Internet Protocol Television and its effects on society essay
In our modern society, great importance is played by everything that we see around us, because this is the way our world view and ideology are created. A big role in this creation is played by television; it practically tells us about all the things going on behind the horizon line. For some people, television in general is the only connecting thread to the outside world; it helps to learn about wars, emergencies, natural disasters; it simply creates the world around us.
Television technologies are developing rapidly and today the new generation of television such as IPTV became available. Internet Protocol Television is a process of providing television (video and/or audio) services through the use Internet protocol (IP) networks (IPTV Basics 2009). Architecture of IPTV, as a rule, includes the following components: subsystem for management of complex and services, which is also called “Middleware” or “IPTV Middleware”, subsystem for receiving and processing content; subsystem of content protection; subsystem of video servers; subsystem of monitoring the quality of streams and customer equipment.
Internet Protocol Television and affects society with its main advantage which is an interactive video services and the availability of a wide range of additional services (Video on Demand (VoD), TVoIP, Time Shifted TV, Network Personal Video Recorder, Electronic Program Guide, Near Video on Demand). Capabilities of IP protocol can provide not only video services, but also a much broader package of services, including interactive and integrated.
Besides the main services, IPTV may include a number of additional services (Video Telephony, Voting, Information Portals, Web, Games, MOD KOD). This is possible through the unification and standardization of the various terminal devices, the integration of audio, video and data IP-based protocol and services on a single technology platform.
In the IPTV can be used for a video sequence of two or more audio channels, while the channels themselves stay polyphonic. IPTV affects society more than cable TV, as its advantages compared to cable TV are:
– The quality of picture and sound are usually better, up to HD-resolution and 5.1-channel audio;
– Interactivity (for example, the ability to check information about the film);
– Timeshift service and video-on-demand.
As it is mentioned in the article of Rudy Rico “another advantage of IPTV is that if the customer has quadruple play (internet, television, telephone, mobile phone service) with the same company, the cell phone can be used to schedule the recording of a program” (Rico 2011).
