If you’re a college basketball fan, the month of March means only one thing – the madness begins. How far will your favorite college team advance in this year’s tournament? Which team will be this year’s Cinderella story? Before you fill out your brackets and invite friends and family over for your Big Dance watch party, it’s a good time to assess the technology in your home. Make sure your Internet and TV service are running efficiently and you’re aware of new content and features available, so you can get the most enjoyment from this year’s tournament.
Here are some easy tech tips that will help you get the most enjoyment out of year’s tournament.
Have a winning game plan: Hosting a Madness watch party? To keep ALL of your guests entertained, use the XFINITY Stream TV app. It lets you stream all of your channels, On Demand, and DVR content on mobile devices using your in-home Wi-Fi. This is ideal for hoops fans and non-fans who may want to watch a different game than what’s on the big screen or an entirely different type of program altogether.
Wi-Fi full court press: Your guests may want to stream multiple games or other content, check stats, or their brackets using their many mobile devices. Don’t get trapped with Wi-Fi that’s on the bubble. Make sure your Internet is up to snuff. There are ways to ensure your in-home Wi-Fi is set up to give you the most robust signal strength and speed to accommodate all guests.
- Your router should be placed in the room where most of the wireless activity will happen – in the open and off or the ground – about 5 ft.
- Do not hide your router under the stairs, in a bookcase, next to a window, in the basement or back room.
- Does your Wi-Fi router transmit two bands? If so, it’s a good idea to put older slower devices on the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi channel. Connect newer faster devices on the 5.0 GHz channel.
- Check the age of your router. If it’s an older model, it may not be able to handle the faster Wi-Fi speeds. Your Internet company will usually replace old equipment at no charge. Swap it out.
Maximize performance: The number of connected devices in your home and how you’re using them can impact your Internet performance. Most people don’t even realize how many of their devices connect to the Internet. How many do you have? Smart TVs, multiple smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, printers, Blue Ray players, and videogame consoles are some of the devices that may be hogging your Wi-Fi. If your Internet doesn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders, it may be time to assess your plan to see if you need more bandwidth to support all of your gadgets.
X1 has you covered: The XFINITY X1 platform launched extra features to enhance your game viewing experience on the biggest screen in the house.
- The X1 Sports App lets viewers switch between games, view in-game stats and in-progress scores of other games and get previews of upcoming matchups … all without taking their eyes off the TV. X1 also can display the full tournament bracket, updating in real-time.
- Xfinity On Demand also offers Game of the Day replays, regional recaps and game highlights for viewers who want to catch up or relive great moments.
- With games spread across so many networks, the X1 voice remote makes finding everything easy. Just say things like “Sweet Sixteen Bracket,” “When are the Michigan Wolverines playing,” or “Miami vs. Michigan State” to see favorite teams, game summaries, team comparisons, full-screen brackets and more.
More X1 March hoops features can be found here.
