The connected home

Research from Gartner indicates that by 2018, 76 percent of connected home apps will be accessible from smart TVs.

Meanwhile, by 2018, 87 percent of the TVs shipped annually will be smart TVs.

Smart devices have been well on the way to being considered ‘mass-market’ products over the past few years. Gartner’s research essentially validates this notion, showing that consumer uptake has caught up with the initial hype.

The adoption of smart technology marks yet another significant shift in the broadcasting technology sector. With each new development, consumers are afforded an ever greater experience when watching the latest TV shows or films, as well as the sheer quantity of content that internet connection allows. The vast majority of smart TVs will connect to on-demand and streaming services, for example.

The popularity of smart TVs coincides with the emergence of the connected home (both conceptually and in reality) – a revolution that offers the potential to change the way we all live for the better. The connected home is fundamentally about enabling devices to communicate with one another, something that may sound scary to the uninitiated, but actually possesses huge positive potential.

This potential has been highlighted by Samsung’s recent announcement that by 2020 all its products, (yes, that’s everything Samsung makes) from phones to TVs to air conditioning to fridges will be connected. In other words Samsung wants everything it produces to be able to talk to every other device.

Most interestingly, the consumer electronics giant has demonstrated how the smart TV could in reality become the central hub of the smart (connected) home.

It is almost inevitable that in the future (connected) home the smart TV will be a focal point within the home and therefore it would make sense for information to be directed to it. It has the biggest screen, often commands the majority of attention in shared living spaces and already acts as a kind of unofficial focal point.

One of those features that will benefit from a connected future is personalisation. Smart TVs will become even more personalised in the years ahead. Think of it as a Netflix user profile but for the whole viewing experience. Content recommendations will become more targeted, adverts could be more appropriately directed towards their market audience and deliver further benefit to the customer.

At present, cost is one of the barriers making the connected home prohibitive to many but this barrier will reduce over the course of the next few years, opening up the possibility of a connected home to more and more people. However, as the cost of these services decreases with later generation products, connected futures become more accessible.

The connected home, powered by the Internet of Things (IoT) will change how consumers engage and consume media because a wider array of devices will be video enabled. This means we could feasibly see smart watches that can play videos sooner rather than later.

Connected services can go further than simply showing ‘stuff’ though. For example, home appliances which could combine optimal thermal or space efficiency with visibility through the use of cheap screen and cameras (think fridges and ovens with screens on the door so you can glance at the contents without the limitations of glass windows) can become commonplace.

Another emerging, but still currently nascent technology looks set to benefit from the growth of connected devices. It’s wearables.

As more devices become video-enabled and the technology to optimise video for screens on watches improves, we can expect sales of these devices to pick up as they offer consumers a tangible benefit, something they can use every day, anytime, hassle-free. Meanwhile, with central connections via cloud services, viewers can pick up where they left off but on another device.

Coupled with the proliferation of 4G mobile TV and streaming to mobile devices will continue to gather pace over the next few years. The move towards watching content on these devices has already clearly gathered steam.

The connected home is coming and it will change the way we all watch video content, with smart TVs leading the charge towards a connected home where devices can communicate and a wide array of household and wearable devices will be able to display more information than ever before.

For consumers the connected home is an exciting proposition. For marketers it could be the Holy Grail.

Steve Plunkett, Chief Technology Officer.