digital convergence
learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to
define the notion of multimedia,
recount the history of digital entertainment,
explain the concept of digital convergence,
discuss the future of cyberspace, and
speculate about the commercial viability of mobile multimedia.
We live in the digital era, [Negroponte (1995)].
We are surrounding ourselves with gadgets and we are consuming immense amounts of information, that is increasingly being delivered to us via the Internet. We play games, and we still watch (too much) television.
Some of us watch televion on our PCs, and may be even looking forward to watch television on their mobile phone.
This is multimedia.
For others, the PC is still a programmable machine. Being able to program it might earn you a living. Understanding multimedia, however, might even provide you with a better living.
In this chapter, we study what trends may currently be observed in the
creation and delivery of multimedia information, and we explore what impact the digital revolution may have from a commercial perspective.
levels of meaning
- actionary level -- action and movements
- sensory/iconic level -- images and impressions
- symbolic level -- language and mathematics
cultural convergence
The cultural convergence of art, science, and technology
provides ample opportunity for artists to challenge
the very notion of how art is produced and
to call into question its subject matter and its function in society.
standardization and uniformity
- Telematic media were incorporated very quickly in the
globalization strategies of transnational corporations and their political
administrators and they became increasingly dependent on existing power
structures.
- At the other end of the scale, there were individuals, or comparatively small groups,
who projected great hopes onto these networks as a testing ground for cultural,
artistic and political models that would give greater prominence
and weight to divergence and plurality.
Scientific American (november 2000)
The barriers
between TV, movies, music, videogames and the Internet are crumbling.
Audiences are fetting new creative options.
Here is what entertainment could become if the technological and legal hurdles can be cleared ...
Underlying the importance of entertainment in the era
of digital convergence is the premisse governing
an entertainment economy, which may be stated as
there is no business without show business
evolution of digital entertainment
- 1953: Winky Dink (CBS) -- interactive television, drawing exercise
- 1972: Pong (Atari) -- ping-pong on computer screen
- 1977: Adventure -- text-based interactive fiction
- 1983: Dragon's Liar -- laser-disc technology 3D game
- 1989: SimCity -- interactive simulation game
- 1989: Back to the Future -- the Ride
- 1993: Doom -- 3D action game
- 1995: The Spot -- interactive web-based soap opera (Webisodic)
- 1999: IMAX3D -- back to Atlantis (Las Vegas)
- 2000: Big Brother -- TV + around the clock Web watch + voting
- 2001: FE Sites -- fun enhanced web sites
experience is fundamental to human life
The desire to share experiences
will be the motivating factor in the development of exciting multimedia technology in the foreseeable future.
communication technology
- oral -- communicate symbolic experiences
- writing -- record symbolic experiences
- paper -- portability
- print -- mass distribution
- telegraph -- remote narrow communication
- telephone -- remote analog communication
- radio -- analog broadcasting of sound
- television -- analog A/V broadcasting
- recording media -- analog recording
- digital processing -- machine enhancement
- internet -- multimedia communication
the medium was the message when only one medium could be used to communicate messages.
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| VR for pain relief | image delivery system |
... cyberspace is a construct in terms of an electronic system.
cyberspace
television, video cassettes, video tape-recorder/players, video games, and personal computers all form an
encompassing electronic system whose various forms interface to constitute an alternative and absolute world
that uniquely incorporates the spectator/user in a spatially decentered, weakly temporalized and
quasi-disembodied state.
virtual reality
virtual reality (is) when and where the computer disappears and you become the 'ghost in the machine' ...
history
the receiver at the RCA Pavillon was way ahead of its time, it was a combination of television - radio - recorder - playback - facsimile - projector ...
digital convergence
the union of audio, video and data communication into a single source, received on a single device, delivered by a single connection
subsidiary convergences
- content -- audio, video, data
- platform -- PC, TV, internet, game machine
- distribution -- how it gets to your platform
convergence
- content -- 2D/3D graphics, data, video, audio
- distribution -- broadcast, wireless, DVD, internet, satelite, cable
- platform -- PC, television, game machine, wireless data pad, mobile phone
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| exposition on the history of TV in Institute for Time-based Arts/Montevideo |
acronyms
- HDTV -- high definition television
- SDTV -- standard definition television
- ITV -- interactive television
a killer d-TV appliance ...
- personal television -- TiVo, Replay-TV (MPEG-2 cache)
- game machine -- Sony PS 2/3, X-Box
TV or PC
The roadblock to the Entertainment PC could be the PC itself. Even a cheap TV doesn't crash or freeze. The best computers still do.
distribution
- telephone network -- from 0.5 - 2 Mbps to 60 Mpbs (2.5km)
- broadcast TV -- 6 MHz / 19 Mbps (4 channels MPEG HDTV)
- cable TV -- hybrid fiber-optic coaxial cable 6 Mbps
- fixed wireless -- 2 Mbps (radiotowers + rooftop antenna), phones/handhelds
- satellite -- downloads to 100kbps, modem for uploads ...
digital convergence
what will we do with convergence once we have it?
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| Berkeley mesh | San Francisco view | augmented terrain map |
Google Earth
media as materials
each medium of communication tended to create a dangerous monopoly of knowledge
technological determinism
technological determinism was not the answer,
...
more attempts were to be made to provide answers about the social consequences of television than
had ever been asked about radio.
information
Information became a major concern anywhere during the late 1960 and 1970s where there was simultaneous
talk both of 'lack of information' and 'information saturation'.
[Briggs and Burke (2001)], p. 555
Peter Greven 23/3/2001 (Volkskrant)
new media sucks
--
people like new technology.
they don't like new media.
www.tvmeetstheweb.com
streaming media (audio and video), interactive gaming, virtual reality and 3D animation, interactive TV programming, interactive advertising, video on-demand, webcasting and multimedia
strategic questions
- how quickly will wireless connectivity speeds improve?
- what is the demand for services that deliver music and video to wireless devices?
- how can suppliers of multimedia services monetize demand for wireless access?
- how much will it cost to stream multimedia content to wireless devices now and in 2006?
- are consumers willing to compromise quality for lower cost?
the players
Alltel, AT&T Wireless, AtomShockwave, Cingular Wireless, Clear Channel, HitHive, Ifilm, Infinity, KDDI, Liquid Audio, LMIV, Mannesmann, MP3.com, MTV, NetCom, Myplay, Nortel Networks, NTT DoCoMo, Omnitel, Sprint, Telefonica, Telstra, Vitaminic, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Megastores, Vodafone, Voicestream.
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| Vasulka Objects (1) | Vasulka Objects (2) |
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| (a) personal events | (b) gadgets |
functions of media
information, education, entertainment
medium
television is a medium 'because it is neither rare nor well done'
information society
the new term 'information society' gave form to a cluster of hitherto more loosely related aspects of
communication -- knowledge, news, literature, entertainment, all exchanged through different media and different
media materials -- paper, ink, canvas, paint, celluloid, cinema, radio, television and computers.
From the 1960s onwards, all messages, public and private, verbal and visual, began to be considered as 'data',
information that could be transmitted, collected, recorded, whatever their point of origin, most effective through
electronic technology.
communication
- what -- content
- who -- control
- whom -- audience (how many)
第二生命
Second Life seems to be overtaking the world.
In the whole range of cummunity-building platforms, Second Life stands out
as an immersive 3D world with an almost stunning adoption, by both individuals,
companies and institutions, followed attentively by the Press.
Not entirely without an understanding of the value of press coverage,
the VU University Amsterdam decided to create presence in Second Life, by
creating a virtual campus, to realize a (virtual) community of learners, [Eliens et al. (2007)].
And, indeed, we succeeded in being the first university in The Netherlands with
presence in Second Life and, as hoped, this was covered in the 8 o'clock nation-wide TV
news.
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| (a) visitors outside | (b) visitors inside |
success factors (1/2)
- convergence of social networking and content creation
- immersive networked 3D environment
- inclusion of elementary economic principles
success factors (2/2)
- don't miss the boat effect
- free and easy accessible 3D design tool set
- adoption by big companies like IBM, Reebok, ...
- marketing of Second Life by Linden Lab (?)
- the promise to make (real) money (?)
reference model
- rules -- construct and communicate!
- outcome -- a second world
- value -- virtual and real (monetary) rewards
- effort -- requires elementary skills
- attachment -- a virtual identity
- consequences -- transfer to first life
critical theory
attempt(s) to link the arts, literature, media studies, politics,
sociology, antropology, philosophy and technology in an interdisciplinary
search for relevant concepts and frameworks with which to understand the current world.
contemporary perception(s)
... in the contemporary world, the perceptual task has changed,
in both leisure and work, to monitor data displays, ready for events.
californian dream(s)
... the new faith has emerged from a bizarre fusion of the cultural bohemianism
of San Francisco with the high-tech industries of Silocon Valley...
and, to further de-construct the digital utopianism:
... the californian ideology promiscuously combines the freewheeling spirit
of the hippies and the entrepeneurial zeal of of the yuppies
digital class
... the shadow side of the digital class's freedom
and individuality is a lack of connection ... and an unrealized
acceptance of work as the main life value.
cyberfeminism(s)
... empowerment of women in the field
of new electronic media can only result from the demystification of
technology and the appropriation of access to (these) tools.
concepts
technology
projects & further reading
As a project, consider
the development of a Java-based mobile game
using J2ME, see [Morrison (2005)],
or a web-based game using Visual Basic .NET,
see [Santos Lobao and Hatton (2003)].
You may further explore
multiplatform game development,
and find arguments to choose for either Java-based or managed code
based implementations.
For further reading, I advice to have a look
at the special issues of the Scientific American, [American],
and the CACM on the next 1000 years of computing, [CACM (2001)],
and, for getting an idea where this all leads to,
Schneidermann's Leonardo's laptop, [Shneiderman (2003)].
For Second Life, see [Rymaszweski et al. (2007)].
- photographs of art works by Marina Abramovic,
Art must be beautiful,
Blue period,
Dissolution,
Dozing consciousness,
In between,
with (pending) permission
from Montevideo.
See also section 10.2.
- medium,
according to the Visual Thesaurus.
- fMRI Research on Virtual Reality Analgesia, see section 1.1.
- television and communication, according to the Visual Thesaurus.
- TV Today, exhibition at Montevideo, februari 2005.
- visible world -- taken from [Rosenblum and Macedonia (2002)], see section 1.2.
- personal event database and personal gadgets,
from Freeband project.
- Thomas Lips 1975, Thomas Lips 1993, from Marina Abramovic, with permission from Montevideo.
- scanlines from
Woody Vasulka,
197x, with permission from the artist.
- VU @ SecondLife, taken from [Eliens et al. (2007)].
- signs -- people, [ van Rooijen (2003)], p. 254, 256.
