Hopper DVR Soon to Be Control4-Operable, Dish Says At CEDIA Expo
DENVER -- Control4 home automation technology is being integrated into Dish’s Hopper whole-home HD DVR system, Dish said at a Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association Expo news briefing Thursday. Dish also vowed to be ready with 4K content delivery when consumer demand warrants.
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The Hopper platform will “soon be controlled” by the Control4 system that’s commonly found in high-end and mainstream home automation installations, Dish said in a news release. The move followed Dish’s July announcement that it will share application programming interface (API) programming instructions for the Hopper with select companies. Dish will implement Control4’s Simple Device Discovery Protocol, making it “easier for automation installers to fully integrate the capabilities” of the Hopper receiver and service, said Dish. Dish is exhibiting Control4 and other home automation solutions at CEDIA Expo this week.
Dish is working on more partnerships with Hopper and its API, said Vivek Khemka, senior vice president-product management. Initially, the Hopper integration will be limited to its remote control tuning capability, said Dish. As integrators get more familiar with the Hopper API, their apps and devices will be able to “access the full range” of Hopper features, including the ability to manage DVR recordings, browse the entire video-on-demand catalog, and the ability to buy pay-per-view content, it said.
Dish is working to be sure it’s ready to offer 4K content to subscribers at just the right time, neither too early nor too late, said Khemka. Mass consumer adoption of 4K won’t happen overnight, but Dish will be there when there’s enough consumer demand, he said. It’s “still too early to tell” how quickly consumers will adopt 4K, Dish CEO Joseph Clayton told us before the news briefing. The technology looks great, but for CE devices to become popular with mainstream consumers they must be affordable and easy to use, and there must also be enough content, he said. Those criteria have yet to be reached with 3D in the home, he said.
The CE industry was promising 3D was “just around the corner” as far back as 1975, Clayton said, saying the industry had long “over-promised” on the technology. The glasses, meanwhile, created a “physical pain and strain” for users and the competing formats hurt even more, he said. “Every iteration confused the consumer,” he said. Glasses-free 3D TVs will “make a difference,” but “it’s too late” for the technology to gain mass consumer adoption, he said. Now it’s being “overshadowed” by 4K, he said.
Dish has been growing its presence at CEDIA Expo over the past three years, due to the strength of Hopper, said Clayton. The size of its booth this week is four times the square footage of its booth at last year’s Expo, said Khemka.