by Eric Chung, Sig Culhane, Brandon Maxwell, William (Zach) Zollars

When speaking of technology is important to understand the fundamentals that go into its construction. Seeing how technology got its start and how it has evolved over the years can give a better appreciation for it. We were fortunate enough to have a chapter that covered such a wide range of topics and ideas that gives us the opportunity to speak about numerous technological devices and concepts. The main concept is to distinguish the different types of technological advances that have been created and the effects of such advances on our culture. This will be our main and sole source for this group wiki, highlighting certain necessary events throughout the history of each medium. This fits into our research and presentation for this project because it directly summarizes the technology of the audio and visual mediums. Audio and visual mediums cover almost every aspect of the digital era we are currently in. There isn’t an object now and days that don’t experience some sort of technological change involved in its evolution. From learning about the basics to seeing the high end technology that it has produced is actually phenomenal.

Technology has come so far from the days of first being just frequencies and waveforms. Today those waves are being taken to new levels to produce new advances such as wireless connections. If previous years no one would understand what exactly wireless was, but we used it all the time to send signals from towers to stations to received our radio. Today those same signals are being used to send Internet connections that allow us to access the World Wide Web from everything including a phone. This concept has evolved over the years from 2G technology and has reached an era of 4G. 4G is can best be described as the upload and download speeds that a device (primarily a cell phone) uses to gather its data.

Formats have also changed over the years to a point of complex simplicity. So many different forms of entertainment have grown and been improved from their previous forms. Television has changed from the basic standard form 4:3 ratio format that included black and white interlaced picture to a new digital format that now incorporates an advanced 16:9 ratio and new high color resolution progressive scanned images. One would think that Digital TV would be the utmost one can do with a TV but of course technology is bound to improve in some way. Today we incorporate 3D technology into our TV’s. We have TV’s that utilize the red and blue images primarily found with 3D technology and incorporate the new scanning methods of digital scanning to bring you a new and fun way of watching TV through specialized glasses. These glasses are specially formatted to only work for certain TV’s. The next object that was changed over the years is one that some would believe it perfect the way it is, but of course we found ways to make it better. A new storage and retrieval method has been created for books. Books have always been done on paper and bounded together to create a piece of literature work of art. In this era books have been compressed into tablets that allow you to carry around hundreds of books in the palm of your hand, literally. These tablets utilize wireless technology and online market places to purchase any book written in a matter of seconds. The final format change we experienced was the incorporation of music into numerous devices via wireless downloads. We have always been able to receive music via wave signals but now we can download the files straight to a device using the wireless data on cell phones or computers and the song at our disposal. Songs have come along way from being played in cassettes. We were so used to playing them in cassette players that the invention of CD’s gave us a new way of improving our listening quality. We had no idea that soon after that would be the creation of the MP3, which is still around today, and is what we use to play our songs in our various devices such as iPods, Zunes, and even cell phones. From the day of learning about oscillations and waveform to 3D technology and downloadable formats

We live in a day that nothing is safe from being advanced by technology. Everything we use has been improved in someway by technology, whether for the good or bad. The audio and visual technology of the generation has expanded so much that anything can easily be turned into a technological device.

Examples and Links

Audio and Visual Technology outline.docx

AudioVideo.ppt

Annotated Bibliography Dominick, J. R., Messere, F., & Sherman, B. L. (2008). Audio and Video Technology. Broadcasting, cable, the internet, and beyond: an introduction to modern electronic media (6th ed., pp. 48-81). New York: McGraw-Hill.

9/28/11 – Kindle, Nook, Kobo or iPad: Which tablet or e-reader should you buy?

An article that compares different tablets and e-readers. As methods of media consumption changes to meet consumers’ needs, it’s important to see what kinds of technology are driving the market today.

10/1/11 – Top 10 Tech Concepts You Always Wanted To Learn About (But Never Did)

From the mysteries of 4G to the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit, Lifehacker explains ten tech concepts people hear about a lot but don’t really know much of.

10/10/11 – Less Than A Month After Winning Disrupt, Shaker Raises $15 Million

“Shaker creates 3D virtual rooms for you to hang out in with your Facebook friends and meet new people through those friends…Trolling people’s profiles isn’t a great way to meet people, unless you happen to bump into them at a party later on. But that was exactly the original appeal of Facebook. Shaker wants to bring that dynamic online. It won Disrupt, and now it’s got plenty of cash to shake its stuff.”

10/20/11 – Miss the Hiss? Fanatics Flip for Tunes on Cassette Tapes