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Long story short, I have just 2 and 1/2 hours to film this sponsored tour of the

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Hisense TV factory behind me. Before my dust covers turn to glass slippers, my

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head turns into the Great Pumpkin, and I get shipped back to Canada. We've got to

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get through backplane prep and assembly, backlight installation, mainboard and

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power supply installation, panel mounting, QA and validation, packaging.

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Good grief, even miracles take a little time. And the longer we stand here, the

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less we're going to have. That's another 5 seconds. LET'S GO GO GO.

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This is going to be cool. The production line we're about to see has seven

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first-of-their-kind machines. A third of

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it is assisted by AI or machine learning in some capacity, and it has a total

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automation rate of over 70%.

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Wow. This level of automation isn't just to

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save on labor costs, but also to improve quality. These back panels being loaded

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onto the assembly line used to be done by squishy humans, but as you guys might

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have seen in our recent video taking delivery of a Hisense 116-in

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RGB backlit TV, panel sizes have gotten

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kind of out of control, which means that when you've got people lifting these

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backplanes, there's a significant risk of deformation. Since they switched to

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this automated system that grabs them, shakes off the protective corner pieces,

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then places them onto the line, they've reduced their defects by over 90% Next

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door, the backplanes are treated for any static build-up, then they're flipped

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over to prepare them for the next step.

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Now you probably think of major components like the panel, power supply,

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and processing chips as the big drivers of cost for large TVs. But here's the

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thing, for televisions to be one of the only seemingly inflation-proof consumer

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goods, manufacturers need to dig deeper than that. Behind me is an automated

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glue dispenser that relies on an AI model to control flow rate, pressure,

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movement speed, and more to apply hundreds of glue points for LED light

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bars, and this results in a savings of 9% on glue.

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Nice. After a quick trip through the spray gluing machine and a pass under

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this UV curing lamp, we're going to apply our LED strip and lens arrays that

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are going to serve as our backlight. This is one of the few steps that is

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still manual, but if what we've seen so far is anything to go by, it probably

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won't be for long. The glue theme that we've kind of established so far

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continues behind me with their automatic primer coating machine. The backplane is

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going to be joined to our front panel by a foam tape to reduce light leakage, but

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that requires a primer to be sprayed in order to improve adhesion. By using

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machine vision to verify their coatings in real time and an AI model to make

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adjustments, they were able to reduce their primer consumption by 58% while

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also dramatically reducing defects. Unfortunately, this machine is patent

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pending, so if you're watching this video right away, it's going to be blurred. But once they get their patent,

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we're hoping to replace that blurred footage, so come back in 6 months. As

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TVs get bigger and bigger, maintaining efficiency and backlight uniformity are

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major challenges. So behind me, Hisense is applying a reflective film to the

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backplane to make the absolute most out of any light from the backlight LEDs.

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They're also using automated spring-loaded applicators to apply the

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sheet more evenly, which reduces the risk of dark spots in the finished

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product. You'll still need your diffusion layer and optical sheet, and of course, even

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the best processes are imperfect. So that's where this station comes in,

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where they're using machine vision and AI to analyze the backlight for

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uniformity. Hisense somewhat sheepishly

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admitted that industry norms used to be to have a person look into the backlight

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and go, "Yeah, that looks pretty even." So it makes sense that this change

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resulted in a major improvement to inspection accuracy. By the way, you

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might have noticed this is a white backlit TV, whereas Hisense's cutting

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edge is RGB backlighting. We're going to be taking a closer look at their RGB

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backlight technology a little bit later in the video.

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Now that our backplanes are validated, it's time to apply the foam tape that's

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going to seal them to the panel. This is also automated, which Hisense boasts

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they are the first in the industry to do.

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Now it's time for a big moment, panel assembly. This is yet another process

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that has become simply impractical to do by hand with modern monstrous TV panels.

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The old way involves two operators with suction cups attempting to line up the

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panel with the backplane and stick it down exactly the same every time.

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Breakage was a real problem. This new way brings the fresh panels in on a

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conveyor, moves them over to an automated peel machine to remove the

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protective covering that's on the back of the panel,

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picks them up and places them onto the backplane with better than 0.02 mm

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precision. Now we're looking up at those same

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robots that we were just in front of. At this station, the source board gets

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folded up and then covered with the front plastic bezel.

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Next, behind me, these two robots affix the front bezel with screws. And this is

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a lot cooler than you might realize. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that I was

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here in China being told that screws,

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especially little ones, were still too hard to do economically with robots. Not

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anymore. And not only is it more economical, but this is apparently

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responsible for a 44% reduction in the

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defect rate at this step. >> [music] >> The final step for what they call module

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assembly is these foam rollers pressing down the panel on the backplane to

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secure the foam tape. >> [music] >> With the foam secured, the TVs are

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flipped onto these soft carrier pads for the rest of assembly.

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Now it's time for our straw men to get a brain, or a mainboard with a processor,

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and also a power supply.

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You might have noticed that each of those boards only got one screw securing

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them to the back panel. That is not because Hisense went to the Linus school

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of how to install printed circuit boards. >> This is why I usually only put half the

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screws in radiators. >> It's because the rest of them are going

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to be installed next door right here. >> [music] >> Why it made sense to divide this into

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two steps, I don't know, but that doesn't matter because I don't design

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assembly lines. Now next, we've got a very rare animal

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indeed, a manual step. Sorry, I'm not even going to try to do the accent. The

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point is that they do have a robot for speaker placement, but it is currently

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undergoing maintenance and trials, so they still have a person manually

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placing the speakers, but not for long. >> [music] >> Now it's time to install cable and

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wiring harnesses. As you can see, this requires three people in order to keep

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up with the speed of the production line. Hisense says that the handling and

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delicate installation of these parts is still best done by human hands, but they

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are researching ways to automate this, and who knows, it might not be that far

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off.

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Now we're at the end of the line, or are we? For space efficiency, Hisense has

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the production line laid out in a U-shape. I asked Hisense if I could ride

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on one of the TVs to the other side, and they said yes, but then it turns out

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they misunderstood my question. They couldn't imagine anyone could ask something so stupid. I tried for you

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guys, I tried. Next, Hisense invited me to participate in the production line.

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They asked me to do the internal inspection step. So I'm supposed to mark

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all the various connectors and tapes and

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screws. So this one this one. Oh, all the screws?

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No. There's not enough time.

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Which I guess was kind of their point. I guess that's why Hisense replaced this

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technology with this technology. They're

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using AI and machine learning to constantly update their capabilities to

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detect even the smallest errors. If an error is identified, hey, human hands

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are still the king, it gets fixed right next door, then the back covers get

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installed. Kind of a cool element of Hisense's culture is that no matter what position

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you apply for, if you get a job, you'll spend the day here on the final

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inspection line so that you can get an appreciation for what goes into these

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devices that you're marketing or selling or whatever it is you're doing.

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Before heading into QA, every panel is burned in for 10 minutes on the line to

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help eliminate any of those uh first part of the bathtub curve

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failures. At this point, our TV is basically assembled, and it's time for

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QA. This station behind me uses precision 3D machine vision and an

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eight-axis plug-in and plug-out robot

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with ultra-high precise force control in order to satisfy Hisense's customers.

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They even have a robot here that can push buttons turning the TV on. Nobody

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tell my wife about either of these innovations. The rear covers get screwed

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on, the labels get engraved, then we're off to a particular passion of mine.

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Packaging. After automated testing and

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validation, the TVs are brought back downstairs to be wrapped, padded, and

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boxed.

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This is yet another area where automation is not only a huge

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time-saver, but a huge back ache saver.

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Hisense estimates that the average weight of a consumer TV has reached 54

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kg. That is well over 100 lb. The

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solution? Have the robots move them around. Way better.

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What a ride, man. There's even more that we didn't get a chance to show you, like

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the system that monitors material supply levels at the stations and then uses

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these autonomous vehicles to scurry over with more screws or connectors or

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cardboard sleeves or whatever. And we didn't even touch on the monitoring

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system that shows machine health for the entire facility in real time, advising

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them proactively when things might need maintenance.

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I couldn't show you guys all that cuz they're in the process of applying for some patents, but bottom line, I think

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we've seen enough to know that humans we're basically obsolete in a

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cutting-edge production environment. Let's go somewhere that we're still

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needed then. The R&D center, where we can take a closer look at the RGB

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backlight technology in Hisense's cutting-edge TVs. I've discussed

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Hisense's RGB mini LED backlight technology a couple of times on this

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channel, both when they launched at CES and when I unpacked their 116UX at home,

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but I've never gotten a chance to see under the hood. Before we take a closer

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look though, let's do a brief history of backlight technology. Originally,

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backlights were designed to as evenly illuminate the back of an LCD panel as

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possible. This made them nice and thin compared to old-school CRTs, but they

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weren't the best at producing blacks. They were really more like gray. That's

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because even the best LCD allows a significant amount of light to pass

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through. The solution? Full array local dimming, which places

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many smaller lights across the entire

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back of the panel. These can be brightened or dimmed in zones according

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to the type of content in front of them, dramatically increasing perceived

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contrast. Over the years, they leveled up a lot with smaller LEDs, more

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numerous zones, and high-energy blue backlights that can excite quantum dot

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films to achieve image quality that gives even self-emissive display

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technologies a run for their money. But what if instead of a single color

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backlight, whether it's white or blue, you could have an RGB backlight,

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allowing you to shine red light directly behind the red pixel for the most

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vibrant sports car you've ever seen? That is where RGB mini LED comes in.

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Now, it's still early days for this technology and there is room for it to

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improve, especially by adding even more zones to the backlight. But Hisense has

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been on the forefront of development and when we measured the 116UX, we were

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absolutely blown away by its color gamut. Bottom line, RGB mini LED results

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in incredible color saturation and unreal brightness that really makes HDR

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content pop and it's so cool to see this

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side-by-side with the fully assembled unit, so you can really see how the

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image sausage is made. This Oh, this fire scene looks so good, right?

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Hisense's rise to prominence in North America has been more recent, but

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they've actually been around since these were current, 56 years to be precise,

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and are now a major player in everything from TVs, laser TVs and projectors to

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cloud services to fridges. In fact, this

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was a one of their early acquisitions, which they pointed out to me when we

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walked in, actually still works.

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Ah, refreshing. They asked me to highlight their ongoing

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goal of becoming a world-class provider of multi-scenario display solutions and

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to highlight their construction of China's first zero carbon factory. You

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can learn more about Hisense in the video description. And while you're down there, hey, maybe leave a nice little

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comment to show your appreciation for them opening up their factory so we can

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all understand a little bit better where our shiny gadgets come from. Speaking of

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shiny gadgets, if you want something else to watch, maybe check out my unboxing and first look at the 116UX

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116-in RGB mini LED TV. It is

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out of this world.