Developing technologies in the TV and film industries

Developing Technologies in the Film and TV Industries

Consumer Products

Up until recently the sorts of day to day privileges to modern day western civilisations were restricted to those that held high wealth and status among the common people. Technology has progressed so much so that high definition is now the standard of modern consumer products and is accessible to a higher percentage of the population as a whole than ever before.

Satellite and Cable

•          Cable is the use of physical connections via an infrastructure of wires and cables in order to transfer information from one place to another. In the case of TV, cables these days tend to be wired from the TV set to an external ariel instead of an underground hub and this is where satellite TV comes into play.

        




 

• Satellite TV is where information is passed wirelessly from a server to a satellite and then redirected to a device capable of receiving the data such as a Satellite dish or ariel. Satellite TV is most common in modern day TV since it is much more available and economically efficient than cable. Satellite TV is prone to interference through static or weather based noise traffic though updated satellite receivers however are becoming much more reliable than older models at dealing with interruptions.

Analogue and Digital

• ·         Analogue TV is where a specific radio wave would be transmitted and received, however this method severely limited the capabilities of for example number of broadcast able channels. Analogue has been and gone now however and has been replaced with a much more diverse digital format.

• ·         Digital TV is a modern way in which we are able to pick up channels etc. from broadcasters. Because of the way digital is manufactured we are able to have an almost infinite number of channels broadcasting on very similar but easily distinguishable frequencies and so are able to easily have services such as Sky or Virgin Media at our disposal.

Internet

TV as a medium is becoming more and more outdated in favour of internet services. Using the internet consumers aren’t limited by the restrictions of a TV guide since they are able to search for the specific things they wish to view or listen too. There are many legal and illegal platforms inwhich the internet can be used for example YouTube would be a legal platform whereas torrents (digital piracy) are considered illegal means of internet usage.

High Definition

·         HD is the most common way in which we view modern TV and online video. HD wasn’t always the standard format, we used to have much smaller resolutions paired with square shaped bulging box shaped TV sets. HD TV sets have a much higher pixel ratio to standard with HD coming as a 16:9 or 16:10 ratio when standard ratio is 4:3, so what does this mean? High definition TV’s are able to

contain images of a much larger resolution and in doing so create a much richer and sharper viewing experience. The 4 most common HD formats include: 720i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p; the numbers themselves represent the amount of pixels in the second half of the ratio (the height of the screen) and the ‘I’ and ‘P’ stand for either Interlaced or Progressive. Interlaced and Progressive are terms used to differentiate between two different frame refreshment, with Interlaced refreshing only half of the pixels per frame and Progressive refreshing every pixel of every frame which produces a much smoother viewing experience.

3D

·         Back in the days of Jaws 3D viewers would only be able to experience 3D from within specialized theatres showing a triple layered version of the film. The film would contain two contrasting colours (most commonly red and cyan) which would be filtered by the corresponding lenses in the provided 3D glasses. The downside being the whole film ended up looking alien in colouration, however the effects produced were like none seen before and this format quickly became a recurring theme throughout film for a time. Just as people though 3D had died of death then suddenly it appeared with a fresh and modern twist; People could not only watch 3D movies at home or at the cinema, but they could do so without the crazy colourisation since they had replaced the old technology with

polarising glasses. Of course modern 3D is much more expensive to produce but it has evolved into a welcome experience that adds to filmography without taking anything away from it and while initial 3DTV’s costing you around about £7000 the price has dropped to around 10% at £700 a set which has made 3D more of a household normal than ever before.

 

Interactive:

·         Interactivity is basically to do with the ability to manipulate the things we see, from changing the volume to pausing live TV, interactivity is becoming more diverse in its application however tends to

be fairly clunky in use due to bombardment of advertisements.

Pay-Per-View/On Demand Viewing

• Pay-Per-View services are essentially one off payments for special events or sports such as new film releases or MMA bouts, these pay per view services are most commonly ran inside of a subscription based TV service such as Sky and are available at the touch of a button.

• On Demand is the availability and ability to watch programs that are usually run on terrestrial TV with channels such as BBC or ITV via ITV or BBC ‘Iplayers’. Used to either catch up on programs or simply as an alternative to TV all that is required is a compatible device and an internet connection to stream the content. 

Streaming Content and Digital Recorders

• Streaming content is when you are downloading and watching content in real time through an internet or Wi-Fi connection from one server or device to another. The downloaded data itself isn’t permanently stored on the device and instead uses temporary space to assign the relevant data and the cache is cleared upon the closing of the content. There are many streaming services; any video viewed while online is being streamed whether it is from YouTube, Netflix or Love film servers.

• Digital recorders are pieces of hardware that usually come built in with for example a Sky box. There is a hard drive built in which allows for the use of recording of licensed and paid for content such as episodes from a series on Sky Atlantic. Any piece of recorded content is available to the consumer whenever they wish to view it, advantages include: Prevention of program time clash worries, the ability to watch something you may otherwise have missed and also the ability to watch a program without the advertisements.