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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Editor Emeritus Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Publisher/Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Bao Smith, B.Sc Tim Blythman, B.E., B.Sc Technical Contributor Duraid Madina, B.Sc, M.Sc, PhD Art Director & Production Manager Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Dave Thompson David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Ian Batty Cartoonist Brendan Akhurst Silicon Chip is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 626 922 870. ABN 20 880 526 923. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year, post paid, in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or email silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 * Recommended & maximum price only. Printing and Distribution: Editorial Viewpoint Streaming will make broadcast television obsolete A “crystal set” radio would have been the first electronic device that most hobbyists built in the 50s and 60s, back when Electronics Australia was known as Radio & Hobbies. They changed their name to Radio, TV & Hobbies in February 1955, to reflect the increasing popularity of television, then again in April 1965 to Electronics Australia. Radio was pretty amazing technology when it was first introduced and had little competition for home entertainment until television came along. While TV has never had the same DIY culture as radio (building a TV is hard!), it was still a very widely used technology from the 60s to the digital age. But the march of technology is relentless and these days, notebooks and smartphones have replaced TV for many younger people. When you have 24/7 access to a device which gives you instant access to a huge amount of content on a broad range of topics, why would you want to watch whatever happens to be on TV? That is why I believe that many free-to-air television channels are going to disappear over the next couple of decades. There will probably still be news and sport broadcasts, at least for a while, but most other entertainment programs will be streamed on-demand. Streaming makes it much easier to cater to niche interests. If you want access to mainstream movies and TV shows, services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Stan are pretty cheap, at around $10 per month. That’s small change in most budgets and is good value when you consider that you can watch a wide range of programs at your convenience. And as the NBN is completed (eventually!), the average person will have enough bandwidth for HD streaming. I particularly like free streaming services such as YouTube. Now that we have a proper “Smart TV” at home, which can browse and view YouTube videos, my family rarely bothers with broadcast TV any more. We go straight to YouTube to watch videos that interest us; programs which the free-to-air broadcasters would never broadcast. For example, there are hundreds of videos suitable for very young children on YouTube, which is much more suitable than the programming on the ABC Children’s TV channel. And my wife likes cooking but she usually finds the programs on the SBS Food Network uninteresting. By comparison, there are plenty of great food and cooking shows on YouTube. YouTube videos do not always have the best production values (you may be surprised!) but we find them more interesting and entertaining and that’s what really matters. The ad breaks are shorter and we also have the convenience of being able to pause the show, or turn the TV off and finish watching later. And YouTube has plenty of electronics-related videos; something you will not find on broadcast TV. One popular channel is EEVBlog by Sydneysider David L. Jones, a past contributor to SILICON CHIP. He has more than half a million subscribers and some of his videos are really interesting. If you haven’t seen them, you should take a look. While “Freeview” does offer some streaming of broadcast TV content, I find it quite glitchy and the content is limited. I am not sure it will be enough to save the networks. They are going to have a hard time as younger generations will not watch TV like their parents. Like the music and newspaper industries, TV broadcasters will need to adapt to the new technology to survive. Nicholas Vinen Derby Street, Silverwater, NSW 2148. 2 Silicon Chip Australia’s electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au