Comcast demos features to make TV the new platform

Comcast showed off two new high-tech features it's offering Xfinity customers in Michigan as it tries to integrate television sets and cable into the instant-information revolution as video on mobile devices becomes increasingly prevalent.

Customers using a mobile sharing app can now live stream video and send recorded video and photos from a mobile phone or tablet to their home TV, another Xfinity customer's TV or another mobile device, the company said.

Customers also can order a new Comcast remote that responds to voice commands.

"We know that this technology exists in other ways," Michelle Gilbert, a Comcast area vice president said during the demonstration today at its Plymouth headquarters. "We're just trying to give it another application because we know the TV is the biggest screen in your house."

The features are an effort to enhance TV watching, and keep digital users from turning away from cable, or cord-cutting, in favor of streaming services, such as NetFlix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

Comcast also is competing with other sharing apps, such as Twitter's Periscope, by letting users watch content on their big-screen TVs, rather than their smaller phones or tablets.

An estimated 7.3% of U.S. households -- 8.6 million -- now have Internet, but no cable or satellite television service. That was up from 4.2% -- 4.9 million -- in 2010, according to a report last year from Experion Marketing Services.

The features are available at no additional charge, but only to Xfinity customers.

Digital consumers are increasing able to -- and want to -- watch video whenever they want.

Last year, 57% all adults and 75% of adults younger than 35 watched streaming or downloaded video from at least one connected device a week, according to the Experion report.

Comcast is betting as the device screens get smaller, customers will turn to their TVs.

To demonstrate the new sharing feature, Comcast's Senior Product Manager Sean Downey used his phone and the company's 80-inch TV in one of its labs.

He pointed the phone at the audience, which projected the image on the TV.

He also showed how he's used the technology with his own family to share recorded video of his boys playing Star Wars chess, and live streaming them performing at a school talent show.

"I can send any of this to anybody who has X1 products," he said.

Right now, Downey said, customers can only live stream to one TV at a time, but it eventually expects to allow group sharing.

Unlike Skype or Facetime, however, the Comcast sharing app only streams content in one direction.

Downey also demonstrated a new remote that has what Comcast is calling a "say it, see it" feature.

Customers can hold a button, say the name of the show or actors and see the system respond on their TV screen.

While the system did not recognize every command, it seemed to easily recognize words.

And in some cases, it was able to recognize popular movie phrases.

The phrase, "Life is like a box of chocolates," brought up the movie Forrest Gump.

The new remote only works with the X1 system. Customers can get them, Downey said, by upgrading their system, or if they already have it, by calling and asking for it to be shipped to them.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.