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Ep 14 Best Home Tech for Christmas 2021

30th November 2021

Tune in as tech journalist and TV presenter Georgie Barrat, perhaps best known for The Gadget Show, and Sky’s head of commercial partnerships Richard Harding join us to talk about some of the best home tech on the market this Christmas.

From fun products like the Ebo smart companion robot to the innovative Sky Glass TV, they tell us what they think should be on your festive wish-list this year.

Why is home tech so important?

The pace of change over the last two years sets the backdrop for our interview, with Georgia explaining how things that had been predicted to take up to 10 years to develop actually happened almost overnight, especially in relation to home working.

“One of the silver linings from the pandemic is the ability now to have truly flexible working and to be able to work from anywhere, and to be able to not have to travel or commute so much,” she says. 

For Richard, used to visiting clients like Redrow as part of Sky’s commercial partnerships team, he suddenly couldn’t even visit his own office. Hear how the Sky team’s own adaptations to home working influenced the products they were developing for consumers.  

A TV with Sky inside – and no dish

Sky Glass is a TV screen that has all the technology inside, including the Sky box itself and a built-in Dolby Atmos sound bar; and, importantly for developers like ourselves, there’s no dish on the wall outside to detract from our lovely new homes!  Redrow was one of the launch partners for Sky Glass, which lends itself perfectly to our new homes as they already benefit from ultra-fast broadband thanks to fibre to the premises.

Richard explains: “The content is delivered over the internet, which is more in line with how everyone else is delivering content. And so then we can pull all that content together and deliver it over one user interface to make it easy, to save time. We’ve got lots of innovation coming up too, we’re looking to add in a camera so you can just sit in front of your TV and make those video calls straight from your TV.”

The good news for our customers is that they can pre-order the new Sky Glass technology via My Redrow and even familiarise themselves with it at some of our show homes* around the country.

Georgie’s smart tech must-haves

For anyone looking to start using some smart home tech and not sure where to begin, Georgie offers some great recommendations. A really good place to start is a smart speaker, such as the Echo 4th generation with Alexa (Google Home Assistant is a good alternative) and that can then link in to your other smart tech around the home.  Watch the podcast for more useful additions from smart plugs and doorbells to fun stuff like the Ebo robot and a self-heating mug. You can also find out what’s top of Georgie’s own Christmas wish-list.

Win our smart tech bundle

Our smart tech starter kit, including an Echo 4th generation smart speaker, Tapu smart plugs, an Ember Mug 2 and your very own Ebo smart companion robot, is available to win in this month’s competition. Head over to our social channels to find out more.

* Selected show homes only – please check with your sales consultant

 
Meet the guests
Georgie Barrat - Technology Journalist & Presenter
Georgie Barrat
Technology Journalist & Presenter
Peter Scheu - Site Manager
Richard Harding
Head of Commercial Partnerships

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