Sunday, July 31, 2011

Tech: IT Easy - TV is Internet, Internet is TV

I can't wait, really, I am so excited to have my TV on my iPad or laptop. Every since my friend got a Slingbox, I have been intrigued by the idea of being able to access my TV from anywhere across the island or across the world over the Internet.

Working late and want to watch the news? Go right ahead. Travelling on business and want to watch your favourite local TV show? Nothing stopping you. It's your home cable box, effectively streamed to your computer so you can control it remotely.

Effectively, you have TV everywhere. Which is the name of the new service coming soon from Flow, Flow Everywhere. They will take it up a notch. In addition to streaming of your cable box to your PC, the Everywhere service will stream to other Internet-enabled devices likes iPads and smartphones. That means live TV content on your phone.

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Saturday, July 2, 2011

Tech IT Easy: Get Animated | Cartoons Go Local

If you're a fan of American animated sitcoms like South Park and Family Guy, you are going to love Cabbie Chronicles.

Here it is: a group of local actors, scriptwriters and animators took a look at Jamaican life and made it funny with cartoons. In reality, it wasn't that simple, but Cabbie Chronicles does showcase the absolutely hilarious interactions that are truly Jamaican.

And it's not easy. Each episode of Cabbie Chronicles is roughly five minutes long but takes months to make. It starts with the characters, story, the script and the storyboard. This is a heart and soul of the project; this is where the true Jamaican personality comes out to shine.

Next, the team moves to the studio to voice all the characters and, in some cases, create original music for the TV/Internet series.

Then, the really time-consuming work begins. Graphic artists, now animators, spend months creating the images needed for the animation. Locked down in dark rooms with advanced equipment and cutting-edge software, the animators string together hundreds of thousands of images in a precise and specific sequence to give the illusion of movement.

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