TV AND RADIO
TV HARDWARE
· Wide-screen TV is naturally
pleasing to the eye
Wide-screen television, based on the proportions of the cinema screen, could be the format of the future. Wide-screen technology is being developed with high definition television (HDTV) and digital transmission in mind because it produces high-quality sound and pictures. Instead of the conventional TV have a ratio of 16/9, which is more pleasing to watch as it enhances the eye’s natural preference to scan across horizontal spaces.
· LEP technology will result
in thinner screens
Technology developed at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, UK, is being used to enhance the color from TVs resulting in thinner, lighter screens. Cambridge Display Technology has joined forces with Japan’s Seiko-Kpson Corporation to devise a new system which uses Light Emitting Plastic (LEP) technology.
· 360º television is flat any
way you want to look at it
California-based ESP Electronics has developed a 360º television which viewers see as a flat image wherever they sit. The Television works by spinning the image around a drum at a speed which can be frozen by the human eye. It can display all television formats and can even be used as a computer monitor. Only 1,000 limited edition sets have been produced, set in casing designed by Frank Gehry, the architect of the new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.
TV SYSTEMS
· MED- TV broadcasting
to the Kurdish people
MED-TV is the world’s first and only Kurdish television station, delivering 18 hours of broadcasting to a potential audience of 30 million people daily. Using bases in Europe and a satellite over Africa TV focuses on the plight of the stateless Kurds scattered across Iraq, Iran, Syria and particularly Turkey, where the government is waging a war against the Turkish Kurd organization, PPK.
· Web TV puts the Internet
on your television
In a step towards digital television, Web TV Networks, acquired by Bill Gate’s Microsoft Corporation in 1997, is the first on line service to offer customers Internet access via conventional television sets. The low-cost and user friendly system, housed in a set-top box, allows users to access entertainment and information on the Internet without a personal computer.
RADIO
· Bitcasting takes radio
onto the Web
Bitcasters are radio stations which broadcast on the World Wide Web. They are fast becoming part of popular culture and are an effective way for small stations and new bands to gain wider recognition Although they are infringing many laws, most bitcasters feel that copyright issues need to be redefined.
· Digital radio will find
you wherever you are
Scientists are predicting that the advent of digital radio will revolutionize the radio industry by 2010. Digital radio transmits sound as computer code, which is of CD quality and which cuts out the interference common on FM and AM radio. Canada leads the field in research into digital radio, and, as early as 1992, proposed that a new bandwidth, the L-Band, be used for digital broadcasting.
