See this ? It’s called a Sky Gnome. It’s gonna be available soon and won’t bump up the cost of your Sky TV. It runs on batteries and connects via wi-fi to your Sky box. It’ll let you listen to the wide variety of radio stations available on Sky anywhere in the house. Good idea huh ? Sky hope to plug the gap which DAB leaves open – most DAB radios tend to show stations being “available” but you can’t always listen to them. The result seems to be a br_k_n up co_n_t_on even with the 4-foot-high aerial fully extended….
I may give this Sky Gnome a try. Even though we’ve got DAB it’s worth it for the guaranteed availablility of radio channels, plus the variety too. I like a bit of dance music myself, and in my area “Galaxy 102.2”, which is supposedly “the best mix of dance and R&B” only ever seem to play R&B. With this thing I can listen to Galaxy 105, Kiss 100, Galaxy FM in London and Pure Dance too. There’s something for everyone – you can even get your local station whether you’re in the area or not, which can be weird at times.. such as listening to..say.. the traffic report for Glasgow or something..
Sky have also got the Sky HD box coming soon for you high-definition fans. It’ll have an on-board HD for Sky+ style usage (pause live TV, record shows etc). Sky’s HD service is due to launch in early 2006 and will support 720p/50 and 1080i/25 resolutions. This service will probably cost more though.
The HD broadcasts will be a premium service offering a combination of sports, movies, entertainment and documentaries in high-definition. From launch, 100 Premiership football matches per season will also be broadcast in HD.