Cabin Entertainment

The BBC is running a story on the advances of in-car entertainment. It's not difficult to see how all of this can be applied to yachts as well. Especially the smaller, multi-cabin, boats will benefit from the economies of scale that are being realized in the automotive industry. It's not difficult, nor very expensive (Amazon), to create a personalized entertainment set-up in every cabin. And in the cockpit or saloon as well for that matter. In case you don't feel like any roof-mounted displays, why not use Sony's new wireless Air Board (LF-X1) which is for sale as of last Friday.

One other nice feature that is discussed by the BBC article is voice-control over all these entertainment devices. Again, the development in the automotive sector will create a precedent for yachting. Voice-control can not only be applied to entertainment, but to navigation as well, even more since PC technology is making a strong entry into the maritime environment.

"We're also building in 20GB hard drives Now you can take your home movies, and potentially other DVDS, record them onto a disc, record them onto a unit and keep them in the car. Now you don't actually have to bring in the DVD or the discs."

"A lot of it is voice-controlled and voice-interactive as well, the navigation systems, for example. But voice technology is far from perfect, and a screen can also be a life-saver. A rear view mirror can be connected to a video camera on the back bumper, or simply show an image of the backseat, obviously of potential use for baby monitoring."