Camera! Lights! Action! Don’t you think these words framed the technology led phase of entertainment? Well, in the new digital economy entertainment is the emotional interface between technology and us. Technology is the delivery system that the artist as a content maker uses to create entertainment, which is, but a collective effort of creative minds.

The integration is so apparent now. The Web and mobile technology keep us connected throughout the world 24 X 7. As you are witnessing entertainment has pervaded wherever these connections have grown. Moving onto the mobile mania, entertainment companies who now act as suppliers of content for the mobile service providers may as well in the future run the cell phone business.

There is also the case of technology companies like Google, which are now providing computer-to-computer free phone services–Google Talk–may in the future provide entertainment packages along with a free telephone, highlight my assumption of the integration of entertainment and technology. Google then becomes a provision for entertainment, as it cannot survive unless it becomes an entertaining search engine. Hence entertainment and technology businesses are in the same league.

The film business as I know is treacherous in providing returns–a film can either hit or miss the turnstiles. Technology can make the movie business safer. Films can be made not only to have a box office potential but also a DVD, animation, music ring tone download market potential and have its characters separated and owned across technology companies for royalty.

Technology companies are capable of creating entirely new delivery systems as they are already investing millions of dollars in this and they could be the content creators as well. Meaning Microsoft or Google might own the future 70 mm studios rather than 20th Century Fox, MGM or Warner Brothers!

The future of technology in cinema? Technology maybe a double-edged sword-–it can nurture cinema or weaken its monetary impact, lets say through piracy; but isn’t nuclear technology double-edged too? A lot of noise has been made about DVDs destroying filmdom’s fiber but the fact is many Hollywood studios are making more money out of DVDs rather than box office returns. History has established that every new technology gives entertainment a greater revenue stream.

It may surprise you but it won’t take long for the present business model in the entertainment business–read movies–to topple. Technology, the great leveler, is creating a platform where you and I can buy editing software and digital cameras at very cheap rates, create a movie, distribute it on the Web and make money.

The awfully expensive raw film stock will be a thing of the past. Filmmaking will be much easier. Ordinary consumers can get into filmmaking and be the new content providers. Hence anyone of you can get your 15 minutes of fame easier than the previous generations.

Iconization will not be the stranglehold of a select few blessed individuals. ‘Stars’ of the future will be constantly under threat and the cost of bringing them down will be much lower. People will earn money by making platforms on which other people will create content and in turn make money. Entertainment cannot be stopped from being entertained by technology. That’s a thought to entertain, as you flip these pages for your remote control.