IFA - Day 2 - What's been the big story at IFA? 3D TVs vs Smart TVs

If 2011 is going to be 'the year of the tablet', someone clearly didn't tell IFA. While the thousands of exhibitors lining the halls of the impossibly big Messe in Berlin have undoubtedly 'gone big' on tablets (Toshiba, Sony, Samsung and Acer to name four of the big ones), there is another piece of tech that has attempted to take the limelight.

3D is 'the' big thing here at IFA, with all the big companies going after it with vigour and amplitude. The massive halls taken up by Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic, along with countless other brands, big and small, have been dominated by 3D.

The most noticeable manifestation of this has been in 3D TV. Manufacturers have been trying to push 3D for a couple of years now with mixed success. Some people argue that it is a bit of a tough sell unless people can experience it first hand; this is where IFA comes in.

Today the halls of IFA are open to the public; every hall is heaving with people of all ages eager to get their hands on the latest tech. Walk into the LG hall and you are handed a pair of 3D glasses to enjoy the 'experience' of 3D that is splashed liberally all over the walls.

Huge 3D displays invite people to be dazzled, only for them to look a bit perplexed, shrug and fondle with the 3D glasses to check if they're working properly.

Most examples of 3D TVs we've seen haven't really worked, but we were pleasantly surprised by the LG LW6595, a 70inch 3D TV that is genuinely impressive. But this is 3D at the very highest end and is displaying footage filmed to be very 'effective' in 3D. Simply put, the real experience of watching 3D TV doesn't live up to the hype. And if it does, it will come at a very high price.

 
The insistence that 3D will work outside the high-end, that it will sell, continues to baffle. Despite the huge and very impressive displays the majority of people sidle up, pop on a pair of 3D glasses, look confused and saunter off to see something else.

This 'experience' certainly differs somewhat from the promotional material that suggests we should all be weaving about in our seats, screaming and yelping with excitement. We've already seen 3D gaming running for the parapets under a barrage of mediocre reviews and it is surely only a matter of time before 3D TV falls to the same fate.

But there will always be a piece of breakthrough technology at a show like IFA. Alongside the underwhelming barrage of 3D displays (even smartphones and tablets are getting in on the act) we've seen a lot of connected or 'smart' TVs.

A lot of the big companies are now starting to do this; taking their cue from the popularity of computers as entertainment 'hubs'. These smart TVs work a bit like smartphones and tablets in that they have apps for watching content online, playing games, renting films and so forth. You can read a bit more about the smart TVs Panasonic was showing by clicking here.

The technology has certainly come a long way and if the right content is available then it seems primed for success. Smart TVs are taking their cue from how people already use computers. The difficult part is moving this over to TVs and making things more 'app' based. From early impressions, the products we've seen at IFA are starting to look very promising.

Seeing the reactions of people when they are shown these sorts of TVs is perhaps the most telling factor. It is something that genuinely grabs their interest; it is practical, useful, fun and most importantly of all, utterly understandable and affordable.