European Custom Installer

While the Internet of Things is garnering much press coverage, with a few exceptions real life case studies remain thin on the ground outside the cloistered world of the tech community. However one area of growing significance is that of the second or holiday home, where remote management of the property is not just a nice bonus, but a real necessity.

In these houses the owners’ requirements are typically very simple: they want to be able to turn the heating on the day before they arrive. They want to turn it off again after a client has left. They may want to install security sensors and cameras, but typically not much beyond this. Intelligence in domestic appliances, windows, “smart” thermostats (such as the Nest), and others are usually overkill for houses only occupied infrequently.

So it is no surprise to see simple internet-connected devices starting to appear, in particular thermostats. The first companies off the mark here have been the smaller more-nimble controls companies, such as UK-based Heatmiser, with their growing range of WiFi connected thermostats. More recently a number of others have entered this market, including mainstream players such as Honeywell.

Under the “FAME” banner, European broadcasters met in Geneva to map out a future for the development of Ultra High Definition Television (UHD TV, also known as UltraHD or 4K) in Europe.

The Forum for Advanced Media in Europe (FAME) is a cross-stakeholder platform administered jointly by the Digital Interoperability Forum (DIF) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It brings together pay TV platforms, pay TV broadcasters and free to air broadcasters, as well as manufacturers, software and middleware vendors, and national groups such as the Danish, French, German, Italian and Scandinavian HD Forums and the UK’s Digital Television Group, to share knowledge and experience of the introduction of advanced media services in Europe.

Back in February 2013, Intel unveiled ambitious plans to enter the online TV market. Now those plans appear to be in trouble-- according to AllThingsD the company might scrap the project should it fail to find a partner in the near future.

Anonymous sources say Intel is in talks with Amazon and Samsung, in the hope of getting help of the both funding and distribution variety. The two companies refuse to comment on the story, at least for now.

In development at a separate media division formed by over 300 ex-Apple, Jawbone, BBC and Microsoft employees, the Intel take on "over the top" pay TV services was to provide live TV via the internet (with smaller channel bundles than what cable companies offer) and a "Catch Up TV" video-on-demand services.

The company also revealed the services uses the high-efficiency H.265 video compression format (formerly known as HEVC), a codec the majority of STBs lack the power to decode.

Toshiba plans to slash 50% of TV unit employees and stop production at two of its three overseas factories by end 2013 Reuters reports, since the company continues seeing losses from the ailing division.

Over 60% of the 3000 lost jobs are overseas positions, while the company does not say which of its three factories in China, Indonesia and Poland are to close. To make up for lost production Toshiba will depend even more heavily on outsourced production. According to Reuters the company will up outsourcing from 40% to 70%.

Such measures are in the hopes of swinging the TV division back in the black by H2 2013, following two years in the red due to the combination of European sales slowdown and dropping domestic demand.

Sony does not give up on Google TV (even as Google itself appears to do exactly that) and announces the NSZ-GU1 Bravia Smart Stick, an MHL/USB dongle for post-2013 Sony TVs similar to the Google Chromecast.

It carries 8GB storage, connects to TVs via MHL port (USB takes care of power) and "seamlessly integrates Google and Sony's own BRAVIA apps, allowing viewers to stay in a single menu to launch any of their apps."

In other words customers get access to both Sony and Google Play apps, as well as regular TV services, with a single menu handling access. It also allows picture-in-picture web surfing/TV watching, while an included universal remote features a touchpad on one side and a QWERTY keyboard on the other.