Understand developing technologies in the television and film industries

Consumer Products- These are products that are bought by an individual for his own private common or daily use.
Now a days there are loads of technology use at home. This is good in a way because it is useful to everyone to have technology at home, especially for those who are interested in the media industry and would like to learn and progress their skills.
The most common technologies used at home are "cameras, smartphones, tablets, computers/laptops. The use of some of these technologies enable users to use editing programmes such as Premier Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Sony Vegas Pro and many others.

Satellite- These are wireless based technology that delivers information in form of sound or image. In our homes satellites delivers television programmes directly to our televisions at home. The sound is delivered to our homes TV/radio by a sound satellite called satellite dishes. These are a sort of antennas. Satellites work by catching signals from satellites that are orbiting the earth.
Satellites dishes work by picking up signals that come from a satellite orbiting the earth. First the programming source will send signals to the satellite in the outer space, this will then be pick up by DBS provider broadcaster centre. Once the DBS has read and process the signals it will immediately send these back into another satellite in the outer space which will rebroadcast the picked up stations back into earth. These stations are then picked up by the dishes at our homes so we can then watch our favourite programmes.
Advantages - It can be cheap compare to things such as terrestrial links. It is available at rural and urban areas and it also provides a good movie, picture and sound quality alongside with hundreds of channels to choose from.
Disadvantages - The signal quality can be affected by the weather. Bad weather can lead to no signal what so ever. It can turn out more expensive if you want to rebroadcast all the stations to various TV in the house. Equipment must be purchased, set up, and installed properly.

Cable- This is a system where television programmes are transmitted to the sets of subscribers by cable rather than by a broadcast signal.
The advantage of having a cable is that you can access the channels from as many rooms as you want much easier. Also by using a cable the image and sound quality will be much better than without it.
The disadvantage of the cable is that it has a certain length which may not cover the whole of the house. The cable also has a limited access in rural areas.

Analogue- This is an old form of signal which is still used but not as much as digital. This type of transmission involves "the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal". The brightness and image colours of the points in the image and the sound waves of the audio signal are represented by rapid variations of some aspect of the signal. This gives a poorer quality to a digital signal.




Digital- This form of signal is more common in the modern world. The reason digital television is used more is because it is a superior format that delivers better pictures and sound. It uses the broadcast spectrum more efficiently and adds versatility to the range of applications. The advantage of digital television is that the compression on the signal allows more information to be stored in which gives a higher imagine definition and a clearer image quality. Also with the help of technology we can now use our controls to record, pause, fast-forward and rewind the programmes.

Internet- The internet is much like the postal system. The internet is a global network of computer that allow you to send one another small packets of digital data in a fraction of seconds.
The internet had a big impact on the TV and film industry. This is because with the development of internet people were able to illegally download films and television content from the internet using online pages such as Pirate Bay. This kind of action is seen as film piracy.
In order to fight these illegal downloads TV and film companies brought out different legal ways in which the consumer could watch films. There are legal online services such as Lovefilm and Netflix which allows viewers to watch films legally from home.



Interactive- The television has became very interactive with many peoples life. It is said that at least 1 quarter of a persons "waking life" is spent in front of a TV. Interactive TV involves the use of what we call a "return path". This is when information is allowed to flow from the broadcaster to the viewer and also from the viewer to the broadcaster.
Here is three reasons why people tend to talk about interactive TV:

T-commerce: You will be able to buy a pizza without dialing a phone.

Interactive Goodies: You will be able to pause live TV or record shows. You will be able to click on advertisements to “find out more”.

Click stream Analysis (“telegraphics”).

 

Advantages - It is fun, you learn more about current issues, it saves time as you can do many things by just sitting on the couch and use the remote control. It makes costumers much happier as it facilitates everything.

Disadvantages - It is slower than using internet on a pc so many people would rather use a pc instead, there is a chance of identity theft as there is no high security. Too much interaction with TV may lead to lack of interaction with other people (antisocial).

High Definition- This gives us an image with a resolution much higher then the standard definition. High definition uses more pixels than normal to make up an image on screen to give it a better quality and a more clearer and visible image.
There are many ways to ensure you are getting the best quality images you want. For example we now have equipment such as HD cameras to record top images, HD projectors used at cinemas and elsewhere, HDMI cables used for blue rays, DVD and game consoles, and also we have HD televisions.

Advantages - It gives a better quality image for you to see and prevent eye damage. It also gives out a better sound quality. More pixels of colours available providing a better clarity. The use of widescreen shows image in a 16:9 ratio rather than 4:3 ratio.
Disadvantages -  To purchase the HD equipment can be very expensive. If a problem occurs the cost to fix will also be quite high.


3D- When talking about 3D I immediately think stereoscopy vision. This is when two separated images are shown simultaneous. One image will represent the left eye and the other will represent the right eye. The way this is done is simple, two cameras are setup side by side when recording. They will both be recording 2D images but when edited they will represent each eye which then gives the viewers an impression that they are having more interaction with what is happening on the TV (footage).

Advantages - It gives out a 3D impression image which can be quite an adventure for the viewers. Makes watching films/programmes much fun and also playing video games very exciting.
Disadvantages - Again to purchase the equipment for a 3D image can be very expensive. Glasses for the TV must be used. If damage to the equipment the repair cost will also be very high. You will need a Blue-ray and 3D discs.




Pay Per View- This is another method for the viewers to watch television and their favourite programmes at home. This method as also became quite used and popular. The reason this is done is to give the viewers more choices of watching their favourite films and programmes, for example if a user does not want to get sky sport however he wants to watch a particular football match. He would pay separately to have that one match view.

Advantages - It is more flexible for the users as they can pick from what to watch. It normally saves money as you will not be paying for the complete package.
Disadvantages - Extra fees will be added to the monthly fee. Programmes will not always be available when you want to watch them.

On-Demand Viewing- This system allows the viewers to catch up on programmes/films they have missed. This lets them select specific programmes to watch whenever they have time instead of waiting to watch a specific programme/film when its being broadcasted. With on demand TV you can easily catch up on missed programmes up to seven days.

Advantages - You can easily skip the adverts by fast forwarding them. People are able to watch their favourite programmes when they have time instead of making time to watch their programmes when its being broadcast.
Disadvantages - Again the cost for this package will be slightly expensive than normally.

Streaming Content- Streaming content refers to content which is being presented to the audience as its happening, simply meaning that the content delivered to the end-user is being streamed live. The way streaming content works is by having a camera in which the media will use for the recording, an encoder which will digitize the content, "a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content" to the end users.

Advantages - A good advantage of streaming content is that most contents are ad-free, meaning you will not have to watch adverts while streaming content. Another advantage of this is that it lets you watch your contents whenever you want and wherever you have internet connection. It also has the advantage of always providing you with a good quality in comparison to some contents you may find illegally on the internet.
Disadvantages - The biggest advantage of this is that you need a internet connection, and ensure the internet connection is strong so content works fine. Another disadvantage is that contents you access may not always be up to date, it could be an old content.

Digital Recorders- Digital TV recorders are similar to normal video recorders, they do the same job. They allow you to record programmes of your choice to watch whenever you would like to.
Types of digital TV recorders - Hard drive digital TV recorder and DVD digital recorder.

Advantages - By recording the programmes you are allowing the media to fit into your time schedule. Meaning you can watch your favourite programmes whenever you have time. Another advantage is that you can pause, rewind and fast-forward the recorded contents. This also leads to the advantage of skipping adverts.
Disadvantages - The hard drive space is limited. May lose some content has hard drive is not meant for permanent storage or even a crash of hard drive may lead to all files loss.