Remote, Controlled: How Vizio and Google Radically Reinvented the TV

Matt McRae is fired up about remote controls. Or, more specifically, about getting rid of them.

McRae is the chief technology officer of Vizio, a company that sells more TVs — and with them, remotes — than any other company in America. And he thinks remote controls are very, very stupid.

Vizio’s new P-Series TVs are a radical departure from the rest of the industry. Unlike the smart TVs that dominate the market, the P-Series completely lacks an on-screen interface — there are no apps or menus or controls or even picture settings on the TV itself. There’s nothing.

Instead, Vizio has partnered with Google to redesign the entire TV experience around the Google Cast streaming protocol, the same technology used in the wildly popular Chromecast streaming stick. The P-Series comes with a six-inch Android tablet, and everything is controlled by the new Vizio SmartCast app.

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