#HTE

Venue: A Streaming Device That Counts the People in Your Living Room to Charge Everyone Tickets

I have no idea who’d buy this, but a Palo Alto startup called XCinex is rolling out Venue, a $60 sensor that sits on top of your TV and counts everyone sitting in front of it. The idea is that you then stream content for which you get charged per person.

“Utilizing our patented Pay-Per-Viewer™ tech, Venue will expand audiences for cinematic releases, concerts, and live events by offering secure and private home viewing through our exclusive Venue streaming app.”

I know what you’re thinking: Can’t you just sign up with one person, start the show, then sneak five of your buddies in the room? Well, of course not. From the FAQ:

“When you use the Venue streaming app and pick something to watch, you’ll need to buy tickets for each viewer. You can purchase tickets for everyone or each viewer can buy tickets individually. If Venue detects more people in the room than tickets purchased, content will pause until the ticket count equals viewer count.”

So if this thing’s watching you the whole time, how long until they start beaming audience reactions back to the producers of the content? They can take our money and use us as an unwitting focus group. Yeah, sign me up!