Aurora Display firmware to improve Sky Glass rolls out

Sky has begun its long awaited roll-out of the picture upgrade to Sky Glass, the all-in-one premium pay TV streaming solution. The company says that all Sky Glass customers will benefit from the PQ update by the end of the week.

The improvement to Sky Glass picture quality is the headline attraction in the company’s latest firmware update to its Entertainment OS platform.

Sky engineers have completely rewritten the algorithm which controls the backlight on Sky Glass screens, and its local dimming implementation. "We had to rebuild it from the ground up,” says Sky’s Group Chief Production Officer, Fraser Stirling.

The Sky Glass PQ update, dubbed Aurora Display, is designed to deliver higher contrast, brightness and colour accuracy to all Sky Glass models.

Sky Glass comes in three screen sizes: 43-, 55 and 65-inches. All are 4k QLED models with a built-in Dolby Atmos sound system, and support Dolby Vision HDR.

This new update also enhances the existing Vivid Mode from the Option' menu, delivering a far punchier picture, with higher levels of contrast and colour saturation. Inside CI had a preview of Aurora Display several weeks ago during which the update appeared to offer significant improvements on a variety of content, from sports to movies and TV drama.

To demonstrate the uplift, two Sky Glass TVs, one running the current firmware and the other Aurora Display, sat side by side, as sequences from F1 night racing, Gangs of London, Uncharted and Spiderman: Homecoming were played out.

Another firmware bonus is the addition of the ITVX app, which is now available on both Sky Glass and Sky Stream. The app will land on Sky Q boxes ‘in the coming weeks’.

Sky also plans to introduce a remote control finding feature to Entertainment OS device. If users have misplaced their remote, they can say “Hello Sky, where’s my remote” to their Sky Glass screen and the remote will start to beep ; the feature is already available on Sky Q .