Blog No. 3 – Swings and Audio-Visual Roundabouts

Date posted: 01/07/2020

Back in the day you went to a Hi-Fi shop and purchased, say, a Tuner, plugged it in and you received all the FM radio stations in your area, plus, if it had these, options to listen on other wavebands. It still, though, remained a local receiver: an FM listener in London could not tune in to an FM radio station in Florida.

In our digital age the Internet has made that a reality, in audio quality that maybe surpasses what was possible on FM.  There are many ways to  this radio Nirvana with a host of devices – not that expensive – which are simple to operate and only require a good Wi-Fi signal and an Internet connection.  There are even Apps that have links to literally hundreds of radio stations around the world – so get tuning and listening.

This listening transformation is now taking place in TV.  Not so much that you can receive TV channels from any country, but more in the form of streaming services and dedicated genre channels.  If you like old films, classic TV, music (all kinds), kids TV, sport or cooking, there is a streamed channel out there.  Again, there are a lot of devices available to make this connection.  Similarly to audio, they are quite cheap, easy to set up and programme.  Unfortunately, none of them gives you everything, so one service you might be interested in may not be on a particular device.  In this audio-visual world of online plenty, it still is a case of swings and roundabouts!