DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE TELEVISION AND FILM INDUSTRIES

• Consumer products are defined as goods that are sold for use in or around a permanent or temporary household/institution. In terms of technology there are countless products on the market in the current day and age and they lead the way we live in the 21st century. A well-known, big name is Apple, who have become the largest and most successful technology company in the world. They provide countless different devices for people to use, making it more and more easier to access the internet, socialise, game and do important tasks such as banking. Examples of products are the iPhone, iPod, iPad and iMac. Recently has been the launch of the Apple iWatch, a watch that does just about everything all of the other Apple products, easily accessible and compact on the wrist.

• Another modern consumer product in households are Smart TV’s. They are digital televisions with the added functionality of connecting to the internet with capabilities like web browsers and apps.

• Digital cameras and editing software on computers also provide a platform for making films and other productions in the comfort of your own home. An example of this is Youtubers who make a living from this, such as gamers like Seananners, or vloggers like Caspar Lee.

CONSUMER PRODUCTS

• Satellite:• This form of television is provided by multiple signals being relayed by satellites

across the globe. These signals are received by a an exterior dish on the building. After the signals are received they are decoded by the antenna ready for viewing on a television set. Benefits of satellite television include the vast range of channels on offer, signal can be received in dead areas and you can also use ‘pay-to-view’ services. On the other hand, they can be awkward to set up, the satellite must be in clear line of site and it can be very expensive with the initial cost, fitting and subscriptions.

• Cable:• This form of television that is delivered through transmitting signals through

coaxial cables or light pulses through fibre-optic cables. Benefits of this are that hundreds of channels can be delivered through the same system by integrating them onto specific frequencies along the spectrum instead of have a separate signal for each channel with satellite television. Also cable systems often are able to offer a telephone service and internet access in packages through high speed modems. Reasonable prices and stability are also benefits worth mentioning for cable TV. In terms of disadvantages include terrible to non-existent customer service, and privacy, as using such a mass market, cheap and public service means that its easy for companies to track what you are watching and when.

• Examples of the largest television providers include Sky, Virgin and BT, all in competition with each other providing exclusive content, like sky sports and BT Sport for example. A new competitor in TV is online services like Netflix and NOW TV, as its becoming easier and cheaper than ever to access these services.

TELEVISION

• Analogue: • This is the original television

technology that used analogue signals to deliver video and audio to viewers. With an analogue broadcast, everything from the brightness colours and sound quality all relied on the strength of the analogue signal. Over a five year process, gradually all analogue signals were turned off as the digital age took over for the foreseeable future. The switchover started in October 2007 and was completed five years later in October 2012.

• Digital: • This is the new, modernised way

of delivering television which uses digitally processed and multiplexed signals. It allows multiple channels to use the same bandwidth meaning hundreds more channels are easily accessible for viewers now that analogue has been left behind. Digital television was a blessing for the television and film industries as it acted as a platform, providing many more channels for programs and movies to be broadcast on.

THE WAY WE WATCH TELEVISION

• Internet:• The internet provides easy access to pretty much every television and

movie ever broadcast to those using the web on computers, tablets, phones and even smart TV’s. This can be a positive for the television industry, as it allows them to target an even wider audience with streaming services such as Netflix and NOW TV, which are subscription services that allow you to watch a huge variety of content, whilst still earning money for the producers and television industry. However, there are millions of illegal sites, such as torrent websites that allow you to illegally download and watch content that is breaking copyright laws and making no money for the producers of the media. This is a big problem for the television and film industry as its decreasing their profits massively, as there is no need to pay to watch media when you can download it for free in a few clicks on the web.

• Interactive:• The way a consumer can interact and manipulate the content they watch

has grown in recent years. In todays day and age there are things such as competitions and polls that people can enter and vote in, in order to effect say a character or a storyline of a certain show. This means that the consumer feels more involved and interested in watching, creating a larger, more enthusiastic audience for the industry as a whole.

INTERNET AND INTERACTION

• High definition: With the introduction of HD channels on television with the host of technology inside the modern television sets, it allows for a much more crisp, slick picture quality for the viewer, providing a more thrilling viewing experience than ever before. It provides a higher resolution image by having many more pixels in each frame. Its proven that audiences love HD and want more of it with specific HD versions of channels being implemented into televisions such as BBC ONE HD, ITV HD and Channel 4 HD to name a few.

• 3D: This is a very current and up-to-date service, that is an attempt to mimic reality. It is an optical illusion that makes viewers see an image with a sense of depth that isn't really there. Cinemas especially have taken advantage of this, advertising the incredible experience of viewing films on the big screen in 3D, with things jumping out of the screen towards giving you the richest and involved cinema experience ever. Recently televisions have been released that include a 3D function. The 3D feature, all be it impressive, does require anyone viewing to wear special glasses in order to get the full effects of the illusion, that can be inconvenient and uncomfortable. 3D is slowly growing and making a new branch of audience and profit for the television and film industry, but its is an expensive service to produce. The film that really innovated the use of modern day 3D technology was James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), that took 15 years to create and made 2.8 billion at the box office.

BREAKTHROUGHS IN TECHNOLOGY

• Digital recording is the process of downloading a form of digital media, be it Film or TV show for viewing after the time of the original broadcast. There are products that exist that act as storage systems for these moving image productions, where you can keep multiple shows and films for viewing at your own leisure. An example of this is the Sky+ box. This allows you to pause, rewind, record and store digital media to suit your own needs. In fact, you can keep shows forever if you really desire to.

DIGITAL RECORDERS

Pay per view:• This is has been recently introduced allowing audiences to watch only what

they want. This works by purchasing the channel for a specific amount of time, whilst whatever they want to watch is being broadcast, or by purchasing something like a day pass, that gives you access to the TV channel for 24 hours. Typically sports channels use this like Sky sports box office as they are for a specific market, and are exclusive and wont be able to be viewed anywhere else, so you either pay or don’t see it at all.

On-demand:• This is a service that many channels provide so viewers can catch-up and

watch shows that they have missed when they were originally broadcast. By cutting up the production and having countless adverts in-between still allows profits to be made from the on-demand viewing.

Streaming:• The difference between steaming and downloading is that when you

download something, you have the whole thing there, and can watch it whenever you like and wont be met with buffering times. However with streaming, you don’t actually have the media yourself, but are watching from another platform that the content is coming from, meaning when signal is weak you can experience long waiting times whilst the content buffers, and if it’s a live stream you also typically cannot rewind if you miss something. Examples of streaming sites include Blink box and Netflix.

ON-DEMAND, PAY PER VIEW AND STREAMING