If you’re interested in smart TVs, then CES 2014 had two surprises for you: The first one was LG with its webOS-based smart TVs, and the second one was Hisense. I ventured to the Hisense booth last week because I wanted to check out the company’s new Roku TV, but I quickly learned that at least for Hisense, Roku isn’t the big story: Vidaa is.

Vidaa is the company’s new smart TV platform, which has been developed by Jamdeo, a design and engineering company located in Ontario, Canada that’s co-owned by Hisense and Flextronics. I interviewed Jamdeo’s Principal Designer Mo Selim (see the video below) and after spending a bit of time chatting with his team about their thoughts on the smart TV space and their design philosophy, I came away impressed.

There are a couple things that intrigue me about the Vidaa smart TV:

It’s the…