Re: [backstage] regional news - footage available online?
On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 6:29 PM, Christopher Woods chris...@infinitus.co.uk wrote: player accompanying the Online articles about the album launch. (Interestingly the audio was dual mono - ambient sound on L channel and overdubbed narrator on R channel? Not sure if that was a snafu by the offline editor, but it was a very deliberate thing to do - be interested to know if that's how News archives ENG material for the double whammy of preserving a clean ambient track for B Roll or just so they can readjust the narration...) That's pretty standard for news packages - the studio output will then be mono'ed before it hits the transmission chain. And you're quite right, it's for archiving purposes. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] F1 not appearing in iPlayer?
Just guessing here, but perhaps because it's not been broadcast on a BBC TV channel (and just on Red Button), therefore doesn't have a listing in /programmes? I realise this is a semantic difference which won't make a blind bit of difference to the casual viewer... I guess we'll see tomorrow whether the qualifying appears on iPlayer - it's certainly listed on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j4j9c/episodes/2009 On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:38 AM, Christopher Woods chris...@infinitus.co.uk wrote: As the new F1 season approaches I'm eagerly looking forward to the various coverage. I'm a little bemused to see that things like Friday's Practice (which is available to view in full on the Beeb's F1 portal) is not available to watch via iPlayer. Is there a reason for this? - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Press Association API?
Just dug this out to have a quick look at it, and it seems that api.welcomebackstage.com doesn't exist - any clues about where we could find the data? Thanks, Martin On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 5:05 PM, Ian Forrester ian.forres...@bbc.co.ukwrote: Ok ok, It does exist, the delay has mainly been on our behalf due to wanting to launch most of this stuff all together. I can announce the documentation for the API - http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com/node/2 But right now, the API is being tested on another server. At some point in the next few weeks, we'll move the end point to api.welcomebackstage.com. Ian Forrester This e-mail is: [x] private; [] ask first; [] bloggable Senior Producer, BBC Backstage Room 1044, BBC Manchester BH, Oxford Road, M60 1SJ email: ian.forres...@bbc.co.uk work: +44 (0)2080083965 mob: +44 (0)7711913293 -Original Message- From: owner-backst...@lists.bbc.co.uk [mailto: owner-backst...@lists.bbc.co.uk] On Behalf Of Tom Scott Sent: 02 November 2008 13:18 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: [backstage] Press Association API? Hi all, I'm trying to track down the Press Association API, which was announced as imminent months ago (http://snurl.com/4xlfr) - does it exist yet? And if not, does anyone know when it'll happen? It'd come in very handy for a project idea I've got... Cheers, Tom - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] DOGs on the BBC TV online streams?
On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 6:32 PM, Robert (Jamie) Munro rjmu...@arjam.net wrote: Congratulations on not putting a DOG on BBC HD during the presidential inauguration, even though there was one (saying LIVE Washington) on BBC One! An unusual but welcome reversal. It was a bit strange that at the end, when they showed a mini-highlights of the day, it was not only SD, it was 4:3. Was that package provided by the US network or something, where AFAIK, 16:9 always means HD? The pool feed was in HD; everything else in the programme was upscaled SD. We're not sure why, but the gallery in the BBC bureau in Washington (who produced quite a large part of the programme) were working with 4:3 material, which is why the highlights package was presented in this way.. During the preamble, BBC HD did cut away to the pool feed more often than the News Channel. - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Windows 7 beta can be downloaded now!
On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 6:16 PM, Brian Butterworth briant...@freeview.tv wrote: If you want to have a look at Windows 7, you can download the beta now (it's really is working) from here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx I've heard there's a caveat, though... http://xkcd.com/528/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Your ideas are now finally welcomed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00704hg/upcoming ? :) On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 11:39 PM, Sam Mbale smb...@mpelembe.net wrote: Another wish,if you may allow me. Bring back Top of the Pops. Happy holidays Sam Mbale Mpelembe Network http://www.mpelembe.net Follow me on http://twitter.com/mpelembe On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 11:20 PM, Sam Mbale smb...@mpelembe.net wrote: Ian All I want for xmas is a BBC logo. Sam Mbale Mpelembe Network http://www.mpelembe.net Follow me on http://twitter.com/mpelembe On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 10:10 PM, Mr I Forrester mail...@cubicgarden.com wrote: Ok so a little while back we kind of launched or announced that we were building out some of the core parts of the backstage site into ideas.welcomebackstage.com (please note the url will change one day soon). ideas is based on the Ubuntu idea torrent project and we're happy to be supporting more free and open software projects. And I'm even happier to announce the submit your own ideas section is now up and running for you all to throw ideas at. So go over to http://ideas.welcomebackstage.com, signup and submit a idea or two The ideas can be pretty much anything from why doesn't the BBC Recipe section not have a RSS and a API to large scale changes like enabling BitTorrent support with the next version of iPlayer. Feel free to go into as much detail as you like but keep the titles clear and readable. This will hopefully insure when we show them to people higher up the chain they will actually read them. Its also ok to resubmit ideas which have come up before and were not resolved in the way you felt they should have been. I'm hoping ideas.welcomebackstage's structured approach to ideas will help with getting official answers and proper sign off in the future. Cheers, comments and questions to us Ian - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] not quite in the Backstage spirit?
Just spotted this in the newest Private Eye (dated 26th Dec)... Andy Alcorn is a student whose hobby is computer programming. Three years ago he designed a desktop widget for Apple Macs which allowed users to tune in directly to the full range of BBC radio stations and have them on in the background as they worked, rather than having to search out individual web pages to do so. He estimates that the free software has been downloaded at least 200,000 times. At the peak of its popularity, around 65,000 people were using it to listen to the BBC. In October he was contacted by the BBC, which had tracked down his private mobile number and home address. Was it to thank him for the extra listeners he had pushed in the corporation's direction, or offering him a job on the technology staff? No. Instead the BBC Litigation Department informed him that while the BBC does not object to the reference of the BBC services ... you do not have the authority to use the BBC logo and as such the use of it amounts to infringement of the BBC's registered trade marks and of its copyright. Alcorn was ordered to remove the logo from the widget, where it appeared in a little box enabling people to knoiw what they were listening to, and provide signed written undertakings that you have undertaken this step and that you undertake not to repeat your actions in the future or face legal action. All BBC logos have now been replaced on the widget with the letters B, B and C, and licence fee-payers can now sleep easier in their beds. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] So Long and Thanks For All The Fish?
When Ronnie Barker died, the BBC set up a nice tribute to him in the foyer of TV Centre - a portrait of him, with four candles in front of it. I'd been walking past it for several days before I got the significance. - martin On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Richard P Edwards [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Did you mean fork-candles? :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_candles Definitely something fishy going on Brian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound-force Rich On 28 Nov 2008, at 11:37, Sean DALY wrote: Could you please explain foot-candles? On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 10:22 AM, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A little nerdy Friday amusement... I saw an article about Mystery of dolphins' speed solved on BBC News. There was a small error - the measure of force was quoted in kilograms. I wrote a little email ... COMMENTS: Whoever wrote http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7748754.stm must have failed basic science. kg is a measure of mass, but the story uses kg as a measure of force. Force is measured in Newtons (N)! I got a nice email back this morning saying Many thanks for alerting us. This error has now been corrected. So, I went to have a look .. and they have changed kg to the imperial mass measure, lbs, and added of force. --- Brian Butterworth follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/briantist web: http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002 - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC Job
On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 11:53 AM, Dave Simons [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Don't know if anyone has seen this? https://jobs.bbc.co.uk/fe/tpl_bbc01.asp?s=jsUrXCzMkBNsPpBkhjobid=23636,5625368752key=12595845c=867186564065pagestamp=selqlfxswflcdthils Probably not - unfortunately the BBC Jobs site doesn't like direct links these days. You can search by job reference via this page, though: https://jobs.bbc.co.uk/fe/tpl_bbc01.asp?newms=se Martin
Re: [backstage] Video recordings of the House of Commons on TheyWorkForYou.com
On 6/4/08, Etienne Pollard [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What I was saying was that the old Freeview version of BBC Parliament used to have a quarter-screen picture and the information that is now in the Astons was provided using MHEG5. This was clear text (to keep the bandwidth down) not bitmap graphics. Forgive my ignorance, but what is an Aston? Aston Broadcast Systems made a rather popular line of TV caption generating equipment - what are sometimes known as 'lower third graphics' are frequently referred to in the UK generically as Astons. OCRing is never going to be brilliant, given the semi-transparent nature of the captions on BBC Parliament. However, a clear text feed of the data would keep the data pure, surely? The machines that put the captions up on the screen have internal text-based logs, to which we have access. However, since this is basically just pulling logfiles off a set of operational machines this access isn't 100% reliable. The data in the log files is of variable quality, since there are some speeches that are not captioned, and other times captions aren't actually speeches (e.g. reaction shot of previous speaker during a long speech can prompt a back and forth of captions, even though the same person is speaking throughout the changeover in captions). So although we use the logfiles to get an approximate fix, we had to resort to the timestamping game for accuracy. Likewise, the caption may not appear as soon as the speaker does - a friend of mine spent a most of a summer in a BBC Parliament transmission gallery, captioning House of Lords coverage in real time. It took while, but she got quite good at recognising peers by their beards. - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Zattoo - live streaming BBC channels
On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 5:12 PM, Gareth Davis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: As others have already said BHX is the extension to London Broadcasting House, apologies for the lapse into BBC TLAs. No idea what the site code is for the Mailbox, if any does know then feel free to email me it - because I can't find a list on Gateway :) I'm not sure if it has a proper TLA, but in CCA it's referred to as BM. (It took me ages to get my head around the fact that NT is Newcastle, NO is Nottingham, and NC is Norwich.) Broadcasting House is sometimes LBH, to identify it as being in London, rather than any of the other ones around the country. - MD
Re: [backstage] New BBC News site
Have I just been rickrolled? I can't quite tell. On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 10:21 AM, Stephen Wolff [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: trry looking at the 'Astley Prank storms web' link - http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_732/newsid_7323500?redirect=7323544.stmnews=1bbwm=1bbram=1nbram=1nbwm=1 On 31 Mar 2008, at 16:36, Tom Hannen wrote: The question is - how best to avoid looking at the black bar? Adblock? Some CSS thingy? Greasemonkey? Tom On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Robin Cramp [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The header and footers are being pulled in on all new designs within bbc.co.uk to keep the standard throughout the site. I must agree that it doesn't quite work in this instance; if all new pages are to follow this format then it might be worth looking at how the news banner is incorporated better into this design format. Robin From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 31 March 2008 16:00 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: RE: [backstage] [Backstage] New BBC News site The double mastheads (black then red) take up too much space and push the main chunk of the site too far down the page. Apart from that, a very nice design. Centred and wider…. at last. /applause/ -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Christopher Woods Sent: 31 March 2008 15:47 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: RE: [backstage] [Backstage] New BBC News site Me too.. I like the wider pages, good considering the increasing amount of widescreen users (msyelf included). However, the black up top is too large and an unnecessary waste of screen real estate. The BBC logo isn't even aligned with the BBC News logo, so it all looks off-kilter. Also, a slight, subtle columnisation would work nicely - just a slightly darker background colour for the see also column on the far right of the screen would be nice. Some aspects like the darker bgcolor for image captions is gone, which is a shame as it helped separate the main body text from the captions. Not everything in the old design needed getting rid of... Switchable stylesheets would be the win! From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Brian Butterworth Sent: 31 March 2008 15:19 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] [Backstage] New BBC News site Today! http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/03/refreshing_changes.html 300 comments already! On 31/03/2008, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: When did this go live?! The black bar at the top will have to grow on me... are there any plans to do anything else with that, other than a search box? ./Matt - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ Director, Loopo Ltd Suite 2A35, South Bank Technopark 90 London Road London SE1 6LN Tel: 020 7021 0957 mobile: 07801 261 466 skype: stephendwolff Registered in UK No. 5351417 Registered address: Office A, The Old Bakehouse Office, Bunce Common Road, Leigh, Reigate, Surrey RH2 8NP
Re: [backstage] Is it just me, or is some stereo audio on BBC chans (Freeview) out of phase?
I've been emailing Christopher off-list about this - I suspect it may well be a reciever issue. Most of the services on mux 1 are coded in London, and are the same across much of the country on DTT -- and I'm not seeing any phase issues on our monitoring here, with a couple of different set-top-boxes. I've suggested that Christopher tries another reciever, or moves the aerial to somewhere with better signal strength. (I don't know that much about how the decoding process works, but perhaps someone more fluent in DVB will know - is it possible that error correction and recovery could be doing odd things to the sound in the event of low signal strength?) - martin On 3/6/08, Matt Barber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Have you tried two different freeview receivers? Could it be something strange going on in hardware, or delay introduced on speaker setup / processing? On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 1:08 PM, Steve Jolly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Christopher Woods wrote: Can you give an exact channel, date and time when you observed the phenomenon? (03:59 GMT last night on N24, perhaps?) Definitely. Observable on BBC2 last night/this morning (05/03/2008) during the intro for Spin (03:44am). Also observable during the 60second countdown buffer for N24 top of the hour (4am). I can send MPEG2 files if you want (direct streamrip, advantage of having USB DTV receiver). I have access to DTT stream recordings. :-) I took a look at the N24 music you mentioned. Listening to it, there's a very clear difference in the stereo characteristic of the sound between the (virtually mono) talking head segments on either side of the music, and a lesser difference between the music at the end of the special report and the N24 countdown in question. Converting the stereo to mid/side encoding and listening to the new channels separately, the side channel contains virtually no LF component, whereas the mid-channel contains plenty - you'd expect them to contain roughly the same amount if the signal had been subjected to a 90 degree phase offset, and you'd expect all the low frequencies to be concentrated in the side channel in the case of a 180 degree phase inversion. So at the moment, I don't see any evidence for an overall phase error, I'm afraid - at least for the one section of audio I've had a look at. :-) The difference in the characteristic of the sound that I can hear could simply be due to the transition between dead-centre mono speech and a very complex bit of music with a broad sound stage. S - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] Mark Thompson on the iPlayer and platform neutrality
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/02/iplayer_choices.html *lights blue touch paper and retires to a safe distance* - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
[backstage] BBC Reporters mashed
Where are BBC correspondents around the world? There's now a map to tell you: http://www.stuart-pinfold.co.uk/bits/corrmap/ (via http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/01/bbc_reporters_mashed.html ) - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC TWO Programme timings
On Jan 24, 2008 10:31 AM, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] *I* know I can do this, I just wanted to know why the BBC was providing poisoned information. Why should people who have paid for Windows Vista Ultimate Edition have a poor service on purpose? Why should the BBC optimise its schedule services for the benefit of one particular manufacturer of DTT viewing software? As Martin describes, there are standard ways of accurately timing recordings from DTT, and if Microsoft doesn't choose to make them available to users of its software, I don't think it's reasonable to blame the BBC or any other broadcaster for this. The BBC should not CHANGE the schedule, and I am not saying it should. I am saying that if the BBC knows that a programme is scheduled at 2202-2232 then it should deliver that data correctly to the EPG providers. Somewhere inside the TVC is a computer system that has some code in it, or is operated by a person, who programmes in the automatic play out of a pre-recorded programme for a time slot which is translated into the published EPG for a slightly different time. And I am sure everyone knows how I feel about the BBC dictating restricted standards to the public. The person and the system with the precise schedule are sitting little bit up the road in the Broadcast Centre, but that's a moot point. The BBC - and all the other broadcasters - don't publish the exact start times of programmes anywhere. As I mentioned, the way your Freeview box knows that Newsnight has started at 2232 is because at 2232, a flag goes up somewhere saying oh, hey, you know that programme that we said was on at 2230? It's starting in a few seconds, so if you want to record it, now would be a good time to start. It's how things worked in the damp string days of analogue with PDC, and it's how it continues to work with DVB Event Information Tables. Your beef seems to be with the fact that your media player of choice is using a listings guide that's based on the same information that's provided to the newspapers for their listings pages, rather than a service with live-updating cues, such as the one provided over the air with DTT. In summary: blame Microsoft, not the BBC. (Or at least, if you're going to blame the BBC, you may as well also direct some ire at Red Bee Media, their listings subsiduary BDS, ITV Network Centre, Channel 4, Sky, etc, etc.) - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC TWO Programme timings
On Jan 24, 2008 3:31 PM, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] broadcasters - don't publish the exact start times of programmes anywhere, which is not quite Can I assume the word missing from the end of your sentence was true? If you can show me a broadcast schedule for a major channel which publicly publishes, in advance, the exact start times of their programmes (eg Never Better, Tonight at 2202 on BBC Two), then I'll gladly eat a copy of the Radio Times[1]. [...] In summary: blame Microsoft, not the BBC. (Or at least, if you're going to blame the BBC, you may as well also direct some ire at Red Bee Media, their listings subsiduary BDS, ITV Network Centre, Channel 4, Sky, etc, etc.) I'm not trying to BLAME anyone here, I'm trying to find out where the EPG information gets nobbled and make an attempt to get some to acknowledge mistakes and provide accuracy in the data. If I can get a signed letter from someone at the BBC saying that it's Microsoft's fault, then I can go an staple it to the Memorandum of Understanding and get MS to sort it out. It's not being nobbled. The information you want isn't out there. It may exist internally, but it's not for public consumption. The standard method[2] is to get billed timings from the schedule in advance, and then look for when that event's 'running' in the EIT. From what you've said so far, Microsoft have chosen to do it a different way in Media Center. As far as I can tell with the Media Center, the DVB-T reception (or DVB-S as an alternative) is too abstracted from the PVR functions. It took quite a lot of effort to get them to recognise the damn radio stations! ...so do you think the broadcasters should try to make up for your media player's shortcomings? Or should Microsoft perhaps make their software more aware of the way things are done around here? - martin [1] Other listings magazines are available. [2] cf. the 'digital tick' specs to which I referred in an earlier message. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC TWO Programme timings
On Jan 22, 2008 1:59 PM, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A small question. There are a number of occasions where the schedule on channels is NEVER as published! A good example the 10pm-10:30pm slot on BBC TWO. Programmes in this slot actually start never earlier than 10:02pm and usually end at 10:32pm, with Newsnight starting at 10:33pm. [...] I can understand for humans using the EPG, 10pm-10:30pm is good enough, but if you PVR anything (Sky+, Freeview Playback, WMC) in this slot you get an overrun from the previous programme and miss the end. Can something be done with the source data to fix this? To answer your question, something is already being done. - For major networks in the UK, the Present/Following information in the SI tables should roll over just before the actual programme start time. In some cases this is triggered directly from the playout system. Keep an eye on when Newsnight is on 'now' on a Freeview box to see this in action. - A decent PVR should pay attention to this, and record the entirety of the event - ie from when it becomes the 'present' event, to when it's no longer running. To get a 'digital tick', recievers should adhere to http://www.dtg.org.uk/testing/conformance.html , and the document UK Digital TV Receiver Recommendations, which states this. (An event can actually be 'paused', for example, during a commercial break, but I think it's pretty obvious why none of the broadcasters would want to do this.) - However, on Sky, the accurate EIT P/F is not carried across multiplexes, so your Sky+ box may just record from the billed start time. It should record all the way to the end, though - so with the 10pm programme, you may get a few minutes of the preceding programme, but it should continue to record until 10.32pm, when the next event starts. The second-accurate schedules of programmes could be considered to be commercially sensitive, so the broadcasters aren't so keen on publishing them in advance (for example, a broadcaster wouldn't want a competitor knowing about stunts where one programme will start a little early, or follow directly on from the previous with no commercial break, in order to stop viewers switching over to the big new show on the other side). If your PVR hasn't quite caught up with these developments though, you could perhaps try what Jason's suggested and add a couple of minutes either side. Hope this helps, - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Radio 1 Now Playing web data prototype
Ooh, very nice work, I like it! It works pretty seamlessly here on my work PC - except the work proxy has prevented the last.fm images from loading, because that site's blocked. I did consider (but didn't quite get around to making) something similar for my last office, where we were big 6 Music listeners. I don't suppose there's any chance of being able to select other networks too? Perhaps there could also be a history of the last couple of songs played (and their times). cheers, Martin On 1/9/08, Simon Cross [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Backstage faithful, Its a rarity on this list ;-) but heres a kinda product (or at least and idea) announcement We're working on a new 10% time project over here at FMT Audio and Music - and we thought we'd give you guys a super sneak preview. Theres a few of us involved here, including Yasser Rashid, Cathy Bartlet and Ramon Dodd. Its around visualizing now playing information by pulling in data from across the web, and lives at... http://www.simoncross.com/music/radio1/ - its temporarily on a personal server as our infrastructure here at the BBC doesn't currently allow us to do this kind of thing :-( The plan for this is to eventually build a flash version which is full-screenable to provide a visual companion while listening in the office, or on the web etc. Future data sources we hope to build on include Musicbrainz, Wikipedia, YouTube, song lyrics,Yahoo Music and loads more. At the moment, we've just got as far as last.fm, flickr and the webcam, but its a start! Comments welcome! S - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] 403 Forbidden on http://www.bbc.co.uk/technology/
It appears to be a slightly iffy redirect - bbc.co.uk/technology points to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm - the 404 you're getting is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm/ On 1/9/08, Melissa Packer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 404 for me here inside the firewall. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sean DALY Sent: 09 January 2008 09:13 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: [backstage] 403 Forbidden on http://www.bbc.co.uk/technology/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/technology/ is showing 403 Forbidden. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC iplayer on exotic devices
On 1/4/08, Ian Forrester [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just in case anyone missed it, there's a bunch of developers trying to bring BBC iPlayer content to the Xbox1 and Wii. The main thread can be found here - http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27063 [...] This is possibly not the best thread for it, but I'd been meaning to ask lately about iPlayer on slighlty less exotic devices - namely cable. With Virgin Media, I already have access to a selection of catch-up VoD content from the BBC (and 4oD and Virgin Media's own channels). Is iPlayer on cable going to bring anything more than a slightly pinker UI, or will it also mean the same selection of programmes as the web-based iPlayer? I've been enjoying some BBC Scotland programmes on my laptop over the past few days, and it would be nice to be able to watch them at a slightly higher resolution. cheers, - martin
[backstage] Programme Catalogue offline
Hi folks, The Progamme Catalogue http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax has been experiencing some technical difficulties and unavailable for a couple of weeks now. Much as I'm enjoying the testcard, does anyone know when it might be back online? Thanks, - Martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Interesting iPlayer news
Alas, the promise of being able to catch up with Strictly Come Dancing while having a cafe latte in Coffee Republic doesn't quite hold true yet. Having missed a flight this morning, I'm spending far more of Christmas Eve than I'd like to in Heathrow Airport. I was hoping to kill some time watching some things on the streaming iPlayer, but they're all unavailable. I'm presuming they're being served from a non-bbc.co.uk domain - is it Akamai? I can listen to streaming radio though - so could just spend the next few hours listening to 6 Music... - martin On 10/16/07, Martin Deutsch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This appears to have gone live already - I've just connected to The Cloud hotspot in the pub across the road, and it's happy to let me on to *.bbc.co.uk and watch streaming video. The Cloud's login page (which appears when you try to access non-free sites) also has links to t3.co.uk and channel4radio.com. Channel4.com appears to work too, but not 4oD. The link to bbc.co.uk points to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/wifi/, and there's also a fancy flash video (trailer?) promoting bbc.co.uk. You can, seemingly, access this from anywhere at https://hotspot.thecloud.net/cloud-ssg-web/ssg.do - martin On 10/16/07, Steve Jolly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Steve Jolly wrote: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007 /10_october/16/adobe.shtml Also (and apologies for not noticing this before I sent the first email), interesting WiFi hotspot partnership news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007 /10_october/16/cloud.shtml S - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Interesting iPlayer news
Ah, sorry, I could have been clearer - While I can see Strictly (and the rest) listed on bbc.co.uk/iplayer, none of the video clips are available to play here. They're apparently being served from a non-bbc.co.uk domain, therefore are unavailable on The Cloud - unless I pay. On 12/24/07, Troy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm looking at iPlayer now and 'Strictly Come Dancing' is th -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martin Deutsch Sent: 24 December 2007 10:29 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] Interesting iPlayer news Alas, the promise of being able to catch up with Strictly Come Dancing while having a cafe latte in Coffee Republic doesn't quite hold true yet. Having missed a flight this morning, I'm spending far more of Christmas Eve than I'd like to in Heathrow Airport. I was hoping to kill some time watching some things on the streaming iPlayer, but they're all unavailable. I'm presuming they're being served from a non-bbc.co.uk domain - is it Akamai? I can listen to streaming radio though - so could just spend the next few hours listening to 6 Music... - martin On 10/16/07, Martin Deutsch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This appears to have gone live already - I've just connected to The Cloud hotspot in the pub across the road, and it's happy to let me on to *.bbc.co.uk and watch streaming video. The Cloud's login page (which appears when you try to access non-free sites) also has links to t3.co.uk and channel4radio.com. Channel4.com appears to work too, but not 4oD. The link to bbc.co.uk points to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/wifi/, and there's also a fancy flash video (trailer?) promoting bbc.co.uk. You can, seemingly, access this from anywhere at https://hotspot.thecloud.net/cloud-ssg-web/ssg.do - martin On 10/16/07, Steve Jolly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Steve Jolly wrote: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007 /10_october/16/adobe.shtml Also (and apologies for not noticing this before I sent the first email), interesting WiFi hotspot partnership news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007 /10_october/16/cloud.shtml S - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] BBC Podcasts Including Music
On 11/21/07, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just as an aside, I have a collection of BBC Sound Effects records on vinyl, can I use 30 second snippets of these on a future podcast? For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Sound_Effects_No._19_-_Doctor_Who_Sound_Effects Presumably, as the podcast publisher, you'd need the appropriate PPL licence agreement too. - martin
Re: [backstage] What's going on with the News 24 live stream?
On 11/19/07, Christopher Woods [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Ha :D Anyway, the cameras they were using had the holographic BBC HD logo plastered along the side of them, so things are looking up - unless they're just old skool SD cameras with a chavlike shopping list down the side of them! I wonder if the N24 cameras are similarly upgraded... It'd be nice to know that it's being filmed progressively, even if it's converted to interlaced for the final step, something which can always change in the future. Only a couple of TVC's studios have been upgraded to HD - TC1 (the really big one, often home to Strictly Come Dancing and Later with Jools) and TC8 (used for light ents stuff like Two Pints). From what I've read, News 24 might well be using the same studio cameras as they did when they opened - plus its source material is almost entirely SD, so there wouldn't be much point in upgrading the channel to HD just yet. (As an aside, BBC Scotland's new studios are all HD - you can watch the studio parts of Reporting Scotland in glorious 1080i, but only in the gallery and one or two other places in the BBC.) - martin
Re: [backstage] What's going on with the News 24 live stream?
On Nov 18, 2007 11:43 PM, Steve Jolly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Brian Butterworth wrote: Givem the original is at 25fps, why not encode at that in fact? 50fps. ;-) (Pedantic, but important...) Surely that just depends on whether your f stands for fields or frames? - martin
Re: [backstage] Use of Tinyurl in Emails
On 11/9/07, Matthew Cashmore [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: hitler A rather crude invocation of Godwin's Law - but does that mean this discussion is now closed? - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Freesat and backstage?
On 11/9/07, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I would propose that Freesat and backstage could provide some special services for Freesat upon the commencement of the service in Springtime of the year ultimate. An interesting proposition - however, extra datacasting services would still require bandwidth from somewhere. Whom would you expect to pay for this? - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Use of Tinyurl in Emails
On 11/6/07, Michael Sparks [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tuesday 06 November 2007 13:34, Brian Butterworth wrote: I suspect that I would personally make them: go.bbc.co.uk/shortcode The shortcode could then also be embedded in any advertising as a 2D barcode meaning someone could just snap a photo of something and have the shortcode easily extractable. Which would be quite neat. You could of course do this today using tinyurl.com and then the 2D barcodes could link anywhere, not just the BBC. I did once spy a large 2D barcode somewhere in the Broadcast Centre - but it was before the days I had Kaywa Reader on my phone to do anything useful with it. I think two issues are being confused a little on this thread, though: - User-friendly URLs these generally exist already on websites with their heads screwed on - either by building a well-designed URL structure (well documented elsewhere), or judicious use of .htaccess redirects (eg. bbc.co.uk/sportscotland) where you want an easy deep link, perhaps to a nasty looking CMS address. - Short URLs to easy linking to stupidly long URLs avoids line breaking in emails (such as the BBC example at the top of the thread), or publishing really really big links as references in newspapers (as the Guardian frequently do.) I don't really think that big organisations like the above ought to have to rely on the likes of tinyurl for this - I'd have a little bit more confidence blindly clicking on, or typing in, such a link if I knew the redirect was being hosted by the people referring me to it. Doing it on their own domain would looks more professional too. - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Use of Tinyurl in Emails
Let's not forget: http://www.GiganticURL.com/ On 11/5/07, Tim Dobson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 05/11/2007, Tim Dobson wrote: Tinyurl.com isn't even that good. http://tiny.pl gives 4 digit ids to it's links and is shorter. Personally I prefer this. I once did little bit of research into similar services and found quite a few. If you are interested, here is the total list http://www.goaddr.com/ http://elfurl.com/ http://doiop.com/ http://www.shorl.com/ http://burl.fergcorp.com/ http://lnk.in/ http://snipurl.com/ http://tiny.pl http://tinyurl.co.uk=at the time tinyurl.co.uk was separate from tinyurl.com http:// tinyurl.com http://notlong.com/ http://makeashorterlink.com/ http://www.lights.com/weblogs/shorterurls.html http://www.shorturl.com/ http://metamark.net/ http://www.freecenter.com/redirect.html http://www.2url.org/ http://link.toolbot.com/ http://enigo.com/shortlink This however was about a a year and 9 months ago, so I expect this list may have significant ommisions and errors in it, and take no responsibility at all for the content at the end of those links. Now back on topic, I agree with both, I think the BBC should give real urls, but have their own, tinyurl system as such. Much as I really don't like them, I think MSN has a similar thing something like : http://www.rubbishMSsite.com?go=DFG43 Of course loads of sites operate these systems, and there are security issues regarding them, for instance, letting public use a private one would mean that phishing scams could have links to http://redirect.ebay.com/34Fg5/ which to many would look real, especially if they ended up at 234.453.432.12 :8080 and found an EXACT replica of ebay's site. I think there is some Free Software (as in Freedom for those who don't know me), code lying around that lets you do this, which might be interesting to look at, and useful to use, to adopt to the BBC's needs. Certainly a better choice than what ever Microsoft is offering cheap today. -Tim -- www.dobo.urandom.co.uk If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us still has one object. If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now has two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Use of Tinyurl in Emails
On 11/5/07, George Wright [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Mon, 2007-11-05 at 17:52 +, Tom Loosemore wrote: Using TinyUrl is a symptom of poorly designed urls... It is? Lots of sites use URLs to pass data, on top of pointing at files on servers. The more complex the data, the more use it might have - the longer the URL gets - eg: http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=ensessionID=JP26_1355129797requestID=2tripSelector1=1itdLPxx_view=detailtripSelection=oncommand=nopcalculateDistance=1 In case Tom's forgotten how to get to TVC from BH Perhaps not the best example - that link breaks, because it refers to a specific session. But if you're talking well-designed URLs for journey planning, see: http://www.traintimes.org.uk/cardiff/birmingham/8:00 - martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Thoughts from a previous BBC employee
On 10/23/07, Andrew Bowden [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Some broadcasters pay Sky to playout their channels and they'll monitor those I'm sure. Many broadcasters go through 3rd parties or do it themselves. Who knows what the exact proportions are, but given how many channels there are, there's a lot of channels to monitor and Sky won't want to be doing regular monitoring of most of the channels, I'm sure. Ultimately playout monitoring has to be the resposibility of the broadcaster in question - which is why four floors below my desk, there's a batch of people working for Red Bee Media whose job it is to check what they pump out (which includes BBC, BBC Worldwide, UKTV and Virgin Media Television) Likewise, the organisations who deal with the coding and multiplexing of those channels (not always the same people as playout) will be monitoring the streams they're sending up to the satellites and other distribution platforms to make sure all that's happening OK. And they'll have lots of mosaics in front of them too.[1] Technically what's being suggested here is easy - and there are bits of kit which will do it without a sweat[2]. Likewise, the interactive part of the channel picking isn't hard - see the BBC News multiscreen for a simple example, and you could associate plenty more audio streams with a service. I think what we've probably established so far is that the politics of getting such a service up and running are what might prevent getting it off the ground. But surely that's not insurmountable, and if someone like Sky wanted to offer it as 'added value' for their subscribers, then they could buy some mosaics, some off-air recievers, lease some more bandwidth, and do it. (It needn't even neccesarily take up a precious Sky EPG number, by making it accessable from an option on the Sky guide) - martin [1] I'm not sure why I'm talking in hypotheticals here - I sit in front of such monitoring walls at work... [2] http://www.zandar.com/products/dx.htm for example
Re: [backstage] Thoughts from a previous BBC employee
On 10/23/07, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: And here's the problem in a nutshell. Also, BBC1 has 17 UK regions on satellite. BBC2 has four, ITV1 has 24, C4 has six (used for advertising only), so it would be impossible to do a matrix for these channels. There are, I'm told, 28 effective regional combinations. It's not impossible, just very very improbable that you'd want to uplink 28 different mosaics containing Sky channels 101-104. - martin
Re: [backstage] What is to happen to Backstage?
I've never quite been able to work out the specifics of the deal (see Eyes *passim*, as they say), but Television Centre (and several other BBC buildings) passed back into BBC hands a few years after that deal, and the facilities management contract with Land Securities has ended. While it's good to see Backstage's future is secure, I'm hoping that my friends with BBC contracts (a rarity these days) can be similarly reassured. Some of them haven't heard anything solid so far. - martin On 10/18/07, Gordon Joly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: And bad news for the 2,000 people who will be let go... 420 from factual television, and 470 will go from News. Multimedia will expand, and they are selling TVC. It all makes sense. Who needs at *television* centre when all you really want to do is to dive into the multimedia (digital) maelstrom and pay consultants (and Mr. J. Ross)? They should sell BBC White City. OOPS. They did that trick already. BBC White City was sold to Land Securities Trillium. http://www.landsecurities.com/press.asp?PageID=25MediaID=15InitialView=False Gordo P.S. Who said content is king? At 16:07 +0100 18/10/07, Brian Butterworth wrote: That's great news! On 18/10/2007, Matthew Cashmore mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED][EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No major news here Brian - business as normal. m On 18/10/07 14:09, Brian Butterworth mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I was just wondering what is to happen to http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/ Backstage.bbc.co.uk http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/http://Backstage.bbc.co.uk as part of the Thompson plans? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7050440.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7050440.stm 'Future Media Technology Online, mobile, interactive, archives 120 - 130 Redundancies ' ___ Matthew Cashmore Development Producer BBC Future Media Technology, Research and Innovation BC5C3, Broadcast Centre, Media Village, W12 7TP T:020 8008 3959(02 83959) M:07711 913241(072 83959) -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth http://www.ukfree.tv www.ukfree.tv -- Think Feynman/ http://pobox.com/~gordo/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]/// - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Interesting iPlayer news
If I'm abroad and watch BBC World, I see advertising next to BBC content. I don't see this as being any different. On 10/17/07, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 17/10/2007, Jason Cartwright [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Abroad a lot BBC content (including the news) already has adverts next to it, so why not online? Because a) it damages the brand; and b) UK licence fee payers should not have to see adverts for content they have paid for just because they are (or their PC thinks they are) outside the UK. J On 17/10/2007, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I get the feeling that today is the end-of-the-BBC day: BBC.com users unequivocally believed advertising would reduce their trust in the BBC brand, so we now hear that.. Ads set for BBC.com website http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2193103,00.html?gusrc=rssfeed=4 *Mark Sweney and Tara Conlan Wednesday October 17, 2007 MediaGuardian.co.uk http://www.mediaguardian.co.uk/* BBC News and BBC Worldwide have agreed a deal that paves the way for advertising on the corporation's international website, BBC.com. The BBC Trust is discussing today giving the green light to plans to allow adverts on BBC.com. But MediaGuardian.co.uk http://mediaguardian.co.uk/ has learnt that last week BBC News and BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm that oversees BBC.com, came to an arrangement that is being put to the trust this afternoon. According to sources, Worldwide has agreed to pay a minimum guaranteed income to the public service broadcasting part of the BBC. In return Worldwide gets the rights to use BBC news content for commercial gain and a licence to exploit the BBC brand commercially. Worldwide will also cover the loss of around £4m a year the BBC's international news website gets from the Foreign Office in grant-in-aid. On top of that, Worldwide has guaranteed a percentage of revenue raised from BBC.com advertising will go back to BBC news. It is not known what the percentage is. Last year the National Union of Journalists was told that the figure would be around 20% but it is thought the actual percentage is less than that. Opponents of the move to allow advertising on a BBC website have sent a round robin message to staff and a message to the BBC Trust, claiming that deal does not benefit BBC news as much as first thought. They claimed that while BBC.com ad revenue would be in dollars, costs to BBC news would be in pounds, leaving the financial benefit to the corporation's public service broadcasting arm open to exchange rate fluctuations. However, other sources denied BBC news is unhappy with the agreement as all the major advertising firms work in dollars and all major companies have to hedge against market fluctuations. BBC executives are keen for advertising on BBC.com to go ahead to help fill the gap left by a lower-than-expected licence fee. Although the terms of the deal have been hammered out, BBC Worldwide cannot proceed with the proposals without the approval of the BBC Trust, which has already deferred the decision once. The trust asked senior management for more information on editorial safeguards, how revenues would be fed back to the BBC and how the site fits with Worldwide's wider strategy. But it is understood that BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons is keen to resolve the issue and sign it off today. Last month MediaGuardian.co.uk http://mediaguardian.co.uk/ revealed that BBC Worldwide sidelined research that found that US audiences would be turned off by advertising on the international BBC website. According to a source involved in the research, a study commissioned by the corporation in late 2005 on the US west coast found that BBC.com users unequivocally believed advertising would reduce their trust in the BBC brand. Further research, conducted in key US cities including New York and Boston, drew the same conclusions. However, the BBC subsequently focused on later research studies that were more positive about the likely response to adverts on the international version of its website. On 17/10/2007, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thus... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil_(cryptographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil_%28cryptography ) On 17/10/2007, Andy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 17/10/2007, Glyn Wintle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The BBC could avoid all this mess if it eschewed DRM and instead employed standard formats. The problems of DRM and Cross Platform are entirely separate concepts. Evidently the BBC has hoodwinked you. Ah large media companies trying to con the
Re: [backstage] iPhone SDK news
I'd say that Apple have a good track record of releasing things, generally when they say they will. The only major product I can recall not seeing the light of day was Coplandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copland_%2528operating_system%2529, over 10 years ago. - martin On 10/17/07, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 17/10/2007, Adam Lindsay [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/ Native third party applications on the iPhone (and iPod touch) will be enabled via an SDK as of February 2008. There's a name for that .. vapourware - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth www.ukfree.tv
Re: [backstage] Interesting iPlayer news
This appears to have gone live already - I've just connected to The Cloud hotspot in the pub across the road, and it's happy to let me on to *.bbc.co.uk and watch streaming video. The Cloud's login page (which appears when you try to access non-free sites) also has links to t3.co.uk and channel4radio.com. Channel4.com appears to work too, but not 4oD. The link to bbc.co.uk points to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/wifi/, and there's also a fancy flash video (trailer?) promoting bbc.co.uk. You can, seemingly, access this from anywhere at https://hotspot.thecloud.net/cloud-ssg-web/ssg.do - martin On 10/16/07, Steve Jolly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Steve Jolly wrote: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007 /10_october/16/adobe.shtml Also (and apologies for not noticing this before I sent the first email), interesting WiFi hotspot partnership news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007 /10_october/16/cloud.shtml S - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] New TV Listing Design
I fear we're veering rapidly off topic here, but... On 10/10/07, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 10/10/2007, Duncan Barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Unfortunately nobody as yet has come up with a way of doing a seamless (ie no macro blocking/breaks in transmission) switch between a main feed (e.g ITV1) and a regional feed (e.g. ITV Meridian) and back on the set-top box end and so it has to be done before the content is compressed and sent out separately. Oh, yes they have... They did it years ago. It's easy with digital TV! You don't even need the black frame to stop the roll you needed with analogue - as per ITV. Auntie had the synchonised network back in the 1980s. Switching between SDI signals is easy; what Duncan's suggesting is a bit trickier. At present: the BBC and ITV, and Channel 4 have satellite multiplexes which carry several channels which are the same for most of the day; they can differ when it comes to news, regional programmes and advertising. Ideally, each mux could carry a high bitrate version of (eg) ITV1 during network programming, but during regional opts (local news, ad breaks, etc), would carry each of the local streams, though probably at a lower bitrate, and the viewer wouldn't notice a thing. I *think* that DVB can do this, but changing the SI tables (which tell the receiver where to find the video and audio associated with a network) on the fly isn't an exact enough science to be able to do it with the frame accuracy desired by the broadcasters I suspect someone - BBC RD? - has already done research into this. - martin
Re: [backstage] New TV Listing Design
On 10/9/07, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I can't see a broadcaster wanting this kind of EPG on their system, as it removes the channel identities. As a viewer, do you really need to know which channel a programme is on before you decide to watch it? I suppose there are a few cases where this would be useful (eg: Scrubs is on now - is it the series I've been watching on E4, or the series I've already seen twice on Paramount?), but generally if I'm channel-hopping, I don't really care. On the other hand, if the broadcaster is showing something unpopular, it may not show in the cloud, in which case the channel-hopper won't know it's on, and won't watch it. That's something for a broadcaster to be concerned about - but maybe they should show better programmes. Perhaps it could help Sky? http://www.screendigest.comhttp://www.screendigest.com/online_services/intelligence/tv_and_broadband/updates/tvi-051007-gbb1/show /online_services/intelligence/tv_and_broadband/updates/tvi-051007-gbb1/show http://www.screendigest.com/online_services/intelligence/tv_and_broadband/updates/tvi-051007-gbb1/show AIUI, a large part of Sky's capacity problem is to do with their receivers still being built to more or less the same spec as when they launched in 1998. There are many things in them which could be done better, but Sky are obviously keen to keep the user experience identical to all their users, so haven't brought in features which might only work on newer boxes. And you never know, they may even have users in mind and realise that 700 channels is just too damn many to flick through. - martin
Re: [backstage] the economics of BBC content
Oddly enough, someone sent me the following link the other day, wondering if it was the BBC's cost-cutting measures going a little too far by asking the public to send in royalty-free images... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6993603.stm (Is this about to open a massive can of UGC worms?) - martin On 9/21/07, James Ockenden [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello This has bothered me for some time but the picture and caption on this page were the final straw http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7005206.stm How much should the BBC be paying for that page, aside from the journalism and broadcast? It really shouldn't need to pay for such a pointless picture, there must be thousands of beautiful lightbulb pictures available for free (although the beeb was accused of nicking them off Flickr a whiles back, perhaps it's all stricter now...) But with some clever feeds, the pictures could be free, just as pretty, just as relevant, and the corporation saved enough to buy a researcher to oomph up the story. cheers! James in HK - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
Re: [backstage] Mobile Developer Un/Conference/Camp
It's probably worth mentioning that the Java versions of the Google Maps and Google Mail apps get a fair bit of use on my phone (a Sony Ericsson k800i), as does Opera Mini. But as Mark says, they're the kind of app which really need a good data bundle. (It's a bit tricky to find the right menu option when you phone them, but Orange do unlimited mobile internet for a day for £1 on contract phones now, as well as PAYG. I find it rather handy for long train journeys.) - martin On 9/18/07, Brian Butterworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: There are some great apps for Windows Mobile: Google Maps for my Windows Smartphone is excellent. But only when connected to my PC, because Virgin Media charge more than a paper A to Z to use it for ten minutes. On 18/09/2007, Mark Piggott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have been developing software for Windows Mobile devices for about five years now. The processing power and memory of a smartphone is the same as a desktop PC was a few years ago so you can develop very powerful applications. I think once mobile data calls are really cheap, things will really take off in this area. Mark Piggott -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ian Forrester Sent: 17 September 2007 18:23 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: [backstage] Mobile Developer Un/Conference/Camp So with all this hype and attention around mobile phones. What do you guys think about developing for mobile devices? How many of you guys already do? Or what's stopping you? Also is events like mobilecamp London (http://www.barcamp.org/mobileCampLondon http://www.barcamp.org/mobileCampLondon) and the Future of Mobile (http://www.future-of-mobilehttp://www.future-of-mobile.com/ .com/ http://www.future-of-mobile.com/ addressing your needs as a developer community? Cheers Ian Forrester This e-mail is: [x] private; [] ask first; [] bloggable Senior Producer, BBC Backstage BC5 C3, Media Village, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] work: +44 (0)2080083965 mob: +44 (0)7711913293 - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.ukhttp://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html /archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html . Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.comhttp://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ /backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.487 / Virus Database: 269.13.21/1012 - Release Date: 16/09/2007 18:32 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.487 / Virus Database: 269.13.22 /1013 - Release Date: 17/09/2007 13:29 - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visithttp://backstage.bbc.co.ukhttp://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html /archives/2005/01/mailing_list.htmlhttp://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive:http://www.mail-archive.comhttp://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ /backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth www.ukfree.tv
