Technology

Technology is always changing, obliviously production companies including NCTV/MINE need to make sure they are up to date. There will always be new products that a company may want but not need. The development for things such a broadcasting in 4K is the next thing to hit production companies. As of yet it is not necessary to broadcast in 4K because the viewer has to have a 4K Television.

Broadcasting Picture Size including 4K and HD.

DALSA Origin, The first 4K camera released in 2013

These are currently on the market for around £2000- £5000 , to me this does not seem like an investment a lot of people will make as they are highly over prices. Although these may be currently over priced they are likely to be affordable for consumers with in the next few years. 4K is known as ultra HD, this is because it is double the pixels (3840 X 2160) that is used in HD broadcasting (1920 X 1080). Obviously if you are broadcasting in 4K you need to have a 4K compatible camera, the first camera released that is 4K compatible is the Dalsa Origin. This was released in 2013 and is currently £1800 to rent per day. As I said earlier this is currently not necessary because not a lot of consumers own 4K televisions. 4K broadcasts are currently being tested by Netflix that is planning to stream the next series of 'House of Cards' in 4K. 

Now on to the movie side of the industry, cameras used in the movies have now advanced from film to digital. Shooting on 35mm film was a very costly method, even though you could practically here the money running though a film camera the development of digital cameras was not very well welcomed by directors and cinematographers in the film industry. Digital cameras weren't developed enough at this point and it was said by people in the industry that digital cameras didn't give the same dynamic range that a film camera gave. It wasn't until the release of the RED ONE in 2007, which was made by the designer of Oakley sunglasses that shooting in digital Started to become accepted. Even then it was still not seen as acceptable, with the release of the RED ONE  several other cameras were also realeased including the 2k hand held with was used during the film of Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog Millionaire was also the first film shot entirely on digital to win and Academy Award (Best Cinematography) in 2008. Although there as still some directors who still want to shoot on film, most movies are shot digital as like I said before it Is cheaper and you can see your footage right away instead of having to wait till the next day like you would when shooting on film because it has to be developed over night. 

With the development of digital cameras which are now available for consumers it is making it easier for them to make their own content. Now a consumer can walk into a store and pick up an decent DSLR camera for about £400. Not only is it making it easier from consumers to make their own products it is also enabling them to get footage of things that the Indusrties camera man wouldn't dream of. Some consumers are putting their lives at risk to capture things like natural disasters. Consumers are also managing to me their own content then uploading them on sites like Vimeo and YouTube and getting over 1000 views. This doesn't really help the industry as the consumers are becoming the producers but it's something we can't help.

I would suggest that the TV studio is completely refurbished and is kitted out to what is currently is industry standard, The TV studio at Newcastle College is out of date and it would be difficult is broadcast with what its like now. In the industry all equipment is now wireless, whereas at Newcastle College it is all hard wired. Being wireless opens a lot of options for a production company. If you were to broadcast a news show are a program with a presenter, the presenter would be free to move around, stand up and not be constantly at a desk.

This brings me on to online streaming and how NCTV/MINE could benefit from it. obviously in the media industry piracy has been a been factor especially with movies and it still is. With online streaming this can help minimize on your products. Over the years the levels of people using piracy have dropped and this is most likely because people are now able to stream legally online with sites like 4OD, ITVPlayer and BBC IPlayer. All of these on demand sites are also available in apps, this helps open the sites up to a wider audience who can now watch these on portable devices like iPads and smart phones. I would highly recommend to the management of NCTV/MINE that they consider making there products available online via online streaming and also possibly via and app. With the development of of super fast mobile internet more and more people are choosing to watch things on the go. Channel 4 have a smart was of showing adverts, for their 4OD online streaming they ask you to sign in with your email address, age and gender. This is helps them gather information on which adverts to show people that fall into the same catogry as you. 4OD have a number of different way for their consumers to select and view adverts, from 'ad elect' to 'ad extend'. When watching a program on 4OD there will be commercial breaks in these breaks and ad may be selected for you already or you may have a choice and be able to chose between 3 different ads. Also while watching an ad that has been shortened you have the option to watch the full version this would most likely be used for a film trailer, you can also use adlink this is where a product will have a link to a social newtworking site like FaceBook or Instgram and you can click on it to go direct to their page. Other Things they use for their advertising include; ad bloom, Adpause and Adapt.

 Consumers can now have internet on there phones that is as fast is the broadband they receive at home. EE were the first providers in the UK to supply its users with 4G. They were then later followed by Vodafone and 3.  

As for broadcasting signals they would have to be completely digital, as of October 24th 2012 analog signals were completely turned off. This means that to now watch television it is only view able via things like free-view or Sky boxes. It was the governments decision to carry out the digital switch-over, they made the decision to turn all analog signals off so that all households across the country could receive digital signals. It was thought that Digital TV would be widely welcomed as it opened up more channels for the viewer to watch. Even though almost all the country use and receive digital there are a certain number of homes that do not use digital, it is thought that this is likely to be elderly people who got lost in the digital switch-over. When the switch over occurred this meant that digital to analog converters have to be used.
 As like most channels NCTV/MINE would need a HD channel or they could just broadcast in HD as most consumers have HD ready TVs.



As we are in the UK the format we use is PAL, if we were in North or South America we would have to use NTSC. Even though this format is used in the states it is also used in other countries like Japan. these 2 formats deliver different frame rates per second NTSC transmits 30 FPS whereas PAL transmits 25 FPS they also have different aspect ratios, NTSC is 720x480p and PAL is 720x576. taking these into consideration don't really matter when broadcasting TV, you only need to look at which one you need if you are thinking about making DVD's as a DVD made for the USA that is formatted in NTSC will not play on a dvd player in the UK. There is also another format that is used in France called SECAM. These formants may not be compatible with DVD players the can be with TV, this is how we can watch American shows like Friends in the UK. In my opinion is isn't nessasary for NCTV/MINE to broadcast in NTSC as that is the format for America and as this is to be local I recommend broadcasting in PAL.