Thursday, 8 November 2012

My essay Understand principles of digital video technology in interactive media

so for part of our assignment we had to write an essay:

"Understand principles of digital video technology in interactive media"

Here is my essay:


Understand principals of digital video technology in interactive media(essay structure)

“Social media has dramatically changed the world, and whilst you can lock down and censor, if you like, the venues, it is hard to lock down and censor and prevent things from happening in social media”
David Jones

When social websites such as Facebook, twitter and YouTube came about. More people have been able to broadcast themselves and report news/opinions and about their lives, this has also made it difficult for governments to hide certain parts of things like wars when anyone can upload videos of the whole story, whereas before the internet people would watch the news or read about it and they had to believe it and they couldn’t show there opinion on the facts, but now with sites like twitter and Facebook millions of people can give their views/opinions on the stories that are in the news, so censorship used to be easy to control as big companies where the only people able to have the power to broadcast what they wanted and they were able to hide what they want. But now with the internet it’s extremely difficult if not impossible to censor anything that is put on there as millions of people could put the same video on the internet and it would be practically impossible to do anything about it.


The revolution of interactive media has changed the world over the years making it easier for people to find things on the internet and also upload and comment on certain things to help show there opinion, but the revolution of interactive media hasn’t just made it easier for people to comment or see something but they have also connected people and brought people together this can be shown in the china earthquake in 2008, on YouTube people were able to record and upload to YouTube to show people all around the world what was happening and also report on what was going on almost minute by minute and this also encouraged people to go to china and help people. There are also more and more ways for people to see these opinions and videos through different platforms such as:
·         DVD’s
·         Smart phones (iPhone iPod iPad)
·         Email (this could be accessed through a mobile device or a computer)
·         CD’s
·         Mobile devices (blackberry, android device)
·         The internet
·         Presentations

My personal experience of video technology on YouTube:
When I started doing YouTube and uploading videos I was able to find out about how I can upload and all the different formats I can upload In, here are a few:
·         Mp4(mpeg4)
·         Avi
·         Flv
·         Wmv
·         .swf
·         .mov
·         Mpg
·         3GP

With all of these options to upload in people can also edit/render the footage now to make it upload in different resolutions and whether or not it is in HD or not so people can upload in 720p here is a difference in 720p and 360p:

720p clip:

360p clip:
Clearly you will be able to see that the quality in both the videos is different as the 360p clip is more blurry whereas the 720p clip is clearer, but the difference in uploading in 720p and 360p is the fact that the file size is very different, both of these clips where uploaded in mp4, but a 24 minute video rendered in HD at 720p would be around 1gb in size where as if a 24 minute video was rendered in 320p the size would be around 500mb. But usually people will upload in any resolution if they just want to get an opinion across or if they want to show something that’s happening.

When hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of America people where uploading footage of what damage the storm was doing, such as ABC news, as well as being able to broadcast it over the TV they have footage put up on YouTube about hurricane Sandy and also a video on the aftermath of Sandy:

People putting this footage up is also good for people in other countries as in places like the UK we aren’t able to get American TV and the American channels so YouTube and other sites are able to put these videos up so people can see them worldwide


There are also many types of software that people can use to record their screen on pc and also there is recording hardware such as:
·         Webcam
·         Video camera’s
·         Capture devices
·         Screen cap softwares
·         Mobile Phones

This gives people a chance to record videos and upload them to different sites such as YouTube, Whereas before the internet people couldn’t upload there videos to anywhere they would’ve had to go through big companies to even have a chance of getting people to see their videos, so the technology that is around the world now is making it cheaper and easier for people to upload and record and if video technology keeps growing then it’s only going to become easier to record upload and share videos with people close to them and from the other side of the world.

When people have this footage on their computer then there are different ways in which you can watch them, through different softwares such as:
·         Windows media player
·         VLC media player
·         DivX
·         Real Media
·         QuickTime
·         Flash Player

And with certain videos they can be at different frame rates, the frame rate that looks smooth to the human eye is 24.97fps and usually you can tell the difference when the fps is higher you are able to see that it runs smoother.

Here is a comparison video of 30fps and 60fps:

It won’t matter if you record at 30fps or 60fps your file size will be exactly the same, it’s actually to do with your bitrate:

Download rate:
Download rate isn’t just by a file(progressive) but it can also be about streaming download where people can live stream to the internet and your pc will download the video as you are watching it so you are able to watch something that is live whereas something like a YouTube video is a progressive download where it will stop downloading when it is fully downloaded.

Where you can watch live streams(streaming download):

where you can watch videos which will download progressively:


Bitrate is just like download speed so it can be measured in:
·         Bps
·         Kbps
·         Mbps

Bitrate will change how quickly a video loads from a site, and also the quality of the video, but the video can also have the quality changed because of the resolution that it’s recorded in as well but it can also be used in audio as well as video because if the audio file is compressed at a lower bit rate then it won’t sound as good compared to an audio file compressed at a higher bitrate.

Definition of Bitrate:
“The number of bits per second that can be transmitted along a digital network”


Also with how social websites and YouTube can also connect people together, I have been able to talk to people from all around the world just because they have seen the videos I have uploaded and we’ve been able to talk over Skype, Skype is also something that has connected people together, for them to talk to each other and also get to meet new people


A video example of the social media revolution in 2011:

“We don’t have a choice whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it”
-Erik Qualman

With all the technology around us it is difficult for people not to be involved in the social media revolution or the interactive media revolution with technology like IOS devices, android phones and tablets more people can connect with each other through social media, it’s just a fact on how people will do it, as you can post comments on videos, talk to people on a social networking site, tweet what your doing, looking at other tweets, sending people tweets, so Erik Qualman is right on it’s how well we DO social media as it’s extremely difficult to not to do it.

“YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world”

“In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth”

This is from the YouTube press statistics page and that was from 2011 this year YouTube has just grown more and is growing more and more each year, so it is understandable that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world when they got over 1 trillion views last year, and the videos on YouTube are also watched on social websites such as twitter and Facebook and the videos can be shared to Facebook and Twitter as well.

The timeline of YouTube, this Is a good example on how you can present interactive media and how much videos have changed over the years, and how much technology has changed so you are now able to record and upload:

Advertisements are also on YouTube videos now, and this will help businesses/companies to show people what they do in a small amount of time and this also helps promotes a business, and people who upload to YouTube will also get paid for people clicking on these advertisements, and companies pay to have their ads shown on videos.

To summarize:
There is more and more technology becoming available to the general public and its making it easier for anyone to become a reporter as they are able to upload to the internet easily and to share their opinions to the internet and the world, and in the future if everything keeps going with technology then it’s only going to get easier and more people will be able to connect, share their opinion and upload to the internet, it will also become harder for companies to hide certain things from the public as it will only be posted on the internet as it happens


A video example of the social media revolution in 2012:




More sites on the internet have made it possible for people to connect, talk and share opinions with sites such as:
·         Google+
·         Twitter
·         Facebook
·         Bebo
·         Msn
·         Myspace
·         Formspring
And there are more than just those sites as well, so people are able to connect with other people from around the world or even close to them easily.







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