Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Broadband Research

Questions-

1. What is broadband?
Broadband is a term that is used consistently with different types of internet connections. Generally, it is referred to Internet connections over fiber optic cables rather than telephone lines. Broadband in telecommunications means a wide range of frequencies that are available to transmit information.


2. Outline the methods of delivery of broadband (wireless, cable, ADSL and fibre)? Identify the speed of each method.
Wireless Broadband is a fairly new technology that provides high-speed wireless internet and data network access over a wide area. In telecommunications, cable Internet access (often called simply cable Internet) is a form of broadband Internet access that uses the cable television (CATV) infrastructure. The fastest cable broadband goes is 300kbps. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is one form of the Digital Subscriber Line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ADSL offers differing upload and download speeds and can be configured to deliver up to 6 Mbps from the network to the customer that is up to 120 times faster than dialup service and 100 times faster than ISDN. Fibre Broadband uses Fibre Optic cable to deliver data and is able to deliver it faster and also much more of it than can be done with the existing copper wires currently in use.

3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
Advantages of Wireless- Easy to add stations as there are no cables required. Signals can be sent through doors and walls so the stations can be mobile so can move around. There is less need for technical support in setting up due to their simple nature. There are no cables to trip over so there are less health and safety issues to consider. Share resources like printers. Have shared access to a centralized storage.
Disadvantages of Wireless- It's a bit more difficult to setup properly. Risk of 'outsiders' accessing your network unless robust security protocols are enabled (eg WPA, WPA2). Significantly slower than a wired network (2 – 50 times slower). The network can be less stable. Wireless reception may be impaired by a number of factors including large distances or objects between wireless devices, and other wireless networks.
Advantages of Cable- The fact that cable Internet doesn't require a phone line means that you always have a ready connection. Cable Internet is substantially faster than other connections such as dial-up, wireless and ADSL. Cable Internet supports data-heavy activities such as online gaming, so your playing experience will be of higher quality. Because cable is so much faster you will spend less time online.
Disadvantages of Cable- Cable Internet does not always operate at the highest possible speed. Initial connection can be expensive. Not all areas can access cable Internet. Cable may be a wasted expense for those who do not use the internet regularly.
Advantages of ADSL- It is extremely affordable. Internet connection by existing infrastructure. Using telephone line for Internet access as well as for conversation at the same time. Active connection without charging. Internet surfing without telephone impulses charging. Data transfer with download speeds 15-20 time higher than connection speed possible by analogue modem.
Disadvantages of ADSL- The first downside is that ADSL pricing can be very variable. The speed of your ADSL connection may suffer, as ADSL is very affected by physical distance. ADSL is also affected by how many other people are using your line. ADSL downloads much faster than it uploads.
Advantages of Fibre- Fibre optic data transmission is incredibly fast. Fibre optic cables can transmit data over exceptionally long distances without much data loss. Many gaming systems and home theater components now also transfer information back and forth via fibre optic cables.
Disadvantages of Fibre- Fibre optic cables are not susceptible to RF (radio frequency) interference. Fibre optic cabling can cost more than double what a typical broadband connection costs. Fibre optic connections are not available in many areas.
4. Give examples of broadband providers and identify the costs.
Yes Optus- 6GB of data for $30.00 every month. 14GB data for $50.00 every month. 2GB data for $20.00 every month. 5GB data for $59.99 every month.
BigPond- 3GB of data for $29.95 every month. 3GB data for $49.95 every month. 1GB data for $19.95 every month.
Virgin- 6GB data for $39.00 every month. 500MB of data for $15.00 every month. 6GB data for $39.00 every month.

5. The Federal Government is thinking of rolling out a national broadband network (The NBN). Research the NBN and find out:

a. what method of delivery it will use- NBN plans to deliver the best, most cost effective infrastructure across Australia using a combination of fibre, wireless and satellite technologies.
b. the expected speed- NBN plans to deliver fibre-based coverage with speeds of 100 Megabits per second. Premises in areas that cannot be serviced economically by fibre will be connected by advanced wireless technology providing speeds of 12 Megabits per second.
c. the expected costs-

6. Do you think Australians should invest in The NBN? Justify your answer.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Assessment task

For this terms multimedia assessment task, i worked with Vera using the Wix program. My topics were Digital Televisions, Piracy & Copyright, Secondary Storage; Blu-ray Discs & Flash Drives and Bluetooth. In this assignment, we faced many problems. The first one was, when we tried to make buttons that link to other pages of our website, it wasn't working and we didn't find a way to fix it. But just to make the job easier we decided to start on a new template and ask Sir or Miss what to do afterwards. Then the second problem was that the website that we were working on the first time, we had found a solution to our problem. The problem was that we didn't make enough mini-pages to fit our links and then that website began to work again and our other template was a back-up. But this website didn't work for that long because the next time we tried to edit it there was an error saying that the "XML link is incorrect" and we were no longer able to use that website, the solution to this problem was just to start using the draft template once again. After this we had very minor issues and soon after got the website completed. Also on friday the class was given an extension to tuesday. This extension was helpful to me as i had more time to work on the assignment and work on it more thoroughly. Today i finished adding all my information to the website and also made blogposts about the information i researched and the websites i used to get the research. I have done my part of the website and this is the url for the website for now:
http://www.wix.com/zeeteevee/DRAFT2?partner%5Fid=WMGs4POB1ko%2Da&experiment%5Fid=empty&orgDocID=cjSvtz%3Bhh0Q%2Da&gu%5Fid=6a376356%2Da4ac%2D4347%2D92f3%2D0da15eb43a12&wixComputerID=E%2Fbta5U8lWPxeiYb2dp4R2QP5YQqaoi%2BNfrP6M3tL3fpAV7Rkxek1aXHYryrFD7CJTfhauPeWmuSKnUpjoxRSw%3D%3D . I do not know whether Vera has finished her part of the website so the final published url for the website will be posted on monday night just to make sure.

Bluetooth

INFO ON BLUETOOTH:

What is it?
Bluetooth is the name of a wireless technology standard for connecting devices, set to replace cables.

What do we use it for?
You use bluetooth so you can connect mobile phones and headsets to your computer, so your bluetooth headphones deliver stereo quality sound without wires, to be able to send photos from your camera to your computer without the need of wires and many more.

How is it part of our multimedia world?
Bluetooth is able to send multimedia from one device to another device without the use of wires and cables.

Are there different types? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each type?
There are no different types of Bluetooth but there is a variety of bluetooth accessories you can get.

A "simple" explanation of how it works.
Bluetooth uses radio frequencies in the 2.45 GHz range to send information over short distances of generally 10metres or less. By embedding a Bluetooth chip and receiver into products, cables that would normally carry the signal can be eliminated.


A rough indication of the cost of the device
Bluetooth doesn't necessarily have a cost because it mainly comes with the device that is bought for example, a laptop or mobile phone. But the many accessories Bluetooth can come in have different costs.

Future directions, what is waiting around the corner, what is the next "new" technology in this area?
The new version of Bluetooth technology will meet the high-speed demands and cater to the needs of low power applications. The next version of bluetooth, also called Seattle, will have many of the same features as the current one but will be capable of very fast data transfer and also being power efficient.

WEBSITES:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibzAaKDUuzU (7th Sept)
http://www.racq.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/37704/bluetooth2.pdf (7th Sept)
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-bluetooth.htm (7th Sept)
http://www.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm (7th Sept)
http://www.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth.htm (7th Sept)
http://www.slideshare.net/guesta2de84/bluetooth-future (7th Sept)

Secondary Storage

INFO ON BLU-RAY DISCS & FLASH DRIVES:

What is it?
Blu-ray Discs (BD) is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the standard DVD format. A Flash Drive is a small storage device that can be used to transport files from one computer to another. There are many different types of Flash Drives, such as USB flash drive or solid state drive.
What do we use it for?
Blu-ray Discs (BD) were established to hold a standard-length movie in HDTV format, or high-definition television.The movies are displayed in higher resolution and therefore they require much more storage space. Flash Drives are used for many different things. Because of its small size, many people find them very handy. They are mainly used for Personal data storage, maintenence, law enforcement, boot computers and business uses.
 
How is it a part of our multimedia world?
Blu-ray dics are a part of our multimedia world as they are able to encorporate many types of multimedia onto the discs. Flash drives are also a part of the multimedia world as they can store as much media onto it as possible.
 
Are there different types? Advantages/ Disadvantages?
There is only one type of Blu-ray discs. There are two main types of Flash drives, USB flash drives and Solid state drive. The most familiar one is the USB flash drives, this flash drive will let you plug the small drive directly into your computer and you will be able to access it as a drive on your computer. It will allow you to copy information to it as you need to. The Solid state drive is not as popular, and is used to store solid-state data that is persistant.



A "simple" explanation of how it works.
Blu-ray Discs store digitally encoded video and audio information in pits -- spiral grooves that run from the center of the disc to its edges. A laser reads the other side of these pits to play the movie or program that is stored on the DVD. A flash drive is easy to use. Once you have created a paper or other work, simply plug your flash drive into a USB port. The USB port will appear on the back of a desktop computer’s PC tower or on the side of a laptop. When you option to save your work by selecting “Save As,” you will find that your flash drive appears as an additional drive.
 
A rough indication of the cost of the device
A 25 gigabyte Blu-ray disc costs about $2.60 and a pack of 15 costs $40. The cost of flash drives range from under $10 to over $200 depending on the manufacturer and storage capacity.
 
Future directions, what is waiting around the corner, what is the next "new" technology in this area?
Since the Blu-Ray disc's launched in 2007, its acceptance as DVD media replacement has significantly increased. Blu-ray has had much support from consumers as well as movie studios and this has greatly contributed to its triumph over HD-DVD. The positives of Blu-ray had people believing, from an early stage, that it would be the future of high definition media. The USB flash drive, a relatively new invention that was first sold in 2001 as a humble 8Mb storage device. Their memory capacity continues to rise while their prices keep dropping. Today a 64 Gigabyte flash drive is not unheard of, and smaller drives can be bought for less than what a stack of blank CD's might cost. WEBSITES:



http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blu-ray-discs.htm (3rd Sept)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc (3rd Sept)
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/computertips/qt/flashdrive.htm (3rd Sept)
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5063449_flash-drives-used.html (3rd Sept)
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-a-Flash-Drive-Used-For?&id=1365498 (3rd Sept)
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Are-the-Different-Types-of-Flash-Drives?&id=1365587 (5th Sept)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive (5th Sept)
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/blu-ray1.htm (5th Sept)
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1792497 (6th Sept)
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_a_Blu-Ray_disc_cost (6th Sept)
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Future-of-Blu-ray&id=1087560 (6th Sept)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/58168/usb_flash_drives_the_future_of_storage.html (6th Sept)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgFwb3d1EVw (6th Sept)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Piracy and Copyright

PIRACY AND COPYRIGHT INFO:

What is it?
Piracy is the stealing of others rights such as a book, story, invention or idea. In music, piracy is when you copy a CD or music for your own personal use. To make copies of discs to sell for profit is piracy. Copyright is a type of property that is founded on a person's creative skill and labour.

What do we use it for?
People make pirate copies of other peoples things to sell to other people and gain money of their own to make a profit. Copyright is there to protect the works and labour of a person and prevent unauthorized use of the work that is created by the original person.

How is it a part of our multimedia world?
Piracy and Copyright is a part of our multimedia world because they are both related to media. In the case of Piracy, the person who creates the pirated copy is using media to produce the extra copies. In Copyright, you need it to protect different types of multimedia such as film or music.

Are there different types? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each type?
There are no different types of Piracy or Copyright.

Future directions, what is waiting around the corner, what is the next "new" technology in this area?
Piracy and Copyright have no "new technology" waiting to come out but the avoidance of getting caught for Piracy is reducing and it is becoming harder to produce copies of something that is not theirs.

WEBSITES:
http://sky.prohosting.com/dontborg/piracy.htm (2nd Sept)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080924031529AAgKqWT (2nd Sept)
http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Copyright_Whatiscopyright (2nd Sept)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Digital Televisions

Information on Digital televisions:
What is it?
Digital TV is a term that is used for encompassing High Definition Television and other applications including Standard Definition television, datacasting, multicasting and interactivity. Digital Television is the sending and recieving of moving images and sound by digital signals.


What do we use it for?
The main things we use digital televisions is to recieve better quality pictures and sound quality through digital signal processing. It is also used to introduce new services such as multicasting and datacasting. Digital Tv offers more choice, it is clearer and it can be recieved in many new ways.

How is it a part of our multimedia world?
Digital Televisions are part of the multimedia world because televisions use a variety of different media. This includes true digital and high definition image and surround sound audio.

Are there different types? Advantages/Disadvantages?
There are many different types of digital televisions. The first and most basic type is CRT based or a 'Tube' digital television. These look a lot like analog televisions with a larger screen. If you want to get the most out of the digital television features, such as High Definition television and surround-sound audio, another type would be Plasma televisions. Plasma televisions are very thin, large and look terrific with the sound even better. A third type of digital television is a Rear Projection television. In these televisions the image would come from the back of the tv, meaning it would be thicker with also great high-definition television and surround sound. Another type of television is an LCD television, these televisions have a rich high-definition image and surround sound audio. There is also SD (Standard Definition) televisions which produce a widescreen image with DVD standard quality.

A "simple" explanation of how it works.
Digital Televisions work similarily to a standard television set. Depending on what type of television it is, the way in which it works has little difference. Digital televisions all work mainly the same way, but with a different appearance. Digital television uses a digital signal rather than a radio signal, which allows the picture and sound to appear faster and with better quality. In order get your digital television working, you need to get the satellite cable that connects your tv to the digital signal. The satellite cable is plugged into the tv port and your television is ready to go. Depending on signal strength, you picture will come clearer, faster and in good quality.

A rough indication of the cost of the device
The cost of a Digital televisions depends on what you are looking for. Smaller screen resolution televisions cost from $700-$1000. Larger Plasma televisions cost $2000-$2500 and LCD televisions cost $2500-$3000. 3DTV's are much more expensive depending on whether you buy Plasma or LCD Plasma 3DTV's range from $4500-$5500 and LCD 3DTV's cost $5000+.

Future directions, what is waiting around the corner, what is the next "new" technology in this area?
Panasonic plans to develop televisions that enable viewers to browse the Internet with the simple operation of an easy-to-use remote controller. Stepping out more than 10-15 years into the future, visitors to the Panasonic Center can also experience its Digital Wall. Composed of a large grid of touch-sensitive panels, the wall has tiles to display different applications or to project one larger-than-life video image.
WEBSITES:
http://www.hdtv-source.com/hdtv-terms.php (21st August)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television (21st August)
http://www.avsforum.com/hdtvfaq/HDTV-FAQ.htm (21st August)
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/TechnologyInYourHome/DigitalTelevision/DG_10030982 (21st August)
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2005/HDTV.asp (28th August)
http://computers.families.com/blog/televisions-digital-tv-types-explained (28th August)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5fp7FExOzk (28th August)
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/dtv.htm (28th August)
http://www.blurtit.com/q824866.html (1st Sept)
http://www.getprice.com.au/digital-tv-receivers.htm (1st Sept)
http://www.cnet.com.au/tvs-of-the-future-panasonic-s-vision-339271648.htm (1st Sept)