By ROB WAUGH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Published: 12:49 EST, 15 December 2024 | Updated: 13:01 EST, 15 December 2024 Power Transformer
It's like watching a Transformer turn from a fire truck into a battle robot - except this is a television built for the one percent.
The C-Seed N1 starts as a decorative, shiny box, but with a push of a button, five ultra-sharp Micro LED screens rise up out of the base and fold together - with no seam at all appearing between the screens.
The process takes about minute to complete, forming a stunning display 165, 137 or 103 inches wide.
DailyMail.com visited C-SEED's showroom in London's glamorous Knightsbridge to see the machine in action, watching as the panels unfolded like the petals of a blooming flower and created a 144-inch television.
It is not cheap, however, coming in at $275,000, but clients sometimes buy up to five at a time to put on their super yachts, the company told DailyMail.com.
James Common, C-SEED's sales director said, 'A lot of our market is residential, but we have started to do a lot of super yachts.
'We have started to see clients specifying five TVs for their super-yacht, because of the versatility and the fact that on a superyacht, space really is at a premium.
'So we are starting to see a lot more clients going for folding TVs for the bedrooms and living spaces.'
The screen stores folded-up and then you press the 'Extend' button on the remote control and it stands up out and the screen unfolds into a vast, insanely sharp 144-inch television (C-SEED)
In houses, buyers are putting N1 screens in living rooms and master bedrooms, Common said.
Some clients have had the screen installed in private spas to experience a waterfall effect or just watch the sport while having a sauna.
The company has a showroom in Los Angeles, as well as Paris, London and Rome
C-SEED's well-heeled clients enjoy having a television which 'disappears' so that the focus of their rooms can be on artwork and views from the windows.
'You can put this type of television in front of that window, and then it goes away when it's not in use. You can focus everything at that view,' Common said.
'And you probably paid a lot of money for that view, whether it's the skyline of New York, whether it's a palm view in Dubai or Miami.'
The televisions also rotate, so that, for example, they can turn round to be viewed from the kitchen, or from the living room, or even from the garden.
But the C-SEED N1 is actually one of the least extravagant televisions in the company's decade-long history.
DailyMail.com went to a C-SEED showroom to see the TV in action, with offices in London, Rome, Paris and Los Angeles (C-SEED)
The TV is very discreet when not in use (Picture Rob Waugh)
C-Seed first, a 'vertical missile' television, debuted 10 years ago and was used at events such as F1 races in Abu Dhabi.
The 201-inch outdoor television cost $600,000 and required a concrete shaft drilled into the ground - and began to attract billionaire buyers.
Common said that the fact it had to be drilled into the ground was a problem, with clients worried that they might drill into the garages where they kept their supercars, for example.
As the resolution of screens became better, the company created indoor TVs based on Micro-LED screens.
A C-SEED N1 installed on a client's superyacht (C-SEED)
When folded down, the screen means that owners can enjoy their (very expensive) view rather than looking at a TV (C-SEED)
The latest model, the N1, the 'naked' version because it does not need to be fitted into homes and just works on its own.
'This is a sculptural work of art,' Common said.
'For our clients, it's mostly not about the cost and the value. With this TV, we're hitting a different price bracket, different high net worth individuals.
'So no longer are we at the hundreds of millions, billionaire level. We're at the people that get maybe 20 million every year. I'll buy a new sports car or buy something or treat myself.'
The screens have 4K resolution, and are based on Micro LED technology - and the screen is the reason they are so expensive, rather than the motors and folding tiles.
Micro LED is a different technology than the one used in LED or OLED TVs in the home, with no backlight and each pixel made of a single LED.
Micro LED is extremely expensive and not yet used in consumer televisions.
The difference is very visible, with the screen on the N1 breathtakingly sharp and bright.
The base can be designed to blend in with the decor (C-SEED)
Rob Waugh with James Common, C-SEED's sales director (Rob Waugh)
'It can produce the colors more vibrantly, more accurately, more vividly, and then individually, switch off all of his LEDs to make pure blacks, which increases the contrast, and thereby increases the realism of that image and the immersiveness of that image,' Common said.
For no-compromise customers, Micro LED is becoming the screen technology of choice - it has no glass in front, so there are no reflections and the screen looks ultra real.
The price means it will take 'a while' to reach the consumer market, Common said.
Both LG and Samsung now make Micro LED televisions, but the screens tend to be extremely large and the prices aimed at the luxury market - starting around $90,000.
But previous screen technologies such as Plasma and OLED televisions both started off as being extremely expensive and aimed at the rich - before coming down to prices more suited to the consumer market.
3 Pole Isolator It may take a few years (or decades) but one day, ordinary people might have something like this in the living room.