Last week at the Sydney Star casino event centre in Australia, Samsung unveiled its 2013 lineup of smart TVs.
Samsung is synonymous with cutting-edge smart TV technology, and Samsung’s 2013 models are among the very best available today. From stunning displays to lightening-fasting refresh rates to The Smart Hub interface to voice and gesture control to the sleek SmartTouch remote, Samsung does smart TV right.
All that’s needed for Samsung to secure top-dog status in the smart TV world is a viable solution for fast and easy search & discovery across multiple services.
Voice & gesture control alone do not ameliorate the search bottleneck. Smart TV will truly take off only when searching across services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes) for the content you want can be done quickly and easily – w/out navigating that omnipresent and tortuous onscreen keyboard, or babbling like a lunatic, or flailing like a madman…
Samsung, you are sooooo close! It’s time for Kannuu!
Technology advances displayed last week at NAB 2013 in Las Vegas where mind-boggling…
The NAB Show is the world’s largest event covering filmed entertainment and the development, management and delivery of content across all mediums. From creation to consumption, across multiple platforms and countless nationalities, the NAB Show is the home to the solutions that transcend traditional broadcasting and embrace content delivery to new screens in new ways.
This year’s show did not disappoint…
From to hyper-connected living rooms to dual-screen experiences to 4K footage shot by filmmaker Peter Jackson to mobile dongles for TV to modulators for satellite or terrestrial operations to multi-screen video delivery and media data intelligence solutions to multiplexers, re-multiplexers and encoders…
…All mind-boggling advances that translate into mind-blowing viewing experiences — the majority of which will occur on stunning smart TV screens in home media centers and living rooms…
…And consumers everywhere would be much obliged if broadcasters, broadband providers, content producers, TV manufacturers, and OTT vendors would first and foremost make it fast & easy to search across multiple services for something good to watch on smart TV!!!
It’s time for Kannuu!
In a recent survey, Rovi discovered that 90% of tablet users and 89% of mobile phone users in the U.S. said being able to search across multiple video services at once was either a must have or nice to have feature. Further, 40% of both groups rated this feature as “must have.” The company found similar results across Europe, particularly in the UK and Germany.
I wonder what this percentage is among smart TV viewers – where search is strangled by onscreen keyboards.
Our guess is that the percentage of smart TV viewers who would rate cross-video service search a “must have” is much higher than 40%.
In fact, according to a recent Wired Statgeist Chart, more than 95% of smart TV owners cite “the ability to find what they want to watch when they want to watch it” as the most important feature of a smart TV.
It’s time for Kannuu.
A great article in the Australian gives a rundown of all the technical advancements in the most recent wave of smart TVs hitting the market.
From faster processors to burgeoning app stores to voice & motion control to stunning displays, TV viewing has never been more spectacular.
Add to this enormous quantities of new, quality content from OTT and other non-broadcast/cable/satellite producers, and it becomes clear that home TV viewing has never been richer.
Only hitch is that as smart TV functionality becomes increasingly sophisticated and great video content grows exponentially, finding what you want to watch when you want to watch it has become cumbersome, time consuming and downright aggravating.
What good are all of these technical advancements if a smart TV fails its most basic function – helping find something great to watch?
If consumers can’t quickly and easily access the content they want, they’ll shun technical bells and whistles and switch their TV manufacturer and/or streaming media player and/or OTT service provider and or broadband/cable/satellite company.
It’s simple. Improve search. Please customers. Win market share and cement loyalty.
Regrettably , voice & gesture control alone do not vanquish the search bottleneck, and don’t even get me started on the iRing…
Smart TV will truly take off only when searching across services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, VOD, etc.) for the content you want can be done quickly and easily – w/out navigating that tortuous onscreen keyboard, or babbling like an idiot, or flailing like a madman, or tearing up the cushions in search of that damn iRing…
It’s time for Kannuu!
An Apple TV might be cool, particularly one that comes with an accompanying, albeit smaller, screen.
But do we really need iRing control?
To be sure, a fast & easy way to search across channels & services for something to watch is what consumers crave most in today’s world of exploding, quality content.
Apple, meet Kannuu!!!
Wired reports that “The Nielsen Family is Dead.”
Seems the surge in quality content from OTT providers like Netflix is rapidly driving change in the television industry.
Quality original programs means big money, Wired reports, and because the traditional Nielsen rating method does not count programs watched via streaming media (on TVs, PCs, Game Consoles, Tablets, etc.), the picture Nielsen provides of who’s watching what when is no longer as accurate, or as relevant.
Nielsen is scrambling to make the necessary corrections, adding meters that can monitor viewership of OTT content through broadband in addition to the traditional broadcast or cable hook-up.
Whether or not Nielsen can fix its disconnect remains to be seen.
What what once marked the beginning and and of TV content now signals ground zero of a content revolution, a revolution led by a new breed of creator unencumbered by time or format constraints and under allegiance only to quality.
It cannot be denied that a new age of television is dawning.
And if the Nielsen Family is dead, then what other entrenched, slow-moving player(s) are on the endangered list?
There’s no telling. Let the cards fall where they may.
But, please, someone, kill off that tortuous, search-strangling onscreen keyboard!!!
We simply cannot let the onscreen keyboard continue to bottleneck the discovery of great content.
Wired also reports what smart TV feature matters most to today’s consumers — namely, the ability to quickly and easily find what we want to watch.
Whomever designs the best search & discovery interface for finding something to watch in this exciting new world of exploding, quality content will own the consumers – who will ultimately dictate where advertising dollars are spent, and in the process, determine who lives and who dies in the new age of viewership.
It’s time for Kannuu!!!
Content advisory service The NDP Group conducted a survey confirming the ubiquitous nature of Internet-connected devices.
In 2013 alone, the number of online devices in the average U.S. household has increased from 5.3 to 5.7 in only three months, reaching more than 500 million devices, total, according to NDP.
Big numbers indeed. While NDP cites huge surges in smartphones and tablets, connected TVs in the US are also rising sharply – Over 30 percent of consumers in the United States who plan to purchase a TV set in the next 12 months want an Internet-connected TV or Smart TV. (IMS Research).
The quantity and quality of video content (Pay TV and OTT) is also surging & all pundits agree that TV is the preferred way to view video content (movies, shows, etc.).
Biggest challenge for consumers today is finding what they want to watch across the growing array of services – >95% cite this as biggest challenge according to Wired (03.13 issue).
It’s time for Kannuu!!!
Read Content Standard article: Internet-Connected Devices Top 500 Million in US