Developing technology in film and televisionBy Jack Reeve

Consumer Products Consumer products are everyday technology appliances that people can buy easily from most shops or online. These consumer products can be used to both create and consume content effectively with minimal experience. For example somebody can purchase a HD camera to record video on and then edit this via Adobe Premiere Pro, both of these appliances can be purchased via accessible shops at affordable prices. A good example of the consumer product cycle would be how content is created and consumed via the online platform – YouTube.

The Creator – Arsenal Fan TV

Arsenal Fan TV is a YouTube channel for Arsenal fans to voice their opinion to an audience of over 150,000 people. Arsenal fan TV mostly base their channel around interviews and the equipment they use to create all of their content is as follows.

Camera – Canon 60DAudio Equipment – Rode broadcaster microphone with juiced audio mixerSD Card – San Disk 128gb 65mb/s Editing Equipment – Adobe Premiere Pro – Adobe Photoshop

Consumer Products

The consumer – Me

To consume the content that Arsenal Fan TV has created I use various consumer products to create the best viewing experience .

Laptop – Macbook Pro

TV – LG Television

HDMI Cable – Standard HDMI Cable

By having these products is allows me to consume the content that Arsenal Fan TV has created at a high quality. This means that this content has been created and consumed by just consumer products.

The accessibility and affordability of consumer products has meant that there are more opportunities to create content and you no longer have to spend thousands on TV and film based equipment to challenge the quality of what you see in film and TV.

Satellite Television

Satellite television is where your television programming is delivered by a satellite that is orbiting in space which then sends signals. These signals are received by a satellite dish and then decoded to create the television

There are many different companies that deliver this service such as SKY and FreeSat. All of these companies offer different television programming but the overall method of getting that onto your screen is the same.

Satellite TV has much better accessibility than it’s rival, cable as you don’t have to lie cable underground which can be prohibited in low populated areas. As well as this satellite has the advantage of more channels and SKY now offer over 1000 channels, a far superior amount of what cable could offer.

One negative of satellite television is that It can be interrupted in severe weather as the signal to the satellite dish can become interrupted and temporary interruptions can occur which can be frustrating.

As well as this it’s possible that some places won’t allow the instillation of satellite dishes especially flat’s where there is more than one person living in there. This won’t happen with cable as no such dish is needed.

Cable Television

Cable television is a system of delivering television programming by radio frequency signals through coaxial cables or light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This Is different to satellite television as the signals are not transmitted via signals from satellites.

Coaxial cables bring the signal to the customers home via local utility poles or an over ground cable.

Cable television has a very reliable service as even harsh weather conditions cannot effect these coaxial cables to the extent it does satellites.

A negative of cable television is the lack of selection in channels compared to satellite. Sky have 400 channels compared to Virgin’s 250 and it’s also harder to get coverage from cable television as rural areas do not always have access to the local utility points or over ground cables.

Analogue television

Analogue television is the original television signal that was introduced in the 1950’s and it transmitted both video and audio. It was used for over 55 years before being replaced by digital television in 2012. The reason this was done is because the analogue signal was getting weaker as more channels were added. As well as this the analogue signal was susceptible to interference

Digital television

Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by a digitally processed signal. All countries except for North Korea are replacing analogue television and this means it’s the first significant evolution since the first television in the 1950’s. The UK was turned fully digital in late 2012 but the switchover was first started in 2007. This means that analogue terrestrial television was switched off and is now fully digital in the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle Of Man. One superb reason for the digital switchover is because the analogue transmitters were very expensive which made it tough for channels to stay on air.

The Internet

The internet is a fantastic piece of technology which is now used by 3,037,608,300 users worldwide. The internet can be used to benefit and also hinder the film and television industry. Services such as BBC Iplayer and 4od is now accessible but things like illegal film downloads are now a huge problem for the film industry due to the internet. Netflix is one of the fastest growing online platforms as well and allows consumers to watch television and film whenever and wherever they want, this has allowed up and coming directors to be commissioned to make Netflix original series. House of cards is a good example of a series that was distributed by Netflix. The speed of the internet is improving now as well which makes this consumption process a lot easier and faster

Interactive

Television and film is becoming more and more interactive every day. This could be via the very simplistic methods of simply turning your TV and changing the volume to pressing the red button or rewinding and pausing live television. There are even methods to have interactive options on some DVD’s where you can view extra content and behind the scenes, this adds an extra element to the consumer. With these interactive features is allows people to manipulate the content they are watching to see it how they want to see it.

High definition

High definition has changed the way that people consume moving image and is now easily accessible by everyone. In terms of TV there are now 87 HD television stations that can be accessed in HD via Sky. The first HD broadcast was made in 2006, despite this there are HD channels available for free via Freesat and Freeview television. HD also means that film has changed and blu-ray’s are now the common way of viewing film from home. 480p is standard definition but the breakthrough in technology has meant 720p and 1080p is now the normal definition. Very recently the emergence of 4k has meant for incredibly crisp viewing.

3D

3d is now a common thing to see within the average household which is one of the most major developments in technology in recent times. 3d is now available on most entry level TV’s and available in cinema’s. There are also live broadcasts of 3d television but currently the range is not as broad as the HD channels that are being broadcast. In 2010 only 2.1 million 3d televisions were distributed worldwide but in 2012 over 40 million were distributed showing the growth in recent times. 3d televisions were once a rare sight to see within the household but now they are in every other house.

Pay per view

Pay per view is a type of pay television where a subscriber of a service can pay to view a private telecast that is created by the service provider. The difference between pay per view for television and film is that when you pay for television everyone gets it at the same time whereas film can be viewed at any time on services such as Sky Box Office. Pay per view is most popular with sporting events and movies. The most lucrative pay per view of all time was recently in a boxing match where Maywhether took on Paquiao and it made approximately $400,000,000 for HBO. Pay per view does seem to be effecting some sports so less and less sporting matches are pay per view. It is brilliant for movies though. Pay per view is also now prominent online also due to the rise of the internet, this is a service that is also now available.

On-demand viewing

On demand viewing is a system that allows people to view and watch video or audio whenever they want rather than having to watch the programme at a set time. Many smart tv’s now have on demand viewing linked in to them but before this all on demand viewing was done via a computer. With on demand viewing it has meant that people can watch what they want when they want rather than having to sit down at a scheduled time and make sure they are not missing it. As well as this people can no pause, rewind and fast-forward live TV meaning adverts are now not as important as they once were as many people simply skip over it. This means that television scheduling isn’t as important any more as not many people actually watch that programme at a set time and instead watch it back on demand when they want.

Streaming content

Streaming content is also a very popular way of watching media as well. The likes of Netflix and YouTube are fantastic ways to watch either films and TV or short videos made by normal members of the public. By having this feature it means you can watch near enough anything on whatever device you have. YouTube is a free service that pays it’s creators via adverts and Netflix and a lot of other streaming sites are subscription based and you pay monthly or yearly to watch the media library. The difference between streaming content and downloading/recording content is that to stream you need internet access but you don’t need a hard drive to store the footage on. Streaming is a much more flexible method.

Live streaming content

This is a way that you can stream live content via the internet. Live streaming is hugely popular for gamers to share their experiences via the internet via platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. There is a negative with live streams though as sport is now illegally live streamed which means people can avoid paying subscription costs and pay per view. For example you may need Sky TV to watch Liverpool v Man United but this can be watched for free online via a livestream platform such as FirstRowSports. Despite this the positives outweigh the negatives and many people have made careers from live streaming events via the internet.

Digital recorders

A digital recorder is a unit of hardware that can record TV to. You can even burn this footage to DVD’s. The likes of Sky + are now very popular and this means that the software is implemented within the hardware so it has never been simpler to record TV. This can be a big problem for piracy, Virgin TV now allows you to burn programmes to a disk with ease. This means if you have recorded a movie off TV you can then put this on a disk and possibly sell it on the black market.