Developing technologies [To be finished]

Consumer products:

This means how technology is used in the home. Equipment such as cameras may be used which are used in the film and television industry to record footage and take photographs. Editing software such as Photoshop allows the consumer to professionally edit their photographs, this is used in the film and television industry to make changes necessary for the photographs to be published at a professional quality. Consumer products are available either for free or at a cost, and allow consumers the professional-level performance comparable to that of the performance within the film and television industry.

Satellite/Cable:

Satellite is used to transmit information on a global scale. Companies who use satellite technology within the media industry include Sky, Virgin Media and BT. All three of these companies use satellite technology to send/receive television audio/video. A benefit of this technology is it can transmit information over very large distances. The drawback of this technology is it can be intercepted/interrupted.

Cable is used for the same things as satellite is, however it is transmitted through coaxial cables from the service provider to coaxial outlets in the homes of cable TV viewers. A benefit of this technology is therefore being far less likely to have your connection intercepted/interrupted. A drawback of this technology is you will receive a lot less channels on your TV through cable.

Analogue/Digital:

These are the ways we watch TV and how signals are received. Analogue television is very rarely used anymore, and the brightness, colours and sound broadcasted to the TV are represented through frequently changing amplitude, frequency or phase of the signal. The benefit of using this technology was that, when it was at the peak of its popularity, it was the best technology around. However, since the introduction of digital television, the benefits are rendered useless as there are many more drawbacks, such as the interference caused because of the signals changing a lot. This makes the transmitted audio/video become snowy.

Digital television is the transmission of television signals including sound channels, using digital encoding. The benefit of this technology is it can transmit multiple channels in the same bandwidth taken up by a single channel of analogue television. The drawback of this technology is the global transition from analogue to digital is still taking place, and has been since the late 2000s.

Internet/Interactive:

The internet is one of, if not the most, powerful and extensive sources of information available to us. However, in the film and television industry, there are a lot of negative issues among the positive factors. The most notable of these is piracy, which affects most areas of the industry. People are accessing content that is supposed to only be obtained for a premium, and therefore there is a considerable loss to the industry. One of the benefits, however, is that media content is widely available and easily accessible.