A big TV no longer needs an even bigger home entertainment center to support it, thanks to the hidden wall brackets, but you still have to deal with the wires. You can route them through the wall so they are out of sight or cross your fingers that this fully wireless TV technology demonstrated at CES 2021 it is legitimate.
If you’re really obsessed with wires being out of sight, you can opt for a smart TV that handles wireless streaming on its own or use a wireless HDMI solution that allows game consoles to connect to a screen without a cable physicist. But until now, no one has found a way to remove the power cable from a TV. Companies like Ossia has demonstrated wireless power technologies that can power devices like TV remote controls, in-store price signs and even charge a smartphone across the room, but the technology doesn’t have enough momentum to power the big TVs that most people have at home now.
But a Russian startup called Reasonance says it found a way to finally cut the last cable and demonstrated a prototype wireless TV using its technology at the virtual CES 2021. Instead of a cable and an electrical outlet, the TV prototype features a receiver coil at the rear and a transmitter coil nearby. The technology works similarly to wireless Qi charging pads, where a current is induced by a magnetic field, but Reasonance says that its implementation increases energy efficiency from 75% for the best induction chargers to 90%, so , less energy is wasted in the process.
The technology prototype demonstrated at CES 2021 is not exactly aesthetically pleasing – few of us would trade a thin power cable for a giant coil on a nearby table and a corresponding coil hanging from the back of our TVs. But Reasonance says its wireless energy transfer can work at distances up to 3.3 feet, allowing the transmitter’s coil to be hidden inside the wall behind a suspended TV (the coil alignment doesn’t have to be completely perfect either) while the receiver coil can be integrated into the display frame. This would potentially limit how thin a TV could be, but it looks like a minor thing compensation for the convenience of the screen being completely wireless.
Do we want to believe that fully wireless TVs are coming, thanks to Reasonance? Yes, of course we do. The startup has already patented its technology in Russia and is currently applying for patents worldwide in the United States, Canada, China, India and South Korea, so it appears to be very confident in what has been created. But we’ve seen other companies try to eliminate the power cord as well, including companies with many features, like Samsung, which patented its own approach for wireless TVs in early 2019, but still need to deliver the technology in a consumer-ready product. A demonstration of functional technology is one thing: a product that works reliably, safely and efficiently in the real world is another thing. Hfortunately, Reasonance will soon be able to transition its technology to the next step.
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