Artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are going to turn the home into a connected paradise, with an essential protagonist who becomes the brain of this entire scenario. And Samsung wants its SmartThings platform, built for this purpose, to be a key player. In this way, the Korean company will offer the customer an intelligent television experience so that they can access their content quickly and easily.
A personal assistant, a single remote control and a Smart Hub will be the instruments to manage all compatible connected devices and appliances, thanks to the new SmartThings app.
SmartThings is an open standard for IoT that will allow connecting Samsung products and any brand adhering to this protocol. Q Smart is the implementation of this approach across the entire line of Samsung televisions, and begins from the moment the television is removed from box.
The first thing the user has to do, before setting up their Smart TV, is to download the SmartThings application on their mobile device , either Android or IOS. Customers who have Smartphone Galaxy S8 or later already have this app on their device. Once downloaded, when the TV is turned on, it detects the SmartThing app via Bluetooth. From here you just have to connect, configure the WiFi and use the SmartThing application to configure the Smart Hub screen and the applications that the customer wants to appear on the main panel of their TV.
SmartThings doesn’t just help set up the TV. It also achieves that the mobile device can become a platform to see and interact with all the IoT devices that the user has at home. But in addition, SmartThings offers the customer additional functions such as notification of connected IoT devices, display of the universal guide on the Smartphone, calendar appointments, notifications of the content of the TV, remote control of the TV on the Smartphone, control panels of all IoT devices. connected, or access to the new Ambient Mode and Universal Guide features available on 2018 Samsung Smart TVs.
One Remote, Universal Guide, TV Plus y Steam Link
Once the Smart TV is connected and configured with all the devices and with the smartPhone through SmartThing, the customer can use the Samsung One Remote to navigate through the content and operate the TV through voice control. 2018 is the third year that Samsung offers the One Remote solution that allows you to control all connected devices with a single remote. It has auto-detection, so the remote will automatically recognize all devices, controlling them instantly, to avoid having the living room full of controls.
In 2016 One Remote was able to control the TV, the decoder, the video game console and the Blu-ray player. Control of Samsung products for audio and video such as home theater systems and speakers was added in 2017. And in 2018 Samsung adds support for audio and video products connected via optical cable.
With the Samsung Universal Guide, the user has a personalized panel that provides access to content from all sources , integrated into a single, easy-to-navigate screen. In this way, Samsung is able to offer recommendations based on preferences and what the user has seen previously, so the more you use it, the better the recommendations will be.
The main screen of the Universal Guide is the “For you” screen, which offers recommendations according to your tastes , being a new feature in 2018 TVs. This screen will show current and upcoming live TV content, 4K content, and news , among others. For sports and music, the guide offering is similar to that of 2017 televisions. And the voice assistant allows voice navigation and universal guide searches.
TV Plus, another of the reference features of Samsung Smart TVs, shows a separate icon that appears first in the Smart Hub section and adds content from different OTT providers to the TV channel line, thus facilitating access to said content. Being this platform one of the largest in offering 4k content.
But this is not all, since 2018 Samsung Smart TVs also integrate the Steam gaming platform , one of the most popular PC games platform with more than 125 million active users and with more than 6,000 games available , as per Example Battleground, PES 2018 or Dota 2. Thanks to the Steam Link application, the PC is connected wirelessly to the Samsung TV, so that users can play on the TV screen. The 2018 Samsung TVs go one step further in gaming capacity and functionality. As it is a local connection, it does not depend on Internet speed or network latency, so users can access the entire Steam content catalog from their SmartTV.
Smart home solutions
Also in the field of IoT, and using Samsung’s SmartThings platform, “V-Home by Vodafone” allows customers to control their smart home devices from their smartphones, compatible with the Samsung SmartThings ecosystem.
In its summer offer, Vodafone will offer the first 1,000 customers a 50% discount on the V-Home Safety Starter Kit when purchasing a Galaxy S9, S9 + or Note8. In this way, the price of the kit would be € 144 without financing or € 0 down payment and 24 installments of € 6 per month.
