DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) gave TV viewers the ability to watch TV programs at convenient times, "Time-Shifting." With that feature already in place for some time now, the next logical evolutionary step for TV technology would "Location-Shifting," the ability to watch TV anywhere.
And it seems like 2006 will already be forever remembered as the year TV became OMNIPRESENT. Although the SlingBox emerged in 2005, public awareness of "Location-Shifting" didn't happen until the volcanic eruption of such technologies at CES 2006.
TV everywhere. But this is ridiculous! (Source: The Technocrat Soapbox)
Thanks to Broadband, Wireless, Digital Recording, and Streaming Technologies, information is now truly ubiquitous. To ensure mass adoption, businesses have to come up with creative ways to make the technology affordable (if not free). I recently tried the 'Orb' from Orb Network. The software works like a 'SlingBox-less' owner's dream. Not only can it stream recorded TV programs to any devices connected to the internet, it can also allow the user to control his/her DVR, to a certain extent (e.g. scheduling a program to record, delete recorded programs). But the best thing about Orb is that it does not carry the hefty $200 price-tag of SlingBox, it's free.
Download the Orb software from Orb Networks.
Several years from now, the fast-moving, tech-savvy, attention-deficient high-school kids who want nothing but instant-gratification will be in the workforce. The traditional players in the Media world (e.g. TV/Radio Networks, Print Media Firms, and Advertising/Marketing Companies) had better change their operational strategies or even identities soon to accommodate this demographic group because they will be the most valuable consumers by then. These consumers have already relegated 'Old Media' (e.g. TV, newspaper, Radio) to 'ex-boy/girlfriend' status and promoted 'New Media' (e.g. SmartPhones, PDAs, iTunes, iPods, Google Video Store) to 'Flavor of the Moment.'
And like that 'Psycho ex-boy/girlfriend' who just won't go away, old media will be around for some time; it just won't get as much attention as 'New Media,' until the promiscuous consumers find another new media (or until old media drives a steak knife through our cheating hearts).
Read: Complete Coverage of CES 2006 at the Technocrat Soapbox
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This article is by: YC (Guest Blogger) from the Technocrat Soapbox |
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