If you’re old enough (like me), you might remember when the television wasn’t just a screen — it was the hearth of the home. The biggest piece of furniture in the living room. The reason dinner got moved to the coffee table. The source of our news, our entertainment and our collective rituals.

We planned our evenings around what was on and when. And if you missed a show … you missed it. Maybe forever.

I remember racing to the store for the new issue of TV Guide — especially the fall preview. That little digest held the schedule of America’s evenings, and it mattered. It seems quaint now, but at the time it was everything.

Fast forward a few decades, and the idea of TV as the center of life feels as dated as rabbit ears or yelling “Don’t sit so close!” In fact, on most of my business trips these days, I don’t even turn on the hotel television. I used to — surfing the in-house channel, checking local stations. Now? As long as the internet is decent (and sometimes even when it’s not), I’m watching and working from my laptop or phone.

That box in the corner of the room? It’s just furniture now.

From Must-See TV to Whatever, Whenever

The first blow to TV’s supremacy came from the VCR — suddenly we didn’t have to be home Thursday at 8. Then came DVRs, which made time-shifting easier but still tied us to the cable company’s rules. Unlike the VCR, the DVR didn’t let me keep a program on a shelf or loan it to a friend.

Then came over-the-top (OTT) services — better known as streaming. With streaming platforms, you can watch nearly anything, anywhere, anytime … as long as you’re paying the growing pile of monthly subscriptions.

The smartphone sealed the deal. It’s the device we stare at most, the one physically closest to us. A 2024 Pew study shows 96% of U.S. adults own a smartphone, and for younger adults, it’s the preferred device for watching video content.

Meanwhile, the good old TV — once a glowing family altar — has been demoted. It still hangs on the wall, but it’s no longer in charge.

Second Screens, First Priority

Even when the TV is on, it’s no longer the main event. A recent study found 86% of internet users use a second screen while watching TV, and three-quarters are on social media at the same time. We’ve gone from watching The Twilight Zone to living in it — one eye on the 65-inch OLED, the other on Candy Crush, Instagram or Slack.

My own living room proves the point. I replaced the death-by-menu OEM remote with an Alexa-enabled Fire TV stick. Now my wife can say “switch to cable” or “switch to streaming” — assuming she holds the remote long enough for the macro to finish (still a work in progress).

The lesson? If the UX isn’t toddler- or tired-adult-proof, viewers will bypass it faster than Taylor Swift drops an Easter egg. That same tolerance threshold applies to conference spaces, campus lounges and retail displays.

As for my wife’s content? Usually a streaming service (or a Law and Order rerun) while checking messages or playing a game on her iPhone. She’s multitasking across screens the way the rest of the world does — watching, listening, swiping and paying attention only as much as necessary to keep up with it all.

She is today’s typical enterprise viewer: wanting control of her content, giving each display only the attention required.

For AV, a Shift from Displaying to Enabling

For those of us in ProAV, it’s time to accept that what used to be a “TV system” is now much broader. Displays are everywhere — lobbies, lounges, hotel rooms, classrooms — but they no longer command attention. Viewers expect control, choice and immediacy. If they don’t get it, they’ll ignore your signage and look at their phones.

AV systems that once bragged about signal routing and pixel precision now need to focus on user experience and content integration. It’s not about “putting something on the TV.” It’s about letting people bring their own content — apps, feeds, streams, video calls — and making it look and sound great in shared spaces.

Even digital signage has changed. No longer a loop of pre-approved slides, today’s signage needs to be dynamic, smart and maybe even interactive. If your client can run their office from a smartphone, your AV system needs to feel just as modern.

Broadcasting Becomes Content Creation and Distribution

Here’s the bigger shift: what we used to call “broadcasting” has evolved into something distributed and personal. Viewers are creators now — recording clips, sending messages and livestreaming updates. The same tech that once powered a TV studio is now in a backpack, or just a phone.

As a result, we in AV aren’t just designing rooms or routing signals anymore. We’re enabling content creation and propagation — empowering communication that’s more personal, more immediate and often fragmented. That’s a big responsibility, but also a huge opportunity.

We’ve replaced broadcasters as the people who make sure the right content gets to the right place, easily and seamlessly.

So Where Does That Leave Us in AV?

The television hasn’t disappeared — but it has been dethroned. Its role as command center has been taken over by smaller, smarter, more personal devices. That nostalgic glow of Friday night sitcoms and snow-day cartoons? That was real. But it’s not coming back in the same way.

And that’s okay.

Because as the meaning of “television” changes, our role changes too. From installers to enablers. From wiring up big boxes to designing ecosystems. From putting things on screens to helping people make their own.

Forty years ago we delivered televisions — Sony ProFeel CRTs strapped to Bretford carts. Today, we deliver not just displays but the tools to make and distribute content, along with the expertise to do it right — technically and creatively. That means production, editing, lighting, content distribution, network design, routing and proper display placement.

If your company’s specialty is still only the “hang and bang,” you won’t be around much longer.

The future of “television” doesn’t just hang on the wall. It lives in your pocket. And if you’re in AV, it’s your job to make sure it works wherever the viewer happens to be.

The “wow” factor in AV was never just about impressing people with technology’s grandeur (no matter what our associations claimed). The real wow has always been the invisible magic: turning ideas into content, distributing it, coordinating with IT and facilities, and leaving attendees unaware of all the work behind the process.

That invisible wow is the magic behind today’s television.