Pretty soon, most appliances in your home and office will be connected to the internet, if they aren’t already. We’re surrounded by the IoT. So, where have DJs been? It’s 2019 (almost 2020), and that niche industry is just now making equipment that can connect to the internet.
According to The Verge, Denon DJ has just released a new software update that allows its Prime 4 standalone player and its SC5000 and SC5000M media players to connect to the internet via Ethernet or built-in Wi-Fi, making it the first such piece of DJ players to do so.
Now, the equipment can play music straight from streaming devices. Denon DJ’s first partner is Tidal, but it plans to integrate SoundCloud, Beatport and Beatsource next year.
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A DJ can now perform with Denon gear and play from online catalogs without having to bring any additional equipment.
The feature was released in beta in September after the company announced the new capabilities in May.
Other features include a touchscreen interface direct to streaming services, buffering of tracks in unit memory in the event network connection is disrupted, the ability to add hot-cues and loop points to streamed tracks and the ability to search artists, songs and playlists from the touchscreen.
For the DJ industry, this should be extremely helpful, as it eliminates them having to lug around other expensive devices like laptops or tablets.
However, I still don’t understand why it took until 2019 for this to catch on. The simplest of appliances are connected to the internet these days, and you can find most in your home or at work.
Here are some things that were connected to the internet before DJ Players:
- Refrigerator
- Stove/Oven
- HVAC
- Washing machine/dryer
- Doorbells
- Door locks
- Light switches
- Smoke Alarms
- Coffee maker
- Exercise equipment
- Pacemaker
The pro AV industry — which isn’t entirely separate from the DJ’ing industry — has been talking about the IoT and connected devices for years. For an entertainment industry that relies on the internet to perform, it’s about time.
