TechStomper met with Sky Ireland for a live demo of their Sky Glass TV hardware ahead of its nationwide release on 25 August 2022. Sky Glass is the company’s own all-in-one television set. A plug and play unit that offers everything that a Sky box does and a little more.
Sky Glass TV combines a 4K UHD HDR TV with Dolby Atmos soundbar with six surround speakers, including a woofer, built-in.
Sky for Everyone
Orlaith Ryan, Chief Commercial Officer of Sky Ireland told TechStomper that Sky Glass TV was intended to make their service available to a greater number of people.
Read more: Sky Glass TV with built-in apps and satellite service to launch in Ireland
At present, the very need for a dish disallows a great number of renters from subscribing to Sky.
The Sky Glass TV’s built-in service is entirely internet-based. Live TV as well as on-demand shows are carried entirely over broadband with a suggested throughput of 10Mbps for HD content and 25-30Mbps for 4K UHD content.
4K for Everyone
Fraser Stirling, Sky’s Group Chief Product Officer, told us that the TV itself was something Sky had wanted to do before but the opportunity to deliver a panel to their specifications had not existed until recently.
The intention was not to create a perfect TV aimed at cinephiles. But rather something noticeably better than the average person’s set for an affordable price. Quantum Dot technology delivers 1 billion colours (10-bit) while the set is HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision compatible.
Additionally, each set runs 360° Dolby Atmos with those six speakers including built-in sub woofer.
The TV sets come in three sizes as Sky has attempted to simplify the hardware options. The options of 43″, 55″ or 65″ will cover the vast majority of potential TV buyers.
Fraser Stirling told us that Sky wanted to avoid confusion by streamlining the choice – all three TVs feature all features. You get the same picture quality, colour options, HDR compatibility and Dolby Atmos built-in speaker system across the ‘small’ ‘medium’ and ‘large’ options.
Sky Tour
Fraser Stirling gave TechStomper a tour of the service. He tells us that the intent was to remove barriers between content providers allowing users to focus on the content.
Home menus teem with content recommendations for a user rather than a list of apps of channels.
A neat feature that Stirling is keen to point out is that when watching a show, the Sky Glass service will line up the next episode for you even it’s from a different service or channel. This applies if you have just dropped into a show on Live TV as well. Seamless stuff.
Sky Q’s voice search is here with a remote-mounted mic as well as a far-field mic in the TV. Users can say ‘Hello Sky’ to wake the unit and command the set completely remote control-free if they like.
A related feature that Fraser Stirling is proud of is the ‘Glance’ menu. The user can set the TV to wake up when someone is within four metres of it. The display shows a bespoke set of recommendations for the user when they enter the living room or flop onto the couch.
Playlist is the New Timeshift
With no way to record, Sky has focused on making sure that live content is available for the user when they want it. Shows from BBC are not usually available in Ireland outside of watching them live when on TV. To solve this, Sky has arranged with BBC to allow their on-demand content to be available to Sky Ireland customers for 30 days after airing.
In addition, the remote has replaced the record button with a ‘Playlist’ one. Instead of recording the show to a hard-drive, the user simply adds the show to their playlist to find later.
This also works with on-demand services, keeping a eye out for fresh episodes and keeping them bookmarked.
Surround Demo
TechStomper is shown a brief demo of Sky Glass TV’s sound capabilities with a Formula 1-themed audio clip. Cars whizz around our ears, seemingly from every direction as 215 watts envelops us.
In the dark of the demo room, we also get a good look at the 65″ display’s visual performance. Blacks are surprisingly deep for a non-OLED panel, the colour is delicate as 10-bit tends to be.
Fraser Stirling tells us that since the UK release almost one year ago, they have tirelessly worked to improve the contrast and brightness levels via software updates. Sky Glass TV as a display is a different beast than it was one year ago according to the Group Chief Product Officer. He also promised that Sky would continue to upgrade the picture. to get the most from the panel.
More changes are on the way, one which will improve upon the c. 400 nits typical brightness the set currently outputs.
A Closer Look
The three Sky Glass TV sizes come in five colours. Promo material doesn’t quite show the gentle frosting of the anodised aluminium housing. TechStomper is shown a neat speaker grille cover that matches the choice of colour.
The grille cover attaches to the chassis via magnets so a user can choose the underlying black mesh for some contrast.
Sky Glass TV stands on a singular leg upright from a wide rectangular foot. The single upright design resembles high-end PC monitors – something we like. Something that Sky Ireland CEO JD Buckley likes is the clever engineering that sees the table mount convert to a wall mount.
Sky Glass TV Ireland Pricing
Customers can buy the Sky Glass TV hardware by paying in full up front or by spreading the cost with interest-free monthly payments.
Sky Glass starts from €15 per month over four years for the 43” Sky Glass TV. For just €5 more, you can increase the size of your TV to a 55”, or you can choose the 65” Sky Glass TV for €26 per month over four years.
The interest-free payment options are also available over a two-year period or can be paid upfront at €755 (43″), €999 (55″) and €1,299 (65″).
Sky Glass comes with a full two-year warranty and a free delivery service that includes unboxing and packaging removal.
The service then starts with Sky Ultimate TV at €27 per month for 12 months, €38 thereafter. It’s worth noting that the Sky Ultra HDR with Dolby Atmos package costs €10 per month – you’ll probably need this to get the best from the TV hardware. Though you can still enjoy HDR and Atmos content from other sources without that subscription.
For a full run-down of pricing and more detail on the hardware, head to the Sky Glass Ireland website.
To check out the image and sound quality or to get a better sense of the five colourways, Sky’s retail stores in Dundrum, Blanchardstown, Mahon Point, Cork and The Crescent, Limerick, will be demoing Sky Glass for the Irish public from next week onwards.
