During this evening’s CES opening keynote, NVIDIA tossed out a handful of major announcements surrounding Android TV, Google Assistant, and their SHIELD platform. Not only did NVIDIA tell us about their high-powered and feature-packed new SHIELD TV unit, they also introduced the NVIDIA Spot, a Google Assistant extender that brings you voice control over your home from room to room.
If that doesn’t make much sense, let me try to explain.
Think about Google Home and how you might want multiple units throughout your house, so that you could access Google Assistant’s power from anywhere? That could be expensive, and maybe a bit much right – having Google Home everywhere? What if, instead, you could have little microphones throughout, that might be cheaper and more accessible that don’t need a shelf to sit on? That’s what NVIDIA Spot is.
As you can see in the image directly above, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is holding an NVIDIA Spot. The unit is small and plugs directly into an outlet. It then pairs with your new SHIELD TV unit to extend the Google Assistant to another room. Spot features a microphone and a speaker, so as you say, “OK, Google, turn on the lights” or “OK, Google adjust the temperature,” you’ll be able to do so through Spot and get audio feedback.
How cool is that?
At this point, we are waiting for more details, including pricing and availability.
UPDATE: Press releases are now out and NVIDIA Spot units will cost $49.99 a piece. That’s not cheap, but it’s also cheaper than buying a handful of Google Home units for each room.
Will the spot work with the older Shield TV unit?
Will the Spots work with the original Shield TV?
Not confirmed yet as far as I know but I’d be extremely surprised if they don’t as it’s all just software and there seems to be no hardware upgrade at all on Shield v2.
So will all these “Assistant” sources interact with each other? In other words… can Google Home control Android TV soon without using the Android TV’s built-in voice control or having to buy a Spot?
I have a feeling Google Home will be $100 full time soon. $200 for the Shield and $50 for the Spot(s).
The Shield and Spots only become cheaper on the fourth one. Granted you also get a nice set top box.
I’m trying not to assume you already own a Google Home, the Assistant can run on Pixel phones too…
Or a Pure Nexus ROM on a Nexus phone like me
these are neat but i wish i didn’t have to have a shield to use them
Will wait until Google makes their own. I want one ecosystem/brand when I finally go smart home. Everything Google.
You’ll be waiting a long time for one ecosystem/brand all across a smart home I think. I’ve seen zero indication from Google they’ll be making light switches and the like of their own.
They have Nest for HVAC, security and a few new areas, but seem to be partnering too.
True…
The future is upon us! I like it.
Amazon needs to get off their ass and do it quick because Google is very quickly catching up.
I have echo to try it out and I already found deal-breaking limitations (especially use it to sound notifications). If Google Home wasn’t so damn ugly, I would pick one up already
Home basically doesn’t do notifications. I wish it was a little more flexible there.
I have two Homes at the moment. I did pick up an Amazon Dot during the holiday sales but I haven’t hooked it up yet.
It shouldn’t be any trouble to use both though.
I have the copper grill and it looks pretty nice.
the outlet mounting is a pretty good idea though, especially in newer homes that seem to have outlets everywhere. Makes it easy to keep things inconspicuous.
google needs to come out with one of these ASAP. I want android to control my stuff, but I don’t want 2 google homes (nice having a small place). I was thinking of an alexa dot just for my room, and adding a firestick to my room, but I want to stick to one ecosystem. And it sounds like this still needs a Shield somewhere.
Will this be stand-alone capable, or dependent on Shield TV?
All of the processing is done on the Shield TV, the Spot is just a connected mic & speaker so it will require a Shield TV.
Echo Dot. Nvidia Spot. I see what you did there.
Echo dot basically. Cool
They are going to be $49.99 https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2017/01/04/shield-ai-home/
Count me in for at least two, glad I held off on a Google Home.
Google Home is a nice speaker as well though.
There are benefits for each but you can get almost 3 of these for the price of 1 Google Home
yeah true. i did get mine for 75 at best buy when they did the 25 off by using visa checkout. so that was good.
Totally true that each has benefits. To replace a Home though you’d need one of these plus a Chromecast Audio plus some powered speaker to plug it into. That said you can of course get as nice a speaker setup that way as you’d like. Also it’s true that you don’t necessarily need/want a good music-speaker everywhere you might like voice I/O capability.
I’m wondering how it will all work together and what else the new Shield TV has by way of differentiation from the old unit. I currently own one and also two Google Home units – which really are nice sounding speakers for what they are.
The new Shield TV is the same hardware as the one you already have and all of them will get the same updates, its a refresh like Shield Tablet>Shield Tablet K1.
Yeah that’s kind of a bummer. I wish they had updated more in the hardware. It seems like the new one must have a far-field mic array built in at least though.
The new Shield controller has the always listening microphone built in, not the new console itself.
Oh. Interesting. Where did you get that info? Seems an odd way to go as you have limited battery life in a controller to be always listening.
Actually, the K1 was completely different than the original Shield Tablet. You’re right, though, that this time, the hardware is the same for the units themselves. The 16GB version has a smaller case, but the internals remain unchanged. The main difference is in the controller and remote, since neither of those from the previous model will have the “always listening” capabilities.
The K1 was completely different how?
It’s ok, but I definitely wouldn’t call it a nice speaker
I beg to differ, it’s not Bose like or awesome speaker but ‘nice’ is actually the best way to put it.
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!mj99d:
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HAL
the Google Home has a surprisingly better audio treble/bass than my own HDTV does. I was very impressed, that alone might merit buying a Google Home instead of this NVIDIA Spot.
I was very pleasantly surprised by it. Not that I’m an audiophile. It certainly wouldn’t do for anyone who likes to hear their base from 3 blocks away. It has a really nice balanced sound for me though and decent enough volume for anything I want. Also sounds really nice at lower volume in a quiet room.
I’m tempted to buy a 2nd one just so i can get the surround-sound effect.
I did get a second one when they went on sale for x-mas. If the prices go down to $99 again I’d consider another actually.