September 25, 2018 • 14 mins
An interview with Lloyd Clarke, director of product management at Roku. Clarke explains new and upcoming Roku features including easy voice search for free content, Spotify coming back to the platform, Google Assistant compatibility, Wireless Speaker and the company's cheapest 4K streaming solution yet, the Roku Premiere at just $40.Follow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontech Easy ways to listen on your phone or smart speaker:"Hey Google, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Hey Siri, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Alexa, Enable the Rich on Tech Flash Briefing"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Roku has some new players, plus new wireless speakers that
connect to their TV.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
What's going on, I'm rich tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Rich on Tech with me as Lloyd Clark,
director of product management here at Roku.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Thanks so much for joining me. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So let's talk about streaming in general. I feel like
every single day I hear the term streaming or cord cutting.
And you guys were doing this a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
By the way, we have been doing this for a
few years. We were one of the pioneers, and we
make it easy to stream to your television and if
you haven't streamed yet, you will.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And so streaming has obviously gotten a lot easier because
people are aware of it. Internet has gotten faster, a
lot of companies have come on board with their apps.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So do you find that people are still learning about this?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Oh? Absolutely, there's people who have not yet streamed of
their television, which is why we offer a selection of products.
We have a product that is available that has a
full Roku operating system on it, but sales for only
twenty nine to ninety nine and it's a great way
to get started into streaming.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And what makes Roku different in your mind versus these
other fireTV, Apple TV Chrome casts out there.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Oh, there's a number of things, which first and foremost,
it's an entire company that wakes up every morning thinking
about streaming. We built a lot of our products on
three core ideas. One is, let's get a bunch of
content and a lot of good content available. Let's make
it affordable for everyone, so which is why we have
prices as low as twenty nine dollars. And let's make
it easy to get to the show that you want
(01:25):
to get to.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So with that in mind, one of the things I've
always thought of when it comes to Roku's a you're
kind of like Switzerland. You pretty much have like every
streaming app represented for the most part. And for the
second thing is I always think of the universal search
that you guys were doing long before a lot of
other folks. So tell me about that universal search and
what's kind of new with that with.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
The free absolutely search was additor a platform a number
of years ago with the idea that we want to
help someone to get to the show that they want
to get to. It's now extended to hundreds of channels.
You can search across many many of the channels on
our platform, and we just recently added the ability to
for free. So if you want to watch something, let's
say a comedy movie, you can say search for free
(02:06):
comedy movie movies. It'll come back with search results and
you can watch it on a number of different places.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Now that's with voice search, right, So I can say
search for free comedies, right, or free kids movies whatever?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Can I do that with my type in search?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Like?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Can I type comedies and then free?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It's probably simpler with your voice. We do find search though.
Using text, there's only two or three characters that you
need and you usually get to the piece of entertainment
that you want to So I know that just today,
I was looking for Samuel Jackson. So if I type
in SA and by the time I get to m
Samuel's at the top of my list, and I saw
he had eighty seven movies available on Roku. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And also you're organizing things when you search by kind
of like popularity too, Like you're kind of using some
secret sauce in the background, right.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, there's no secret. It's bipopularity based on what people
are searching for, and then where it plays back is
entirely based on price. So let's say you want to
watch a movie, that movie might be available on three, four, five,
six different channels, and we'll list them in order and
based on price.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, very cool, and tell me about the you have
Featured Free and you've got the Roku Channel.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
What's the difference between those two.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Roku Channel was added to Roku about a year ago,
and it's a channel on your home screen and it
gives you quick access to free content, whether it's movies
or TV shows. It's a great place to find something
to watch at night. It is now so popular it's
about the top five I think on our platform for
who's using that. Another one that you just mentioned, Featured Free,
(03:34):
was just added about a month ago, and this is
straight from your home menu on Roku. You can slide
into that and what you get there is free content
from networks. These are the crown jewels of what's available
playing today in season available on Roku.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So a lot of times I've noticed with like let's
say I have like an ABC app, Right, some of
that stuff on that app is paywall?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Do you have to have a subscription to ABC or whatever?
And some of it is free?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, So what a lot of people don't realize is
that exactly what you said, Dan, that some of it
is absolutely free, and that's why we work with these
companies to bring it forward so that consumers can get
to it right away.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
And again, just to be clear, I mean this is
ads supported in many cases, so you might be seeing
ads while you're watching a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well, absolutely, and what we find is that consumers don't
mind the ad as long as.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
They don't have to pay for it, so free is
pretty important.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Free is a big driver of what Roku does.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Okay, let's talk about some of the other things that
you showed me today.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Spotify is coming back to Roku, and tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, we have a number of different ways to listen
to music on Roku. Amazon Music was added a few
months ago. Pandora Premium is coming to Roku. That is exciting,
and we're also excited to welcome back Spotify. They were
off the platform a few months working on the user interface,
but they're back on now.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Okay, and now let's talk about the new speakers, because
you've got these wireless speakers, which makes getting a good
sound off your Roku TV nice and easily. Now I
say Roku TV because I don't want to get people
so excited that they think if they have a Roku
they can just get like this surround, crazy awesome sound
from you guys.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So they do.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Work with your TVs, your TCL branded Roku TV, or
any Roku it's.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Any Roku TV that's been sold from one of our
manufactured partners works with these new set of speakers. And
I'm glad you pointed out it is a Roku TV speaker,
not for the players, and it's because we want to
give a good sound experience for everything that you're playing
on the television, whether you've connected something else, whether you're
watching maybe something on the tuner, everything that plays in
that television will come through these speakers.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So that's why you can't just necessarily do it on
the Roku, although maybe if people are accepting of that,
we might in the future.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
If you get a lot of people send comments to you,
we'll take.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
A let let them know it Roku that you want
these speakers for every Roku box, not just the TVs.
But they do sound great. You played some demos for me,
and there's so many games we play with the sound
on our TV. You got to raise the volume. You
gott to lower the volume. Sometimes you're talking, you can't
hear it. You put it really loud, and then you
have an action. It's too crazy. So this kind of
you have little tools that will help you level them do.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
And it's exactly that was my life before these speakers,
So always riding that volume button. So if I'm watching
at night and I don't want to wake up the kids,
I have to turn down the volume, and then i
can't hear the dialogue and I've got to turn up
the volume. Or even switching between pieces of entertainment like
a commercial comes on. Usually those are mastered at a
higher volume level. So you're constantly riding that volume button. Well,
(06:25):
with our speakers connected to the ROCUD television, there's a
lot of horsepower that we have in there between the
two different products, and because we run the software together
on both of them, we can do things like volume leveling,
which smooths out the volume between your content. We can
also do things like night mode, which brings down those
explosions and enhances the dialogue.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And there's a separate setting.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Specifically for speech clarity. This is actually the setting for
me because I have a hard time understanding a lot
of what the actors are saying. And when I turn
that on, it really focuses on the frequencies, specifically for dialogue,
enhances the dialogue so I can understand what they're saying.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Important because I know you're saying this for you.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
But that happens in almost every movie where if you're
watching in a movie theater, sure you hear everything because
it's the loudest possible sound in the world. But if
you're at home, you're a normal person that's not blasting
your TV in front of everyone, So it is tough
to hear these actors sometimes, and I'm glad you guys
did that feature now. Also with these, by the way,
the speakers connect your TV just by plugging them in,
So it's a two pack for what two hundred.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Dollars or two hundred dollars You get to see the
two speakers. Also included as a new remote for your television.
And then there's a brand new remote that we've included
called the Roku Touch. And this remote is really meant
to be used away from your television somewhere, so maybe
it's in your kitchen or your desk, maybe the entryway,
and it gives you quick control. Probably use mostly for music,
(07:43):
if you want to start a podcast or if you
want to start a piece of music. It's a great
way to control from a distance.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So it looks like a hockey puck kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's got your basic controls on it for you know,
playing things. And the main thing about this is any
voice come that you can do on your TV.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Or is this you separate voice command.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It's the same operating system here, and so when you
press that mic button, it gives you the same control
that you would have from when you're sitting on your couch,
but you can use it from anywhere that you can
hear your speakers from.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You've got a mic button, you've got volume up and down,
you've got play pause, forward back, and then you've got
these two preset buttons.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Oh they're great and we use them a lot as
we've been testing out their product at home. It's like
a radio preset button. You press and hold it, it
will save the last command that you gave to the television.
For example, let's say I want to play jazz on Pandora,
Press and hold that number one and it saves it
for later use when I come back later on the day,
(08:39):
I want to get access to that, I just press
that button and I get to my music.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So the way I could describe this as kind of
like it's almost like Roku's answer to a Google Mini
or a almost like.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
A smart speaker, but just for your Roku.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So it has some functionality that's built in, but it
sits somewhere outside of your TV. And speaking of Google,
you guys are also doing some integration with them now too.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
We are. We're excited to open up the platform for
compatibility to those devices that have Google Assistant built in.
So if you've got a Google Home or a Google
Mini or another Google product that has Google Assistant in it,
you can control your rokud player or your Roku Television
through the voice on that product.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And so what will I be able to do with
that integration.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Everything you can do with the Roku today, the same
examples that we just gave with the Roku Touch, except
to be hands free through the Google Assistant.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Okay, so sort of the same things that you would
command for the TV or the Roku Player, but using
the Google kind of interface and the hot word too.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
And what you said before you know, Roku really is
a switcherland of streaming. So we open up our platform
to multiple different kinds of content, and now open up
a platform to multiple different kinds of devices.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Okay, and tell me about the new devices you've got,
So to lower priced four K these are the kind
of your least expensive four K yet it is.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
So with the launch of the new Roku Premier and
the Recup Premiere Plus. These are the lowest price four
K players that we've launched ever to date. And it's
really building on the trend of four K in the home.
There's a lot of four K TVs being sold, a
lot of them. Of course they're going to be Roku TVs,
but some of them aren't. This is why our streaming
players business exists. That's why it still keeps on growing.
(10:17):
And these two new products starting at thirty nine to
ninety nine for the Rokue Premiere and then forty nine
ninety nine for the Premier Plus, are a great add
to any television.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Okay, and let's just go through the differences.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So the Premiere you get basically your standard kind of
four K streaming player.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yep, what is the plus add on top of that?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
The Plus is really a difference from the remote, so
both the players are exactly the same. They'll work with
regular high def televisions or work with four K televisions,
whatever television you have. The difference on the remote is
the Premier Plus offers the ability to use voice, so
it's good a voice button on there. It also will
control your TVs power and volumes no matter what TV
(10:57):
you have got it connected to. Will be able to
get rid of want to be remotes as you're watching Rocan, so.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
You have a volume on the remote. We do actually
and power.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
To me, that's worth the ten dollars, but it's an
exclusive to Walmart, right right. So my advice, if you're
gonna get one of these two, you gotta go with
the one that's ten dollars more. Find a Walmart because
just having that one less remote in your house is
so much easier. And the voice command too, I mean,
now everything's done with voice. So I like the fact
that you're offering them to and the thirty nine and
(11:26):
nine is a nice price point, but go with the
extra ten dollars and get the one with all the
features that you.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Can for that price.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
And you also mentioned something I thought was interesting about
the kind of you guys live in this world of
every day you wake up at Roku trying to make
streaming TV better and people always ask me, you know,
should I get a smart TV? I always say no,
with the exception of something like a Roku Smart TV,
because the software in there is updated and it's made nice.
Right other manufacturers you're getting kind of random stuff. So anyway,
(11:57):
my point is to you guys listening, is I always
say get a box and add it to your TV,
or go with a TV that has smart software that
is from a company like Roku.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It's a problem that's existed with so called smart TVs
up until now that they create a wireless updateable product,
but they don't update it. And this is something that
Roku's done from the very very beginning. Everyone of our
products gets updates on a consistent basis, including our televisions.
They run the same operating system as our players, and
when we roll out a feature, we roll it out
every the recup TV while the speakers work with every
(12:27):
one of our televisions. This is something that we think
is very important and glad you're pointing out.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Okay, good, so you're on board.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
With me, but I agree because it's like your company
that your entire goal is to make streaming better every day,
which means the apps, all the apps I'm looking at
the screen, the Netflix, the Pandora, the Ihearts, the Hulus,
they're updating those.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Whereas you buy.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Smart TV from one of these manufacturers that could be
a big name. Yes there's a Netflix app on there,
but you might not get it updated as often as
you'd like. And I'm a tech person. I want my stuff.
I love app updates as like one of my favorite
things on my phone, my TV.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Anything.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Love app updates because that means I'm getting new features
and things are getting better. So is there anything I
missed that you that I failed to mention to you?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
You know, I'm glad you're pointing out. The agnostic view
of Roku is that we just want you to watch
a little bit more television. We don't really play favorites
of where you watch it, so that's why we order
things in price and we play well with others. We
just want you to watch a stream a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And one more future I forgot to mention I do
like is the private listening, which means you can plug
some headphones into your remote control. And that's a big
deal because when you have your first kid, you realize
just how important it is to watch TV in silence
because you don't want to wake them up.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
It's fantastic. So on the Roku Ultra, we are including
now some premium headphones from JBL. It's a great value.
They're valued at thirty nine dollars. We're putting that together
with the Roco Ultra at its consistent price of ninety
nine dollars. But for those people who don't have that
remote with the headphone jack, this is fantastic. Through our
mobile app, you can do private listening through the mobile
(13:59):
app on any one of our players.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Oh wow, that's huge.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
You just plug a pair of headphones into your phone,
listen through the app.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And if both you and your wife want to listen
at the same time, you can both open up the
same app and both listen at the same time.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Wow, that's great. Okay, and give me some times on
these things. So when of the speakers come out. Speakers
are available for pre order now. They're gonna start shipping
in November.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
The players will start taking pre orders at the end
of September. They're gonna get to stores in.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
October, okay, and Spotify.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Spotify is coming. I think it's somewhere in October. It
takes a while to roll out to all the different platforms.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Okay, so Spotify October. All right.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Thank you so much, Lloyd Clark, director of product management
here at Roku, thanks so.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Much for joining me.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
And if you like the podcast, do me a favor
and take a screenshot of you listening and share it
with your friends on social media.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I'm Rich jamiro You can.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Find links to everything I talk about here in the
show notes or on my website, rich on tech dot tv.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I'll talk to you real soon.
Roku has some new players, plus new wireless speakers that
connect to their TV.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
What's going on, I'm rich tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Rich on Tech with me as Lloyd Clark,
director of product management here at Roku.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Thanks so much for joining me. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So let's talk about streaming in general. I feel like
every single day I hear the term streaming or cord cutting.
And you guys were doing this a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
By the way, we have been doing this for a
few years. We were one of the pioneers, and we
make it easy to stream to your television and if
you haven't streamed yet, you will.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And so streaming has obviously gotten a lot easier because
people are aware of it. Internet has gotten faster, a
lot of companies have come on board with their apps.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So do you find that people are still learning about this?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Oh? Absolutely, there's people who have not yet streamed of
their television, which is why we offer a selection of products.
We have a product that is available that has a
full Roku operating system on it, but sales for only
twenty nine to ninety nine and it's a great way
to get started into streaming.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And what makes Roku different in your mind versus these
other fireTV, Apple TV Chrome casts out there.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Oh, there's a number of things, which first and foremost,
it's an entire company that wakes up every morning thinking
about streaming. We built a lot of our products on
three core ideas. One is, let's get a bunch of
content and a lot of good content available. Let's make
it affordable for everyone, so which is why we have
prices as low as twenty nine dollars. And let's make
it easy to get to the show that you want
(01:25):
to get to.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So with that in mind, one of the things I've
always thought of when it comes to Roku's a you're
kind of like Switzerland. You pretty much have like every
streaming app represented for the most part. And for the
second thing is I always think of the universal search
that you guys were doing long before a lot of
other folks. So tell me about that universal search and
what's kind of new with that with.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
The free absolutely search was additor a platform a number
of years ago with the idea that we want to
help someone to get to the show that they want
to get to. It's now extended to hundreds of channels.
You can search across many many of the channels on
our platform, and we just recently added the ability to
for free. So if you want to watch something, let's
say a comedy movie, you can say search for free
(02:06):
comedy movie movies. It'll come back with search results and
you can watch it on a number of different places.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Now that's with voice search, right, So I can say
search for free comedies, right, or free kids movies whatever?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Can I do that with my type in search?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Like?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Can I type comedies and then free?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
It's probably simpler with your voice. We do find search though.
Using text, there's only two or three characters that you
need and you usually get to the piece of entertainment
that you want to So I know that just today,
I was looking for Samuel Jackson. So if I type
in SA and by the time I get to m
Samuel's at the top of my list, and I saw
he had eighty seven movies available on Roku. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And also you're organizing things when you search by kind
of like popularity too, Like you're kind of using some
secret sauce in the background, right.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, there's no secret. It's bipopularity based on what people
are searching for, and then where it plays back is
entirely based on price. So let's say you want to
watch a movie, that movie might be available on three, four, five,
six different channels, and we'll list them in order and
based on price.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, very cool, and tell me about the you have
Featured Free and you've got the Roku Channel.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
What's the difference between those two.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Roku Channel was added to Roku about a year ago,
and it's a channel on your home screen and it
gives you quick access to free content, whether it's movies
or TV shows. It's a great place to find something
to watch at night. It is now so popular it's
about the top five I think on our platform for
who's using that. Another one that you just mentioned, Featured Free,
(03:34):
was just added about a month ago, and this is
straight from your home menu on Roku. You can slide
into that and what you get there is free content
from networks. These are the crown jewels of what's available
playing today in season available on Roku.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So a lot of times I've noticed with like let's
say I have like an ABC app, Right, some of
that stuff on that app is paywall?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Do you have to have a subscription to ABC or whatever?
And some of it is free?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, So what a lot of people don't realize is
that exactly what you said, Dan, that some of it
is absolutely free, and that's why we work with these
companies to bring it forward so that consumers can get
to it right away.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
And again, just to be clear, I mean this is
ads supported in many cases, so you might be seeing
ads while you're watching a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well, absolutely, and what we find is that consumers don't
mind the ad as long as.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
They don't have to pay for it, so free is
pretty important.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Free is a big driver of what Roku does.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Okay, let's talk about some of the other things that
you showed me today.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Spotify is coming back to Roku, and tell me about that.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah, we have a number of different ways to listen
to music on Roku. Amazon Music was added a few
months ago. Pandora Premium is coming to Roku. That is exciting,
and we're also excited to welcome back Spotify. They were
off the platform a few months working on the user interface,
but they're back on now.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Okay, and now let's talk about the new speakers, because
you've got these wireless speakers, which makes getting a good
sound off your Roku TV nice and easily. Now I
say Roku TV because I don't want to get people
so excited that they think if they have a Roku
they can just get like this surround, crazy awesome sound
from you guys.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So they do.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Work with your TVs, your TCL branded Roku TV, or
any Roku it's.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Any Roku TV that's been sold from one of our
manufactured partners works with these new set of speakers. And
I'm glad you pointed out it is a Roku TV speaker,
not for the players, and it's because we want to
give a good sound experience for everything that you're playing
on the television, whether you've connected something else, whether you're
watching maybe something on the tuner, everything that plays in
that television will come through these speakers.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So that's why you can't just necessarily do it on
the Roku, although maybe if people are accepting of that,
we might in the future.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
If you get a lot of people send comments to you,
we'll take.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
A let let them know it Roku that you want
these speakers for every Roku box, not just the TVs.
But they do sound great. You played some demos for me,
and there's so many games we play with the sound
on our TV. You got to raise the volume. You
gott to lower the volume. Sometimes you're talking, you can't
hear it. You put it really loud, and then you
have an action. It's too crazy. So this kind of
you have little tools that will help you level them do.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
And it's exactly that was my life before these speakers,
So always riding that volume button. So if I'm watching
at night and I don't want to wake up the kids,
I have to turn down the volume, and then i
can't hear the dialogue and I've got to turn up
the volume. Or even switching between pieces of entertainment like
a commercial comes on. Usually those are mastered at a
higher volume level. So you're constantly riding that volume button. Well,
(06:25):
with our speakers connected to the ROCUD television, there's a
lot of horsepower that we have in there between the
two different products, and because we run the software together
on both of them, we can do things like volume leveling,
which smooths out the volume between your content. We can
also do things like night mode, which brings down those
explosions and enhances the dialogue.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And there's a separate setting.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Specifically for speech clarity. This is actually the setting for
me because I have a hard time understanding a lot
of what the actors are saying. And when I turn
that on, it really focuses on the frequencies, specifically for dialogue,
enhances the dialogue so I can understand what they're saying.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Important because I know you're saying this for you.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
But that happens in almost every movie where if you're
watching in a movie theater, sure you hear everything because
it's the loudest possible sound in the world. But if
you're at home, you're a normal person that's not blasting
your TV in front of everyone, So it is tough
to hear these actors sometimes, and I'm glad you guys
did that feature now. Also with these, by the way,
the speakers connect your TV just by plugging them in,
So it's a two pack for what two hundred.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Dollars or two hundred dollars You get to see the
two speakers. Also included as a new remote for your television.
And then there's a brand new remote that we've included
called the Roku Touch. And this remote is really meant
to be used away from your television somewhere, so maybe
it's in your kitchen or your desk, maybe the entryway,
and it gives you quick control. Probably use mostly for music,
(07:43):
if you want to start a podcast or if you
want to start a piece of music. It's a great
way to control from a distance.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So it looks like a hockey puck kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It's got your basic controls on it for you know,
playing things. And the main thing about this is any
voice come that you can do on your TV.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Or is this you separate voice command.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It's the same operating system here, and so when you
press that mic button, it gives you the same control
that you would have from when you're sitting on your couch,
but you can use it from anywhere that you can
hear your speakers from.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You've got a mic button, you've got volume up and down,
you've got play pause, forward back, and then you've got
these two preset buttons.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Oh they're great and we use them a lot as
we've been testing out their product at home. It's like
a radio preset button. You press and hold it, it
will save the last command that you gave to the television.
For example, let's say I want to play jazz on Pandora,
Press and hold that number one and it saves it
for later use when I come back later on the day,
(08:39):
I want to get access to that, I just press
that button and I get to my music.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So the way I could describe this as kind of
like it's almost like Roku's answer to a Google Mini
or a almost like.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
A smart speaker, but just for your Roku.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
So it has some functionality that's built in, but it
sits somewhere outside of your TV. And speaking of Google,
you guys are also doing some integration with them now too.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
We are. We're excited to open up the platform for
compatibility to those devices that have Google Assistant built in.
So if you've got a Google Home or a Google
Mini or another Google product that has Google Assistant in it,
you can control your rokud player or your Roku Television
through the voice on that product.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And so what will I be able to do with
that integration.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Everything you can do with the Roku today, the same
examples that we just gave with the Roku Touch, except
to be hands free through the Google Assistant.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Okay, so sort of the same things that you would
command for the TV or the Roku Player, but using
the Google kind of interface and the hot word too.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
And what you said before you know, Roku really is
a switcherland of streaming. So we open up our platform
to multiple different kinds of content, and now open up
a platform to multiple different kinds of devices.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Okay, and tell me about the new devices you've got,
So to lower priced four K these are the kind
of your least expensive four K yet it is.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
So with the launch of the new Roku Premier and
the Recup Premiere Plus. These are the lowest price four
K players that we've launched ever to date. And it's
really building on the trend of four K in the home.
There's a lot of four K TVs being sold, a
lot of them. Of course they're going to be Roku TVs,
but some of them aren't. This is why our streaming
players business exists. That's why it still keeps on growing.
(10:17):
And these two new products starting at thirty nine to
ninety nine for the Rokue Premiere and then forty nine
ninety nine for the Premier Plus, are a great add
to any television.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Okay, and let's just go through the differences.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
So the Premiere you get basically your standard kind of
four K streaming player.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yep, what is the plus add on top of that?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
The Plus is really a difference from the remote, so
both the players are exactly the same. They'll work with
regular high def televisions or work with four K televisions,
whatever television you have. The difference on the remote is
the Premier Plus offers the ability to use voice, so
it's good a voice button on there. It also will
control your TVs power and volumes no matter what TV
(10:57):
you have got it connected to. Will be able to
get rid of want to be remotes as you're watching Rocan, so.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
You have a volume on the remote. We do actually
and power.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
To me, that's worth the ten dollars, but it's an
exclusive to Walmart, right right. So my advice, if you're
gonna get one of these two, you gotta go with
the one that's ten dollars more. Find a Walmart because
just having that one less remote in your house is
so much easier. And the voice command too, I mean,
now everything's done with voice. So I like the fact
that you're offering them to and the thirty nine and
(11:26):
nine is a nice price point, but go with the
extra ten dollars and get the one with all the
features that you.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Can for that price.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
And you also mentioned something I thought was interesting about
the kind of you guys live in this world of
every day you wake up at Roku trying to make
streaming TV better and people always ask me, you know,
should I get a smart TV? I always say no,
with the exception of something like a Roku Smart TV,
because the software in there is updated and it's made nice.
Right other manufacturers you're getting kind of random stuff. So anyway,
(11:57):
my point is to you guys listening, is I always
say get a box and add it to your TV,
or go with a TV that has smart software that
is from a company like Roku.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It's a problem that's existed with so called smart TVs
up until now that they create a wireless updateable product,
but they don't update it. And this is something that
Roku's done from the very very beginning. Everyone of our
products gets updates on a consistent basis, including our televisions.
They run the same operating system as our players, and
when we roll out a feature, we roll it out
every the recup TV while the speakers work with every
(12:27):
one of our televisions. This is something that we think
is very important and glad you're pointing out.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Okay, good, so you're on board.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
With me, but I agree because it's like your company
that your entire goal is to make streaming better every day,
which means the apps, all the apps I'm looking at
the screen, the Netflix, the Pandora, the Ihearts, the Hulus,
they're updating those.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Whereas you buy.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Smart TV from one of these manufacturers that could be
a big name. Yes there's a Netflix app on there,
but you might not get it updated as often as
you'd like. And I'm a tech person. I want my stuff.
I love app updates as like one of my favorite
things on my phone, my TV.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Anything.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Love app updates because that means I'm getting new features
and things are getting better. So is there anything I
missed that you that I failed to mention to you?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
You know, I'm glad you're pointing out. The agnostic view
of Roku is that we just want you to watch
a little bit more television. We don't really play favorites
of where you watch it, so that's why we order
things in price and we play well with others. We
just want you to watch a stream a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And one more future I forgot to mention I do
like is the private listening, which means you can plug
some headphones into your remote control. And that's a big
deal because when you have your first kid, you realize
just how important it is to watch TV in silence
because you don't want to wake them up.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
It's fantastic. So on the Roku Ultra, we are including
now some premium headphones from JBL. It's a great value.
They're valued at thirty nine dollars. We're putting that together
with the Roco Ultra at its consistent price of ninety
nine dollars. But for those people who don't have that
remote with the headphone jack, this is fantastic. Through our
mobile app, you can do private listening through the mobile
(13:59):
app on any one of our players.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Oh wow, that's huge.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
You just plug a pair of headphones into your phone,
listen through the app.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And if both you and your wife want to listen
at the same time, you can both open up the
same app and both listen at the same time.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Wow, that's great. Okay, and give me some times on
these things. So when of the speakers come out. Speakers
are available for pre order now. They're gonna start shipping
in November.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
The players will start taking pre orders at the end
of September. They're gonna get to stores in.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
October, okay, and Spotify.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Spotify is coming. I think it's somewhere in October. It
takes a while to roll out to all the different platforms.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Okay, so Spotify October. All right.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Thank you so much, Lloyd Clark, director of product management
here at Roku, thanks so.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Much for joining me.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
And if you like the podcast, do me a favor
and take a screenshot of you listening and share it
with your friends on social media.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
I'm Rich jamiro You can.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Find links to everything I talk about here in the
show notes or on my website, rich on tech dot tv.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I'll talk to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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