Assignment on Prototyping a multifunctional television

Introduction:

We live in modern era where everyone is looking for comfortable and user friendly technology and devices. We have a lot of modern amenities in the present day market and television is one of them. It is a great source of entertainment where we can watch movies, dramas, songs, sports, events and so on and we can store them in set top boxes. Some time we use TV screen for computer display. We hear radio by our radios or mobiles or internet web. Now human beings are very willing to get a television which will show all the television programs, some on demand facilities, storing facilities, internet access and browse facilities and provide radio channels. Television will have some voice or gesture interface which will make our life easier and comfortable.
Present day market there are some internet TV or some on demand TV networks are available. Some companies are working to manufacture an integrating TV which will provide above facilities. Here I will design a project regarding integrating TV which will provide those facilities. In design section I will describe the basic and normal functions of each component of the TV. In implementation part I will discuss required process and then I will evaluate the project outcomes.

Formulate the project:

1.1Formulate and record possible outline project specifications:

The present scenario of UK is that people are deprive from the benefit of web television as they are blocked from access by Google TV and BT use more than 50% of downstream traffic during the pick time. Some television companies introduce a new on demand TV; on the other hand some electronics company introduce a web television with limited video portal. People are not accustomed this kind of situation, they are always use open source of internet. So in this report I will give a project outline about a multi-functional television which will provide good television quality, web and radio connectivity. Now I will give the outline of the project in the following part:

Vision:

Introduce a new integrated high performance and multi functional television in the market

Mission:

A multi functional television where people will able to watch TV programmes and mean time can access to internet to serf customer’s intended web sites and a radio channel facilities.

Assumptions (basis for all planning and calculations):

Cost per television will be £1500-£2000 depending on size after modification.

Existing competition:

Google TV, Panasonic, Vizio etc.

Business plan and financial analysis (dates, comment on credibility):

The television will be available in the market by next July, 2013.

Cash investments:

£10,050,000– founders’ personal money – invest on July 6, 2011

Anticipated market penetration:

By the end of year 2013 it will be available in USA and UK market and by 2014-rest of the world.

1. Identify the factors that contribute to the process of project selection:

   There are three main factors for selecting this project. Those three factors are:
   • Need
   • Problems
   • Trend or pattern

All of them are subdivided in different parts. And they are:

Need:

• Market/ community demand- this proposed television has great market demand as they can browse internet and listen radio with normal TV function.
• Government or company mandate- As there is no side effect or health problem government has no obligation regarding this new innovation.
• Cost reduction strategies- the present web TVs are too costly, our goal will reduce this cost. At the beginning the price will be high but after the time being it will be low down.
  
  

  Problems:

• People are facing problems to watch online television for interrupting of services during pick times.
• They are looking for an integrated technology which will provide all mentioned facilities, without those they are treating the prevailing technology as a backdated technology. So it a technical problem as well.
• Now they have to pay separately for watching television, listening radio and browsing internet. So it is wasting of money. If they got all those services in an integrated system then they can save money. So economical problems are also responsible for this new innovation.
  
  

  Trend approach:

• Young generation are very much eager to use new technology and they want to be technologically solvent. So they want change in present television technology
• Educated persons are willing to use modern technology so they don’t have any kind of problem to welcome this new product in market [1]

1. Produce a specification for the agreed project:

   
   

   Prototyping a multifunctional television

   1. Project description

      • Scope of work: this prototype multifunctional television will provide modern animated graphics, web searching, web browsing, various application, mobile interacting remote control, personalized homepage, dual view, enhanced radio channels and a lot of amazing features with compatible price.

      • Application: it will be used for main three applications such as watching television, browsing internet and listening radio. Some other features are storing video and human computer interactions.

      • Functional objectives: operation must be user friendly and if something wrong it will show message on the screen or giving some commands to user what to do. It will have voice command capabilities to interact with users.

      • Layout and technology: most of the things will be same as web television but it will have high processor and RAM, good storage capability, extra antenna for radio channels or merge the radio channels with TV channels.

   2. Technology specification for prototyping multifunctional television

      • Viewer’s distance from the screen: if the distance between television and viewer is too long it is really hard to read, cluttered the web pages and it is really tough to do navigation and selection. Those problems will be solved by this new multi-functional television.

      • Performance vs. visual appeal: the flashy visual appeal will be slight slower than our modern PC but it is reasonable because it is integrated a lot of things. But our team will work on it how to improve the performance as quick as possible.

      • Vertical scrolling: Instead of virtual scrolling here we will use horizontal scrolling which will show more information than usual on the screen.

      • Human interface to browse: this TV has human computer interaction like there will be voice reorganization system which can read human voice command. TV screen will be adjusted automatically according viewer distance from the screen.

   3. Performance requirements:

      • Standards and legal/ regulatory requirements: a regulatory team consist of engineers will regularly monitor the performance and product quality. They will check the standard as well.

      • Commissioning and performance testing: before launching the product they will do 3 months trail testing. Engineering team will find out the faults and solve the problem

        
        
        [2]
        and they will do it until get the perfection. Sometimes they will check the product in- front of customers and take their opinions and make some amendment.

        • Other information requirements: some other information are needed like does any company working on it, who will do the marketing, present market situation, cooperation with other companies for sharing applications and so on.

2. Produces an appropriate project plan for the agreed project:

The project plan for multi-functional television includes risk analysis, deliverables, and quality assurance system and quality plan.

This is the project plan for multifunctional television:

The total duration of the multifunctional television plan = 766 days Now I divide the total plan in different sub-plan and assign time duration.

Name	Duration
Initial television screening stage	9 days
Preliminary investing stage	53 days
Development stage	264 days
Pilot stage	115 days
Commercialization stage	195 days
Post commercialization review	130 days

Now I will divide all sub-plans into another time frame.

Initial Television screening stage:

Preliminary investing stages:

Development stage:

Pilot stage:

Commercialization Analysis:

Post commercialization review:

[3]

Risk analysis:

• This television will be expensive
• Old generation will not able to suit up with this new technology
• Screen size is relatively big the minimum size is 42``
• Its needs few time to get popularity
  
  

  Deliverables:

• High power processor
• 3D LCD monitor
• Automatic zooming
• Automatic sound system
• Watching, browsing or listening radio simultaneously
• TV playlist and home page for television
  
  

  Quality assurance system:

• Testing of previous television performance
• Planning to improve
• Designing to include improvements and requirements
• Manufacturing with improvements
• Reviewing new items and improvements
• Testing of the new items

Quality plan:

After initiating this television in the market its quality will be maintain and check every 6 month intervals. Every 6 months later, engineers and manufacturers will do a meeting what need to change, what improvement they need to perform.

Be able to implement the project within agreed procedures and to specification:

1. Match resources efficiently to the project:

   We got 2 years to implement this new technique and after 2 years this multi-functional television will be available in the market. It is a huge project so we allocate money, time, people and stuffs, equipments, facilities very effectively and adequately. First of all we divide our resources properly and distributed our task among all the departments. There will be market research team, engineering team, manufacturing team, marketing team, distribution team. We also divide the total time in 6 different time slots like market screening, preliminary investigating, developing, staging, commercial staging, and post commercial staging. All the steps are very important and they are equally important. Most of the time will be spent in developing work and most of the employees will be involved in this stage. So it needs huge funding and facilities. Commercial staging and post commercial staging also need good amount of work force and fund. The total sales depend on their activities. So for doing good business, company will provide extra facilities to them.
   
   

2. Undertake the proposed project in accordance with the agreed specification:

First stage is screening stage, in this stage expert team will do the market research and find out the market value of this new technology and they will give a decision within 9 days.

Second stage is preliminary investigation stage where they will spent altogether 53 days where they will do assigning resources to investigation, developing investigation plan, evaluating the market, analyzing the competition, analyzing the technical feasibility, assessing manufacturing capabilities, determining safety issues, determining environmental issues, reviewing legal issues, performing financial evaluation, developing financial evaluation, developing risk analysis, drafting initial development stage plans, conducting preliminary stage review decision and taka a decision. In

technical feasibility analysis they identify the production process steps for manufacturing. Market research team is working in this stage.

Third step is market development steps and the allocated time for this is 264 days where we assign resource to development stage plan for a day, then do the market evaluation and spend 40 days for that. Then do the technical product evaluation which will spend 204 days and then concept evaluation which take 57 days. Then we take the decision for going into next steps. Market evaluation consists of gathering market information, identifying and contact customer, performing competitor analysis and redefining product requirements. In technical product evaluation work we do the establishment of product characteristics, developing prototype process, producing prototype product, conducting internal product review, documenting patent application process, conducting technical review, redesigning, modifying prototype process, developing plan for testing product by customers, producing product for customer evaluation, conducting preliminary manufacturing process review and conducting customer evaluations of prototype product. Concept evaluation works consist of conducting technical review, preparing preliminary manufacturing design, evaluating contact manufacturing option, reviewing legal and patent considerations, performing environmental review, conducting product safety review, performing product cycle time, updating financial analysis, risk analysis and developing pilot stage plan.

In pilot stage we do assigning resources, securing customer commitments to participate in commercial trials, trialling product manufacture, and trialling analysis. In product manufacture trialling they do scheduling pilot production facility, resolving raw material and finishing product logistics, reviewing trial plan and requirements, starting trail material production, monitor customer trials, reviewing preliminary trial result, continuing trail material production, completing customer trial monitoring. In trial analysis they confirm sales and marketing strategies, confirm product safety, re-evaluate manufacturing process, develop commercialization plan, review financials, review patent and legal issues, pilot stage reviewing and commercialization decision.

In commercialization stage they monitor and manufacture product and do commercialization analysis. Product manufacturing and monitoring work consist of confirming product specification, confirming customer specification acceptance and trialling participation, developing manufacturing process requirements, designing and order new equipment, installing and testing new equipment or equipment modifications, confirming manufacturing capabilities, developing and reviewing production trial plan, starting production of commercial product quantities, monitoring customer acceptance testing. In commercial analysis they will perform internal product testing, review product performance results, identify long term product requirements, recalculate product economics, affirm decision to continue commercialization program.

The last stage is post commercial stage. Here company will determine does the product meet customer requirement, does sales met projections, and will this product sustain in the market, making the product most cost effective and then expand the product manufacturing. [3]

So this is the way to undertake the proposed project to its accomplishment.

2.3 organise, analyse and interpret relevant outcomes:

In product screening stage the outcomes are product acceptability to the decision maker.

Decision maker gave the decision they are going for the next step or not. Here the outcome is company will manufacture the multifunctional television.

In preliminary investing stage, the company will evaluate the product feasibility. Doing market research, company come to a decision this multifunctional television has great demand in market so it is feasible to go development stage how to develop the product.

In development stage, engineers work hard to develop the strategy. They develop the TV from every aspect like sound, visibility, performance, human interaction and so on. They develop every sector separately. At the mean time they evaluate market and concept. All the result is positives, so company will go for manufacturing it.

In next stage they manufacture the product but not in full volume, they make some trial television. They will exhibit those TV to public and if the public accept this, then company will run the manufacturing process in full fledge.

Then company will monitor the sales and customer comments and complements about the product. They will hear customer suggestion very attentively and if everything is right they will produce the same Television what they specified before but if customer complain any part and then company will amend their specification and change their production plan.

Be able to evaluate the project outcomes:

3.1Use appropriate project evaluation techniques:

Project evaluation is very important for a project to get the acceptance from the company or authority. If the evaluation is not correct after inaugurating the product in the market company will face a huge loss. So evaluation in mandatory and it must be done before releasing the product. There are three kind of evaluation technique like quantitative analysis, quality analysis and checklist analysis. I apply three techniques. In quantitative analysis I need to do a lot of market research. First

of all our market research team will collect data. In pilot stage we do the evaluation of the project. In here we make some trail television to sell in a reasonable price. We add all the values like marketing cost, analysis cost, labour cost, and manufacturing cost and so on. After including all costs we decide the price for this television is £2200. When we took our product on the market place people are too much excited to see this new television and few of them are showing interest to buy and most customers argued that the price is too high. Only rich people can afford it. But most people suggest that if the price is around £1500 then they can afford it but they can go for it up to the price of £1700. So doing this evaluation, we are able to know that the price is high, quality is quite satisfactory. This is a new product for that reason the price is high but our manufacturer team will make it cheap if they start their operation in full fledge. Then we inform our top bosses regarding the price, they told us they will go for that and they are minimizing the cost.

We do another project evaluation by doing qualitative analysis. Here customers are free viewing, accessing and listening the television. They point out some things which is good and which are bad. They mentioned that the picture quality good, sound systems are also good, radio networks are good as well, and they admire the web applications. On the other hand they complain about the browsing speed of web pages are relatively slow, human computer interaction sometimes do not work properly. Those two things we need to change and we came to know that by doing qualitative evaluation of the project.

1. interpret and analyse the results in terms of the original project specification

   Customers complain about 3 things and those are the price is not affordable for general people, web browsing speed is relatively slow and human computer interaction does not work for auto zooming for sometimes. In the project specification it is mentioned that the price will be a reasonable. Auto zooming facility give our television an extra feature but we are facing problem right now because of human computer interaction problem. Television are facing problem to measure the distance of users or if there multiple user present before the TV screen. In specification it is mentioned that the web browsing will be relatively fast but practically it is not true. The screen is large and a web page contains a lot of data and resolution is relatively high, for that reason the browsing speed become slowly. The price was selected considering all costs and they made it only a few numbers, for that reason the price become high. In specification it is mentioned that the price will be £1700-2000 but customer’s demands £1500-1700 for this. I think when they start to produce their production fully then they will reduce the price.

2. Make recommendations and justify areas for further consideration:

   For doing good business we need more customer. If we have more customers, our profit will be high. So I will recommend that the authority will take initiative to consider those things:
   • Price will be reduced by 300 pounds
   • Redesign the human computer interaction part
   • Redesign the web browsing facilities

For reducing the price they can do slightly change the design or they can buy chips from China is less price or reducing some other cost. For the other two problems the engineering division will work upon that how to improve the quality and how the design will be user friendly.

Be able to present the project outcomes

4.1 produce a record of all project procedures used:

This project has great aspect to the users because it will bring new facilities to them. first of all we do the market research and identify that majority of people want to change their conventional television technology. Then we watch that they are looking for multi-functional television which will provide TV activity along with web browsing and radio connectivity. Then we do on research. Our market team work on it, our engineering team make a design and develop this design. Then they work on it. Engineers develop every component of the television and then integrated it. After integration they make a trial version and marketing team do research on trial version. They collect user opinions regarding this TV, its features, user recommends and so on. Marketing team inform those thing to the authority. Authority told engineers to change those. And finally they produce the television.

1. use an agreed format and appropriate media to present the outcomes of the project to an audience.

   We always write down our plan and activities. We prepare our plan first then act upon them. First of all we do the meeting and determine our plan, then split our task and then everybody acting upon it. Our activities are clear and crystal. We always maintain time management skills.
   
   
   Those are the outcome of this project:
   • Search in television
   • The web is now a channel
   • A new world of apps for TV
   • Phone = remote control
   • Fling a video from mobile to television
   • Watch and browse simultaneously
   • TV gets a homepage
   • Find favourite episode
   • Create a TV playlist
   • Record from the search bar
   • The ultimate picture frame
   • Radio connectivity[4]

At last I want to say the total cost of this project is around £10,000,000 and the goal of this project give customer pleasure at home and make his TV good entertaining elements with various features. Watching television has some bad effect like it will hamper our eye-sight, physical fitness and so on. So it is better to watch television for small period of time. The other limitations of this television are : it is not cost effective, web browsing is slow and some problem in human computer interaction.

Conclusion:

We live in modern technological era. We are using a lot of technological products in our everyday life which makes our life easy. Television is a great source of entertainment and most of the houses have this equipment. Now everybody is looking for an integrated television system which will give extra feature. They want television, radio and internet browsing and storing video in an integrated system. This is possible to make and it needs two years of time to accomplish this task. But in near feature there will be lot of work on technical improvement. In near future most of the things will be ubiquitous.

Reference:

1. How to identify and formulate a project, Last modified on : 21/07/08, Access on: 10/06/11, available on: http://www.articlesbase.com/project-management-articles/how-to-identify-and- formulate-project-491875.html
2. Project planning tool- Project specification; Access on: 10/06/11, available on: http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/cut-carbon-reduce-costs/products- services/projectplanningtool/pages/project-plan-produce-spec.aspx
3. Plan: new product, Access on: 10/06/11, available on: http://www.sharedplan.net/summaries/0/1268.html
4. There’s more on TV then television, Access on: 10/06/11, available on: http://www.google.com/tv/features.html