Without the temptation of "sound and color", it is just empty talk to get users to return to the living room

In the past, when talking about living room entertainment, people always focused on the picture quality, content, and gameplay of the TV, but rarely paid attention to another important experience in entertainment - sound effects.

For users, a high-quality living room entertainment experience requires both sound and color. However, the current lack of sound effects in living room entertainment is mainly caused by hardware and software.

Hardware development encounters constraints

Before the emergence of wall-mounted ultra-thin TVs, the "big-head" TVs were bulky and had relatively poor picture quality, but their sound effects were much better than today's ultra-thin TVs. Whether watching TV series or playing games, users can get a clear and loud sound experience. Whenever a game soundtrack sounds, players can still recall the game scene at that time.

As the main entertainment medium in the living room, why is it that the picture quality of TV has improved rapidly, but the sound quality has deteriorated against the trend? The main reason is that as TVs become thinner, the space for speakers to produce sound is squeezed. In the past, "big-headed" TVs were equipped with 4-6 speakers, but currently ultra-thin TVs are generally equipped with only two speakers, and the size is small, which restricts the development of TV sound effects.

However, as users' demand for living room entertainment continues to increase, the trend of "audio-visual enjoyment" has begun to return to the living room. Hardware manufacturers have also gradually noticed this problem when designing products. For example, the recently released Xiaomi TV 2, Skyworth G9200, Damai TV, etc. all choose to move the speakers out of the TV cavity and use external or split methods to improve the sound effect of the TV.

Zou Chao, CEO of ZIVOO (Zhiwo Technology), said, "A TV that can only be used for watching cannot be called a smart TV." He believes that Internet TV attracts users to return to the living room, not just to watch more TV programs. The socialization of TV and the improvement of entertainment experience are the focus of users' attention. Sound quality enjoyment is also an important part of living room entertainment. Its development can greatly promote the development of TV peripheral hardware.

Software development is imminent

In the entertainment experience of movies, animations, games, etc., the most intuitive visual and auditory feelings give people the most profound feelings. At the same time, unlike mobile devices, TVs need to be muted in public places. The public attribute makes it naturally have good sound effects. This advantage should be valued by developers, but at present, sound effects are often ignored in TV application development.

Chen Zhongda, founder of Baxia Network, said that taking TV game development as an example, high-quality sound effects combined with game graphics will create a sense of immersion and help players immerse themselves in the game. In addition to the playability of the game itself, the sound effects will directly affect user retention. "When developing TV games, music and sound effects should be customized to match the game style and graphics as much as possible. If sounds are directly captured from other channels, they should be carefully matched to avoid random capture and transplantation, even for the lightest games."

At present, some developers have begun to develop software applications around TV sound effects to promote the diversified development of living room entertainment. For example, in addition to using audio to increase the social function of TV, developers of TV karaoke software are also trying to restore the live feeling of KTV in the user's living room by improving technology. In addition, somatosensory fitness games that combine sound with a large screen have also been sought after by a large number of casual players.

How to meet users' "sound and color" needs

So what do users think about the sound quality of living room entertainment at present? We conducted an interview on this issue.

Zhiwo Technology said that when users use the karaoke function of the ZIVOO box, some users have called customer service to complain that the sound effect is poor and the volume is too low when using the entertainment function of the box due to the influence of hardware equipment. After-sales service usually recommends users to try to purchase some external audio equipment, and most users say they can accept it.

Baxia Networks said that some users had reported issues with the contrast between music and sound effects in TV games, and suggested adding a separate volume adjustment option. Users' personalized demands for TV already include sound effects.

Considering the cost of hardware replacement and purchase, in order to meet the increasingly diversified living room entertainment needs of users, some software developers have also noticed the improvement in sound effect technology. It is understood that in this regard, Tianlai Karaoke not only chooses to cooperate with hardware manufacturers to embed a variety of sound effect processors in TV chips, but also provides users with more sound effect preset modes based on the sound field characteristics of different TV built-in speakers. It simulates the recording studio scene for users and customizes different sound effects for each song according to the style and mood of the song.

It has become a general trend for TVs to be thinner and thinner, but the "thin" trend of LCD TVs has severely limited the size of speaker units and cavities in terms of acoustic space. At present, the best solution is still to add sound processing chips or use external speakers, external integrated speakers, etc., which has promoted the development of the peripheral market spawned by smart TVs to a certain extent.

In addition, when developing TV games, TV applications and other software that focus on living room entertainment, we should also take into account users' feedback on the sound effects of living room entertainment. "Sound and color" are the foundation for the recovery of the living room market.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.