The announcement at CES in Las Vegas 2021 last January, and the imminent arrival in stores, of the C825 HDMI 2.1 Mini LED TV series (4K/120 compatibility on two of the four inputs) is therefore an opportunity for the editorial from AVCesar.com a spotlight on TCL, a unique player in the TV market in more ways than one.

Smart business strategy

Unlike many Chinese electronic goods companies that have tried to establish themselves in Europe in recent decades, the trajectory of the TCL group is surprising. As soon as it arrived in France (also the headquarters of TCL Europe), the Asian company adopted a commercial policy that was significantly different from many of its sister companies. Combining licensing agreements (Thomson for televisions and Alcatel Mobile for smartphones/tablets) and the marketing of products under its own brand (TCL), the Chinese company has strategically approached the various networks of resellers/distributors to fully activate the distribution" that are the stores by ensuring a lasting presence in the points of sale.

Notoriety strategy through sport

At the same time, the Chinese firm has worked to develop its notoriety through prestigious sponsorship actions in the sports field. In 2018 Neymar Jr, PSG striker, also captain of the Seleção (Brazilian football team) and one of the best players in the world, becomes the brand's global ambassador. In 2018, again, TCL becomes a partner of FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, one of the most fashionable sports in the world. And in 2020, TCL is taking advantage of the IFA show in Berlin to announce the signing of six new ambassadors, six big names from the world of football: French midfielder Paul Pogba, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, Polish striker Krzysztof Piatek, England captain Harry Kane, Spanish midfielder Saúl Ñíguez and German striker Marco Reus (see images below). What points! A hell of a nice shot as the Champions League and Europa League competitions took place more or less normally despite the health crisis and the Euro 2020 championship (postponed to June and July 2021 due to the health crisis) will also have been well place. It is therefore for TCL the guarantee of maximum media exposure, the proof with the Display Greatness Challenge operation which began on May 7, allowing video game and football enthusiasts to challenge TCL ambassadors on the game Fortnite, live on the social network Twitch.

Technological innovation strategy

After the establishment of a solid commercial relationship with resellers/distributors (in particular thanks to the Thomson brand which enjoys a strong history in Europe), after the development of brand awareness with targeted actions and high audience , technological innovation constitutes the third stage of the TCL rocket. In order to improve its reputation, its brand image, and to play on equal terms with the leaders of the TV sector. While the company aims, via its subsidiary CSOT (China Star Optoelectronics Technology) to offer affordable Oled TVs based on Inkjet Printing technology from 2023, TCL, for example, launched the first Mini LED TV on the market at the end of 2019. , the 65X10 (see photos below). The goal for the Chinese manufacturer was to prove its know-how on the most recent generation of LCD TV, extremely technological and finally able to compete with OLED broadcasters on their strengths, the abyssal density of blacks and the drastic reduction of the phenomenon blooming (phenomenon of a halo around light areas displayed on the screen on a dark background) at the top.

This ability to innovate in the TV market is anything but a coincidence. TCL has 28 R&D centers around the world and benefits from a vertically integrated industrial structure, strategically developed in recent years (see below). TCL thus controls all the links in the manufacturing chain of a television, from its design to its final assembly at the end of the production line thanks to its own TV panel factories.

TCL, a bit of history…

It is interesting to trace the trajectory of TCL to appreciate the progress made in less than forty years and to understand how the Chinese manufacturer, which has largely outdistanced the historical brands still present in the sector (the Japanese Panasonic, Sony, etc.), is now a direct competitor of the Korean brands, having the luxury of preceding them on the Mini LED and shaking them up commercially with the attractively priced C825 models.

Created in 1985 by Li Dongshen, the TCL group originally intended to supply the Chinese market with televisions. These are entry-level equipment offered at very affordable prices. However, from 2000, the firm extended its activity abroad. To better establish itself worldwide, in 2003 TCL bought the television branch of Thomson, then joined forces in 2004 with Alcatel Mobile Phones. In 2007, its TCL multimedia branch produced, under license, panels for Philips. In 2011, TCL inaugurated a first state-of-the-art TV factory worth 5 billion dollars, followed by a second manufacturing unit in 2015, also hyper-modern, with the aim of doubling the production of TV panels and become a key player in this industry (see illustration below). In conjunction with these activities, the brand has set up research and development units to offer innovative solutions that break with other more conventional technological choices. With four pillars at the center of its TV screen strategy: image quality, sound quality, a Smart TV function at the forefront of applications with Android TV and a still sober and elegant design adapted to the wishes of consumers on the old continent. .

Massive investments in R&D

One of the areas in which TCL has acquired real mastery is therefore undoubtedly that of LCD panels for televisions and the management of their backlighting. Quickly, for its premium productions, the brand bet on QLED technology (based on Quantum Dots nano-crystals) and devoted its research to the democratization of this type of screen. The Cxx series televisions offer this technology very early on for a particularly tight price. For the end user, combined with high luminosity, it guarantees remarkable subtlety of hues by being able to reproduce more than a billion shades. The colorimetry of the image truly achieves cinema quality.

However, to compete with the Oled sector on its preferred terrain, the race for black depth is on. Indeed, while QLED screens excel in terms of brightness, they still have difficulty displaying the deepest blacks. However, a solution exists, it consists in playing with the backlighting of the panel. The idea is not new since for quite a few years many manufacturers have been using the Local Dimming process. Remember that the latter consists of reducing the intensity of the backlight on the darkest areas of the image and increasing its intensity on the brightest areas. The LEDs dedicated to backlighting are then no longer distributed around the periphery of the screen, a traditional configuration of so-called Edge LED screens, but form a checkerboard behind the screen. A processor individually controls the brightness of each LED according to the image area behind which it is located. However, if the process is effective in obtaining deep blacks, it is also the source of certain artefacts. Indeed, the number of LEDs dedicated to backlighting being limited, imperfections appear at the level of the transitions between a light zone and a dark zone. A parasitic halo may appear (cf. the Blooming mentioned above). The solution therefore consists in multiplying the number of LEDs used. Over the years, TCL has therefore concentrated its research efforts on the miniaturization of LEDs dedicated to backlighting and on increasing their number for an increasingly precise coincidence of their luminosity with the details of the image (see illustration below). below).

Local Dimming taken to the extreme

Over the years the size of the LEDs used has steadily decreased. If it was 3000 μm (microns) on the X91 series televisions, it gradually increased to 1600 μm on the X10 series, then to 225 μm on the C825 series and on the renewal of the X91 series planned for the end of the year.

To go even further, TCL is studying an even smaller size LED die, with a size of only 152.4 µm (20 times smaller than the diodes of the X91 TVs). Thus, more than 2,000 backlight zones become individually manageable and their size allows the diodes to be placed directly behind the active layer of the screen, hence their name Mini LED OD0 for “Optical Distance Zero”. Indeed, on older technologies, a certain distance remained essential so that the image area associated with each LED was illuminated in a uniform manner. With the Mini LED OD0 process, the area concerned becomes of the order of a pixel. Finally, this absence of recoil also offers the possibility of offering the largest screens a very thin thickness. TCL recently broke a record by presenting in China the Mini LED OD0 85X12 screen (see illustration below), an 85'' specimen, i.e. 216 cm diagonally, whose thickness does not exceed 9.91 millimeters . Good news, the marketing of such a television (under another reference) is planned in France in the near future.

TCL is also the sound

But the brand is not exclusively interested in the image. For the show to be complete, TCL is well aware that the sound must also be of high quality. In addition, film soundtracks are becoming increasingly rich in special effects and realism thanks to the appearance of new formats such as Dolby Atmos. A feeling of sound immersion is therefore increasingly sought after by consumers. Unfortunately, achieving such a result often requires complex installations or installations that are not very suitable for a living room. It is not always easy to have five to nine speakers in your living room, for example. TCL has therefore looked into the problem to offer solutions that are simple to implement and able to best meet the expectations of each user. To achieve this, it is the soundbar sector that TCL has chosen to exploit for optimal simplicity of commissioning. After identifying each type of request, three main families were defined by TCL's R&D department; the 6, 8 and 9 series. From the simplest to the most advanced, their principle of restoring immersive sound is based on the joint work of a particularly powerful DSP and innovative acoustic solutions.

The TS9030 Ray-Danz soundbar (see photo above), flagship of the brand that we recently tested (click on the reference to discover the complete test of the product by the editorial staff of AVCesar.Com), is the illustration of TCL's expertise in the field of sound reproduction. Its digital processing combined with an acoustic waveguide system offers a particularly convincing feeling of three-dimensional sound immersion. A newcomer, even more powerful in the field of the restitution of ambient sounds “coming from the sky” of Dolby Atmos soundtracks will appear very soon. Called TS8132, this soundbar should be able to offer true 3.1.2 reproduction (see photos below) thanks to a new layout of its internal speakers.

A conquest of the market that is not limited to brown

TCL is ambitious, so the group wants to play in the big leagues and expand its presence in many other electronic goods markets. To establish itself as a generalist manufacturer, even if it means daring to face the Korean giants such as Samsung or LG. For this, TCL already has very complete ranges of refrigerators, washing machines and portable air conditioners in China, a selection of which is now available in Europe. As for brown, contrary to the practice of other Chinese manufacturers, TCL opts rather for mid-range and high-end oriented productions and offers, here again, innovative solutions such as multi-door configurations on its refrigerators or an automatic tank system. cleaner on its washing machines.

TCL and mobile telephony

Finally, TCL is reconnecting with mobile telephony. A universe that the industrialist had left aside for many years. During CES 2021, the brand announced the marketing of two smartphones, including a 5G, offered at a particularly aggressive price. The first, the TCL 20SE is advertised as an entry-level model despite its very large 6.82'' (17.3 cm) screen. It will be offered under the bar of 150 euros. The second, the TCL 20 5G, is a mid-range specimen. Its ambition is to popularize the use of 5G by providing access to its services for a price contained below 300 euros. To assert its position in the highly competitive smartphone market, TCL is also announcing the upcoming arrival of three new premium models, the TCL 20Pro (see photo below), TCL 20L and TCL 20L+ 5G. History of responding to all consumer profiles.

So, is TCL one of the brands to follow, tomorrow's unavoidable manufacturer of consumer electronics? Everything leads to believe it. Be that as it may, its strategic choices leave little doubt about its combativeness and its desire to impose itself on a wide range of markets, each more competitive than the other, and to be part of the major players in equipment. servants of tomorrow.