Date sent: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 20:24:59 +0100 LIBRARY PICTURES - An essay by Michael Atherton Contents Introduction: New Technologies Converging Technologies Two-Way Transmission Interactive Television >From a Broadcast Model to a Library Model Viewer Editorial Control The Benefits to Broadcasters Conclusion: Future Trends Introduction: Current Technologies At present, practically all television programmes are distributed to consumers using one of four methods. By far the most common is traditional terrestrial broadcast radio and television signals. Using a series of transmitters feeding non-encrypted analogue signals to conventional receivers in the shape of TV aerials. In Britain, the bandwidth available to terrestrial broadcast technology has been previously limited by government regulation to four channels, although a fifth has recently been allocated. Despite this restriction, the four terrestrial channels currently provide much of the television we consume. The other transmission methods are via Microwave based analogue signals bounced off a direct broadcast satellite (such as BSkyB's Astra satellite), via Coaxial or Fibre- optic cable (i.e. cable television), or via pre-recorded videotape. Although technically a storage medium and not a broadcast one, videotape is an important method of distributing entertainment products because the large library of material available on videotape is independent of scheduling and broadcaster control. These four transmission systems are all currently available to some degree or other across the country and have been for some years. Each relies almost exclusively on an analogue signal. However, in the last few years a fifth transmission system has sprung up almost by accident as a by-product of the computer industry: transmission via telephone cable and modem. The exponential rise of the Internet as an information distribution medium has meant that the technology became available to send digitised pictures, sounds and eventually video. Video and audio data take up a lot of space, and without some means of compression the resulting files would be so huge it would be impractical to send even a few frames over a network. With the advent of compression utilities such as M-PEG it became possible to store full motion video, whilst the increased speed of modems, size of hard disks and available graphics memory on personal computers meant that it became possible to download M-PEG files via a modem across the Internet and play them on a monitor. During 1995, First Look Pictures’ 'Party Girl' had the dubious pleasure of becoming the first full length feature film to fully utilise this technology. Using a video-conferencing facility called Cu-See-Me, the film was screened simultaneously at the Seattle International Film Festival and over the Internet, where it was available as a black and white image. Simultaneously with the development of a digital broadcasting medium in the Internet, conventional broadcasters have also been examining the idea of digital transmission as a means to circumvent a different problem, that of High Definition Television. The translation of an analogue signal into a compressed digital one before transmission frees more than enough bandwidth to allow broadcasters to increase the broadcast quality from 625 line to over 1000 lines for a crisper, clearer picture on an even larger TV set. In fact, a digital signal sent as a data stream rather than an analogue wave has a number of advantages over conventional terrestrial broadcasts. It takes up such a narrow bandwidth that it should be possible to send ten channels over the bandwidth currently reserved for one, which would give terrestrial broadcasters in Britain between eighteen and thirty six new channels. Since satellite broadcasters and cable companies could also take advantage of the new format, up to five hundred channels might be possible in the near future. However, unlike computers conventional television sets can only receive an analogue signal. Either the consumer buys a new television or they must buy a converter to translate the digital signal into an analogue one. Digital broadcasting requires digital storage media and the development of the CD ROM data storage device for the computing industry has led a number of companies to experiment with Video CD technology as an alternative to VHS, such as the Phillips CDi. The main advantage of a digital storage medium over an analogue one is its clarity and durability compared to an analogue storage medium such as videotape. Converging Technologies The technologies discussed above already deliver products and services whose function is not primarily entertainment. Cable companies also supply telephone services, home shopping channels encouraging viewers to order by telephone or remote control keypad and even the standard terrestrial broadcasters offer a limited interactive news and listings service in Teletext. This process, in which hitherto separate products and services come to use the same techniques and technologies for their distribution, is called convergence. The term convergence is also used to describe the alliances beginning to form between the telecommunications, computer, entertainment media, retail and banking industries. Many people working in these industries envisage a future in which all electronic products and services used by a household are delivered by the same means over the same network. One technology should be able to supply entertainment media, video games (including multi-player games), audio and video phone, Internet access, voice and text mail, home tuition, home shopping and financial services. The technology used would need to carry digital signals, offer a very wide bandwidth and allow two-way transmission. Two-Way Transmission The initial impact of a digital network is likely to be in an expansion of currently available channels, together with a better degree of image quality as previously discussed. When BSkyB switches to digital broadcasting in 1996, it is estimated that a further two hundred channels will become available. Although some of these will carry channels similar to those we already receive, such as Granada's classic's channel modelled on the successful repeats channel UK Gold, others may offer a limited degree of perceived interactivity and viewer control. British Telecom hoped to market an interactive service using the conventional copper wire telecommunications technology. However, the Government White Paper of 1991, 'Competition and Choice: Telecommunications Policy for the 1990's' effectively forbade BT from investing in a high quality fibre optic cable service for ten years, to allow Britain's newly emerging cable TV companies to become established. As a result, BT recently began their own test project involving nearly 2,500 households in Ipswich and Colchester, who will be offered over 600 hours of TV programmes, 400 hours of films and 200 hours of music. The technology uses Bell Atlantic's Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Loop delivery system which splits the signal over a conventional telephone line so that information can pass both ways, allowing BT to deliver its service over its own existing copper wire telephone network. The BT service offers the possibilities of more than just what has been termed Video On Demand. It is hoped that in time the set-top box will be able to provide real time video conferencing as an alternative to BT's own videophone, will allow users to interact with the Internet and provide a whole string of services like video banking, holiday booking and home shopping. Interactive Television Unlike telephoning or using the Internet, watching television has traditionally been thought of as a passive activity. The viewer chooses from the programmes on offer and then settles back to be entertained. When BSkyB launched its Fasttext and Infotext services in 1995 they made ingenious use of the telephone and the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) to offer unparalleled viewer interaction. It became possible to play along with TV quiz shows and win prizes along with the contestants, a gimmick where the viewer is not merely viewing or selecting but responding in a very real way. In the field of computer games, two-way interaction means that a number of players can all play the same computer game over the fibre optic network, allowing for multi-player games previously only possible with either a large financial investment or access to multiple, connected machines. Scottish TV's 'T.I.G.S.' programme for Children's ITV may just be the tip of the iceberg, allowing one or two viewers who have dialled the programme to actually play fully interactive games live on TV by keying in responses using the telephone numberpad. In education, interactive television could bring the classroom to the home, by providing interactive, multimedia services - particularly when combined with the computing capabilities of the digital set-top box, which could easily offer a range of educational software to complement broadcast audio-visual material. >From a Broadcast Model to a Library Model At present, most viewers can choose between the programmes broadcast at the time they turn on the television, or a visit to their local video shop. The only mechanism for extending viewer choice is the creation of new broadcast channels. However, pilot projects such as that run by On Line Media in Cambridge extend viewer choice in a different way. Households involved in these projects do not tune in to broadcasts, but instead select from a range of centrally-stored programmes. This change from a broadcasting model to a library model of distribution has two major effects. Firstly, the potential for extending viewer choice is much greater than is possible with a broadcast model of distribution. A viewer with access to a hundred broadcast channels can still only choose between the hundred programmes broadcast at any given time. The video player can be used to give a little more flexibility, but choice is still largely restricted by scheduling. With a library model of distribution, all surviving television and film could, in theory, be made available to the viewer. However, in the short term, popularist material is bound to dominate any Video-On-Demand service, but in the long term the library model may grow to resemble public lending libraries. The entire back-catalogue of film and television may one day be available to the home viewer. This in turn would bring about the second major change, the reduction of importance of scheduling itself. Viewer Editorial Control A few television companies have experimented with offering viewers some measure of control over the direction (or more usually, the conclusion) of storylines. This has usually taken the form of inviting viewers to vote on which one of several prepared endings to a story will be screened. In Britain, TV executives have been slow to exploit this gimmick - despite regularly shooting alternative endings to storylines, the producers of Granada's 'Coronation Street' have yet to let the viewers decide which one will be shown. Of course, with a library method of distribution, there would be no need to vote since each viewer could have the alternative ending they selected, although this would obviously be impractical when dealing with a long running soap opera. The Benefits to Broadcasters Of course, viewers already exert some degree of editorial control over their favourite programmes simply by watching them or by turning them off, and one of the developments of a two-way transmission system would be in enabling a much quicker and more accurate audience profile to be drawn up. No longer would a control group be instrumental in determining ratings for a particular programme. With interactivity, we would all have a say. The most immediate benefits to broadcasters alone would be financial ones. It is impossible to set up a library without having something on the shelves. The library system could become a great new area of revenue for traditional broadcasters with an extensive and popular back catalogue. To programme makers, these benefits may be less immediate. In fact, they may not be benefits at all. The dramatic increase in the number of channels, rather than providing an exponential increase in the demand for new product may instead merely reduce the money available for new production. At present in Britain, most of the material screened on both cable and satellite TV is originated elsewhere. It is much cheaper and easier to simply repackage and bundle together material from other sources. Cable companies operate much more as service providers than as broadcasters, and it is likely that they would continue operating in this manner once interactive television is an actuality rather than just a few pilot projects. Only BT has the financial reserves necessary to invest in their own production department, something they have as yet shown no intention of doing. In the long term, it may be possible for programme makers to side-step the traditional broadcasters entirely and market their products purely on the shelves of companies providing Video-On-Demand, rather like ‘straight to video’ films which never get a theatrical release. This might become the ultimate extension of producer choice, with producers manufacturing product and then finding a market for it rather than taking part in the whimsical commissioning process of the major TV broadcast networks. Conclusion: Future Trends For what seems like a few scant decades, watching television was at once a universal pastime and, to a remarkable extent, a shared experience. The recent proliferation of channels can be said to have already eroded this sense of unity; a library model would destroy it completely. Until the set-top box, interactive television and access to the information superhighway become ubiquitous, they will almost certainly be seen as purely another luxury. Digital television and the chance to participate in live game shows will appeal to the same people who purchased BSkyB satellite dishes, if only because this is the most likely service to be provided digitally for at least the time being. If that shift were somehow to take place, however, making set-top boxes a necessity rather than a luxury, then the net result would be a nation capable of interacting with their media, with broadcasters, with libraries of information, whether they be films, TV programmes or databases and bulletin boards. This is the future predicted by such ‘visionaries’ as Virginia Bottomley and Bill Gates. It is with the wholesale and widespread introduction of these technologies that change truly occurs, a change that the television industry may not be ready for when it does. An open system provides unparalleled opportunities for independent producers and minority programmers to find an audience. Yet in a truly open, library model of distribution the audience must find you. The relationship between viewer and programme maker changes. The criticism often made against the increase of choice is that it more often than not isn't an increase in choice at all. Five hundred channels is likely to mean five hundred channels of the same TV programmes and films which will also be available on the Video-On-Demand service and the local video shop. To make the entertainment revolution happen, service providers will have to find services to provide and that means, in the long run, new product. New product means new programmes and employment for people who make them. New methods of distribution will lead to new methods of raising revenue for programmes. Replacing traditional broadcasting networks with programme libraries, together with a variable rate of Pay-Per-View scaled at an affordable level could net a substantial sum for programme makers willing to adapt in the new environment. Imagine 15 million viewers of Coronation Street each paying 20p to watch an episode, raising £3 million every episode, split between programme makers, signal carriers and service providers. Those broadcasters who can begin to think of themselves as programme makers will be best placed to take maximum advantage of the changes about to occur throughout the global television industry. Virginia Bottomley correctly pointed out that we in Britain have one major advantage over the rest of the world in that we speak English, the language of the information revolution. However, traditional broadcasters and programme makers in Britain must look to the future and decide how to best take advantage of the changes taking place across all the converging industries. Otherwise we may not find ourselves answering the question of whether television can embrace the information revolution, but whether the information revolution can embrace television. Bibliography BANK, D. 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