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We guess there’s every chance that many of you aren’t even reading this. You probably clocked the £12.5k price tag presented above and clicked your browser’s back button faster than we could say ‘how much?!!’. But if you are still with us, either because money’s no object or you’re intrigued as to precisely why any 50in plasma TV should believe it’s worth so much money, you’re in for a treat. For the key point about the HD50 is that it’s certainly not just a plasma TV.

Vivadi, the British company behind the Saturn HD50, was formed on the back of a single big idea: why not make a TV that’s as much a piece of designer furniture as it is a TV and which can be almost infinitely upgraded to keep up with new technologies as and when they arrive? In other words, Vivadi wanted to create a TV that you didn’t have to completely replace every couple of years, but which could grow old with you like a pair of cutting edge AV slippers…

The early signs from the Saturn HD50 are that Vivadi has achieved its dreams with a really quite remarkable degree of success. For starters, we can guarantee you that you will never have seen a plasma TV that looks anywhere near as dramatic, stylish and, let’s face it, just plain opulent as the HD50.

The 50in screen is reasonably pretty in itself, but what makes the Saturn truly special is what the screen’s mounted on: namely a sumptuous floor-standing console made from curved wood available in any of three finishes: Natural Cherry, Morello Cherry, and Natural Maple. So immediately Vivadi has ticked the ‘TV as furniture’ box in quite spectacular fashion.

But we’ve barely scratched the surface of the Saturn HD50’s design ambitions yet, as Vivadi also does – for an extra £5,000 - a full set of surround sound speakers using NXT flat-panel technology that match the Saturn HD50 in wood-finished style and, amazingly, scale. What’s more, you can even select the colour of the speaker grilles from a choice of Petrol Blue, Ruby Red, or Ebony. Vivadi claims it will consider bespoke finishes for all elements of the system, too – provided they’re possible and you’re willing to pay whatever extra they cost to produce.

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