LG Innofest 2019: The ultimate modern smart home

After a successful run in Seoul last year, LG brought its Innofest event over to Sydney this year. From simply having their shiny new products on display at their R&D campus, the company now wanted to show what it would look like if an actual home was spruced up with products from the ThinQ AI ecosystem.

In a Sydney posh neighborhood is an upscale residence given the moniker of ‘LG Mansion’. Here, we saw the company’s smart products as they would be used by consumers in their own homes.

LG’s premium home appliance brands, LG ThinQ, LG Signature, and LG Objet were the stars of the show. TVs, smart speakers, air-conditioners, washing machines, kitchen appliances, and even beauty products are all part of the company’s IoT platform.

Starting at the heart of every home, the living room, arguably the centerpiece of LG’s products this year, was an 8K OLED NanoCell TV. While still well in their infancy due to the virtual non-existence of native content and the fact that consumers are still beginning to adopt 4K, it’s still a marvel to see.

LG’s new TVs are powered by the company’s 2nd gen a9 processor that uses a deep learning algorithm to analyze the source content, recognize ambient conditions and optimize the picture and sound.

And whether you’re accustomed to using Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, both are now supported so that the rest your smart home can maintain its cohesion.

Moving on to the kitchen, LG’s latest French-Door refrigerators in the awesome Matte Black color see Linear and Door Cooling technologies to keep food fresh for longer. The lighting inside the units have been improved, and certain models bring back the InstaView window/screen.

LG’s new pod-based beer brewing machine. A definite crowd favorite.

Even the most mundane objects are smart. Imagine verbally telling your washing machine that you need a specific kind of stain to be removed from a specific article of clothing. Even LG’s new front and top load washers are intelligent, too.

Also making an appearance are LG’s 2019 flagship smartphones, the V50 ThinQ and G8 ThinQ, which debut new features such as 5G connectivity for the former and Air Motion gestures for the latter. These tie into the smart home concept as 5G also has its potential applications within the IoT space.

Innofest is now in its seventh year, with this being my second time personally attending. With last year’s event focusing on the idea behind an AI-powered home, and this year’s being a realization of that concept, I’m filled with anticipation for what LG has in store for 2020.

Executives from LG Philippines mentioned that the demand for premium home appliances is actually increasing in the country, so perhaps a smart home of this caliber will start to become more commonplace as consumers develop.

And to mirror my sentiment from last year’s Innofest feature – a smart home that helps you focus on the more important things? I aspire to have one.