Communication Technologies

Steffen Knop

Lecture and Case Studies

Module 2: Wednesday, July 24 th through Thursday, July 25 th 2002

Abstract

Devises and Trends

communication technologies today
communication technology tomorrow
media convergence

"Nobody wants to use mobile applications! Nobody is interested in interactive television! Nobody is interested in entertaining websites." You can proceed stating such sentences for a long time if you listen to the voice of analysts and other pessimists in these times. Of course, a critical view is necesseary if you work in the convergence industry these days, but have a look at Japan for i-Mode or to UK for interactive Television.
What are the basics of the success of such new devices? What is the technology behind? What constraints are there if I want to write concepts for such media? What is the status quo and how will the future be? The lecture tries to give answers to such questions.

Course Outline

Day 1

Morning session: Converging Media - Basics

convergence of technologies, content and the markets
interactive television - overview
future of communication - overview
new consumer devices - overview

Afternoon: Television in the internet and interactive TV

basics of streaming media
the streaming media distribution chain
basics of broadcasting interactive TV
detailed introduction to interactive TV
examples

Day 2

Morning session: Future of communication

introduction to future communication technologies
basics of GPRS, UMTS, WAP
case study i-Mode
case study WAP
future UMTS projects

Afternoon: Visiting the Fokus Institute in Berlin

During our visit at the institute we have the opportunity to explore consumer devices and talk to scientists and researchers about their visions on convergence.

Media

Media Studied During Session

I-TV applications from european broadcasters (some examples from www.broadbandbananas.com)
Pixelpark internal case studies and prototypes
European project "UP-TV"
Experiements with Real Producer
Applications for mobile devices