TESTED SKY LIVE
Strictly cam dancing
Do you want a 12MP video camera on top of your TV? No, us neither – but you might once you find out what this one does…
Paid in Chelsea
You can get Sky Live from £6/m or £290 up front, or from £20/m with a 43in Glass – but you need to add a Sky sub on top (from £26/m).
■ Face across the world
Zoom is a welcome addition to Sky Live, and the two companies worked together to optimise the experience. The camera will track people in front of it and zoom to keep everyone in focus or pan across the room.
■ Ache off
Mvmnt is developed by those behind another fitness app called WithU, and there are 130 workouts available to try. Clearly a lot of work has been put into this part of the experience in particular – it’s pretty slick.
■ When Sky first announced its Glass streaming television back in 2021, it promised there would be a camera with it too. Well, it’s taken two years, but here we are.
■ At launch, Sky Live offers four key things: Zoom video calling; movement-based games like Fruit Ninja; a new fitness app called Mvmnt that reacts to your actions in real time; and Watch Together, so you can enjoy sport or movies ‘alongside’ absent friends. More experiences will come, says Sky.
■ There’s one prerequisite for Sky Live and that’s a Sky Glass TV – it can’t yet work with Sky Stream or Q. The device takes up two ports on the back of the telly – HDMI (ARC) and USB-C – and as such it’s quite resource-hungry on a set that only has three HDMI ports. A privacy button on top turns off the camera and mic.
■ The games are fun – Fruit Ninja really comes to life as you use your hands to slice through lemons. It’s mostly novelty stuff, though. New games will need to appear on a regular basis to hold the interest. Watch Together is compelling in theory but in practice very limited, because it needs your watchalong buddies to also have Sky Live.
■ Fitness is really the biggie for this camera, and the Mvmnt app can act like a personal trainer. Since the camera tracks your movement, it can give tips on what you’re not doing so well and stop you from slacking. You can also see how well you’ve done and track your progress over time.
Tech specs
Camera 12MP HDR, 110° field of view
Mics 4
Connectivity USB-C/HDMI
Dimensions 145x47x31mm, 130g
STUFF SAYS A truly innovative product, but fitness is the only killer feature ★★★★☆
If you don’t mind a gogglebox that goggles back, this is promising
Dan Grabham
The four main Sky Live experiences are great, but some are more compelling than others. Fitness is where it’s at for us – and while the gaming is good fun, more games and apps will be needed over time to keep the experience fresh. To be fair, Sky has said that Sky Live will keep developing, and if it does it could become the success that Microsoft’s Kinect wasn’t.