There are, of course, several of caveats. Firstly, to do all the tricks you need to have Sky broadband as well - do not expect it to work with, say, BT or TalkTalk. Secondly, there are restrictions with the Mini Q boxes, which are not available with some packages. Thirdly, there is the price. A basic system starts at £42 per month plus a one-off installation charge of £99. However, a fully-featured box with all the channels and all the features described above can cost around £100. It's a lot of money to spend to watch television! However, expect features like this to become the norm in other systems in the future and at cheaper prices, too.
Sky Q - the new TV system from Sky that was announced last year - has started shipping. It blurs the distinction between live TV, recordings and streaming in a manner that gives a good illustration of the way television is developing. At the heart of the system is a new Sky box, known as Sky Q. The basic box has 3 tuners and a 1TB hard drive, allowing you to simultaneously record 3 satellite channels whilst still playing back a 4th. A more expensive option, known as Sky Q Silver, ups the ante with a 2TB hard drive plus no less than 12 separate satellite tuners. So far it looks like a standard but high-end upgrade to the existing Sky box, but what makes it different is yet another box, called the Sky Q Mini box. This acts as a sort of streamer - placed in another room, it allows you to watch live TV or recordings from the main Sky Q box, or on-demand channels. You can have several Sky Q Mini boxes. The Q Mini boxes connect wirelessly to the main system or through built-in Powerline, and themselves operate as wireless access points for boosting your Wi-Fi system throughout the household. The overall idea is that you should be able to watch whatever you want, whenever you want, from anywhere. To this end, the system can 'follow you around' i.e. start watching a programme in one room and then carry on watching it from the same point in another.
There are, of course, several of caveats. Firstly, to do all the tricks you need to have Sky broadband as well - do not expect it to work with, say, BT or TalkTalk. Secondly, there are restrictions with the Mini Q boxes, which are not available with some packages. Thirdly, there is the price. A basic system starts at £42 per month plus a one-off installation charge of £99. However, a fully-featured box with all the channels and all the features described above can cost around £100. It's a lot of money to spend to watch television! However, expect features like this to become the norm in other systems in the future and at cheaper prices, too. |
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