Some readers may remember I used to work for a big TV company and headed up marketing. Needless to say, I know a bit about TV’s having started my career 30 years ago at another TV company.
30 years ago, the challenge was trying to make a video recorder easy to use or more specifically how to tape your favourite program whilst you were out.
Move forward to today, and TV vendors have various user interfaces all trying to make consumption of content easy, The likes of Foxtel, Fetch and Google with its previous Chromecast have all tried to take over the TV to give you their interface to allow you to consume content.
So what is consumption of content? This is you accessing a combination of video, information and sound from your TV and could include depending on your appetite:
- Free to air TV
- Streaming services like Stan and Netflix
- Catchup TV services like Nine Now, 7plus, ABC iview etc.
- Watch YouTube or similar
- Access to Kayo for Sports
- Specialist Sports content like MLB.TV (US Major League Baseball)
- Subscription gym classes
- Using your TV to listen to music from services like Spotify or your favourite radio station
- Browsing the Internet
- Sharing your PC or smartphone screen
- Accessing information or controlling your smart devices in the home like a surveillance camera or washing machine finish time or alert
- Using your voice to ask questions or control actions (smart assistant), with a response on the screen
- Interact with social media
- Run stand-alone apps that could do anything from test your internet speed to turn your TV into a virtual fish tank
So the world is changing, and we can now do so much more on our TV screen!
The new Google Chromecast with Google TV is a game-changer. Why? Because on the list above of content you can consume on your TV until now no device let you do all these things listed. All the current devises allowed you only to do a subset. This new Google device lets you do the lot!
According to JB HiFi, Google Chromecast with Google TV will be available for $99 on the 15th of October. It will plug into an HDMI port on your TV and has its own remote with a microphone for voice control. The unit will connect to your home WiFi and support resolution up to 4K with HDR matching the capability of most modern TV’s.
In fairness, I have not tested this unit but assume it will be super easy to use. The unit is plug and play and can convert any TV made in the last 10 years into a powerhouse of content and smart home capability.
