Satellite TV and PC Convergence, the next big thing
by: Lloyd McCoy
In many cases great strides in technology start with small steps, in most cases a programmer creates a small utility program, passes it to a few friends and they pass it to a few more and so on and so on, eventually you have a cottage industry and soon booming corporations are formed.
Napster and Voice-over-IP are two execellent examples of this type of technology. In both these cases the technology started with small utilities that provided very useful capabilities that seemed to be ignored by the major technology manufactures. In the case of Voice-over-IP, the ability to use the internet to make free (at the time) phone calls created a major stir, today, there are dozens of companies that now provide this service with added features and abilities and this simple concept has become a multi-billion dollar inductry.
It seems that on the horizon is another up and coming major leap in technology, currently be developed by several small companies and providing, what I think, is another major utility that provides a service which would seem to be a logical extension of the convergence between PCs and the entertainment industry.
Both Dish Network and Direct TV have been gaining significant marketshare over cable TV providers. These two companies provide excellent entertainment for the home, except for two major areas. One, you have to have a satellite dish to receive their programming, and two, you can only recieve their programming. At the present time there are thousands of satellite channels available around the world, what if you could receive any or all of those channels directly on your PC. That is the idea behind a new breed of PC utility.
Several small companies have developed software which I will recall PC-satellite receivers. These programs allow the user to access and receive world wide satellite feeds from anywhere that they have a internet connection. These utilities will help close the gap between PCs and entertainment.
What does this mean for the average consumer? Basically anyone with a PC will be able to watch television channels from around the world right on their PC without buying or subscribing to satellite services. With enhancements the PC-satellite receiver software could stream it's signal to a regular TV (as we currently can do with music). The software is now easily available around the internet and can only become even more popular as people become aware of it's capabilities. So far early implementer has been very impressed with the capabilities, clarity, and functions available, as the industry matures I'm sure we'll see many more of the big name entertainment players jump on the band wagon to get involved. In the meantime those little developers, slaving away at home, will continue to create innovative software that actually provides the services and systems that PC users want.
I, for one, think this was an obvious next move and question the lack of vision by those currently in the business of developing "the next great thing"
About The Author
Lloyd McCoy is head of Technical Research and Development at TRM Media Group an IT consulting firm out of Baltimore, Md.
http://info.trm-media.com/pc-satellite.tv.html
