Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound
Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound
Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
DE\rELOPMENTS<br />
IN INTERNET<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
This was one <strong>of</strong> the best attcnded talks orgarrised<br />
by AMPS. given hy Sarah l"larries (at l"hat tirne<br />
representing Framfab UK) on 22nd Novemher in<br />
De [.ane Lea's Dean Street preview theatre. We are<br />
grateful to them and engineer Gerry Teague for<br />
their support. It is impossible to give an adequate<br />
report here because it was a PowerPoint<br />
presentation, liberally illustrated with'slides' and<br />
websites, though the latter were slow because a<br />
high-speed line was unavailable. However, a few<br />
printed handouts are still available to Members<br />
who wish to order a taped copy <strong>of</strong> the 2-hour<br />
evening from Bob Allen.<br />
Sarah said that CoNVERGENCE was driven by the<br />
theories that: l/ everything that can be connected<br />
will be; 2l anythingthat can be digitised will be;<br />
3/ everything that can be mobile-enabled will be.<br />
Two important factors were deregulation and fierce<br />
competition. One <strong>of</strong> her associate companies<br />
provides broadband internet access to homes,<br />
using Ethernet cabling, allowing TV, stereo,<br />
security system and computer all to share the same<br />
network and have connectivity to the outside<br />
world, without bandwidth restrictions.<br />
An example gf a subject vital to the film andTV<br />
industries was RIGHTS MANAGEMENT: who owns<br />
a film, where has it been shown, to how many,<br />
who shares the revenues? This is currently<br />
discouraging owners <strong>of</strong> film rights from releasing<br />
their valuable assets onto the net, but systems are<br />
in development to address this issue. In the coming<br />
year, new alliances would be formed in the various<br />
areas <strong>of</strong> IT and telecoms services (e.g. CL, IBM,<br />
BT, Orange, AOL), media owners (e.g. Vivendi,<br />
Warners, EMAP ), broadcasters (BBC, ITV,<br />
NTL, BSkyB) and emerging players (Gameplay,<br />
Two-Way TV, AOL).<br />
Many countries, including the US look on the<br />
UK as a test-bed for the launching <strong>of</strong> new<br />
technologies. For instance, many are interested to<br />
see what the uptake will be by the public for<br />
ADSL, the technology that converts phone lines to<br />
allow faster 512k connection to the Internet. 512k<br />
is not the maximum achievable in fact, but to keep<br />
infrastructure and the cost per subscriber down BT<br />
are intending to share this bandwidth between<br />
households at times, so achievable speeds will still<br />
vary according to how many neighbours are online<br />
simultaneouslv.<br />
With digital TV,ihe Government's stated<br />
intention to switch <strong>of</strong>f analogue TV transmission in<br />
2006(?) should drive consumers to upgrade their<br />
TV sets and hence increase the number <strong>of</strong><br />
households capablc <strong>of</strong> rcceiving interactive TV<br />
serviccs. <strong>The</strong> poterrtial <strong>of</strong> interactive TV for<br />
comrnercial exploitation lry retailerc and advertisers<br />
has already attracted huge investment hut as yct vcry<br />
few succcss stories exist as thc arxlicnc:ers arc still so<br />
small. Sonre think thal" TV vicwing will renrain<br />
passivc and relaxing anrl that viewcrs will never tnrly<br />
'irrteract'.<br />
Mobilc phones ancl mohile inl.ernet dcvices are<br />
dcvcloping f ast. WAP phorrcs (which can display<br />
basic: versions <strong>of</strong> internet sites) are alrcady here but<br />
slow and crude. GPRS is the next step which will<br />
allow faster connections and hence better quality<br />
displays. After this will come '3G', the slang term<br />
for3rd-generation mobile networks using the UMTS<br />
spectrum). This will <strong>of</strong>fer mobile phone subscribers<br />
the potential <strong>of</strong> 2MBls connection speeds to webbased<br />
services allowing the to-ing and fro-ing <strong>of</strong><br />
'rich media' such as video and music files.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Virage-Ingest system, now being used by the<br />
British Pathd newsreel library, logs a freeze-frame<br />
each time there's a scene-change in a reel: these form<br />
the backbone <strong>of</strong> a database that can be published,<br />
searched and previewed on the Net. Clips can be<br />
displayed in'streamed video' format.<br />
Bluetooth is a short-distance radio connection that<br />
doesn't depend on line-<strong>of</strong>-sight; for example it will<br />
'connect' your mobile phone to your laptop so you<br />
can check your e-mail on the train (while the phone is<br />
in your pocket!). It could evenzap a pre-bought film<br />
being received by your mobile onto a special screen;<br />
the Japanese are already testing these in bars.<br />
Streaming is a method <strong>of</strong> compressing and<br />
encoding video and audio data so it can be chopped<br />
into small packets and sent over the internet at<br />
variable rates, but played out at constant speed. Each<br />
frame is discarded once viewed, meaning no full<br />
download is necessary prior to viewing.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are several makes <strong>of</strong> such devices, e.g. Real<br />
Player, MS Media Player and Apple Quicktime; none<br />
are very good because insufficient bandwidth is<br />
available, and the level <strong>of</strong> compression necessary<br />
omits a lot <strong>of</strong> picture detail. If you intend to put video<br />
on your own site, encode it for the player your<br />
audience is most likely to have; a lot <strong>of</strong> costly storage<br />
space and s<strong>of</strong>tware licences would be needed if you<br />
were to <strong>of</strong>fer video streams suitable for all types <strong>of</strong><br />
player at all modem speeds. (<strong>The</strong> cheapest option is<br />
Windows Media player, as there is no licence fee for<br />
the website owner and no charge for the player for<br />
viewers/users.)<br />
Many other subjects were fluently touched on by<br />
Sarah, and the evening ended with a Q & A session.<br />
We all left rather awed by the huge horizons opening<br />
ahead <strong>of</strong> us.<br />
6<br />
I'}iI'ER N{T]S(iRAVIl<br />
NB: Sarah now works at ICL, where she<br />
consults on emerging technologies. Her email<br />
atldr e s s is : sarah.harries @ ic l.c om