Loewe, a company that knows ‘upmarket’ better than most, today chose the overtly tasteful B&B Italia furniture store on London’s Brompton Road to launch its new Reference ID TV range.
We reported on our first sighting of the range at IFA2012 in Berlin last year here but in this environment the TVs look, if anything, even more striking. Each of the three screen sizes (40in, 46in and 55in) are supplied as standard in a fetchingly minimal combination of aluminium and chrome, with black speaker covers.
Naturally, customised finishes are not only available but positively encouraged. In the second half of the year customers will be able to select from a dozen frame options (in a variety of colours and materials), six distinct speaker covers and nine different rear panel colours. The rear panel can also be specified with LED backlighting to make even more of a visual statement. And by the end of the year Loewe will be offering customers the option of incorporating their own bespoke designs and materials.
Tech-wise, these are Full HD, LCD-with-LED-backlighting 3D TVs. Smart facilities are on board, including catch-up TV, video on demand, internet radio and streaming home network-stored content. There’s an integrated 1TB hard drive on board, giving PVR functionality for both 2D and 3D content – it’s possible to stream recordings to other Loewe TVs and the user can even pause a transmission on one Loewe TV and continue watching it on another. Those broadcasts are accessed by integrated DVB-T/T2/C/S2 tuners.
There’s an iPad EPG app, while Loewe Media Assist enables simple on-screen integration of TV programming, internet and home network-derived content, and apps from the MediaNet portal into one ‘home’ screen.
Sound is an area where Loewe has long sought to lead the field, and Reference ID features 160 watts of integrated audio power. The TV can also form the control centre (as well as the centre channel) of a 5.1 audio system thanks to its integrated AV preamplifiers and multichannel decoder.
