The way you, the consumer, access your favourite TV programming in future, could be determid by something called "placeshifting" technologies. And companies like Slingbox and Sony are working overtime to perfect the technologies, both hardware and increasingly software.
But, first, what’s Slingbox? It’s a little devices that sits on your TV set and it is this device that enables you to watch and control your living room television programming from anywhere by turning any Internet-connected laptop, desktop, PDA, or smartphone into a personal television. Whoa! According to Slingbox, the gadget placeshifts the television signal from your source device to your PC — located at home or 3,000 miles away, via the Internet. "The SlingPlayer software works hand-in-hand with the hardware in the Slingbox to allow you to watch and control your TV on your computer. So while your TV and Slingbox sit at home, you can be out and about with SlingPlayer," the company says. Which could prove to be inconvenient for wireless carriers.
"The ability to stream pay TV from a set-top box and digital content from a home PC over the Internet to a variety of devices has the potential to disrupt new content services being delivered by mobile operators," says a new report by ABI Research. "New digital distribution technologies typically meet the stiffest resistance from content owners such as movie studios," says the market research firm.
"With placeshifting, we believe the biggest opponents will be mobile operators who see these solutions as rogue network applications that could potentially paralyse their cellular networks, as well as keeping consumers from paying for mobile video offerings being offered over new mobile video networks."
ABI Research has forecast a bright future for placeshifting as consumer awareness of hardware, software, and embedded solutions grows. "While today’s placeshifting market is largely hardware-based, as adopters use the Slingbox or Sony’s LF-PK1, a growing number of consumers will also adopt software solutions such as that from Orb Networks and SageTV or embedded solutions such as placeshifting enabled set-top boxes," it says.
"As the overall placeshifting market grows from less than $22 million in 2005 to nearly $740 million by 2011, much of the growth will come as placeshifting technology moves into existing devices," it says. "Hardware vendors such as Sling and Sony, while still seeing strong growth from device sales, will work with other system OEMs to integrate placeshifting into both server and client devices.
But, first, what’s Slingbox? It’s a little devices that sits on your TV set and it is this device that enables you to watch and control your living room television programming from anywhere by turning any Internet-connected laptop, desktop, PDA, or smartphone into a personal television. Whoa! According to Slingbox, the gadget placeshifts the television signal from your source device to your PC — located at home or 3,000 miles away, via the Internet. "The SlingPlayer software works hand-in-hand with the hardware in the Slingbox to allow you to watch and control your TV on your computer. So while your TV and Slingbox sit at home, you can be out and about with SlingPlayer," the company says. Which could prove to be inconvenient for wireless carriers.
"The ability to stream pay TV from a set-top box and digital content from a home PC over the Internet to a variety of devices has the potential to disrupt new content services being delivered by mobile operators," says a new report by ABI Research. "New digital distribution technologies typically meet the stiffest resistance from content owners such as movie studios," says the market research firm.
"With placeshifting, we believe the biggest opponents will be mobile operators who see these solutions as rogue network applications that could potentially paralyse their cellular networks, as well as keeping consumers from paying for mobile video offerings being offered over new mobile video networks."
ABI Research has forecast a bright future for placeshifting as consumer awareness of hardware, software, and embedded solutions grows. "While today’s placeshifting market is largely hardware-based, as adopters use the Slingbox or Sony’s LF-PK1, a growing number of consumers will also adopt software solutions such as that from Orb Networks and SageTV or embedded solutions such as placeshifting enabled set-top boxes," it says.
"As the overall placeshifting market grows from less than $22 million in 2005 to nearly $740 million by 2011, much of the growth will come as placeshifting technology moves into existing devices," it says. "Hardware vendors such as Sling and Sony, while still seeing strong growth from device sales, will work with other system OEMs to integrate placeshifting into both server and client devices.