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7 Home Technology Game Changers for CE Pros
Our Home Technology Game Changers may sound hum-drum to CE Pros, but they can mean big business: 3D, streaming content, A/V over one wire, wireless HD, IP security, videoconferencing, aging in place
Home technology game changer #6: Residential Videoconferencing/Telepresence
Which new technologies will change the CE pro business landscape in 2011? We’ve highlighted seven of them, and will explain what they mean for integrators during CEProLive this Thursday, Nov. 11. The day-long virtual event is free for registered pros.
And the game-changers are:
Stop rolling your eyes. 3D TV has only just begun, and CE pros already are complaining about it.
But you complained as well during the rollout of HDTV, which was just as painful – and ultimately less exciting – than the rollout of 3D.
CE vendors and studios are spending gobs of money on 3D, and smart CE pros will avail themselves of the marketing opportunities.
Who can make sense of the ever-changing sagas in digital content, with new sources coming online only moments before being shut down with no warning?
CE pros can.
With so much streaming content available, and so many ways to deliver it to TVs and stereo systems, consumers need a modern-day “CE” pro – a Content Expert – to sort it out for them.
Oh, and you can sell and configure enterprise-grade networking gear and managed services while you’re at it.
Remember when countless builders and high-volume integrators prewired millions of homes with a structured wiring can and three or four runs of Cat 5 cable to common areas of the home?
Back then, it still took several Cat 5s or multiple runs of coax to deliver much goodness to remote areas.
Today, however, there are at least five viable options for distributing multiple streams of audio, HD video, control signals and high-speed data over a single Cat 5.
These technologies pose one of the best retrofit opportunities in ages.
We’ve seen some excellent wireless HD solutions – both for short and long distances – appear this year, but the good ones cost more than $800 or so for a transmitter and receiver.
The latest game changer is Best Buy, which is now offering a $300 wireless HD product under its Rocketfish brand. The company is utilizing the same high-quality WirelessHD spec from SiBeam that some of the other high-end brands are using.
Watch out!
And the game-changers are:
1. 3D TV
Stop rolling your eyes. 3D TV has only just begun, and CE pros already are complaining about it.
But you complained as well during the rollout of HDTV, which was just as painful – and ultimately less exciting – than the rollout of 3D.
CE vendors and studios are spending gobs of money on 3D, and smart CE pros will avail themselves of the marketing opportunities.
2. Streaming Content
Who can make sense of the ever-changing sagas in digital content, with new sources coming online only moments before being shut down with no warning?
CE pros can.
With so much streaming content available, and so many ways to deliver it to TVs and stereo systems, consumers need a modern-day “CE” pro – a Content Expert – to sort it out for them.
Oh, and you can sell and configure enterprise-grade networking gear and managed services while you’re at it.
3. A/V over One Wire
Remember when countless builders and high-volume integrators prewired millions of homes with a structured wiring can and three or four runs of Cat 5 cable to common areas of the home?
Back then, it still took several Cat 5s or multiple runs of coax to deliver much goodness to remote areas.
Today, however, there are at least five viable options for distributing multiple streams of audio, HD video, control signals and high-speed data over a single Cat 5.
These technologies pose one of the best retrofit opportunities in ages.
4. Wireless HD
We’ve seen some excellent wireless HD solutions – both for short and long distances – appear this year, but the good ones cost more than $800 or so for a transmitter and receiver.
The latest game changer is Best Buy, which is now offering a $300 wireless HD product under its Rocketfish brand. The company is utilizing the same high-quality WirelessHD spec from SiBeam that some of the other high-end brands are using.
Watch out!
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Article Topics
News · Product News · Business Resources · Displays · TVs · Video · Digital Media · Multiroom Video · Home Automation and Control · Security · Wire and Cable · Home Health · Wireless A/V · Ceprolive · 3d · Multiroom Video · Streaming Media · Home Health · Videoconferencing · Aging In Place · Ip Security · Telepresence · Cat 5 ·About the Author
Julie Jacobson, Editor-at-large, CE Pro
Julie Jacobson is co-founder of EH Publishing and currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro, mostly in the areas of home automation, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. She majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. Julie is a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player with the scars to prove it. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson.
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