[ 14. The Blu-ray Disk Website | Format ]

[ The Blu-ray Disk Website www.blu-raydisc.com ]

Blu-ray Disk is a next-gen optical disk format that allows for the storage of data, high-def and standard definition digital media and Playstation 3 games. The Blu-ray Disk and player exploits the shorter wavelength of the blue/violet reading laser used to read the “1’s and 0’s”, the grooves on the disk. The much shorter wavelength of Blu-ray reading lasers [ ~ 405nanometres ] allows the “bumps” to be packed more compactly and more densely on the disk itself and this enables a lot more information [ 25GB per layer ] to be stored, just over 5 times the amount stored per layer on a regular red-laser DVD. A 200GB Blu-ray Disk has been manufactured using six 33GB layers, although this disk would almost certainly not work on today’s regular BD Players, which incidentally are also backwards compatible to play DVDs too.

[ In Detail ]
Blu-ray Disk is not aimed at any particular demographic, although the older generation may not be so inclined to convert to the newer technology. To whoever does convert to Blu-ray technology, greater quality of video and audio are granted and much more data can be stored on BD, possibly where DVD had 2 or maybe 3 disk compilations or trilogies, now can all be stored on one disk, eg. the entire Matrix Trilogy could be stored on one disk with space to spare for extra features and other extras. This increases the quality of experience for the audience as it creates less hassle for them. Many institutions have shown their support for Blu-ray Disk, including big names such as Sony, Apple and Fox Entertainment, although the Blu-ray Disk Association including the 9 founders of Blu-ray technology has overall power over the development. BD is in a close format war with HD DVD [ HD DVD ], supported by Microsoft and Intel, as these two essentially identical technologies are mutually incompatible. There are currently over 250 member institutions supporting BD. This convergence of institutions is rather like the consortium including Nokia, Microsoft and Intel for Bluetooth technology begun in 1994.

The progression towards BD allows for a better experience for the audience, they make it more interactive and non-linear, allows more proliferation, miniaturisation, a personalised experience, which is more flexible, better converged and presses for vertical integration with this otherwise incompatible technology.

[ 13. The LimeWire Website | Software ]

[ The LimeWire Website www.limewire.com ]

LimeWire is a free Peer-to-Peer filesharing software for the Java Platform, which runs on the Gnutella Network, linking users and enables them to share files between one another. The software has a very wide reach, increasing the size of its already global network and thus, the more people who download it, the more files are available, which means that more people download it. The audience is not a specialised demographic, but LimeWire’s main audience is tended to the younger generation as these are both the audience who would like to use it most and actually know how to. LimeWire replaces mail and attatchments, and physical interactions between people, of USB-pens or CDs, etc.

[ In Detail ]
LimeWire fundamentally allows the consumers to share whatever file they like directly over the internet, the only catch is that they cannot specify who they send it to, thus if one person can see and download it, so can everyone on the network, which hosts hundreds of thousands of people at any one time. The proliferation of high-speed broadband has aided LimeWire, allowing faster downloads and the progression in programming techniques and programs allows for a better software package.
LimeWire has come under some criticism for its clear breaches of copyright, as it is primarily used by the great majority of users to exchange music for free. LimeWire has considered closing down the network and ceasing downloads of the software in light of the MGM [ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ] decision against Grokster in the US supreme court stating that P2P companies Grokster and Streamcast could be sued for inducing copyright infringement for acts taken in the course of marketing file sharing software. This has been called the most important intellectual property case in decades.
LimeWire is a very good example of reach, audience distribution and horizontal integration.

[ 12. The iPod Website | Apple ]

[ The iPod Website www.apple.com/itunes ]

iPod is a brand of very popular portable media players launched by Apple in 2001. iPods are primarily digital audio players but have evolved to encompass many other different and useful everyday functions. iPods have essentially replaced Sony Walkmans and other portable CD/cassette players.

[ In Detail ]
The iPods are aimed at the younger generation since that demographic is more likely to have a large digital music collection and is more active and mobile. The introduction of the iPod in 2001 had paved the way for portable digital media players and by the 9th April 2007, Apple announced that 1 million units had been sold worldwide. Apple is utilising the ever decreasing size of motherboards, hard drives, LCD screens, batteries and associated wiring that make up the insides of an iPod, and this allows them to make increasingly smaller units, letting the audience pick the size that fits their lifestyle best and as we know, smaller is better. iPods allow consumers to listen to music via the MP3, WAV, AAC, Apple Lossless and Audible 2,3 and 4 formats. H.264, MPEG-4 and MOV files are also supported for video, to watch TV shows, DVDs and home videos encoded with Quicktime Pro [ Quicktime ]. One can view photos in the formats JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG and PSD. One can create calendar dates, contacts sync, carry any other type of file on their iPod like an external hard drive, play games and integrate their player to their car stereo. This massive miniaturisation and portability is a great example of convergence and vertical integration, with a huge reach, it is flexible and allows the consumer to personalise their unit.

[ 8. The David Lehre Website | MySpace ]

[ The David Lehre MySpace www.myspace.com/davelehre ]

Dave Lehre has been a true internet phenomenon. A college dropout who still lives with his parents, he began his fledgling career with some highly entertaining and extremely popular videos, one of which is called “MySpace: The Movie” which parodied the social networking site, posted primarily onto his website and have made their way swiftly onto YouTube and various other similar sites. He and his self-founded production company Vendetta Studios now have a deal with Fox to produce his own untitled as of yet, late night half-hour show with a $300,000 budget for the pilot episode, self described as “an open-format sketch-variety show with music videos, short videos and comedy skits”. He has also made an appearance in recent parody “Epic Movie” as a look-alike for Ashton Kutcher. His main audience is anyone who is up for a good laugh and mostly, these tend to be the younger generation to late-20’s who are his main fans. He has built up quite a cult following, especially amongst the more technically minded audience, as his career was born from the internet.

[ In Detail ]
Straight from whence his career was born, he still utilises the internet to great extent, and especially both his own site and his MySpace page. They are used to raise awareness for his work and himself and also advertise subscriptions to his work, with plenty of direct hyperlinks [ hyperlink ] to iTunes, his Blog, his YouTube account and his own site. He embeds many of his videos and trailers on his page, and website, which makes it easier for new audience members to find his videos faster and more effortlessly.
Dave uses his blog to inform the fans of what he is doing and what he has scheduled in the coming weeks. He also posts up videos and pictures of things that may be interesting about him, such as his front-page appearance on MySpace or his TV appearances, or even his budding Vendetta Branded Clothing. Unfortunately, he isn’t able to post up the footage he has been filming, as the studio owns the rights, not himself, though he does try to post up as much as he can. This allows his fans to feel integrated and informed in what he is doing, increasing their loyalty and ‘fanship’. The fans can post their comments underneath the main post for him to read and he does read these and replies often. His blog contains an RSS feed to automatically inform his fans when he updates his blog.
His website and blog are good examples of a wide reach, good quality movies, democratisation and vertical integration.

[ 1. The Channel 4 Site | Homepage ]

[ The Channel 4 Website www.channel4.com ]

The Channel 4 site offers thorough programme information, information on an eclectic range of interests within Channel 4 and beyond, TV listings and scheduling information, news, a large entertainment section and various other audience related and interactive activities for a global audience which grants a massive reach for potential consumers of Channel 4’s products and services.

The website offers the massive audience of Channel 4 and all of its spin-off channels a chance to immerse themselves further into the channel as a whole, one specific program or their interests, guided by the extremely talented editors and according to the demographic group.

[ In Detail ]

The homepage has static panels along 3 sides of the page, with links ranging from the site content, to site maps and contact information. The panel on the left is the largest and the main navigator panel. This panel contains the main links: Watch Online, TV, Entertainment, Lifestyle, News, Documentaries and Interact. Under these, there are smaller categories within the links themselves, for quick navigation. This makes it more enticing for the audience and looking through the website doesn’t feel like such a chore.

The dominance of the homepage is entitled “Today on channel4.com” and features a slideshow of the main feature of the day such as FourDocs, Channel 4’s “broadband documentary service” which allows anyone to record and upload their own documentary on an open range of topics to be viewed and rated by other viewers from around the world which is a good example of democratisation. It is one part of the 4Talent initiative to get more young and prospective hopefuls into the extremely competitive industry. This feature, which is clearly highlighted from the homepage shows off to the audience about how innovative Channel 4 is and how highly it respects the views and products of the audience who show the same in return. The technologies involved in this and other areas of the website are very wide-ranging. Apart from the internet, being the overriding new technology in this instance, there are various peripheral technologies which combine to make the Channel 4 website as impressive as it is. One of these new technologies is RSS [ Really Simple Syndication RSS ]. RSS is a web feed format which publishes frequently updated websites and online content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts, such as the FourDocs blog or the Games page, which features a frequently updated page of console and free online games as voted for by both the public and nominated by the employees at the 4Games department within Channel 4. The rest of the homepage consists of various different tasters of the other categories of the site: News, Entertainment, etc. and also the main television feature of the night on any one of the numerous channels owned by Channel 4. Clicking on one of these links may bring you to a page report on the item, some background reading, games, quizzes and links spanning the website on issues related to the link followed.

Outside adverts from paying companies are also placed on the homepage, on the right. These are often internet or technology-related and are specifically targeted at the early-mid 20’s demographic.

The Channel 4 website is a good example of both democratisation and true connectivity and interdependency with the audience and shows a great deal of interactivity both on, and off-site.