Original Art and the DVB-MHP platform.

William Overington

Wednesday 26 September 2001

The DVB-MHP platform is starting to get underway as a broadcasting medium. In this document, a collection of original art is suggested as an application to run on a DVB-MHP platform.

So what is needed?

Suppose that one has a Java program that is used to produce a display upon a television screen of a sequence of static pictures.

The display could move from one picture to the next either upon pushing the VK_ENTER button on a hand held infra-red control device or after 60 seconds, whichever occurs the first.

The VK_DOWN button could be available to hold the current picture indefinitely, with VK_UP to release the hold.

The VK_LEFT button could be used to go back to the previous picture.

That would be a basic program.

The VK_COLORED_KEY_0 button could be used to display a list of pictures and allow an end user to select a particular picture from the menu.

This straightforward facility would make the program suitable for use as a demonstration in a consumer electronics shop, where the display would change from time to time without human intervention, yet could be used to demonstrate the use of the hand held infra-red control device if desired.

The program would also be useful for in home use where an end user could quietly browse through some original art, or maybe not so quietly as perhaps the end user might like to look at the pictures while listening to music.

As well as the Java program itself, some original art would be needed.

It is in the hope that such original art will be forthcoming that I am writing this article.

At the present time my thoughts are that one would need a number of graphics files, each of either the .gif format or the .jpg format, of size 1024 pixels wide by 576 pixels high, in order to be able to produce a sequence of original art works suitable for display on a wide screen 16:9 format DVB-MHP television.

I am hoping that people who read this article, whether they read it from the perspective of being a person interested in the DVB-MHP system from a technical standpoint, or whether they read it from the perspective of being a person interested in art in a new medium or whether they read it from the standpoint of thinking that they have never thought of producing an art work - until now! - or otherwise happen to read it might just become interested and have a go!

I cannot promise that any original art that is produced will get broadcast, or if some is broadcast which works will be selected, as I have no broadcasting system of my own, so it is not my decision.

Certainly, if it were up to me, I would take the view of trying to get every item that is available broadcast, just so that people could have the chance to participate and have fun!

However, there are bandwidth considerations. Yet maybe the object carousel could be scheduled so that every picture gets some air time once in a while.

So what am I suggesting?

Essentially, it is as if there is a landscape with some stones on it, spread out at random. A person viewing the landscape might look at no place in particular. Yet if someone moves two of the stones next to another stone so that they produce a group of three stones, then a person looking at the landscape might well look specifically at the place where the stones are grouped together. Nothing much has changed, there are no more and no fewer stones in the landscape. Yet if a person looking at the landscape who notices the group of three stones adds a fourth stone to the group, then one has a more noticeable place in the landscape.

I am hoping that, by writing this article, people might start producing original art in the hope of it becoming broadcast as part of a collection on the DVB-MHP platform, even though there is presently no specific chance that it might be broadcast.

I am hoping that, by writing this article, that some broadcasters might like to get a Java program to display original art produced and might set about having a display of original art as a program on their own DVB-MHP channel.

I do not know how to produce the Java program that is needed at this time. Yet, it does not have to be me that writes it and maybe I can learn how to write it.

There are also interesting technical issues. For example, one might produce an original work of art using the Paint program that is often (always?) bundled with the Windows operating system on a PC. Yet if one saves as a .gif file, will the colours come out as one wishes? Or will one need to save as a .bmp file and then get the picture saved as a .gif file using a package such as Paint Shop Pro where one can save as a .gif file using an Optimized Octree method of selecting the colours for a .gif file? Does that depend on which colours one is using? Or is a .jpg file a better choice? Or would a broadcaster prefer to receive a .bmp file and the broadcaster convert to .gif or .jpg format? Or would a broadcaster prefer to receive a .gif file but be willing to receive a .bmp file and convert it if the artist did not have the facility to save as a .gif file? There is much of interest in producing original art using a computer.

There is the Eurovision Song Contest which has been held by the European Broadcasting Union for many years as a cultural aspect of broadcasting. I am not suggesting a contest, just an exhibition of original art. Yet art need not be linked to any particular language and so original art developed for the DVB-MHP platform could perhaps be used in broadcasts in many countries of the world.

Whether such a collection of original art will get broadcast on the DVB-MHP platform remains to be seen.

Broadcasters seeking content for a DVB-MHP channel might perhaps like to consider having an art event and see what response they get. Rules are up to the broadcasters, but entry open to all ages and not requiring an entrant to be an established artist and not requiring assignment of copyright would be a good start.

I am not, at this stage, seeking to put together such a collection of original art, yet if anyone does produce anything intended for the DVB-MHP platform and puts it on their own web site and would like to let me know that it is there to be viewed, I would be interested to know about it.

Send an email about producing art for a DVB-MHP channel

If any broadcaster likes the idea and would like to broadcast some original art on a DVB-MHP channel and would like to let me know of that interest, I would be interested to know about it.

Send an email about broadcasting art on a DVB-MHP channel

Maybe, just maybe, a display of original art from a variety of artists might be on display on a DVB-MHP channel somewhere, sometime!

Astrolabe Channel

This file is accessible as follows.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/ast01400.htm