The television set and the technology accompanying it have come a long way since the days of a little round screen with a black and white picture that required someone to stand and hold the rabbit ear antennae in just the right position so the picture could beam in clearly! Fast forward to today when modern home entertainment centres make you feel as if you are sitting in a small theatre!
The history of the medium is fascinating, but one can’t help but wonder what the future holds for our old friend the TV, and how our experience might continue to evolve? Let’s dust off that crystal ball and take a peek, shall we?
- Increased Screen Size -The bigger the better, and every year the TVs on offer grow in size, making the ‘large’ screens of just a few years ago look diminutive in comparison! Long ago in the year 2004, the average size of a screen was 25.4 inches, whereas those of 2019 averaged 47 inches! We should note that Australia still uses inches for measuring TVs, a relic of their American origin- some things never change! New laser technology will one day replace the home theatre’s traditional projectors and their expensive, proprietary replacement bulbs. They can be hung just inches from the wall and have incredible picture quality on screens sized up to 150 inches, with even larger on the way! Put some popcorn in the microwave and get ready for an expanded TV-watching experience!
- Smart Home Hubs – The ‘dream home of the future’ is making plans to make your TV the interface for a control centre that runs your connected home. New products are in development that you will be able to monitor and control from your TV’s screen! Imagine relaxing in your comfy chair watching the big game and being able to simultaneously turn on the garden sprinklers, adjust the air conditioning, dim the lights, start up the popcorn waiting in the microwave, and much more at the touch of your remote button from a control panel that can appear on your TV screen, and disappear once your commands have been issued! The hope for the future is a TV that can also mow the grass and do the laundry for you.
- Gaming Optimized – Gamers love to play on the biggest screens possible and have been using their TVs for that since the ancient Atari age. The thing is, many of today’s cutting-edge games feature graphics that are so lightning-fast and detailed that older TVs can’t handle them! No worries, because the TVs of the future will come optimized for gaming with Variable Refresh Rate support and 120Hz+ refresh rates that will allow ultra fast response times and smooth as silk visuals to keep all you first-person shooters out there happily shredding! “Ready Player One!”
The future of TV technology is big, smart, bright, and fast, but there is still more that can be done to make our TV experience even more exciting and immersive- “smell-o-vision” anyone?
