The Birth and Evolution of Internet TV

Did you know that the birth of Internet TV can be traced back more than 100 years ago? Incredibly enough, back in 1900, a man called Nikola Tesla had a vision in which he predicted that radio frequency could be used to show people moving images and pictures. This, he predicted, would make information valuable as well democratic.

The First Ancestor of Internet TV
His vision came true almost half a century later in 1939 when TV was broadcasted on radio channels. The 12 VHF channel on radio was primarily used to show TV or moving images which was the predecessor of Internet TV as we know it today.

The Next Stage of Internet TV
It took almost 30 years for the next stage of evolution which resulted in Internet TV. Cable TV was born in 1965 in the US but it took a few years longer to reach other countries around the planet. Cable TV allowed viewers to select more channels with better picture quality. However, in a shorter span of only 15 years, satellite TV was beamed to the common man’s personal TVs in 1980. The real revolution occurred a mere decade and a half later when Internet TV became feasible in 1995.

Internet TV as We Know It
In a real departure from its predecessors, Internet TV allows broadcasters to select the content being shown to viewers. Century-old concept of time slots, prime time, channels, etc was turned on its head with the arrival of Internet TV.

Hollywood and internet television

Hollywood enters online televisions market providing their own channel and the agreement has been intermediated by the ex executive of Walt Disney, Michael Eisner, according to the site Financial Times. The internet television operator Veoh, where Michael Eisner owns an important percent of shares has drawn an agreement with one of the biggest agencies seeking for talents Talent Agency (UTA), which represents actors like Johnny Depp, Ben Stiller and Harrison Ford.

The television channel, which will be created especially out of advertising, will introduce new talents and will try to discover the next Hollywood star. The channel will allow all the Veoh users to send and watch video content, like You Tube platform, owned by the internet giant Google.

The founders of internet telephone system Skype have announced as well that the program called Joost will be released. It is the first high quality service on the internet according to the site bbcnews.com.

PTV (Internet Protocol Television – television via internet) is a television service via broadband (broadband internet), instead of satellite, cable, or terrestrial network. Programs are loaded through the internet and the user receives two options to access them: live digital television (access to live programs) and Video on Demand (VoD).

These services will be released even in developing countries in approximately one or two years. Internet television will not be a secret anymore for anybody and it is a reliable source of entertainment and information as long as you are able to be selective and you have previous education concerning high quality programs.

What is IPTV?

IPTV or IP Television means transmitting TV signals with high quality of image and sound, via IP internet protocols, directly on the television screen. IPTV is not the same thing with television broadcast via internet. IPTV is currently used by great telecommunications companies in the world and it has been a real boom lately. This new experience in the domain of audiovisual systems is broadcast via broadband connection directly to the customers’ televisions, through a Set Top Box (not a computer). The technical term “lean-back” is used for IPTV compared to “lean-forward” technology involved by using a computer to watch TV programs on the internet.

What technologies are involved? MPEG-2 is the most popular system of video coding (codec) used in the TV, but it is not the most efficient in the case of IPTV. The services used currently have proved that MPEG-2 can be used successfully in broadband transmissions. Some IPTV service providers take into consideration the new standard MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and the new standard Windows Media Video 9 of Microsoft, which can reduce consistently band requirements, thus allowing IPTV systems to transport more channels in standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD).

IPTV service is provided to customers on broadband connection and a Set Top Box (STB), and the services provided are accessed directly on the television screen, not the monitor connected to a computer. STB functions like a web browser and the television channels are accessed through its special functions. Anyway, this information can be useful in order to make the difference between internet television and IPTV.

What Factors Facilitate Internet Transmission Via Satellite Using VSAT Technology

For those who are interested in techies here are some interesting details about internet television via satellite. Communication via satellite is possible because the satellite is fixed onto an orbit at a distance of 37,500 km above the equator (approximately) and i twill stick to this position wherever transmission is performed. This aspect will allow the satellite antenna two ways that emits and receives signals to align on the wave (spot) of the satellite and to stick to a fixed position.

Through broadcast via radio, those who handle satellite programming transmit signals to a proper satellite owned by a space channel. Often signals which are emitted or received do not reach the destination without being interrupted or disturbed, in order to prevent unauthorized reception of signals before re-transmitting them to a satellite antenna based on the ground.The signals transmitted are received by a transponder, which can be found even on the satellite, a device that receives signals and sends them back to Earth after it switches them to a frequency, which can be received by a satellite antenna fixed at the ground level.There are usually 24 to 32 transponder systems on each satellite.

On the purpose to reduce to minimum the interference between transponder systems, signals are transmitted alternatively through some polarized antennas.Each satellite occupies a fixed position, which is well determined on the orbit and it functions on a specific frequency distributed by FCC.You can find more details in this matter if you access a specific site and ask experts to explain you what you do not understand.

Matsushita and Google mix their forces in the domain of internet TV

The Japanese electronics company Matsushita has started to work with Google in order to create a television, which can be connected to the internet and able to broadcast content like photos or video files, to the delight of more and more internet users. The television, which will be released in the USA this spring, will allow users connect to the internet directly and watch videos on You Tube site, which is specialized in posting videos directly by users. The Japanese company has added that they have not fixed yet a date for the global release of this product.

Cooperation between Panasonic, YouTube, and Picasa Web Albums materializes their wish to be considered among the leaders of the natural evolution of the internet, extending it to the sector of high definition television. The contract signed with Google is not one of exclusivity, has declared the representative of Matsushita, Akira Kadota.

Matsushita, the main producer in the world of televisions based on plasma, have declared that they will take over the control of a company with mixed capital, specialized in the production of LCD type displays, being able to build up one more production location and marking a major change of strategy concerning the market of flat televisions, according to Reuters.

Matsushita has invested aggressively up to now in the plasma displays sector, believing that this technology is the most efficient concerning screens with the diagonal bigger than 37 inches (94 centimeters), though preferring LCD technology for smaller screens, based on liquid crystals.

Your Own Internet Television

You have to admit that You Tube has become to lose popularity. Besides, it does not have any live programs. Web 2.0 generation has introduced something new: operator11.With one or more web cams, a microphone and a decent connection to the internet you can become a real producer, director or live television showman. It is an online application, which is extremely friendly and accessible.

All you have to do is to create an account on the site http://operator11.com (which does not take you more than five minutes) and then click on the big, green button where you can read, “launch your show. »You have three options. “NetCast from the Studio”, “Quick NetCast”and «Upload a Video”, upload a video like on YouTube. You have chosen the first one. You have chosen the title of the episode, you have described it briefly, you have introduced it in a category (music, news, entertainment etc.), and you have uploaded a photo, which can be the logo of the program.

You have only to decide if you start your live show that very moment or you program it at a specific time and date.It is a great thing if your show becomes popular and people want to find it online at any time. If you want to have audience, you can invite all your friends in the list. If you start the show immediately in a few seconds, you can see a window providing the situation and the adjustment for the program you want to broadcast.

Just imagine…

Just imagine that you watch an episode in the archive of the internet of the series « Desperate Wives » and click on Eva Longoria’s jumper. A single click can let you know the name of the designer, which appears together with a code of information, which allows you add that item of clothing to a shopping basket, and buy it after watching the film. Popular TV series generate a significant income by placing products in shows, but up to now, no viewer could buy clothes or get information about a new car without long research. Now, with a mouse click you can buy a jumper like the one belonging to Eva Longoria in “Desperate Wives” and it can be delivered at home in a few days.

Broad Ramp will release and demonstrate this new e-commerce platform, video integrated, that Nakagawa has called an amazing high definition video solution, on the occasion of the conference next MEDIA on 8 -10 June, in Banff, Canada.

Video e-commerce of Broad Ramp offers new levels of information and interactivity for placing products without interrupting TV online entertainment of the user. For example if a car producer offers the newest cars to a popular TV show, the video e-commerce platform Broad Ramp can allow the interested user interact with that model in order to help him in his purchase decision. Clicking on the car, somebody can find out the dealers address, the availability of the car, its color and financing options, said Sean Darwish, chief technology officer of Broad Ramp.

Internet Television Warning

A recent survey conducted on 707 families with one child by a group of American researchers and published in the magazine „Science” has proved that time spent on the internet is closely related to later aggressive behavior, especially for the age interval 16 – 22 years. Similar remarks are made in France by the Kriegel report, which states that there are effects of internet television violence upon children, young people, and adults. This effect is proportional with the time spent online. You can frequently read press news stating that a teenager hangs himself according to a model seen on the internet; a 13-year-old boy stabs lethally his little sister, 6 years old after watching a horror movie online.

Another teenager attacks a petrol station following instructions taken from the internet. Besides, an 18-year-old boy rapes a 7-year-old girl, and then he declares innocently that he saw a similar scene on the internet television. If a child only watches violent programs, they will make him switch from normal to pathologic. Therefore, internet television owners, who have been able to do so many improvements in order to obtain success, can do some magic and prohibit such programs if children or people who are not stable from the psychical point of view access them.

If you really want to live in a healthy world, before releasing a new internet television, you must think of the target audience very well, in order not to trigger unwanted consequences, which can make you regret your initiative. After all, internet television owners are humans too…

Internet Television And Moral Values

Some programs on internet televisions claim to be natural, therefore people involved in them use a vulgar vocabulary; a tone which can hardly be considered civilized and even a grotesque style. Moral values like decency, discretion, elegance, delicacy, frailty, tenderness, solidarity are sometimes considered ridiculous and they are replaced with the cult of reaching success.

Nowadays, internet television owners want to be considered winners, but they do not think at all of the methods they use. They may use physical force, they may use guns, and they may use cunning, cynical selfishness or aggressive craft. For example, there are some popular programs on internet televisions and on traditional televisions as well, like “Big Brother” which is based on breaking intimacy, on treating people like human Guinea pigs. Such programs are extremely successful, but they are not moral!Internet television has the tendency to distort feelings, humor or competition, as long as there are some interactive programs which are created with and for people having a low cultural level. We do not say that entertainment is not necessary or that each individual must be a fan of Dostoyevsky or Kafka!

The problem is that internet television. especially can influence human behavior. It can model beliefs, as long as viewers may identify themselves with the characters they see and they sometimes adapt these representations to their everyday life. We all enjoy technical progress and we are happy that internet television is a new opportunity, but we must be selective and help our children understand it too.

Internet Television Statistics

Internet television researchers have started from the elementary hypothesis that online television can attract more viewers than newspapers’ readers. In order to watch a new video, people give up to other activities related to family, church, school, friends or books. Internet television is nowadays the most active modeler of attitudes and mentalities.

Most of the people do not read any newspapers and for them online television is the only source of information. To continue with, 95% of high school students watch internet television every day, and out them only 8.7% read something every day. Therefore, internet television owns a de facto monopoly upon modeling the mind of a very important part of the population. Furthermore, if we highlight the diversity of entertainment programs and their content, one can say that sometimes internet television eliminates pertinent information, which is necessary to any adult. Actually, statistics as well have provided the result according to which young people spend on average 175 minutes in front of the computer screen per day, whereas adults, 240 minutes, only for entertainment purposes.Under such circumstances, people in general, not only young ones, need guidance concerning internet television programs.

The bad news is that in prime time violence covers 90% of the programs. On the other hand, if there is no violence, sometimes people are provided cheap humor and low quality music. Statistics conclude too that this low quality music is highly appreciated by 40% of high school students. Such music can be described as rhythm mixed with sexual connotations. Therefore, it is high time internet televisions thought of quality first, and then of profit.

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