EKB: CES 2014 Coverage

The 2014 International CES is being held January 7-10 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Dish Network Press Conference

Dish CEO Joe Clayton is led to the stage by a troop of joeys. He talks about how viewers want to watch TV and how Dish is bringing easy to use technology to make that happen.

The new SuperJoey has 2 satellite tuners. When added to the Hopper or Hopper with Sling's 3 tuners, up to 8 channels can be recorded at once during prime time.

The Wireless Joey is driven by an 802.11ac wi-fi signal from a Wireless Joey Access Point connected to the Hopper. Initial support will be for two Wireless Joeys, but that may be increased once reliability in consumers' homes has been proven.

Virtual Joey is an app on Sony PS3/PS4 game consoles and 2013-14 LG Smart TVs that gives the full Hopper experience through those devices over the existing home network without adding a physical Joey or additional wiring.

Dave Shull, Executive VP and Chief Commercial Officer, talked about what Dish is doing to help viewers watch TV the way they want to. The average person watches 35 hours of TV each week as opposed to 1.5 hours of internet videos. Dish is making it easier to connect to TVs anywhere in the home and making improvements to Dish Anywhere.

Vivek Khemka, Sr VP of Product Management, presented some details of recent and upcoming products. Major improvements to Hopper include HDMI-CEC that powers the TV on and sets it to the correct input, and cutting the time to prepare a Dish Transfer by nearly half. He demonstrated voice recognition in Dish Explorer and setting a timer using Google Glass.

James Moorhead, Sr VP and Chief Marketing Officer, talks about Dish's improved stature, including for the first time two straight quarters of higher brand awareness over DirecTV. The partnerships with Southwest Airlines and Apple are attracting a more engaged and enthusiastic consumer who is also proving to be more loyal.

About to start

3 kinds of Joeys

Joey with Dish flag

Joe takes the stage

Joe with Joeys

Dish President and CEO Joe Clayton

What consumers want for TV

SuperJoey
slide

SuperJoey
has 2 tuners

Dave Shull, Exec VP & Chief Comm Ofcr

Hopper reaches 6M TV and mobile screens

Viewers wath more TV than internet video

Viewers watch more TV than internet video

47% of homes have DVR

Virtual Joey in LG Smart TV

Virtual Joey in Sony PS3/PS4

Wireless Joey
slide

329 million mobile devices

Dish Explorer and Dish Anywhere

Dish Anywhere
slide

Vivek Khemka, Sr VP Product Management

Major updates to Hopper

HDMI-CEC assures correct TV input

Hopper Transfers time cut in half

Dish Explorer has voice control

Invited 3rd party developers

Joey
specs

Record up to 8 channels at once

DVR provider cost comparison

Wireless Joey specifications

DVR capabilities comparison

Hopper 3rd party applications

Hopper exclusive features

James Moorhead, Sr VP & Chief Mktg Ofcr

More people know about Dish

More people have good impression

Coming media campaign

Vans on nat gas are cleaner, cheaper

Joe and Joeys
close the event

Press conference stage at Mandalay Bay

Joey

The grand finale closing pose

Press kit
with info sheets

Press kit
close-up

Boston guys

Hopper - SatelliteGuys Product of the Year

SuperJoey
logo

Wireless Access Point, Wireless Joey

Wireless Joey
logo

Wireless Joey
back view

Clayton accepts SatelliteGuys award

SuperJoey back

SuperJoey front

Van in 3rd floor ballroom

Dish Network Booth

Wireless Joey

The Wireless Joey is expected to be released in late 2Q14. The range of the wireless signal should cover most homes. The Access Point can be connected either to a Hopper or a wired Joey.

Wireless Joey display

Access Point with ethernet and power

Access Point status lights

Wireless Joey with power and HDMI

SuperJoey

The SuperJoey is a direct swap for a regular Joey at the TV but there is some additional wiring needed. In a setup with a Solo Node (say 1H/1J), the line to the SJ will come from an added Integrator. The Integrator's inputs are the 3rd output from your dish, and the output from your home distribution splitter or the client output of the Node that had previously gone directly to the Joey. Monthly rates might be more than a Joey ($7) but less than a second Hopper ($12).

Tuner activity screen with SuperJoey

SuperJoey 6 timer conflict resolution

SuperJoey system info screen

Dish Explorer

With voice recognition, you can tell Explorer to "play title from my DVR" without having to navigate to it. Still available only on iPad, and not likely to come to phone-size screens.

Home Automation Concept

In this proof of concept demonstration, the Hopper is the central control for devices such as lights, thermostat, doorbell, cameras, and sensors. The Hopper can be set to record from a camera based on configurable triggers. When you start playing a movie, it can dim the lights then bring them back up when it is over.

Home Automation display

Must be a nice place to live

Home automation setup

Home Automation

In this demo, the Hopper becomes a device in a home automation system. Control4 does remote control only, while BuddyTV is similar to Explorer in that it pulls in EPG and DVR list.

Control Hopper from Control4 panel

BuddyTV

Virtual Joey

This is a app that will be available on 2013 and newer LG Smart TVs (branded WebOS for 2014) and Sony PS3/PS4 game consoles. The device running Virtual Joey and the Hopper must be on the same home network. You can use the Dish remote direct to the Hopper, or if you use the device's remote the app will send the commands to the Hopper over the network.

Virtual Joey display

Dish app on Sony PS4

Sony PS4, use either remote

Dish app on LG Smart TV

Use Dish or LG remote

DishNet

Winegard

Winegard display

Pathway X2 for Dish

Pathway X1 for Dish (pic coming)

Smartbox

The Dish Smartbox is Dish's first integrated head-end for commercial systems, replacing racks of home receivers. It takes signals from up to 4 satellite slots (DP LNBs required) sending up to 96 channels to a separate distribution amp which determines how many TVs are supported. It can be fed by a Dish 1000 or 1000+ but many operators will want the robustness of separate larger dishes.

Smartbox display

Smartbox

Sling Booth

Most viewing can be done over dishanywhere.com. The advantages of the paid app are that it works with Windows RT tablets (which can't use the web player), has content discovery tools, and uses the touch environment.

Sling booth

Sling for cable STB, 4 output streams

Sling 350 and 500

Sling embedded in neoTV

Sling embedded in Roku player

Symbi

Symbi for the home queries all IP-connected devices, and offers connection instructions when one goes off-line, possibly saving the need to call customer support. For call centers, Symbi can send device info (model, serial #, modem model, router model, and other peripherals) to the CSR and present articles from a solutions database.

Symbi Innovations Award

Dish at CES

LG cancelled their demo of the Virtual Joey app and referred questions to Dish without further comment. As an aside, their data show that 53% of smart TVs sold have been connected to the internet at some point.