more exciting live effect. These 3D objects can also be driven by real-time data, such as sports stats or elections results so the anchor can analyze the news while directing the augmented reality object.”

At the NAB Show, Vizrt demonstrated augmented reality in conjunction with its Viz Virtual Studio on a 7.2-meter video wall. Camera tracking systems, including Motion Analysis IR and Ncam handheld tracking, tracked and measured the physical cameras’ movement in relation to the staging area so that the virtual studio’s camera perspective would always change accordingly for a credible effect.

The demo showed how greater photorealism can be achieved by using software plug-ins, such as RTT Shaders, Allegorithmic Substance, and Enlighten Global Illumination, which add 3D lighting, textures, shading, reflections, and other finishing touches that change in relation to camera movement in real-time. The virtual sets for Viz Virtual Studio can be created using any major 3D software package, such as Cinema 4D and Softimage.

CAMERA SUPPORT IS KEY

In the early days of virtual sets, the physical camera used to have to remain in a fixed position and camera moves were limited to pan, tilt and zooms due to the complexity of lens calibration and tracking. But, “people eventually wanted to move the camera around the physical studio on a pedestal while tracking its position,” said James Eddershaw, sales director for Shotoku UK. “We’ve been doing this for years with our VR pedestals, which use high-performance encoders and processors to measure the camera’s exact position.” Shotoku’s VR pedestals’ tracking systems can output data to any leading virtual studio system.

“People today want to use dramatic camera moves, like the big sweeping motion of a jib or crane, with their virtual studios,” Eddershaw added. Shotoku’s VR robotic camera systems, specialized cranes and jibs can track these dynamic camera moves.

“They even want to move the physical camera freely around the studio—using Steadicam, shoulder-mount or handheld shooting styles—all with the same highly accurate camera tracking for a more immersive, interactive experience,” Eddershaw said.

When placed on the physical camera, Shotoku’s Free-D2 absolute tracking device frees cameras to move anywhere up to 360 degrees within the physical studio. It looks upwards at the lighting grid, and locates distinguishing markers that it can use to continually pinpoint the camera’s position, and outputs the data to any leading virtual studio system.

PRICE-CONSCIOUS MARKETS

At Broadcast Pix, Product Manager Tony Mastantuono finds that their customers in the small to mid-tier markets are moving away from full virtual sets, especially if they have tight budgets.

“The higher-end markets have the budgets to make their virtual sets look really good, with high-end tracking of multiple cameras for greater realism,” Mastantuono said. “But many price-conscious customers are moving away from virtual sets because, at their budget levels, the sets tend to look fake and they run into technical roadblocks. They’re opting instead for physical sets with virtual imagery keyed into the green or blue background.”

For those that need affordable solutions, Broadcast Pix Flint and Mica Series integrated production switchers offer virtual studios and backgrounds for up to eight cameras. They also offer a trackless virtual camera that can move within the virtual set, while the real camera remains stationary.

Mastantuono explained that the use of virtual sets largely depends on the customer’s unique needs and budget. While education and webcasting are two budget-conscious markets that are inclined to use virtual sets, the house of worship and corporate sectors generally do not. And mid-size stations may use virtual sets, but moreso in Studio B, to make the limited space appear larger.

MEXICO CITY—After ESPN Deportes unveiled its new digs for its production of “SportsCenter” last month, the station has now debuted a new 2,690-sq. foot production facility in Mexico City. The four new studios will house ESPN Deportes’ “Futbol Picante,” “Futbol Center,” “Golpe a Golpe,” Los Capitanes,” and “NFL Live” in addition to “SportsCenter.”

With an updated design, the new fully-equipped production center is designed for 24/7 broadcasting of programming and multiplatform content. The facility can handle both existing media formats as well as easily adjust to future standards.

Several sets make up the four studios, with the ability to change the design of the set with a touch of a button. Features for some sets include a curve HD screen, a multi-screen display and touchscreen monitor, and the ability to use different sets simultaneously.

ESPN Deportes’ Mexico City facility serves Spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S., Mexico and Central America.