Bruce Walker, product evangelist at TCL, shares his perspective on the biggest trends and technologies impacting the TV market today. Among the things consumers are learning more about in this space: screen size matters and the impact of AI processing.

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Rob Stott: All right, we are back on the Independent Thinking Podcast, coming to you from Prime Time here in Las Vegas. It wouldn’t be a Prime Time if we weren’t talking TCL, and with Mr. Bruce Walker, product evangelist. How are you, sir?

Bruce Walker: Excellent. How are you doing?

Rob Stott: Doing fantastic.

Bruce Walker: Enjoying the nice warm weather?

Rob Stott: You know it!

Bruce Walker: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Rob Stott: Just a balmy, I think it’s 104 today.

Bruce Walker: It went down.

Rob Stott: A little bit, I know.

Bruce Walker: We were out on Saturday, and a guy we were with was like, “Yeah, it’s the coolest it’s been in weeks.” It was in the high 120s for a while, it’s insane.

Rob Stott: That’s unbelievable.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: Unbelievable.

Bruce Walker: But the show’s great.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: We’re having lots of fun, meeting lots of great members. It’s always fun to be here.

Rob Stott: Yeah, absolutely. Talking about the heat, I don’t know who told Hank Alexander it was a good idea to bring people out golfing either.

Bruce Walker: Yeah. That was a warm day.

Rob Stott: At least they had some fans.

Bruce Walker: Exactly. And staying hydrated.

Rob Stott: As hot as it is out there, hot in here, too. The deals that are going on.

Bruce Walker: Things are happening.

Rob Stott: New product intros.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: We’ll start, how are things?

Bruce Walker: Fantastic.

Rob Stott: A simple question.

Bruce Walker: Fantastic. Things are really good at TCL. We’re meeting new customers every day, we’re growing the brand. We’ve had some incredible success this year. Coming out of CES in the springtime, we’re really enjoying things like being number two in the United States for five years in a row. Very proud of the fact that, in 2023, we were number three in revenue. Went from number five in revenue to number three, which is really telling me that not only are people buying lots of our TVs, but they’re buying better ones.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Getting better revenue. Just with the product launches that we’ve had, I’m sure we’re talk a little bit more about the new release stuff, but the product this year is really second-to-none.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Very exciting.

Rob Stott: A little more than halfway through the year. What’s worked well this year in the TV category?

Bruce Walker: Big.

Rob Stott: Yeah?

Bruce Walker: That’s the big … Customers are accepting that one of our inside lines we use to keep us in check is 98 is the new 85. When you look at things like our 98-inch TV, our 95-inch TV, and the way they’re built now compared to … We live and breathe all this stuff every day. We don’t realize that a customer coming to buy a TV today hasn’t thought about a TV in six or seven years. The TV that they’re replacing has bezels that are this thick on each side.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: It’s this thick. An 85-inch TV is only about five-and-a-half inches wider than a 65-inch TV from 10 years ago. The 98-inch TVs, the bezels are not that much bigger.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: The real growth in the industry is in that large green category. We’ve really embraced it. We’re number one globally in the 98-inch screen size. We don’t have it here, maybe our next show, is our new amazing 115-inch, which I’ve got some exciting things to talk about that when we get into it. It’s just been a really fun year for us.

Rob Stott: You mentioned the customers. That is a long cycle, for them coming from where they were to product today. Is there a lot of education that has to go on, or do they see big and they get it?

Bruce Walker: There is. When we think about, even one of our more popular models is our 98 Q6. It’s our entry level QLED. A quantum dot TV is a fantastic TV. It’s an achievable TV. You can get it in the $2000 price range for a 98-inch TV. While it’s not our flagship TV, compared to a TV a customer’s replacing-

Rob Stott: Right. It’s going to look flag-

Bruce Walker: It’s going to be so much better.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Let alone bigger, and things like that. There’s an education. There’s the streaming portion of it, that’s the education.

Rob Stott: Yeah. You think about seven years ago, streaming wasn’t as mainstream as it is now.

Bruce Walker: It wasn’t really as prolific.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: The fact that so many people are cutting the cord and using not only the streaming systems of Paramount, and Netflix, and Hulu, they’re using Fubo and YouTube TV for their TV consumption.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: And how it’s a little bit different way of doing things. What I like about Google TV, our great partner, is it’s very well integrated. Finding what you want to watching, it’s a different world now.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: I remember joking, it seemed like I was joking yesterday, that a question our kids won’t ask is, “What’s on TV tonight?”

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: But we’re there.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: It’s like, “What do you want to watch?”

Rob Stott: Right. Literally, gone are the days … Full transparency, YouTube TV customer sitting here.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: There’s not flipping through, remembering what channel number certain stations are.

Bruce Walker: That’s right.

Rob Stott: There’s none of that.

Bruce Walker: Yeah. That’s what I like about Google TV is the main thing is it’s content-forward. You turn it on, and you see the shows you were watching yesterday. You see the shows that would be similar so you can discover new shows.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Which is a really fun way to do it, too. But our technology this year has really been working with Google, and working with all the power that we have as a vertically integrated company. I’ve told this story before.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: It’s really been an industrial story in the past, where we make all of our own stuff.

Rob Stott: Right, right.

Bruce Walker: Which allows us to come to market faster and be more affordable. But what we’re really turning into this year is some really unique technologies that put us on par or ahead of those guys.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: In terms of technologies that we’re bringing to market, which is a little bit different story than TCL has told in the past. It’s really exciting this year.

Rob Stott: Well, I want to think, too, how you go about … It’s less about the innards and the technology within, the physical technology within, but the software side of things. How different is it from just a couple years ago for you guys, with the streaming platforms and everything like that?

Bruce Walker: It’s very exciting. One of the things we’ve introduced this year, is last year we had our AIPQ processor in our flagship TVs. This year, we’re taking that same time of processor, three different flavors of it, but we’re bringing it all the way down to our entry level 4K TV. Even our S5 class TV, it’s our entry level 4K, is going to have AI processing.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: And all the good stuff that comes along with that, in terms of better picture quality, better operational.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: And on better things like up conversion.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Because we love 4K, we love HGR, but sometimes you’re going to watch Cheers. With this AI processing, it’s going to make that content look the best that it can. Now we’ve got a family of processors, it seems to be one of the big things.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: That’s in an era where some other manufacturers are removing that level of processing at the entry level, we’re adding it. At the end of the day, it’s all about benefits for the customer is what’s good for them, so we’re very proud to do that.

Rob Stott: For sure. The 115.

Bruce Walker: Let’s talk about the 115.

Rob Stott: Let’s dive into it, man.

Bruce Walker: Holy cow.

Rob Stott: I’ve seen it in-person.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: When I walked by the booth, the 98 that’s there is you can tell it’s unbelievable.

Bruce Walker: It’s amazing what a difference. You wouldn’t think, but you figure it’s so much bigger. It’s so much more immersive. The paradigm shift we’re having is, back in the day, back when I was a young man, how far away you sat from the TV was to have good picture quality.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: If you sat too close, you saw the pixels, the picture stuck.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: Now with so much stuff in 4K, so much stuff getting AI up-converted, it’s now we’re talking about a field of view.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: You want to sit nine-and-a-half feet away from a 98-inch so you get that magical cinema field of view. On the 115-inch, 11-and-a-half feet away.

Rob Stott: Wow.

Bruce Walker: One of the major reviewers out there, Caleb Denison at Digital Trends, he did his review of the 115. He said he was about nine feet away. He was like, “Boy, howdy.” He said it was the most fun he’d ever had reviewing a TV.

Rob Stott: That’s awesome.

Bruce Walker: It’s that whole immersive experience. Then for the nerds out there, there’s so many movies that you want to watch that are in the two, three, five to one-

Rob Stott: Yeah, right.

Bruce Walker: So they’ve still got letterbox bars. First time I’ve ever seen an aspect ratio like that where I didn’t feel like I was losing something. I just felt more immersed, because it felt wider watching it in a 115-inch. Really an amazing experience.

In terms of great promotions, we know one of the biggest challenges for everybody, including the members is, “Okay, that’s really cool. But holy crap-“

Rob Stott: How am I moving this thing?

Bruce Walker: How am I going to move this?

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: We’re doing a promotion with our distributor partner O’Rourke, get all the details from them. But the long and the short of it is the price that you get in the 115 gets it to your door.

Rob Stott: Yeah? Wow.

Bruce Walker: It gets drop shipped to your door. Whether it’s their shop or the end site, if they have the right address and all that. That’s a big weight off a lot of people, no pun intended, off of everyone’s minds. Then for end users that buy the 115, we’re doing an incredible promotion. We’re calling it the 115 Club. Where when you purchase the 115-inch, you get your choice of these incredible experiences. You can get a Super Bowl ticket.

Rob Stott: Whoa. Yeah.

Bruce Walker: You can get a trip to the TCL Chinese Theater for a premiere. We’re working with Call of Duty to have an incredible promotion.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Lots of great options for people that want the best TV that’s out there and have a great immersive experience. Then, have another fun experience.

Rob Stott: Incredible.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: No, that’s awesome. I know, too, the NFL you had mentioned.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: The NFL partnership, still a big deal. From a picture perspective, have you guys focused any? Does that partnership put you in a position to be able to look at, not aspect ratio, but their refresh rates, and things like that, for sports?

Bruce Walker: The clarity on it?

Rob Stott: Are you able to?

Bruce Walker: Subjectively, probably, it’s put it more in people’s minds.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Of, oh, when we’re working on our motion handling controls, of which there are a million on the TV, we want to be able to give the customer what they want. Some people like that super smooth look. Sometimes they call it the soap opera effect.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Some people love that. Some people like a little bit more crispness to it.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Our motion controls on the TV are very granular to give the customers what they want. It’s the same thing with gaming. We’re the official TV of Call of Duty.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: In addition to the official TV partner in the NFL. You know the gamers are very demanding users, so we give them the performance and control over it. We’ve revamped our game bar, so the gamers are really getting what they want this year. Lots of great stuff.

Rob Stott: Yeah. It’s cool, too, because it shows that you don’t have to be super tech. If you get this TV in your house, great out of the box.

Bruce Walker: Yeah, yeah.

Rob Stott: But if you want to get nitty-gritty with it-

Bruce Walker: Absolutely.

Rob Stott: You absolutely can, and customize the experience for what you’re trying to do, what you’re trying to get out of it.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: Those partnerships really do speak to that.

Bruce Walker: Absolutely. Yeah. Again, with the TCL Chinese Theater, we know movies have to look good on it.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Really, those three pillars, the three main things, sports, gaming, and movies. That’s why you get a TV.

Rob Stott: That’s it.

Bruce Walker: We’re doing things, we’re pushing the envelope in terms of performance. It’s generally accepted by, I’ve seen about a half a dozen reviews, that our QM851 this year is the brightest TV they’ve ever tested.

Rob Stott: Wow.

Bruce Walker: Some people get a little nervous when you’re looking at a TV with 5000 Nits. You’re like, “I don’t need that.” I try to explain to them you’re not getting 5000 Nits to watch a ballgame.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: What you’re getting is when you’re watching a movie and there’s a lightning bolt.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: Or you get a reflection off an aluminum hubcap. That’s where those specula highlights get in. When people say, “You don’t need 5000 Nits,” you’re not watching that every day, but it’s got the horsepower there to do it.

And again, getting back to the technical end of our vertical integration, our entire backlight system is in-house designed, in-house manufactured. We know everything works together. It is super, super high performance. In our flagship, that 115, has 20,000 zones of local dimming. Our QM851 has up to 5000 zones.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: We really can control the light between the processors, the chips we make, the lenses we make ourselves.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: It really all comes together to tell an incredible technology story.

Rob Stott: I feel cliché asking you, because I know in your head, you’re always thinking next.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: But how much more can we really crank out of these TVs?

Bruce Walker: I think Dolby Vision right now is, at best, mastered a little over 4000 Nits. There are some mastering techniques that are going to be able to get you up to 10,000 Nits.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: There’s that. Pirelli had a famous tagline back in the year that, “Power without control is nothing.” There’s some technologies that are trying to reach peak brightness, but you’re losing I call it the delicacy, the shadow detail, things like that. That’s where I think we have some room to do even better for our customers. It’s not only give them that horsepower, that smack in the face when they see the lightning bolt, but when you’re watching that horrific scene from Game of Thrones, the long, dark night, you can see what’s going on. You understand. Because people keep talking about director’s intent, director’s intent, and that’s a funny thing to talk about because really, if you get to what director’s intent means, you’re sitting in a pitch black room.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: And watching it-

Rob Stott: Quite impossible.

Bruce Walker: Which is really impossible.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: It’s trying to manage those expectations and still give customers the experience that they deserve.

Rob Stott: No, it’s incredible.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: It’s always awesome to see what you guys have in the booth, and what you’re showing off, and just the products. So much news regularly coming out of the TCL camp.

Bruce Walker: Yeah, it’s very exciting. We’ve got a couple soundbars in the booth this year.

Rob Stott: Yeah, yeah.

Bruce Walker: We’re really proud of the fact that every single soundbar in 2024 has some level of Dolby Atmos processing. Our flagship soundbar, which is just starting to hit the market right now, is something we’ve never done before. It’s a real soundbar.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: It’s got up-firing speakers in the soundbar, it’s got side-firing speakers. The wireless rear speakers also have up-firing speakers. It’s a 7.1.4.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: It sounds spectacular. We’re very excited to now. We’ve dabbled in soundbars in the past.

Rob Stott: Right. Yeah, absolutely.

Bruce Walker: In the sub-250 categories.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Because that’s where it was. But now that the TVs are getting to a level where we can quite candidly compete with the G4s and the Bravia 9s of the world, we need some sound to match it.

Rob Stott: Absolutely.

Bruce Walker: We don’t want to sell an incredible TV and have them go to something else for audio.

Rob Stott: Right.

Bruce Walker: We want to give them a good option.

Rob Stott: Create that whole package.

Bruce Walker: Make it a whole family.

Rob Stott: When you talk about an independent retailer opportunity, these are the guys that get them in the door.

Bruce Walker: Yeah.

Rob Stott: And provide that incredible white glove almost experience for that customer.

Bruce Walker: Absolutely. They’re a lot of your members. We’ve worked really hard. We’re going to be a very important part of the CI channel.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: For all of our TVs this year, the S5 and up.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: Are going to have discrete IR codes, we’re Control4 certified.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: We’re working with Crestron. We’re working with Savant, all these other players on this. For your members that do that type of installation, I know Hank’s really into that world.

Rob Stott: Oh, yeah.

Bruce Walker: We’re finally going to be able to fill up a house with TCL TVs.

Rob Stott: That’s awesome.

Bruce Walker: And they can have that whole automation system.

Rob Stott: Yo, the potential is just absolutely palpable.

Bruce Walker: Exactly. We’re very excited about it.

Rob Stott: Stealing some Richard Glick’s alliteration-isms. Hey, good words. Love it. Hey, man. Well, Bruce, as always, awesome to have you on and talk TVs.

Bruce Walker: Absolutely.

Rob Stott: Just pick you brain for a little bit.

Bruce Walker: Awesome.

Rob Stott: We appreciate it.

Bruce Walker: Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate you.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Bruce Walker: I appreciate all the members.

Rob Stott: Of course.

Bruce Walker: Without them, we’d be nothing.

Rob Stott: Hey, man, we’ll see you again soon.

Bruce Walker: All right.

Rob Stott: All right.

Bruce Walker: Thanks, bud.

Rob Stott: Appreciate it.

Bruce Walker: Appreciate it.