Forget all the hype about 3D enabled TV’s, I think the real advancement coming from the new crop of LED Televisions is the ability to connect a web cam and make video calls right from your living room TV set. (Didn’t I see this in “Back to the Future part 2“?)
These days it is hard to find a new TV, blu ray player or even audio receiver that does not require a connection to your home network in order to communicate with the internet. At first it was a convenient way to make sure your device always had the latest firmware, usually pushed out by the manufacturer and automatically downloaded to your device via the internet. However, now those network connections have evolved and are doing much, much more by affording the electronic makers the ability to incorporate high tech advancements like surfing the internet, checking weather, watching YouTube and now even video chatting with friends right from one central location, your TV set.
We actually saw this coming years ago, and that is why we have always been firm believers that a well designed home network was a necessity when wiring a house. Long gone are the days when a simple Linksys or Netgear 8 port router and a well placed access point would be sufficient for the one or two computers or the wireless laptops in the house.
Today, nearly every electronic device needs a network connection, from phones that use voice over IP, or video streaming devices like the Apple TV and BluRay players enabled with Netflix and Pandora, to third party control systems that use the home network to communicate with and control your home appliances and environmental systems such as HVAC and lighting control. A well designed network with a properly managed gigabit switch is imperative to controlling all of that data traffic. A good network switch will assist in maintaining your network and can keep it running smoothly by limiting those bandwidth hogs like streaming video downloads, and giving preference to devices such as a VIOP phone, or a computer needed to VPN back to your office so you can work from home.
If you could just monitor your network traffic in real time, you would be amazed at all of the chatter going on between the networked devices. Honestly, your devices are all communicating, pinging each other, querying weither this or that device is still online, reporting back to the router saying, “Yes, I am still here”. And that is just the traffic going on when you aren’t using any of your networked devices – and it doesn’t stop while you are using the network, it is always there in the background.
Finally, wifi is very convenient, but it just does not have the bandwidth to handle the new demands put on home networks by the latest generation of electronics. Wired ethernet jacks are a must! If you don’t believe me, just try to download a movie on an AppleTV using only the wifi connection, then go back and download the same movie using the hardwired connection. The result will speak for itself.
Check out the following video demonstrating a Skype enabled LED TV shot at this past CES show, courtesy of engadget.
Tags: HDTV, LED TV, LG, Networks, Panasonic, Samsung, Skype, Video Chat
Ed, great article! I posted an addendum to your thoughts tonight. Sure do like this new feature. Much more practical than others of late (specifically, 3D).
Can I have them both on the same set? Will you be able to turn on and off the 3D. If you can turn it off (and it’s not too expensive) it may be fun to have an alternative. Food for thought.