Discuss technology

Learning Outcome 1 (U24): Understand the products that are produced within and across media industries

P2 (U24): Explain the use of converging technologies within an identified sector 

Technical Convergence:


Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. These can the be created to make products that can make others lives much easier. With this evolution, smartphone have the power to call, text, use the internet, stream tv and entertain. Technological convergence is a tendency for technologies that were originally quite unrelated to become more closely integrated and even unified as they develop and advance.

Pre-production

Production:

Technological convergence for pre-production

With post-production technologies converging, editing suites for adverts and new software helped companies to edit more quickly and conveniently without the need for a 'cutting room floor'. Software such as Cinema 4D, Adobe and Final Cut Pro are being used when editing shots and scenes for adverts and films to make it easier and to use the time more efficiently.

Technologies used for advertising and marketing:

Nowadays, companies like Facebook use smart technologies to be able to show the audience adverts that relates to products that the audience has been searching on their engines. For example if you search on google you favourite food/ restaurant, then when you go onto Facebook, advertisements will start coming up about this. These adverts will be able to adapt to different screens on different black boxes devices, which is how convergence works at the point of distribution and exhibition. These offers and information about what you have just searched will then come up multiple times, this is clever because its trying to exploit what you like and what your needs and wants are.

Advertising and technology has advanced over the years, one example of this is the use of the QR codes, QR codes are codes that can be scanned to access a website or page. This is really clever as this saves time and shows how far technology has come in a decade.

M1 (U24): Discuss how the industry has utilised developments in technologies.


How technological Convergence has changed the Advertising Industry?

In the advertising industry, there have been many pre-production techniques. Project management tools such as "Asana"  allows advertising companies to manager their projects efficiently, this is good and important for the project as it keeps everyone organised and everyone knows what they have to do. The app "Asana" can be used on all  devices, such as laptops, computers, smartphones. This means inevitably that it makes it easier for the team to manage and edit the project schedule for example, this is a really important aspect to have as along the way the project plan might change as this means that the product schedule needs to be changed ASAP to make sure the project is running efficiently. Another feature that this app has is that once something is changed and edited, it instantly updates across the entire platform, which means that it will keep up to date all of the crew members of the changes that are being made to the project schedule. This is good as all the crew will know whats going on and this will limit mistakes as the crew will know what has been done and what hasn't. This is also good as it saves a lot of time, and allows people within the project to spend more time on things that need improving or need attention.



This picture shows the layout that Asana, from this photo you can see that many business would want to use this piece of software as it looks very organised and will make sure that a project is organised and everyone will know what there doing in it. There have also been many post-production techniques that have allowed advertising and marketing companies to create and produce digital images, motion pictures, graphics or video advertisement. This is important for a project/business to have as advertising is the key for a project to be successful as without the audience there would be no way of making reveuene for the project to be successful so the advertising needs to be on point and needs to be made sure that it is reaching a large amount of people. Due to the advancements and improvements of editing software, with new software such as Adobe  After Effect, Cinema 4D and Light-works it has allowed advertising companies to be more creative with their adverts. This is due to the editing software can allow companies to advertise there products on a much larger scale and with a much larger impact. As well as production techniques that allow these advertising companies to create products they want to create, with cameras and other filming equipment. The images that are taken can have amazing quality, however they can also be enhanced by these editing software so that they can be more attractive to the audience.


When a company uses converging technologies they are always enchanting products due to the improvements of technology over the past 10 years. For example , when advertising a product  due to the improvement of technology and the way it has evolved over the past decade, advertising and production companies within the media industry are able to now produce and present adverts in the advertising industry that is more accessible on a smartphone. This allows and makes it much easier for companies to advertise and market to reach out across multiple different audiences around the world with just one type of device. This is important for business as now that everything can be shared on one device it now saves time for the business and allows the business to use their time efficiently and spend their time on more important aspects off the business that need sorted.

Most of the products are spread across many different platforms, and due to technological convergence, smartphones have the capability to view all advertisements weather they are online, on the radio broadcasting station, they have to be streamed or downloaded. Technology is always improving which means that this will allow public lifes to become easier, as people are able to use their smartphones for anything that they please, whether it is to use there phones to create their own products, connect with other people, make a short film or making videos. The smartphone is a product that is used daily that the majority of people use, hence why it has become much easier for advertising companies to expand and brand out their adverts. The companies do this by ensuring that their products can be viewed from smartphones whether it is through an app like Youtube or and app that they have made. Smartphones have made it much easier for brands and companies to advertise and market their products to the world, this is due to the likes of social media where posts videos and comments can be shared through millions of people, millions and millions are on the likes of Instagram and Facebook where posts can be shared and many people are able to view it. For example if a brand like "Fanta" want to advertise a new drink that is coming out soon they they will use different social media platforms as it has a very high chance that it might be shared and could go viral which could make the product have a high revenue when the product comes out. Social media is a very good way to advertise you product as it can reach a large audience in the matter of minuets. 



Over a period of time the cameras on a smart phone gradually get better every year,the cameras are constantly being developed and improved, with it having a much smaller lens however they usually dont contain the quality of a movie production that a DSLR camera would contain. For example the Canon 700D produces great photos and videos with an 18- megapixel sensor and has an easy to use vari-angle clear view LCD II touch screen that makes the camera very easy and accessible. This camera can be use to film adverts and take high quality pictures for campaigns. The images and videos can be shared online as well as posted on social media, bill boards and magazines.This is extremely useful for the advertising industry as smaller advertising companies wouldn't have a large amount of money to spend due to having a limited budget, the smaller companies also spend most of their money from their budgets on buying film equipment which can be very expensive. Small companies with tight budgets can use a smartphone app called 'FiLMiC' which basically does the same job as the expensive equipment would do but it is on the smart phone. The Smartphone can be used to edit the ad as well as apple have their own built in editing soft ware called 'Adobe After Effects' on their I phones, laptops, tablets and computers. If this is used by a production company then this therefor leads to the company saving a lot of money as if the company was to buy other equipment to help with this production then this can get quite expensive, and if a production has a tight budget this needs to be taken into consideration.

Smartphones can also be used to distribute and market products. Anything can be uploaded by a Smartphone without any cost across any media platform including Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. They can also be uploaded to websites or you tube therefore making it much easier and cheaper for all the advertising companies in the industry. An example of this is a game called 'Fifa 19'. They marketed and advertised this new game by putting it all over different social media platforms in order to attract viewers, existing customers and potential customers that haven't bought a Fifa product ever. I feel this was very effective for the game as it was advertised to a large amount of people and was put on forms of social media where it is able to share, like and comment which made the product be even more well known. 

 

Another example of how technological convergence has changed the advertising industry is the use of hashtags #. Hashtags are used on all the social media platforms and is used as a form of advertising its self, because when something is hashtaged all someone has to do is search whats being Hashtaged and it will come up straight away. This allows users to apply dynamic user generated tagging, which makes it possible for others to easily find messages with a specific theme or content, as well as allowing them to hashtag to trend globally. Usually companies would post their products on social media in order to advertise and market their product around and advertise it to the demographic that mostly uses social media.They then usually attach a hashtag with the product so that it is easier to be advertised. The posts can be shared, re tweeted and reposted, which increases how many people are watching and seeing the Hashtag and the posts. This is a easy and free way to advertise and market a product on a much larger scale than just advertising with a bus stop poster for example.