With each new product generation, modern TVs are being designed larger and thinner, enabled by technology and sought after by consumers. Despite their increasingly slender appearance, TVs often stand out in living environments as technological eyesores, forcing integration in ways that require yet more furniture and objects to conceal or distract. Even hanging LCD TVs often monopolize valuable mantle space and create the need to manage a jumble of wires. In response to these challenges, Texas Instruments (TI) asked IDEO to envision a reference design to exemplify how digital light processing (DLP) technology can be applied to consumer TVs.

During user research, designers discovered several methods of "hiding" TVs—from hanging them in the context of a picture frame to installing expensive cabinetry—in an attempt to reveal viewer's needs and desires around seamless integration. Distilled from this research was the notion that TV owners wish to downplay the screen when not in use, while maintaining enough wall and shelf space to accommodate their other objects. As a result, IDEO conceived of a DLP TV comprising two autonomous parts: a shelf that contains all of the design's necessary technology, and a glass screen upon which the television image or other lighting effects can be projected.

Enabled by DLP technology, the concept is aesthetically inspired by modern furniture, home interiors, and architecture. The shelf is made from renewable multidensity fiberboard laminated with melamine. The typical obtrusive and dominating black TV screen is eliminated by projecting on CristalLine treated glass, resulting in a clear screen that virtually disappears when the TV is off. Alternatively, color effects can be projected on the glass for ambient mood lighting when the TV is not in use. By repositioning the DLP projector from the rear to the front of the screen, the depth of a standard DLP TV was eliminated, allowing the screen portion of the concept to be thinner (.25' thick glass) than an LCD could ever be. A single cable houses power, audio, and video inputs.