It may be hard to believe, given the amount of rain the UK has been blessed with lately, but summer is here!
Fortunately, this year’s season of sports is more than enough to make up for a spot of water dampening our spirits, with Wimbledon, the Men’s Euros, and the Paris 2024 Olympics (just to name a few!) gracing our screens over the coming months.
If you’re looking to stream all the major fixtures over the summer, you need the right kit. Not the ‘football boots and shin pads’ type of kit, but technology. With an exciting line-up of international sporting competition ahead, here are a few ways you can ensure your household is tech-ready.
Screens and Speakers
Let’s get started with the basics – sight and sound. No streaming experience can kick-off properly without a proper display and hi-fi sound dynamics to match. Essentially, you want to be as close to the action as possible without being there. You want to see the sweat and grit of every athlete and hear the roar of the crowds as they cheer on their beloved teams.
The easiest way to do this? With a 4K TV and a high-quality soundbar to match. These gadgets were first introduced as premium options for home entertainment but, fortunately, there are now options for every budget as time has passed. So whether you’re after standard 4K resolutions, right up to AMOLED 8K screens, there is a price tag for your wallet!
Check out TechRadar’s handy guide for TVs and Soundbars to find your perfect match for the matches.
Remember: 4K streaming requires at least 25MB download speed to run smoothly and with full fibre broadband, that’s light work! Check out our price and speed options to see which is right for you.
Watch your team on Teams
The sporting spirit is meant to be shared! If you’re unable to share a sofa with friends or family for your favourite tournaments, why not use technology to bridge the gap? Set up a video chat and cheer on your sporting heroes together, see their live reactions as new records are made and new champions are crowned. With the Silverstone Grand Prix just around the corner, imagine sharing the big ‘what-if’ of Lewis Hamilton redeeming a difficult season so far with a victory on home turf with your mates!
Plus, as video-conferencing technology has become part of our day-to-day technological utilities, platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom have few limits on how many people you can invite to the party; the more the merrier.
Just don’t forget to unmute yourself, no-one wants those well-earned cheers gone to waste!
Don’t get caught offside with your broadband
With so much variety of sport on show this summer, it won’t come as a surprise that the whole family might not want to be glued to the same screen. That’s why it’s crucial that your broadband stretches to every corner of your household, not just the areas close to your router.
Our solution? County Broadband’s Whole Home Smart Wi-Fi Nodes. Combined with up to 1,000 Mbps full fibre technology, our Smart Wi-Fi ensures you’re unlocking the full potential of your broadband by extending your connection to any dead spots you may have around the house.
Our ‘nodes’ function and look like small routers that can be placed wherever in the house you need that extra boost of broadband, especially if you’ve got several key fixtures taking their marks at the same time!
From VAR controversy to VR luxury
Whilst this summer certainly presents a packed schedule, how do you bridge the gap between games? More games, of course!
The sports genre in gaming is as populated as it’s ever been with just about every major tournament, be it football, golf, F1 or tennis, receiving the triple-A game franchise treatment to keep fans happy during half-time and beyond. Looking to get behind the wheel of the world’s fastest race cars? Check out EA’s F1 24. Prefer football to putting your foot down? FC24 is your best bet! Or why not a bit everything? Nintendo has you set with Nintendo Switch Sports where motion controls will have you breaking sweats and leaderboards.
The inevitable marching of technology has also brought sport to the world of virtual reality with a healthy roster of sporting VR games to keep headset-heads satiated while they wait for half-time to pass. Check out Game Rant’s compilation of sporting VR games to get, quite literally, stuck into.
Full fibre broadband – faster than Usain and stronger than Eddie Hall
Ultimately, however, none of the above is really complete without the support and security of full-fibre broadband.
Regardless of whether your loyalty lies in Old Trafford or on Centre Court at Wimbledon, there’s no doubt that consuming sport coverage looks a lot different than even five years ago as the technology behind it has rocketed ahead; with broadband capabilities providing the backbone to it all.
Unlike the current infrastructure used to access internet, commonly referred to Superfast broadband, full-fibre networks do not rely upon Victorian copper cables which simply aren’t built to deliver the modern demands for more and more data.
Full-fibre ensures robust connection with speeds 11x faster than that of Superfast networks, reaching up to 1,000 Mbps and doing so with greater reliability – more than enough to keep pace with all your favourite sporting events.
Whether you’re a resident or business, you can check if you’re covered in County Broadband’s rollout by entering your postcode at www.countybroadband.co.uk where you can also register your interest to learn more about the full fibre infrastructure and service.
