VOICE CONTROL Home Entertainment
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Shout it out loud: The rise of the voice assistant
f you’re hearing voices, then you’re not alone. The home audio market is now dominated by smart speakers with a gift of the gab. Shipment figures for voice enabled speakers came close to 100 million units globally in 2019, according to market watchers.
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A revolution in artificial intelligence has changed the way we interact with our home tech. Steve May looks at the proliferation of voice enabled gadgets, and the opportunities offered by chatty ecosystems. Amazon is the leading player in this global
smart speaker boom, according to data from Statista, with a market share of 26.4 per cent, as of the third quarter of 2021. Predictably, Google is a strong second, with a share of 20.5 per cent in the same quarter. Voice control through smart assistants has
moved from gimmick to standard offering. For the electrical retail industry, this trend presents opportunities as well as challenges. While Amazon may have the ear of
Bluetooth speaker buyers, dominating sales with its Echo family of garrulous gadgets (left), there’s plenty of business to be had from connected devices that work within the Alexa ecosystem. Ditto Google Assistant and to a lesser degree, Apple’s Siri platform. What’s perhaps surprising is just how varied the
voice control ecosystem has become. It covers everything from soundbars to smart light fixtures.
There’s clearly business to be had, if you talk to the right people… And it’s not just home audio that has embraced
voice control. TV is also in on the act. Sky Glass (above) is very much the poster child for voice commands. Sky’s Group Chief Production Officer, Fraser Stirling, says the entire Glass interface was conceived for voice control. “Sky Glass has been designed for voice
operation first and foremost,” Stirling tells ERT. The streaming set listens via microphones in both the remote control and the screen itself. “The screen switches itself on when it hears the command Hello Sky, and allows you to select programmes, channels and search for titles and content.” There’s fun to be had too. Ask Sky Glass to
“Keep your friends close but your enemies closer” and you’ll be presented with The Godfather trilogy. This also works with Sky Q…
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