25.12.2012 Views

Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

Summer 2001 - The Association of Motion Picture Sound

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

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

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!