Samsung Home Entertainment Exec James Fishler Talks TVs And Making ‘Screens For All’

I’m a relative laggard to the HDTV game. I didn’t experience my first high-definition television until 6 years ago when, in 2018, my partner and I got a 65-inch model in our living room. That TV was made by Samsung, and it was a revelation in terms of accessibility with its mammoth-sized display and 4K resolution. At the time, I was especially excited for the opportunity to watch myriad sports in the fullest fidelity; again, not only was the viewable area appreciably larger than anything I’d experienced before, the crispness of the image quality (and the color saturation) meant less eye strain and fatigue. Particularly for a sports buff, this confluence of factors helps shapes more accessible user experiences when reading on-screen graphics like score bugs.

“Samsung is always thinking about ways to leverage the power of technology to create a more inclusive world,” said James Fishler, chief executive of the Home Entertainment Division at Samsung Electronics America, in a recent interview conducted over email.

Fishler explained his purview as the leader of his organization entails “all aspects” of Samsung’s home entertainment business in the United States. This includes areas such as sales, marketing, product development, and more. A 6-year veteran of the company, Fishler told me he’s long felt personally drawn to technology He boasted about being amongst the first of his friends to get into DVD, telling me of how thrilling it was to share what he described as “the never-before-seen picture quality” gains compared to th format’s predecessor in VHS. Fishler would feel similarly tingly years later with the advent of Blu-ray.

A mantra for Fishler and crew is a single notion: don’t settle into complacency. Samsung, he said, has been the #1 global television maker for 18 years running. Such a streak, Fishler added, doesn’t come easy. He’s oftentimes reminding his charges of that fact, telling me he likes to tell his teammates “what got us here won’t get us there.” It’s of crucial import to continue trying to innovation on new technologies in service of the user; this work, Fishler said, is what pushes the industry forward.

“That means we can’t just focus on creating the ‘coolest’ TV features and products—though we definitely do,” he said. “We need to make sure the experience of watching TV is inclusive and accessible for everyone.”

The mainstream technology media doesn’t see it this way, but accessibility and innovation really are inextricably tied. For Samsung’s part, Fishler told me accessibility is an important institutional value. The company, he said, is “hyper-focused” on making its products as accessible as humanly possible to everyone. According to Fishler, Samsung works hard to “[provide] meaningful innovation that ensures no matter your space, setup, viewing preferences, or accessibility needs, there’s a great screen option for you, indoors, outdoors at home and on the go.” He pointed to Samsung’s being the first OLED TV ro feature so-called “glare-free technology.” Likewise, he noted there are TVs in Samsung’s fleet ranging from small 32-inch ones to epic 98-inch sets.

“No two homes are the same. No two people are the same,” Fishler said. “That’s why there are so many considerations that go into building the right products, services and experiences that benefit everyone.”

Broadly speaking, Fishler told me working on accessibility is the right thing to do for humanity’s sake because more than a quarter of Americans cope with some sort of disability on a daily basis. As such, Fishler said Samsung feels a moral compulsion to “deliver a seamless TV experience for everyone to enjoy.”

Everyone should have the right to enjoy TV, regardless of ability. The TV is the “central hub” of one’s home, Fishler told me, and Samsung always is thinking about how to create more inclusive experiences for televisions that can benefit anyone and everyone. The million dollar question is what an “inclusive experience” actually mean in practice. To answer it, Fishler said Samsung “proactively engages” with the disability community, as well as various advocacy groups and other allies, such that the company can “truly understand their needs – and figure out what we can do to make their lives easier.” He cited last year’s introduction of Samsung’s Relumino Mode, software whereby visual attributes like color, contrast, and sharpness all are enhanced for people with low vision. To build it, Samsung tapped a number of experts—including people with actual low vision—in order to do the proverbial brain-picking and identify what people want and can tolerate. What’s more, there was extensive trialing and user testing, with Fishler saying Relumino Mode is extant in part because someone in the testing group bemoaned not being able to see the ball while watching soccer matches.

With Relumino Mode, that person (and others like them) are able to “see the ball as it zips across their screen,” Fishler said.

Beyond Relumino Mode, Samsung’s TVs offer a slew of other assistive technologies. They include Sign Language Mode, which presents Deaf and hard-of-hearing watchers with an ASL-speaking avatar, and SeeColors Mode for people who cope with colorblindness. And of course, there are the requisite closed captions, a screen reader, and much more.

When asked about feedback, Fishler said it’s been “positive” but acknowledged there’s more work to be done. There always is space and opportunity to challenge preconceived notions in addition to innovating on technical levels. Samsung, Fishler said, has big goals for itself. They—and Fishler personally—are steadfastly committed to pushing accessibility forward. Fishler told me of a close friend and their autistic son, who throws the remote at the screen. Fishler’s friend is pushing Samsung vis-a-vis Fishler to make its display glass more shatter-resistant such that his son won’t irreparably damage the television.

“These are the kinds of things I’m trying to think about and help solve—and I’m uniquely in a position where I can make a difference and make progress toward these challenges,” Fishler said. “I’m committed to doing exactly that.”

He continued: “I think it’s so important to continue getting feedback from friends, colleagues, other executives, and the people who are actually living with disabilities to get us there, and to make sure we’re really on the right track.”

As to the future, Fishler envisions a future in which a person needn’t fiddle with myriad settings to get their TV to work the way they need or want it. The device should do all the heavy lifting and optimize itself in the background to for the user, not the other way around. Accessibility should be no different. Fishler told me there shouldn’t be a distinction between an accessible television and a “regular” one. (To be fair, most modern TVs come with some suite of accessibility features—but inclusion doesn’t always beget equality. Samsung focuses on quality.)

“I’ll say it again because it’s such an important goal: people with disabilities should be able to choose a TV based on its quality, not based on their disability,” Fishler said. “That’s my goal, a Samsung goal, and it should be the industry’s goal.”