Transformative Digital Products

Smart TVs started coming on the scene in a meaningful way about seven years ago, and by 2022 they had transformed how many of us define and consume TV. From intuitive guides and adaptive carousels, and universal search enabling SVOD, AVOD and FAST channels, to a panoply of Apps serving countless interests. They delight consumers with dazzling 4K displays and heart pounding audio. They include both native (E.g. LG Channels) and access to your favorites apps like Prime, HBO, Disney, Pluto & Freevee, plus specialty genres like cooking and gaming - all blended together and supercharged by digital, streaming tech and an ever-expanding connected grid reaching millions of HHs. Transformative.

And now, there is a new kid in town, quickly evolving and attracting attention - and in abundant display at CES 2023. All the stars are aligning to usher in a new transformative product platform, well beyond connecting your phone to Apple Car Play. The new kid on the block is quietly rolling in, just down the street from you. The next generation of EV and hybrid connected automobiles are about to transform your in-car experience, forever.

Your next car will likely feature not only your favorite apps and content integrated into breathtaking visual screens and speakers, but also include thousands of global radio stations, customized music streams & audiobooks, podcasts, interactive gaming and sharing, metaverse experiences, gambling, teleconferencing, cameras, AR/VR, retail partner interconnectivity, and a lot more.

And as this transformation is underway, a few killer apps have proven uniquely capable of driving customer engagement - to sample, learn and find value in - the new “interactive digital experience centers” on wheels.

Recent history provides a useful example.

When VOD TV was budding, distributors were in search of compelling content that could best demonstrate their newly minted interactive technology. Back then, karaoke emerged as a quintessential on-demand product, uniquely designed to invite viewers to engage with the new technology. It proved to be a fun and simple way to embrace "on demand" functionality.

By early 2010, Stingray's karaoke-on-demand was available free to consumers on most VOD cable TV platforms across the growing digital TV landscape. VOD exploded, as consumers embraced controlling where, when and how they chose to consume their favorite content. VOD was quickly evolving into more than just a better way to watch pay-per-view movies.

Skip ahead a few years, and VOD is ubiquitous. And so is karaoke - on TV competition shows, in karaoke bars, on home karaoke systems, interspersed on YouTube and other dedicated Apps.

And once again, karaoke is helping to showcase another blossoming digital product. But this time, it's in your car. And it’s getting a boost from a couple of entrepreneurial businesses who have approached it via different lenses, but who are now collaborating to create a transformative product for the next generation Auto marketplace.

Today’s electric and hybrid vehicles are equipped with everything from multiple integrated screens and interactive voice capabilities, to precision, seat-based true Dolby ATMOS. For some cars, it may just be the best "audio experience space" a consumer owns. So why not optimize that amazing sound experience with the fun and joy of singing your favorite song with a built-in feature-rich microphone? And what if that mic could alter voice inputs, auto correct and more? That’s what some smart engineers at Stingray and Singing Machine were pondering in a product ideation session last year. And with some input from customers, that's exactly what they engineered and are now trialing with several OEMs.

Imagine you can sing into a sleek professional microphone that mixes your voice perfectly with the karaoke track playing through the speakers. You can turn on/off lead vocals and adjust sound modes to auto-tune voice, add reverb and effects, and track how the singer’s voice matches the pitch of the song. The new service is available to next gen vehicle infotainment systems – and likely coming to a car near you.

This time karaoke is supplying a fun and engaging activity that showcases the stunning sound and “digital experience centers” that these next-gen vehicles are quickly becoming. And with high end mics that enrich the singing experience, it opens the door to gamification, scoring, recording, sharing and maybe even discovering the next Masked Singer.

One new EV owner recently shared that Tesla's "Caraoke" has become her daughter’s favorite in-car channel, reflexively scrolling through the intuitive menu to find her favorite Disney songs. Equally exciting, the proud mom shared that her daughter was reading and spelling better, and she thinks it has to do with seeing the scrolling lyrics and hearing her voice through the car’s speakers as she “sings her little heart out.” Transformative.

Driving presents unique safety considerations, so to reduce driver distraction the Center Information Display (CID) can be force-tuned to static album art while in drive mode. Scrolling karaoke lyrics are only visible on the CID during park/charging mode. However, many Auto makers wanted to extend the karaoke experience to the non-drivers while commuting or on road trips. So those same Stingray engineers came up with an HTML-based solution aptly called, the “Passenger App.” While the car is in motion, passengers can continue the karaoke fun by enabling a QR code link to replicate the experience on their phone or tablet, fully integrated and synched with the mic, the scrolling lyrics and audio playout on the car's sound system. They can also use the Passenger App to control the Karaoke system - to pause, skip, FF & RW, queue up a song list, and more. Meanwhile, the CID displays the non-intrusive album art, and dims during nighttime travel.

And with over 100,000 tracks in over 25 languages, it'll take a few family road trips to cover just a fraction of the available songs. Redefining the joy of singing together in the car.

It’s always challenging to predict where the next Transformative digital product may come from. But there’s a growing likelihood that you may just discover it inside your next car.