By Matthew Henry

BERLIN: Philips will unveil a radical redesign of its Ambilight flat panel TV technology at the IFA show in Germany next Thursday, called Aurea, which will be launched to the Australian market before the end of the year.

Aurea makes the company’s trademark adaptive lighting effect more prominent in the viewing experience than ever before.

The new Aurea design, which is being pegged as the successor to the Ambilight system, sees the entire TV bezel transformed into a translucent lighting panel, projecting light forward and backwards.

The system uses multiple LED lights which operate independently for more simultaneous colours.

From early photos, Aurea appears to be a more arresting effect than Ambilight, which concealed the coloured lights behind the TV bezel to project light onto the wall behind the TV for a subtle ambient lighting effect.

A press release issued by Philips in Amsterdam said the company will unveil the first Aurea flat panel TV at the IFA show on 30 August along with a €50 million advertising campaign called Seduction By Light.

Philips has not outlined where the money will be diverted and whether the campaign will be used in Australia.

However, Philips Electronics Australia confirmed that it has received a sample unit and is currently working out its distribution strategy ahead of a mid-September media launch and product roll-out before the end of the year.

Ambilight is said to make the viewing experience more emmersive while reducing eye strain associated with watching TV in a darkened room.

Unconfirmed reports suggest the first Aurea flat panel TV will be a 42-inch LCD featuring 1080p resolution, 100Hz refresh rate and 8000:1 dynamic contrast ratio.

Philips Australia will release more information when the product is officially launched next week.

However, a European demonstration of Aurea technology has been posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5uPQBKgqzA.