Wave of the Future.. Digital Media will Change Over the Next 5 to 10 Years?

Today I can drive down the road and notice electronic digital message boards for road construction or information about detours, I see digital electronic signage posted by the airport informing travelers of delays, arrivals and departures and several other travelers information. Civic centers, sports complexes, hotels, and casinos are now displaying huge digital jumbotrons advertising upcoming events and specials to lure consumers inside and how can tourists miss the 12 story digital message board located at 42nd St and Broadway in New York or the extra large lighted maquis located in Tokyo and Japan advertising and promoting anything that is hot, hip and new in the cities. Will this information be delivered to us on a daily basis?

 Halloween eve I took a trip to Florida's Capitol to attend FAMU's homecoming celebration. I attended a concert at the AL Lawson Convention Center and during a section of the entertainers performance he asked the audience to pull out their cell phones and flip them to the lighted screen and wave to him on stage. I turned around to see the cell phone light show and the entire arena was lit up by hand help portable devices, I think the days of holding up lighters is over. The concert engineers also have different tasks. Throughout the performance the engineers changed light shows, back drops, and digital effects and images as well as fog machines and laser lights. The Back drop featured the entertainers name at one point, his initials at another and song titles then various backgrounds like space, stars and clouds. The digital visual effects were awesome! Can we get this at home? Will we soon have concert access at home?

I attended Church one Sunday and during praise & worship the lyrics to the devotionals are displayed on a screen so everyone can participate and sing. If you forgot your Bible, no problem when the Pastor announces the scripture and the passage is also displayed on the screen. If you were moved or blessed by the service and you want to hear it or better yet see it again, then audio CD's and DVD's are available right after service for a small donation. How many people attend virtual church or watch service from home?

Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Winn-Dixie and Publix all have DVD movie vending machines where you select a movie and pay a rental fee. Blockbuster and the movie rental bussiness are almost all gone. Netflix allows you to order movies from your PC or phone and have them delivered to your mailbox. Will we be able to order movies from our living rooms?

Today is election day, and voter ballots have been replaced by computer touch screens. This addition to the ballot process eliminates lost ballots, manual counting, and toting of heavy boxes filled with voter ballots. Soon will we be able to vote online? or from a home office?       

I think within the next 5 to 10 years people who purchase entertainment will have the option to view it live or view it from home. Some mediums are already in effect. Sporting events, concerts and select movies are already available for "pay-per-view" on cable networks. Most networks offer "movies on demand" that allows the consumer to pay to watch a specific movie of his/her choice at the time they choose. I also think voting, advertisements, religious services, concerts and public information digital media networks will expand.

With the advancements of technology, digital media, flat panel TV's, high definition, surround sound, dolby stereo and 3-D innovations I see this medium becoming more interesting and entertaining and growing to wider audiences. Music, movies and gaming can be seen and heard in audio/visual standards that are vividly rich and crystal clear to see and hear. I see the high def resolution in some movie theatres now, combined with Dolby surround sound. This combination provides an exciting formatt for movie watching, Many phone carriers are offering these features on cell phones, one even promoting a 4.5 inch screen with a stand to view movies and media. Over the next 5 to 10 years I think IMAX theatres will expand, movie theatres will have a 3-D option with some kind of virtual reality movement and viewers input for alternate endings. The Ipad will grow enormously along with the Ipod, cell phones, pc's,and gaming devices. All these formatts will expand to bigger and better titles, while machine, and player performance increases.

I think people who spent serious cash upgrading their home entertainment systems will have the option to purchase a new unreleased movie through their cable provider and watch it in the comforts of home or on a plane or train. Advertisements will be more creative and computers will be operating at much faster speeds and loaded with more memory and quicker drives. Home phones will improve and begin to re-claim its share of the verbal communication market again by adding better audio and video to its services. Conference calls, instructional classes, and personal conversations will have the added feature of viewing the person your speaking with. Computers already have this feature with web-cams so this internet feature should only improve to higher resolution and quicker buffering and "video is loading" speeds.

Gadgets, technology, machines, computers, audio/video, cell phones, televisions, electronic devices and space aged innovations for the future are all exciting new avenues for us all to venture down. I look forward to window shopping as I browse through all the new exciting products designed to make life easier, intelectual, simplified, organized and exciting. The wave of the technological future is upon us and I want to ride the informative jet ski to keep up!