The way we watch TV is changing, it has has been changing for years. The rise of smartphones, tablets, and on-demand viewing have all contributed to the living room TV becoming ‘just another screen.’ This has been a problem for Sky, who have only offered a single TV box up until now. With the announcement of the Q box, Sky know they have to adapt to the market to remain king of the viewing universe. The new Sky Q Box is the device that Sky hopes will bring the next level of viewing to their services.
The new tech of Sky
The biggest news to come out of the Sky Q box announcement is that Sky Q isn’t just one product, but a whole suite of devices that are designed to be spread amongst your home. Firstly, the Sky Q Silver is an ultra high definition (4K) Set top box that is half the size of the existing Sky+HD model we see today. The Sky Q Silver comes with 12 channel tuners which are used to push live TV to all of the other boxes that you’re expected to own. The set top box also comes with 2TB of built-in storage (1.7TB of which is available for use), letting you record roughly 350 hours of HDTV. Sky are also producing a Sky Q primary box that comes with 1TB of storage and the ability to support fewer external devices, but is otherwise the same as the device with 2TB of storage.
The third device, which looks like it’s primarily aimed at bedrooms and other rooms in the house is the Sky Q mini. The Mini is capable of pulling down live TV from the Silver’s leftover tuners, and you can have up to two running on the same network.
The fourth device announced by Sky is the Q Hub, which is an 802.11ac WiFI router that’ll do the job of connecting all of this gear to the Internet. But that’s not all, since all of the Sky Q devices also come with WiFi and Powerline technology that’s designed to ensure that there are no signal blackspots anywhere at home.
Say Goodbye to the old Sky Remote
Sky is waving goodbye to the muscular menu-style remote control that’s been so ubiquitous on all of its devices for the last decade. Replacing the old remote control, Sky are launching a smaller and sleeker Bluetooth remote that ditches the four-way menu buttons for a circular touchpad. Sky has also addressed the concerns of users who found it grating when they lost the remote — so now, if you push the front button of the Sky Q Silver box, the remote will make itself known.
Third Party Integration
For the first time, Sky have opened up their platform for third party integration. Services such as Youtube, Vevo and GoPro have signed deals with Sky to have their applications on the new devices. In addition, the Sky Q Silver hardware supports AirPlay and Bluetooth, enabling you to push music and photos from your mobile device onto the box. As for things to watch, the box itself is 4K “ready,” but the company won’t be pushed on how long it’ll take before it begins offering video in that standard.
A new mobile application – Save content to mobile
Along with the new devices announced, Sky also announced a new application, the Sky Q app to accompany the new devices. This application will allow you to watch your live and recorded TV shows and programs on mobile devices. Sky have also stuck up a middle finger at Netflix, as they have allowed users to save their content onto their mobile device, so any long haul flights can be saved by watching your favourite episodes of Game Of Thrones or Better Call Saul.
Roundup: Will the price catch customers?
With all these new devices and services, you might expect to see an increase in charges for the service. We hope that the price will be competitive enough for consumers to consider the new service. Do you think that Sky packages are expensive for what they are? Would you consider upgrading your package to the Sky Q? Let us know here in the comments or on social media.
[button link=”https://corporate.sky.com/media-centre/skyq” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Sky Q – Press release[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
