How has the digital world changed the way we consume and create TV?

Digital TV!

Since Digital TV has been created, a wide range of channels have produced overtime to suit everyone. digital TV can be broadcast through cable TV, such as Virgin Media and Satellite TV, such as Sky. The channels have increased largely in numbers since digital Television going from 5 analogue channels to nearly 1000 channels, covering all genres, such as: kids, comedy, music, radio, adult, drama, gardening and even baby TV. 

The disadvantage of this was that the 5 main analogue channels now had a decrease in viewings due to more pacific programmes to cater for everyone's needs. After The release of Sky and Virgin Media, originally NTL, the next release was Sky+ and V+, in which the channels aloud the customer to control the programmes they were watching just like a DVD. They were able to pause, rewind, fast forward and record any programme.


Sky then went on to produce Sky+ HD in which High definition Television was then installed onto the latest sky+ box and then the latest stop for Sky is Sky 3D, which then the customers can watch channels in 3D in the comfort of their home and also Movies. Virgin Media did the similar routine of upgrading to Virgin+ HD. 


Now we, the pupil, can consume TV in many ways including the recent, 'On Demand' creations. All five original analogue channels have an 'On demand' such as 'IPlayer' for BBC, 'ITV Player' for ITV, 4oD for channel 4 and 'Five on demand' for channel 5. These are websites online allowing the pupil to view programmes that have been on the Television that the viewer may have missed for example. An advantage Virgin Media has is that the customers received 'VoD', 'Virgin on Demand', in which the viewers can go on, via the box and watch programmes from a wide range of channels and genres. 

Cameras!

The advantage of digital cameras over video/film cameras is that although the digital camera is designed to produce photo images, you can also record videos through them. However, more recently, video cameras can produce freeze frames, although they often are not at a great quality. Also the digital camera can be a very small piece of equipment, so is very much a portable product.


Digital cameras are also designed to produce files suitable to transfer onto the computer and upload onto the web, without taking up much storage space. The camera would also normally come with a disc in which you can control the images on your PC and even edit them. Then you can produce copies yourself on the PC and even print from home with Photo Paper, that sometimes comes with the camera itself. 


I believe one of the main advantages of the digital camera is that they contain a mini screen to show the image you are producing and can show playback of the images and videos. from this the camera holder can choose the photos they do not want on the camera and delete them there and then, to create more space. On more recent digital cameras, you are able to set an effect before producing the image, such as making the colour black and white. 

Editing!

Editing has improved hugely in the digital world by being able to take on the footage been shot by the production team and add effects to them. For example, if producing a big film, in post-production, the film can be brought more to life, making it looking more realistic by adding in a large amount of CGI. Some films are even purely made up through CGI, such as 'Shrek'. 




Also effects such as airbrushing is a very popular post-production effect when it comes to photographs and videos, to make the talent look immaculate.  Another big improvement is that there are big post-production houses that just deal with the editing and can take on what the production team have captured and put all the different range of shots together to produce a wide shot variety of a show to make it more interesting. Post-production can also deal with mistakes in the production such as if they lighting is too bright in part of the film, then they can decrease the lighting. Green Screen would be another big improvement to editing as films and TV programmes can produce many scenes cheap by doing this and then adding in the background later. 

Editing is now widely available to the general pupil by being able to purchase professional editing software's such as 'Photo-Shop' and 'Final Cut Pro'.

Have online videos lowered the standards of television production?

In the recent decade, online videos have came largely popular and have much so changed the way the pupil watch programmes.


Television production has increased from 5 up to 1000 channels with thousands of television programmes being produced each year. However, the internet has gave people an even wider range of programmes and videos to watch online.


For example, sites such as 'Youtube' are simply sites dedicated to sharing individuals home videos online for anyone to enjoy. 'Youtube', is a big advantage for regular people to share short feature films, music videos, individual talents and so on. It is known that 'Youtube' has been a gateway for success in the past for many people such as Justin Bieber who started out posting videos of him singing on 'Youtube'.

The programme 'Rube Tube' itself is entirely based around popular and funny 'Youtube' videos, in which home videos are shown throughout the whole show. Therefore, this programme is very cheap to produce as the TV shows inserts have already been created by the public. Other programmes similar to 'Rude Tube' would be ones such as: 'Animals do the Funniest Things'; 'You've been Framed' ect. These programmes are very popular with the producers of the show as it is cheap to produce. However, the show's contents can be low quality as the videos will have been recorded by the public, in which it is very unlikely that they would have recorded the videos on professional cameras. Also, many Jobs will not be on offer when creating the TV shows as most of the content will have been produced in advance.

Many Television shows can now be watched online through sites such as 'BBC IPlayer' and '4oD' in which many people turn to when they have missed the show on television. Also there are many programmes made just for online viewing such as 'E20', which is based on the youth of EastEnders. These shows would have to be made to a lower quality to be viewed online. 


The standards of television production has most definitely been lowered in one way, as the demand for compressed files for people to watch videos and programmes on there phones and Ipods. Another reason is because the demand for programmes such as 'Rube Tube' in which the majority is recorded on low quality cameras or phones. On the other hand, television standards are also being risen contently despite the demand for online videos, with HD and even 3D TV's being launched.

History of TV within the UK and Abroad!

Within the UK there are 5 main analogue networks which are broadcast through Terrestrial TV using radio waves through antennas and aerials. These channels include: BBC One; BBC Two; ITV1; Channel 4 and Channel 5. 

BBC One and BBC Two are Funded by the pupils annual TV licence, as the BBC is a Pupil service broadcaster. 

ITV was the first independent television channel, in which ITV stands for, and broadcast terrestrial but from different sources in different regions. Channel 4 and Channel 5 are also independent networks. 

As they are independent, they depend on regular and often, commercial breaks for advertising, to provide the funds to run the television company whereas, the UK BBC do not advertise and only have breaks at the end of programmes, where only BBC products are advertised such as upcoming programmes.

BBC Two was the first channel to broadcast colour television in Europe, in 1967, which was of a Wimbledon tennis match. The other channels followed one year after.

All of these analogue networks I have listed above are going to be taken on by a digital network such as Virgin Media or Sky, as in 2012, the 'Digital Switch Over' will take place and analogue Television will be switched off.

In 1948, Cable Television was introduced, in which cables would run from community antennas to individual households. This was seen as a much more reliable source for signal and even a wide-screen image. Cable is most popular in Europe, East Asia, North America and Australia. A large digital network is ran through cable TV, which is Virgin Media.

Later on in 1962, Satellite Television was launched, which occurs by a communication satellite delivering signals to satellite dishes of individual households. An advantage of satellite TV is that the customer can receive a wider range of channels. A large digital network ran through Satellite Television is Sky.

• Wide-screen TV began in the late 1920's making some short film's images the aspect ratio of 16:9 from the normal aspect ratio of 4:3. In the current times, wide-screen TV ratio is now something every programme and film is consisted off when producing and most TV's have the option of Wide-Screen. 

• High Definition TV came about in 1998. HD consists of 1080 horizontal interlaced lines producing a much higher quality image. 

Broadcasting Standards!

PAL stands for Phrase Alternative Line and is the UK's Television broadcasting standard, which is made up of 25 frames per second.


NTSC stands for National Television System Committee which is the television standard in the USA. NTSC consists of a larger amount of 29.97 frames per second. 

SECAM stands for Equential Color with Memory. SECAM was originally and is mainly used within France and was the first television standard to provide colour.

From this diagram, it is clear that the majority of the world uses PAL, which is also the UK's standard broadcaster.