The future of television is now.

Xbox LIVE recently unveiled the next generation of TV entertainment with its redesigned dashboard and new custom apps from world-leading TV and entertainment content providers. High Road helped kick-off the launch with a breakfast media event at Xbox 360 Central in Toronto.

Despite the wet weather, the space was buzzing with anticipation. Glenn Purkis, Xbox LIVE Product Manager, unveiled the new dash and left the crowd awe-struck after demonstrating the new voice-powered navigation features. That’s right: users can now navigate by simply speaking to their Xbox. With the power of Kinect, you say it, Xbox finds it.

Check it out:

Following the presentation, media chatted one-on-one with Purkis and representatives from content partners including Rogers On Demand, Disney XD, Real Sports, UFC, Crackle, YouTube, Vevo, Zune, and MSN.ca.

The highly-anticipated event drew more than 30 media from tech, gaming, sports and lifestyle outlets.

What do you get when you combine pro athletes, gamers and Xbox? One kick-butt media launch event for Kinect Sports: Season Two — that’s what.

October 24 was no ordinary Monday night on Queen West. Xbox 360 Central was transformed into a world-class sports arena, complete with AstroTurf, and played host to Toronto Blue Jays Catcher JP Arencibia, and recent CFL Hall of Fame inductee Damon Allen, as they engaged in some friendly competition in many of the six new sports featured on the soon-to-be best-selling title.

Toronto media from outlets like TSN, Sportsnet, The Score, Toronto Star and National Post turned up for the fun and went toe-to-toe with the athletes and Xbox Canada’s Jeff Rivait.

Two lucky gamers from the East coast also attended the exclusive launch event and got the pro-athlete treatment as the winners of Kinect Sports: Season Two’s All Star Challenge. They were flown to Toronto, put up at a luxury hotel and had the chance to meet and play with JP Arencibia and Damon Allen. “This is awesome; we don’t have anything like this in Fredericton!” exclaimed Scott Mazerall after stepping up to the plate with Allen and Arencibia.

You can check out all the fun in this video.

Challenged to prove they were Toronto’s best dancer, media joined some of Toronto’s top bloggers to battle it out in a Dance Central 2 dance-off at Xbox 360 Central on 330 Queen Street West. The place was bumpin’ as the dancers took on all-new routines set to an unstoppable soundtrack featuring hot tracks from Usher, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Bruno Mars, Daft Punk, and Montell Jordan.

Dance Central is all about learning real routines with full body choreography, and Dance Central 2′s completely redesigned Break it Down mode lets players get into the groove better than ever before, with practice sessions to focus on select moves and the power of Kinect’s voice commands to move your rehearsal along more quickly or slow it down. It even lets you record yourself dancing a move and compare your video with an onscreen dancer!

The coolest feature about the addictive new edition of Kinect’s #1 selling dance game? Friends can team up or choose a Dance Crew to go head-to-head in a fierce Dance Battle. Things get really interesting when the all new Free-4-All minigame appears, allowing players to quickly perform moves worth tons of points and jump ahead in score. Players can drop in or out at any point during a song, so the party never has to stop.

We must say we were quite impressed with everyone’s rhythm! Congrats to CityLine guest expert, Yummy Mummy’s Sarah Gunn (@lovelaughshop) who danced away with the highest score and Casie Stewart (@casiestewart) who tallied up a close second!

To see all the dance moves, check out this video.