Once you figure out how you will get video into your house, you have to figure out how you are going to watch it. In the second of his "Cutting the Cord" posts, Agent Gavin C. discusses Internet speed and video streaming services.

We are asking our televisions to do more and more these days. As the centerpiece of our home theater systems, our TVs can go from pulling in our favorite news show in the morning to streaming that YouTube video Mom just sent to us over lunch, then playing the latest Mad Max movie during evening “wind-down” time. And anytime we are not using the TV’s screen, it serves as our connection to the music libraries available through the ever-growing list of streaming services. That is one busy machine.

Our team of Agents has a national reputation for our abilities to tame rebellious computer and networking technology. But not everyone knows there is another set of Agents who are more about the display than the processor, more concerned with finding the “true black” than they are about speeding up your spreadsheet program. These are the Field Agents, brave souls who are deployed to client homes and workplaces to install, tune up or debug home theater systems.

Cellphone app developers are our heroes. Their whole purpose in life is to take one of the most useful devices ever manufactured and figure out a way to add functionality. They are the people who put power in our pockets.