Entertainment

Entertainment has grown year on year with the development of IT and technology. Entertainment since the 1930’s has developed in the blink of an eye from the black and white to color  The recent development which affected the whole of the UK was the digital switchover. Entertainment is considered to be a luxury for every human being living in the world with sale of TV’s and access to the web to watch or listen to music increasing every month. Other forms of entertainment has also picked up since the 1930’s such as gaming, cinema and music. Nowadays radios are becoming increasingly popular for people as they tune into local radio stations when they drive or just as a leisure activity.

The main revolution in the UK since the disposal of black and white TV’s for color TV’s is the digital switchover. The digital switchover is known because it is the move from analogue signal to digital signals. Analogue signals vary in frequency & amplitude. Digital signals are however are a series of pulses consisting of two sequence ON (1) or OFF (2). The theory between how analogue and digital signals work is using a clock. If you take an analogue clock it has to travel all the way around to get to the next number, however in a digital clock the time is presented as an exact number meaning it doesn't need to pass through all the points to get to the next number. This means it works in an ON or OFF sequence. The main reason for switching from analogue to digital is because they can carry more information per second compared with an analogue signal. As a digital signal can carry more information it provides users/viewers with more TV programmes to watch and enjoy apart from the only 5 channels they got when the signal was analogue.  An analogue signal is also more prone to interference where as a digital signal is less prone, meaning the pictures/programmes are more sharp and clear to watch.

Another advantage to digital signals is that they do not lose quality as the travel further away from a station, whereas analogue signals do and they become static, losing the signal altogether. Another advantage is that the digital signal carrying more information can be used for multicasting, which means that a broadcasting center can send out a number of programs/shows with one frequency, instead of just a singular analogue frequency.

People tend to dwell on the advantages of the digital switchover, but there are also some disadvantages to this great transformation. One of the issues is that people have to spend extra money buying a digital box or a digital compatible TV. This creates anger as they could have enjoyed their channels without paying extra but now they have to go a buy a digital box and set it up and at times the setup does not go well and they don’t expect the end result they needed. Another issue is that digital signals need a larger bandwidth meaning that some rural areas are not compatible with the size of the bandwidth and they have completely lost their signal meaning they can’t enjoy the freedom of TV/entertainment. Digital setup boxes also increases your electricity bills considerably and this is not very practical for people struggling with low incomes especially in this particular economic recession.

Games, Music, Cinemas are all part of entertainment, but it was computer games which started off the digital revolution of entertainment. The first ever video game was launched in the 1970’s. Pong was one of the first videos games that were released in the world and ever since it’s been going from strength to strength even in this 21^st century. Pac-man is one other video game and launched in the 1980’s and has been a great success with more and more people loving this simple yet addicting game. Since these tiny beginning of simple games the games industry has been growing rapidly to the stage they are currently at in this 21^st century where they are developing games consoles and creating future technology that will still keep the world entertained. The latest of this future invention which has been launched in the UK is games which respond to your movement X-Box Kinect and PS3 Move are examples of these future technology which will grab the attention of the world and allows the games industry to boom into new heights.

Music is another entertainment which is enjoyed by people all around the world. The revolution of portable music has allowed millions of people the carry their music around wherever they go. Since the launch of the first portable device that plays music, people have started to invent ways to store them in small sizes yet not affect their qualities. MP3’s, WAV files etc. are examples of ways in which people can carry their music around with them. The first portable music player was the Sony Walkman launched in the 1970’s. This little device scuttled and revolutionized the way people listened to their music and caused the sales of cassette tapes to increase. Since then no one has ever looked back on how the music industry has revolutionized  Nowadays there are many devices which allow people to carry their music around with them i.e. Phones, MP3 players, and iPods. IPods are the recent type of technology that is popular with many people around the world. IPod sales have rocketed since its first launch showing the increasing popularity of music across the world.

Movies/Cinemas and pictures are another part of entertainment which has moved rapidly since its very tiny beginnings. In the past people used to buy video tapes to watch their movies, but this has changed in the 21^st century with DVD’s becoming increasingly popular as it takes up less room and you can store plenty of stuff in them. Other than DVD’s, Blu-Rays have been another major milestone within this part of the entertainment. Blu-Ray’s allow viewers to watch their favorite movies in HD and also in 3D, creating a great entertainment method appealing to viewers of all ages. Alternatively people want to carry their movies and pictures around with them to show others. They can do this by carrying them in MP4, JPEG and MPEG file formats. This makes the movies and pictures compact allowing people to carry them on their devices while they can be sure that the movie or picture quality will not be affected.


All in all the digital revolution has changed the lives of many people allowing them easy access to stuff they love without any great issues. The introduction of portable devices has also allowed entertainment to be much more portable/compatible allowing people to store more in a small place. The entertainment out there comes with risks which many people are willing to take to allow them to enjoy themselves without any hassle.