URC just debuted the TRC-1480 Handheld Remote with a push-to-talk voice control feature, a 2.4-inch touchscreen LCD including two-way metadata, hard buttons and an ergonomic design. The TRC-1480 features an integrated microphone for easy voice communication with Alexa or Siri (for Apple TV). The new TRC-1480, aimed at both HomeAV and ProAV applications, provides full […]
Savant has introduced the Smart Home App for Apple TV, an on-screen control platform that provides access to smart home functionality via a TV — including using graphics full screen or as an overlay to live TV or a movie that’s currently playing. Savant’s Smart Home App for Apple TV provides control for climate, lighting, […]
Apple TV owners can now screen mirror multiple device types and up to four devices simultaneously with the new Ditto tvOS Receiver app. The Ditto app can screen mirror a number of device types to the Ditto tvOS Receiver including: Chrome OS Android Windows iOS iPadOS macOS Connections to the new Ditto tvOS Receiver are […]
Carousel Digital Signage has extended player support for Carousel Cloud, its recently-introduced subscription-based SaaS platform, to Mersive Solstice wireless displays and BrightSign media players. Previously only available for Apple TV devices, Carousel Cloud users now have a choice of three suppliers for content playout to suit their requirements and preferences. Now shipping, Carousel Cloud brings […]
Carousel Digital Signage will come to Digital Signage Expo later this month with a renewed message for its broad customer base: Embrace collaboration and keep your content fresh to ensure a true return on investment. At its Digital Signage Expo booth (2627), Carousel Digital Signage will demonstrate its Carousel Cloud platform for the first time, […]
Carousel Digital Signage announced the availability of Carousel Cloud, a new subscription-based SaaS platform. It is designed for an off-premise hosted digital signage service and can be deployed across networks that use Apple TV devices in addition to media players. Carousel Cloud means there is no traditional hardware servers. Instead, Carousel Cloud delivers a software-defined […]
At InfoComm 2018, Carousel Digital Signage, a division of Tightrope Media Systems, will emphasize the systems integration and IT management benefits of its new 7.3 software release for enterprise-class digital signage. The demonstrations will bring the cost and labor-reducing value proposition of Carousel Digital Signage to the forefront for systems integrators, consultants and dealers/distributors tasked […]
Carousel Digital Signage Software is now available on Apple TV through the company’s Carousel App, which can be downloaded from the Apple App Store. The new Carousel App will allow anyone running a digital signage network, whether they are a small school district or a large enterprise network operating across hundreds of locations, can now use Apple’s Apple TV as a media player. Because of an integration partnership between Carousel Digital […]
Tightrope Media Systems claims that it’s providing its customers in education, corporate, hospitality, healthcare and other AV verticals with an easier way to drive presentations, announcements, emergency notifications and other content to all displays through a facility. Tightrope is achieving this with integration of enterprise-level digital signage with Apple TV, we think the first in the industry. Being introduced at InfoComm 2017 (June 14-16, Orange County […]
I love new technology. In fact, I teach a course on how new technology effects Advertising, Marketing and PR at the University of North Carolina. But, sometimes I hate it. Remember when your TV just turned on? Oh, how I long for this days… Now, then you hit the TV power button on your remote […]
This month Apple lifted the curtain on its new Apple TV, dubbed, oddly enough, The New Apple TV. Since then, many of us in the AV business and media have spent time parsing the specifications, guessing at the hints Apple has dropped about its capabilities, and pondering the implications it’s going to have on living […]
We’re likely less than a month away from a plethora of Apple HomeKit product announcements as Apple is likely to tie in its home control of nearly everything to a brand-new Apple TV. Although Apple is usually hush-hush on new product pushes, this time, with HomeKit, they’ve been talking about their position and plans, telling […]
This week, Apple spent 85 percent of its time during its Spring Forward press conference on the Apple Watch and how it works, what it’s priced at and what it actually looks like. And, I will likely pre-order — no, I will pre-order — the Apple Sport Watch on April 10th, the first day they […]
It began in August 2013 when Google introduced the Chromecast. A small, Rubenesque HDMI dongle that allows you to stream music and video to your TV or home theater, the $35 Chromecast was an instant hit. This groovy petite player allows popular media services like Pandora, YouTube, and Netflix to easily be sent to your home theater from any […]
I’m sitting in a midtown hotel lobby in New York surrounded by what I call a technology inversion. What’s that? Well, in general, the evolution of technology follows fairly predictable patterns. Large problems are given attention by large institutions (governments, academic communities, corporate research labs) and their solutions are then productized. These products are then […]
If there’s any one trend that residential AV integrators need to come to grips with, it’s the fact that what’s driving the business today isn’t hardware, it’s content. Time was you could tell a great AV system on sight not just by the quality of the gear, but the number of source devices involved. At […]
In case you missed it, Amazon has joined the STB (set-top-box) brigade with its own Amazon Fire device, as part of its future digital content delivery plans. A quip from the online press release gives the big picture: “Amazon integrates the hardware, software, and the content into an easy-to-use, seamless, end-to-end service for customers,” and […]
Get ready for a new Apple TV device, perhaps this one with gesture hand controls from Apple’s fresh acquisition of Prime Sense (the company that brought you the Microsoft Kinect). You can be sure that a new device is in the offing as the media is busy screaming (yet again) headlines that Apple and Comcast […]
There are those who say that the greatest curse is remembering. Occasionally, I’ll go back into the archive on my hard drives of AV articles I’ve written in years past and browse. And I cringe when I read stories and editorials I wrote where, with the perspective of time, I can see that I was […]
One year ago I wrote my first column for rAVe Publications. What a fun year it has been. I have been fortunate enough to have heard from dozens of people with feedback, comments and questions about my articles. Even my daughter got in on the fun a few months back. We had a conversation that […]
By Paul Gagnon DisplaySearch Last week Google announced a new Smart TV product, the Chromecast. Immediately this generated a great deal of interest among the tech-enthusiast community. Having received one and set it up, preliminary conclusions are that it is not a Smart TV device, and is far less capable than an Apple TV or […]
So it’s been a couple of years now, and Apple’s AirPlay has reached, while not ubiquity, certainly a presence in the marketplace. For those of you who just awoke from a spell cast upon you by a wicked witch, AirPlay is Apple’s vehicle for streaming through networked devices. Beyond just Apple TV and devices running […]
And the saga continues in my quest to decide whether or not we are canceling cable at the end of July (when our contract with Schmime Schwarner Schmamble is up). It was announced today that the Watch ESPN and HBO Go apps have been integrated into the latest Apple TV update! I’ve mentioned before that […]
By Paul Gray DisplaySearch Could ‘iWatch’ be the trade name for Apple’s TV and not a watch at all? In the latest piece of the jigsaw puzzle to be turned over, Tim Cook recently hinted that Apple may open its ecosystem; might this pave the way for a TV product? While Apple connoisseurs might crave […]
By Scott Tiner I am a wired kind of guy. Wireless connections have failed me time and time again. From wireless mics that screech noise when they have interference from cellular phones, to Wi-Fi touch panels that need specially configured routers to work properly and still just drop off the network randomly, wireless is just not […]
It’s now the second time we have had a refresh of the Apple TV box and both launches have been preceded by increasing chatter about Apple’s imminent entry into the television market. Yet again the faithful have been disappointed. Apple almost certainly buys large displays in sample quantities to build concept TV products, and no […]
A full two-way Control4 driver for AppleTV is now available from little known firm Extra Vegetables. iTunes is the leading computer-based music server client and by providing a two-way interface with an Apple TV connected to an iTunes account (via Control4), this is now possible. Music stored in iTunes can now be selected directly on […]