IPTV Deployments Featured Article

The Thomas Kinkade Company announced today that it’s working with Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Co., Ltd., a provider of liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, to develop a prototype of the first TV to be combined with a digital art display system.

 

With the hybrid LCD-TV and mini-exhibit, it would take only a moment’s notice for an exhibit to shift between art work and TV programming, according to the companies.

 

That means viewers can switch between any number of digitally re-mastered pre-loaded Thomas Kinkade paintings or original 16-by-9-foot art digitally created by Thomas Kinkade specifically for the new medium on this 46-inch diagonal “Art-TV,” company officials say.

 

Samsung and the Thomas Kinkade Company said that the system would feature a customizable integrated touch screen by the time the Digital Masterworks Art-TV goes into mass production. Using these customizable features, the purchaser can modify overall image lighting or subtly enhance specific colors within the Thomas Kinkade Company’s guidelines, company officials say. Showing one, two, four or all of the selected paintings at once, hidden touch controls then also would permit viewers to electronically flip through their favorite Thomas Kinkade selections, the companies say. They can also zoom in and out of portions of any painting.

 

With this partnership, Samsung aims to integrate the refined subtlety of art with the vivid realism of HDTV by providing combined art display and TV. The company expects to change the change the future of room décor, officials say. The Digital Masterworks Art-TV is housed in a Thomas Kinkade frame designed to accentuate the fine art theme.

 

“From the outset, we’re going to deliver a truly superior digital viewing experience, that’s a quantum leap beyond the staid world of screen savers, an easy-to-enhance electronic gallery befitting the tradition of artistic excellence that has been a hallmark of Thomas Kinkade art,” said Todd Stewardson, vice president of the Thomas Kinkade Company. “We will later modify our planned system to permit consumers to be able to see the brush strokes, shading and texture of the canvas in a rendering comparable to the finest artistic reproductions.”