processing...

Westman Communications Group

We want to provide you with the best customer experience possible! By selecting your community, we can give you accurate and up-to-date information about our services.

Your community selection will be remembered in your browser for 30 days.

To change your community after the initial selection, click the location tool in the top right corner.

What if my community isn't listed?

  • If you are in a rural area, please contact our Customer Service Team at Local Phone Number: 204-725-4300 or Toll-Free: 1-800-665-3337.
  • If you are not in a Westman community but would like to visit our website, select "Brandon" as your default community. This will allow you access to the website as a visitor.

Please select a community for us to provide you with an optimal experience during your visit on our website.

“Hey Alexa, Play Q Country 91.5 FM”

By: Westman Communications
Posted: July 16, 2020 15:28Entertainment, Technology

“Playing Q Country 91.5 FM Radio” 

There’s a good chance that in these recent years, you’ve “talked” to Siri, Alexa or Google. You may have asked if it is going to rain today or to play your new favourite song. If you haven’t had the chance yet, you’re missing out on a fun, unique technological experience! 

The creation of the smart speaker is still new when we look at the evolution of technology in this century. Still, it already seems to be impacting a significant number of Canadians. As stated by Media in Canada, in 2019, nearly one-fifth (19%) of Canadian adults owned a smart speaker. Google lead the pack, with 14% of Canadians owning a speaker from that brand. Just 6% owned Amazon Echo, and only 2% reported owning an Apple Home Pod. 

What is a smart speaker?  

A smart speaker is different from any other virtual assistant, as it was designed to provide intelligent assistance in your home. It is exactly like a smart phone’s assistant but placed in a stationary home gadget. In fact, both devices may use same virtual assistant software depending its brand. 

The smart speaker pledges to make your daily life easier and more efficient by helping with all the “small things” in life, like setting a timer with no hands. So next time you are covered in cookie dough, you don’t have to worry about damaging your iPhone while setting a timer for baking. 

We all know that smart speakers can play music, but what else can they do? 

  • Answers general questions 
  • Give daily weather reports 
  • Keep you up to date on the latest news, and other important information 
  • Set reminders, such as for making an appointment 
  • Play trivia, and other games 
  • Access audiobooks and podcasts 
  • Play any radio station, like Q Country 91.5 
  • And much more! 

All these above features can help enhance your home regime. You can also get other complimentary smart devices that can connect to the smart speaker, such as smart light bulbs. Turning all your lights off at once can be as easy as saying “Goodnight” to your speaker. With proper programming, the speaker would recognize that set command and turn everything off for the night. Cool, right? We think so. 

The only downside to a smart speaker? If your command is too quiet or muttered, the speaker’s virtual assistant may not understand what you are trying to say and make a frustrating mistake. You also have to ensure you have reliable internet (potentially hyperlink to Internet page) as the smart speakers are connected to your network so they can give you the answer to your question or complete the task at hand. 

These smart speakers are still in the early generations of virtual assistants and have much more innovation to go. It may be many years before we get any type of virtual assistant we have seen in Sci-Fi movies or TV shows, like Star Trek. Yet, this generation of smart speaker seems to have many benefits for when you need a little help organizing your busy lifestyle.

Back to: Westman Blog

If you have any comments or questions, or you have a topic that would make a good blog post, please email us at informationM@westmancom.com