Colin Murray Interview: Tech, BT Infinity and Do More Online

Posted on Apr 4 2011 - 5:20pm by Richard Sharp

Colin Murray Showcasing his 'do more online' guides

Today we interviewed TV and radio legend Colin Murray, known for his hit music and sports programmes and generally being a really nice guy. We were looking at the ‘do more online’ program that BT has recently rolled out with Colin Murray and Claudia Winkleman. Colin was quick to point out that he has handled things he is good at, e.g. sports, gaming and music whilst Claudia focuses on watching films, online shopping and wireless networks.

The videos are like a modern day version of the ‘which pamphlets’ which rolled out ten years ago; basically they represent and explain how to do new things with their super fast internet connection and make the most of the tech on hand. Because they are videos they are also much easier to follow.

I asked Colin who he thought the videos would most benefit. He explained that ‘anybody and everybody’ could benefit from the videos because they focus on emerging technology as well as some of the basics.  He used his own household as a case study. “I have a Sonos wireless system in my house with three outlets, my wife and I often stream different music to each of them whilst she is uploading work and I am downloading music. Faster broadband like BT Infinity will allow more people to perform tasks like this and the guides help them achieve it”.

When quizzed about the BT Infinity, Colin said: “I’ve trialled the super fast Broadband and can’t wait for it to come to my street.” He continued with a smile on his face: “Thankfully my house will be one of the first to get it”. The product certainly performs well. It’s 3-4 times faster compared to standard broadband, we streamed four HD movies  and not one missed a beat during the half an hour interview.

After that we moved onto other areas in tech including gaming, Colin mentioned a trial in the US BT is planning to roll out in the UK. Onlive offers online gaming on demand without the need for a console. Sounds good but will only be a reality once most of the UK has faster broadband.

We talked about the classics and games he likes to play. “I’m really into Red Dead Redemption at the moment; it’s probably not a good fit for the BT brief but I’m not really that good at shoot-em-ups so playing a game like this on my own is good for me. It has no linear path or agenda, I like that.” He continued “I like to play with people 300 miles away in Belfast (we had a short discussion on distances and agreed it was about 300 miles), or even the other side of the world on the classic football games like PES or the ageless Mario Kart on the Wii.” He brought up a point about Mario Kart on the Wii, “Why haven’t Nintendo ever updated it? I’d love a new level pack or some downloadable content” he said.

As I bashed out notes on my iPad 2 conversations turned to it. “I’ve no interest in the iPad 2 as my iPad does everything I need it to do. Last year was the first time I had purchased the first generation of anything; I walked into an iStore and knew it fitted what I needed. I have music, Sonos app, news, baseball apps and of course games. The game I spend most time on is Flick Kick football; they updated the kits to red the other week which was more than enough reason to spend a few more hours playing”. I mentioned that I played it on the iPhone but found it much easier to curve shots on the iPad. His top score is 302, not bad and certainly much better than my 152. He explained my problem; “instead of going around the wall, flick it up and over – it will go in and the levels after that are mainly from long distance”. A top tip which I thanked him for.

The interview ended with a short conversation about the internet and related services in five years time. Colin concluded, “I think that music and gaming will continue to grow online, I used BT onlive in America and the game play was amazing. You don’t even need a console to do it. I’d imagine in five years time the connected TV will have evolved enough so users can access even more content from one dashboard. Music, TV on demand and games on demand will all be there although the traditional TV format will remain.”

You can watch the ‘do more online’ videos on the new BT Blog. Let us know what you think below.

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