Big TVs are a good way to attract some attention at a trade show, and IFA is no different. Sharp is never one to shy away from a supersize-screen and this year's effort came with an extra headline-grabbing specification: 8K resolution.
Sharp is insisting its 70-inch LC-70X500 8K TV will be the first consumer-ready 8K TV to go on sale when it does so in March 2018 in Japan and China. Those of us in Europe and Taiwan will have to settle for an 8K monitor, the LV-70X500E.
The 'AQUOS 8K' LCD screens have a resolution of 7680 x 4320, which means 16 times the number of pixels compared to a full HD TV.
Sharp has already released 70- and 85-inch 8K monitors in Japan, both of which are compatible with the company's 8K satellite broadcast receiver. In fact, the company showed them at IFA 2016.
Not content with upping the resolution ante, Sharp is also showing frameless, 'free form' and 'roll type' screens.
Naturally, they're world firsts - the first 70-inch frameless LCD TV, the first 39.4-inch (specific) free form display and the first 60in full HD roll type screen.
It may all seem a little unnecessary for settling down in front of Masterchef but when it comes to imagining the future shape of screens in our homes, it gives us an idea of what is possible and what could be next.
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