Every Friday on Current.com.au, the team chooses the most impressive new product from the preceding week to be named our Product of the Week. The main criteria for this award are that the product is saleable and can inject value back into the industry.

Sharp Corporation of Australia this week wowed us with the unveiling of its ‘superjumbonormous’ 70-inch Ultra HD TV (LC-70UD1X):

Like fellow Japanese brand Sony, Sharp is using the 4K term in partnership with Ultra HD (the name favoured by the CEA and the Korean brands) to co-describe this new technology. It’s important to note that 4K and Ultra HD refer to the same thing: a resolution of 3,820 x 2,160, four times that of a Full HD picture.

Mark Beard, national marketing manager at Sharp, said he was especially happy to unveil an Ultra HD TV certified by THX, an AV standard developed in part by Star Wars creator George Lucas and currently owned by Creative Labs.

“THX has been conducting third party evaluation for HDTVs for some time, but only recently began certifying 4K HDTVs and we’re thrilled that Sharp’s LC-70UD1X will be the first 4K model on the market to pass THX certification,” said Beard in a statement.

“The TV has a high quality Japanese-made panel that not only delivers brilliant picture quality, but also a slim, elegant design.”

Not in a statement but in person, Beard also said that Smart TV functionality — web browsing, streaming, widgets, social media et cetera — may not be the ‘next big thing’ that the TV companies are looking for to attract consumers back to the market. He said it could end up being more like 3D TV, a feature now commonplace among high-end models but not actually a driver to purchase — another squib.

So what is the next big thing? Beard said it was already here: super-big screens. The market is moving, he said, to screen sizes 60 inches and above, where there are still premium price points and strong margins for retailers.

Sharp is well-set to capitalise on this, should Beard prove a cognisant prognosticator, as it is undoubtedly the trailblazer in this category, having launched its 80- and 90-inch Full HD panels last year — both are absolutely spectacular.

There is no RRP as yet for Sharp’s LC-70UD1X.

Editorial responsibility for Product of the Week is taken by Current.com.au editor Patrick Avenell.