Football fantasy

At first the BeIN Sports Gamechanger seems like the stuff of man fantasy. It’s a vuvuzela, the plastic horn that was either loved or loathed when South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010. But this version is a high-tech device that lets the user change the TV channel to football at the puff of the vuvuzela.

The Game changer is actually a real product and BeIN Sports is offering punters the chance to get in line to receive one by signing up on its website. The device was created using a 3D printed prototype and the company says a miniature microphone inside recognises the vuvuzela sound and triggers an 8-bit microchip to send an infrared LED signal to a cable TV box to change to the BeIN Sports channel. We can imagine this worsening the traditional battle for the remote and provoking a large number of domestic disputes.