Introduction

Introduction to my Developing Technologies blog.

My name is Martin Howard.

This is my blog for the developing technologies assignment of Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries.

In this blog, I will be looking into how Television has changed over time and how it has become easier to access programmes, whether this be live or on a catch-up service.

I will be looking into how TV is actually accessed, through satellites or cable.
I will also be looking into how these actually work.

The television industry is an on-going development of technology.
Things are being improved all the time, to enhance the viewers experience and ease of watching television.

I also plan to look into Internet television, such as 4OD (Channel 4 on Demand), BBC iPlayer & ITV player and how sometimes, programmes can't be shown on these due to certain restrictions.

A bibliography will be included at the end of each post, sourcing all of the information and images used.

This is a non-profit blog, used only for an educational course.

Satellite Television

Satellite television first came into the market in the early 1990s.
Satellite TV was a lot harder to get than broadcast and cable TV.
Back in the early years of satellite, home dishes were quite expensive and huge, therefore would take up a lot of space on or around someones house.
Satellite television is a form of television programming where communications are received by an outdoor satellite dish.
Even today, big satellite dishes can be seen on the front or back of peoples houses.
In many locations throughout the world, satellite television provides a wide range of channels and various services.
Most satellite TV customers get their services through direct-broadcast. With this, the provider selects programs and broadcasts them to subscribers as a set package. This is how the provider would keep up against competition which is cable TV.
Direct-broadcast satellite television comes in two different variations. These are analog and digital.
The difference being in that you have an analog satellite receiver or a digital satellite receiver.
A problem with satellite television, is that there is more chance of losing the signal in bad weather because it affects the signals that the dish sends out. Therefore this may not always a reliable way to watch television.

How does satellite television work?

Programming sources are put into place. The provider will not have created the programming themselves, they would pay other companies for the right to broadcast content through satellite.
An example of this could be the channel ESPN, the provider will contact ESPN and ask for their permission, putting it simply the provider is the 'middleman' between the programming source and the customer which is watching.

Broadcast center is the central hub of the system and where the TV provider receives signals from the programming sources. Then a broadcast signal is beamed into the orbit.

Satellites then receive the signal, then rebroadcast them back down to Earth.

Satellite dishes then pick up the signal from the satellites and passes it on to the receiver in the house.

Receiver then processes this signal, passing in to a television set.

Image source link.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/satellite-tv.htm
http://dishtv.com/blog/2012/04/24/how-does-satellite-tv-work/

All of the above text and images were sourced from the sources provided in the above links.

Cable Television

Cable television was previously known as Community Antenna Television.
Cable television begun in 1948, in the remote valleys in Pennsylvania.
This was due to the poor reception problems in the area.
The people living in these valleys decided to put antennas on hills nearby and then ran cables to their houses.
Cable television is a way of providing TV to customers using signals that are transmitted through cables.

How does cable television work?

Satellites orbit the Earth's path at a fixed position around 22,000 miles above the surface of the Earth.
Television programmes from across the world are transmitted to these satellites.
The signals are then sent back down to Earth, to the local cable satellites that serve each area.
Miles of cable networks are installed underground or on the same utility poles which carry the regular telephone and electric services.
The control center of the companies which provide cable television, sometimes known as the 'head end' processes the satellite signals in combination with the signals from the local television stations and other similar resources.
These signals are then relayed into homes through the network of the laid cables that were placed previously, thus providing a cable outlet in the house.
To then access this cable television service, a subscription to a cable company is required.
A coaxial cable or an RF cable will then be an outlet to the television set.
Then all that needs to be done is to program the television to recieve the cable channels.

Cable television can be considered better than satellite due to the signals being sent through cables and not through the air, this enables better quality of reception as the signals are not disturbed by anything else.

Image source link.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/cable-tv.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcabletelevision.htm
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_cable_television_work

All of the above text and images were sourced from the sources provided in the above links.

HDTV (High-definition Television)

The first high-definition television sets came into the market in 1998.
Advertisements for these sets showed fantastic resolution and digital surround sound.
It was found that with HDTV, movies could be played in their original widescreen format without the 'black bars' that are found above and below the image.
Many people found after hooking up their HDTV sets, the picture didn't look good, due to the TV not being able to project the high definition.

Image source link.

If you click on the above picture, you can see the super resolution. This is because it is in high-definition.

HDTV has a 16:9 aspect ratio, whereas most standard televisions have a 4:3 ratio.
The highest HDTV resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels. This is around ten times as many pixels as a standard TV set.
The frame rate for this set usually ends in 'I' or 'P' to announce whether these are interlaced or progressive.
Interlaced display is when a television updates the display twice to show a complete frame.
Progressive display is when a screen updates the image shown only once for each frame of the video.
Progressive displays video at 30 fps and interlaced at 60 fps.

For anything to be watched on the HDTV, a signal is required.
These signals could be acquired from a cable subscription or a satellite service.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm
http://www.neuron2.net/LVG/interlacing.html

All of the above text and images were sourced from the sources provided in the above links.

Internet Television

The first over the internet broadcast was ABC's World News in 1994.
From then on, a company named Audionet offered music streaming and early work begun for television programming broadcasting from Cisco.
Internet Television is very useful for areas such as India, that are not able to acquire access equipment to watch television, such as cable.

Image source link.

If you click on the above picture, you can see what a video on demand website usually looks like.
The picture is of the BBC iPlayer, which brings in many users that are wanting to catch up on what they have missed.

Internet television allows users to select which content or television show they would like to watch from many websites.
There are two forms of viewing internet television, these are:

• Streaming content directly to a media player on the website itself
• Downloading the content to the user's computer

A lot of providers now offer a HD service alongside the standard service. As with a TV, the computer screen must be capable of projecting HD.
The majority of all major TV broadcasters offer a catch-up or on-demand service on an internet television platform.
Although most internet television services allow content to be viewed for free, some content must be paid for.

Most of these websites make profit through video advertising, commonly found before the video is played or midway through.

As with TV, there are broadcasting rights.
An example of this could be the BBC iPlayer again, the website will only allow viewers in the UK to stream the content, this is done by checking the users IP address.
There are also rights in place to only allow content for a limited time.
An example of this could be Channel 4's on demand, also known as 4oD.
On 4oD, most of the content has a 30 day availability from transmission.

Even gaming consoles, such as the Xbox have applications for streaming video content.

The video above shows HBO on the Xbox, programmes and movies can instantly be accessed with a few presses of buttons.
As you can see below, these are just some of the on-demand video applications found on Xbox.
Even BBC iPlayer and 4oD can be found on the Xbox for British viewers.
Sky Player is also available with live streaming from multiple channels, for this a Sky subscription isn't even neccessary.

Image source link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_television
http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/online-sharing-social-networking/the-history-of-internet-television.html#b
http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/UK/index.html
http://www.audionetwork.com/

All of the above text and images were sourced from the sources provided in the above links.

Conclusion

In doing this assignment, I have learned a lot more about television and how it has evolved.
I also learned how to use Blogger, which has been quite interesting as I now use it regularly.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and I hope you found it helpful.