Home entertainment systems start – and end – with a big screen. Yes, atmospheric surround sound and all manner of subwoofers or soundbars do add to the experience, but nailing the visuals is, and always will be, king. After all, our brains use far more processing power to convert light bouncing off our corneas into intelligible images than it does for any one of our other four senses. Combined.
That said, home cinemas aren’t exactly in line with the contemporary architectural sensibilities, especially where it comes to minimalism. Massive screens make for excellent viewing when soirées descend into gin-soaked binges of reruns, but for every day of the week thereafter, you might want a little more, well, space where it comes to your living space. That’s where the C Seed M1 comes in.
It’s a massive 165-inch microLED television that doesn’t settle for leaning into a recessed nook. Nor does it become a part of your home’s decor by turning into a pseudo-painting. Instead, they’ve eschewed the presence of a TV in one’s living room, at least visibly, altogether.
“Big, wall-mounted TV screens are an anachronism in modern interior design,” says the Austrian company’s managing partner Alexander Swatek. “Therefore, C Seed took a totally different path.”
That path entails a revolutionary frame design, courtesy of resident designer and University of Applied Arts Vienne grad Stefan Pani, that ascends from the ground and unfolds with nary a whisper, before reforming on a classy, if functional, base. Somewhere in there, they’ve managed to integrate high performance speakers.
Of course, those features aren’t the only impressive bits of tech the M1 sports. Its 4K microLED screen produces striking vibrancy, superior contrast and an unparalleled spectrum of colour. On the other hand, its blacks are every bit as intense and precise as they should be, thanks to an unusual surface treatment of the M1’s screen. Naturally, they’ve also got a way to merge individual folded screens into a seamless mosaic that’s equal parts breath-taking and technological marvel.
This isn’t the first time C Seed have shown off their luxury folding TVs. It is building on the legacy of the award-winning C Seed 201 – a TV designed for the outdoors which, like its name suggests, has a colossal 201-inch screen. All said though, the C Seed M1’s relatively tame price tag of USD400,000 is a full 50% less than its predecessor’s USD600,000.
C Seed’s philosophy, at least where it comes to sneaking 165-inch televisions into the floor, proves that there’s happy compromise out there between less and more.
This story first appeared in The Peak Singapore
