The Ultimate At-Home Entertainment Setup For The Ashes This Summer

• Hisense’s PureView fridge removes the usual hosting stress by keeping food, drinks and ice sorted even when the house is full.
• The 116-inch UX TV makes live sport feel like an event rather than background noise, no matter where you’re sitting.
• Hisense’s smart features, like the PureView Door and AI Sports Mode, work quietly in the background so everything stays balanced without constant adjustments.

Summer entertaining has always been about warm hospitality through the best months of the Australian calendar, with Ashes cricket, international tests and any excuse really to get your mates together in front of the TV for a feed.

These days, though, it’s less about throwing everything on a trestle table and hoping for the best. Beers have to be cold. The snags have to be fresh. The footy has to be picture-perfect on a screen big enough to turn a casual get-together into a main event. We have standards to maintain. But that’s where this Hisense setup becomes the ultimate addition to your home entertainment.

The brand has come a long way since its launch, growing into a technological giant for big-screen TVs and large appliances, releasing best-in-class products that seamlessly slot into your everyday life and improve it… beginning with the 615L PureView French Door Fridge.

It does a lot of heavy lifting once you’ve got a full house, addressing the host’s enduring fear that you won’t have enough room for everyone once the game’s on. Yet, with the 615L PureView French Door Fridge, space stops being a problem. Even when you overcater, which everyone invariably does.

Big meat trays. Bottles of fancy sparkling standing up properly. Leftovers that don’t need to be reshuffled just to make the door close. You stop doing that awkward fridge shuffle just to fit one more thing in when your mate’s mate brings a mate.

It’s here that the fridge’s iconic PureView Door turns out to be genuinely useful, when people are constantly in and out of the kitchen searching the back for a fresh drink or something to throw on the BBQ.

Being able to see what’s inside without opening it means fewer temperature swings and less standing there with the door open while someone decides what they’re after. You check, grab, close, and move back into the party.

Inside, it’s built for real use. Heavy drawers slide easily, even when they’re full. Shelves adjust without fuss. Tall bottles and bulky trays fit without rearranging half the fridge. It stays organised because it’s easy to keep organised.

It’s the party guest you didn’t invite, but you’re so glad it’s there. Especially once the game’s already kicked off in the other room.

Speaking of which, once the food’s sorted and the fridge is doing its job in the background, everything naturally drifts towards the lounge. Plates tend to get parked by the sink. Someone grabs a seat they probably shouldn’t. The volume goes up. This is where you’re glad you invested in a proper model.

At 116 inches, the RGB-MiniLED UX 4K 165Hz Smart TV is a game-changer for hosting this summer season, with a screen big enough that no one’s half-watching anymore.

The next AFL Grand Final or the upcoming Ashes Test will feel like a cinematic release, straight in your living room, bringing your favourite sporting moments alive, wherever your guests are sitting.

It also holds up in real Australian conditions, which matters more than most people admit. Afternoon sun creeping across the room doesn’t kill the picture and the inevitable glare stays firmly under control. That’s where the RGB-MiniLED backlighting comes into its own, keeping colours consistent and contrast even when the light’s working against you.

Binge to your heart’s content or throw on the latest Christopher Nolan movie. He’d probably approve of the screen. But where the Hisense UX really starts to show its strengths is with live sport, thanks to its AI Sports Mode.

Fast play stays fast, even during the end-to-end action we see in the NRL every weekend. Players don’t blur, the ball stays easy to track, and wide shots hold their detail instead of turning into a smear of motion. Grass looks like grass, not that washed-out neon green you sometimes get on big screens. Team colours stay consistent.

One thing I love the most about Hisense’s AI Sports Mode is that everything stays balanced as the broadcast shifts.

Instead of reaching for the remote to fiddle with the picture settings during another ad break, the model quietly does everything automatically in the background, meaning bright afternoon games don’t blow out and evening matches don’t lose detail in the shadows.

Finally, sound is handled properly too, straight out of the box. No need for extra extra speakers or cables just to get a full, convincing soundstage with the UX’s built-in 6.2.2 CineStage X system.

Located on the front, side and top-firing speakers, backed by a built-in subwoofer that’s heavy on the bass, the UX works at both ends of the scene to keep dialogue crystal clear and crowd noise as expansive as ever.

That tuning comes from Hisense’s partnership with Devialet and the Opéra de Paris, a collaboration that’s been running since 2017 and focuses on recreating the scale and immersion of live operatic performances. You feel it most during sport and films, where sound fills the space naturally rather than blasting from a single point.

It’s a huge step up from anything I’ve seen before, delivering the closest thing to immersion from the front row of your living room.

In that sense, the fridge and TV feel like the only party guests who didn’t need an invite. They turn up early, take their shoes off by the door, don’t drink your good stuff, don’t fall asleep on the couch, and somehow end up being the most useful people in the room. The kind you actually hope sticks around long after the final siren.