10 years of installing the finest music, home cinema and home control systems: Part 2

10 years of installing the finest music, home cinema and home control systems: Part 2

Following on from Part one in this series of News items, Part 2 is going to look at how television and video into the home has changed in the last 10 years.

We’ve gone from broadcasting to the masses to narrow-casting to specific target markets. No longer being reliant on three terrestrial channels I grew up with that dictate what we can watch  and when, we are now free to browse through hundreds of cable, satelite or Freeview channels that offer up a smorgasbord of viewing options.

The physical TV has changed also. Our shop opened with half of the floor space dedicated to CRT TV’s all lined up on their stands with just a single 42″ plasma screen that retailed at £6500! Flat panels are now common place in homes around the UK with many being Hi-Definition and in an effort to generate new sales the TV manufacturers have started adding software features to tempt us rather than hardware.

Advances In The Internet

Data transfer now allow services like BBC iPlayer to be pre-installed on screens. The sale of “connected” or “smart” TV’s is on the rise with Samsung heading up the most wanted list in a recent YouGov survey, and even though only 25% of smart TV owners have used the connected services on their TV, the uptake is unlikely to diminish in the future.

Looking to the future? Well we’ve written previously about Google’s plans for Google TV, reportedly investing $100m into original content to be shown exclusively on YouTube. Amazon and Netflix are doing the same.  TV is about to become search based rather than browsing based, Google know enough about you to understand that when you want to be made to laugh  – Dad’s Army is your thing. If you want to get a current affairs update, you prefer BBC News to Sky News. How we interact with our TV is about to change, I doubt it will be a revolution, more a drip feed but it will change.

Designing A New Home ?

If you are thinking about designing a new home or carrying out extensive renovations you need to be aware of these changes to make sure you have the infrastructure in place to cope. Talking to the Seven Integration will ensure that in 10 years time you are still able to enjoy the benefits of what ever advances those years bring.