With technology rapidly becoming more enhanced continuously, it’s hard to keep up with the latest update, gadget or trend – even for me as a teenager who’s constantly surrounded by it. With the various options we have to view things on like mobile devices, iPads, computers and of course good old fashioned television – it almost leaves us lost for choice! With the Internet dominating most of the main delivery platforms, television and radio are suffering as people like myself and mostly others of my age range exchange live viewing with alternative catch-up options only available via web. This is because viewing things on catch-up has more of an advantage as it is a lot more convenient and you can fit it into your daily lives rather than dedicating time to watch a certain programme whilst it’s being aired however has a disadvantage of not keeping people up to date for socially as they watch it when they wish, opposed to when everyone else watches it so you are instantly behind. Me personally, being a teenager, am of course addicted to the Internet since that’s the generation I grew up in – I was surrounded by the newest technology which mostly required Internet for use.
I asked a few adults of a variety of ages on their thoughts as they grew up in a different time –
“What technology did you use as a child?’
“What technology was released as you were growing up that amazed you?”
“Do you use many sources of technology now?”
“Do you have/use a modern phone or tablet?”
“Do you use apps? Which ones? Why not?”
“What do you think the future holds for technology, how can it possibly improve?”
YouTube was introduced to the public in February 2005 when three employees of Paypal first founded it. Since then, YouTube has had a massive influence on how I access video content such as music videos, movies, news, short films or even something as simple as ordinary people video blogging, plus it allows me to upload any content that I create therefore helping me put my creations out there to spread to a wider audience, having all my content in one place helps me in various ways; it helps me keep track with what I have created, it helps me within sending my creations to potential employers; and also it helps me retrieve the videos at any time to create a show reel, but most of all it helps knowing that my projects are online and that they can’t get permanantely removed or deleted – if I manage to avoid copyright issues that is. I believe Youtube was so successful because of it simplicity. It doesn’t require anything other than a few clicks on a mouse and some creativity and I don’t think it’s going anywhere soon. With Youtube success, other platforms have been created to hopes to take its crown such as Vimeo, VEVO, Hulu and Dailymotion – to name a small amount. Although many of these haven’t caught on enough to beat Youtube – many have working in collaboration with Youtube or have been used as an alternative to Youtube when not being able to find content such as full episodes of television shows or movies. They have also caught on the trend of making their websites accessible on mobiles, tablets and computers via apps as this is a simple and convinient method that most teenagers and young adults use.
A codec (shorted term for compressor-decompresser) have an important role within video media as they take digital data and compress them (for storage or tranport purposes) or they decompress them (for transcoding or viewing purposes). A ‘black box’ is then used to package, transport and present the required media by holding it together in one location. A quality container is able to contain files that have been compressed with a varied amount of codecs.
When uploading any content, it is essential to know the correct format the footage or audio needs to be in specific to that site otherwise it will not upload. Sites such as Youtube and Vimeo accept a video range of formats such as;
- MP4 (standard specified as a part of MPEG-4)
- FLV (Flash Video)
- AVI (Audio Video Interleaved)
- MOV (QuickTime multimedia)
- 3GP (format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project for 3G UMTS multimedia services)
- MKV (a free container format that holds an unlimited number of video, audio, picture, or subtitle tracks in one file
- MPEG (the Moving Picture Experts Group)
- WMV (Windows Media Video)
- SWF (Shockwave Flash)
– however, although all these formats are uploadable, it is stated by YouTube that uploading in MP4 will ensure highest quality. Another thing to consider when uploading any content onto social media is the aspect ratio. This is essentially the format of the height and width of the product in order to fit the size of the screen it will be viewed on ideally. The standard television/web content size is 4:3, whereas a widescreen product is in the 16:9 ratio range. For bigger productions such as content for cinema or theatre screens, it normally has a ratio aspect of 1:29.
As it all started off with a video tape, it shows how much technology has moved on as even a simple DVD is considered old now as everything is digital installed on apps you pay for monthly such as Netflix, LoveFilm, etc. and also on the web on channel specific catch up services such as 40D or BBC iPlayer or on illegal websites found through search engines. These are also made into apps so the public can access them at home or on the go via their phone or tablet through services such as SkyGo.
Advertised frequently on our televisions, there are many service providers fighting for the attention of the public as they become more popular due to have easy the services are to the public as they can receive their favourite movies in the click on a button. Mostly coming in monthly subscriptions, services such as SKY, Virgin Media, Apple TV are owned by big companies who offer an unlimited amount of television along with a selection of channels and on demand services built in are widely known and have broke through to become very popular within the last few years leaving only the minor population not owning one in their homes.
How technology has evolved is outstanding, to think that is started with a computer that required an 8 inch floppy disk in order to save content and now we only required a cloud to memorise- it is groundbreaking! Although I wasn’t around when telephones required two separate sections to hear and talk into, I am aware of how much technology has moved on and how much it was revolutionised our generation in order to make everything more simple and easier for the user. With the amount that is available to us on a daily basis, whether its in a public area or in our own homes, technology has gone above and beyond expectations and has broke boundaries with it’s compatibility and ease of access and it’s only 2014. It’s only the start.
Laura Reeves 
Very interesting read