BBC's Blog, page 26
February 15, 2013
Links: BBC iPlayer and Archers messageboard closure
Hi there everyone, two weeks have passed since my last round-up so here is a quick update on the major stories about BBC Online.
The news that 40 hours of BBC content is to be made available on BBC iPlayer before TV broadcast was widely reported this week.
Although the BBC has been experimenting with online only content for a while now, Pond Life and Feed My Funny being the most obvious examples, the information gleaned from the minutes of a BBC Trust meeting in December was leapt upon by some of the press.
BBC iPlayer
The Telegraph linked the story to the apparent success of the Netflix exclusive House of Cards.
General Manager of BBC On Demand Daniel Danker commented to BBC in house magazine Ariel that:
“We are measuring ourselves against the wrong competitors, because actually the companies that are most likely to be disruptive in what we do are Google through YouTube, Amazon through LoveFilm and Netflix.”
Radio Times speculated whether the “Corporation’s new experiment is designed to see whether iPlayer’s contribution to the BBC’s overall viewing figures can be increased with online-only premieres” while Endgadget quietly approved stating that “The BBC, despite its sometimes stuffy image, is revealing that it's just as eager to break with tradition.”
The Archers messageboard
The news that the BBC is to close the Archers messageboard was met with outrage by its small but loyal fan base. In a blog post Archers interactive editor Nigel Smith explained that, along with the general BBC move away from message boards in favour of other social media platforms (as explained by Ian Hunter in 2011):
“there are around 10,000 regular visitors to the message board, the number of people who contribute actively has dropped below a thousand […] we hope that you continue to contribute to Archers discussions elsewhere online.” However, comments on the blog post were predictably unfavourable:
Glorybal-MUSTARDLAND FOREVER commented:
“The only part of the website I have visited regularly is the messageboard. I think I visited the Blog once but have never bothered with any of the other parts as all I needed could be found on the MB. I do not Tweet and will not join Facebook which exist only to make a profit. I am disappointed in the behaviour of the BBC.”
Nigel will be on Feedback on Radio 4 today at 4.30pm discussing the closure with listeners.
The Next Web favourably reported on the reintroduction of the Favourites feature on the iPlayer Android App:
“All iPlayer really needs now is ‘accounts’ to let users sync all their favourites across platforms, though don’t hold your breath for that. Actually, another big feature the Android app could do with is downloads, which you may remember was introduced for the iOS incarnation back in September.”
Building the R&D website
The Research and Development blog have published another set of updates on cutting edge work from BBC R&D:
“Tristan and Michael have been watching with fascination our World Service archive prototype being picked up by the radio drama community, starting with someone creating a curated collection of the radio drama and plays in there.”
As well as continuing research on the Internet Of Things
“Vicky and Jasmine are continuing to explore and prototype ideas framed on our research questions: - How can we give non-digital objects behaviours to make stories more captivating and absorbing? - How can we make media management more physical? - How can we bring characteristics of theatre into the home? - How can we get our audience to shape and build their own experience?”
Pitching at the Connected Studio
Finally this week I was fortunate enough to drop by the News Connected Studio to hear the pitches given to the News product team at the end of the two day build sessions.
Head of News product Chris Russell was on the judging panel to decide which ideas will be taken through to the pilot stage and it was fascinating to hear about the features we might be seeing on the News site in the future.
Follow the BBC Connected Studio on Twitter to get insights on what happens at the studios.
As ever it would be great to hear your thoughts. Have a great weekend.
Eliza Kessler is the content producer on the BBC Internet blog.
February 14, 2013
Digital Bristol Week
Hi I'm Mark Jacobs, programme manager for the BBC Academy.
I run, with a small team of colleagues, an innovative training project called Fusion. Through labs, workshops and conferences we support the development of critical new skills that support the merger of creativity and new technology.
Recently my effort was focused on Digital Bristol Week, the largest free training event yet held in Bristol and one which proved a massive success and could be a model for other cities.
The week-long schedule of networking, training and knowledge exchange for the creative industries was hosted and produced by the BBC Bristol Partnership. The BBC Bristol Partnership is a formal agreement between BBC Bristol and organisations right across the city.
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Watch the Digital Bristol Week roundup video
Collaboration was at the heart of the success of the week – partners included Bristol University, Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol City Council, Creative England, Creative Skillset, Bristol Media and the University of the West of England.
Each day had a different theme and focus: core skills day, broadcast and beyond, technology day with events ranging from presentations on the future of broadcasting to workshops on key skills such as production management, development and leadership.
There was even a mini games summit at the Pervasive Media Studio and an opportunity to play test the extraordinary Memory Dealer.
Bristol Media also delivered a unique 'Open Doors' event where people could visit one of 16 local companies including Aardman.
I believe events of this kind are likely to become an important part of the BBCs future. They build relationships both internally and externally, inform us all about the future and provide vital training and goodwill between staff and the freelance community.
Over 500 delegates were reached across the week and more than a thousand tickets issued. That is a fantastic credit to all involved.
Many sessions in the main conference room were filmed and these videos are on the BBC Academy YouTube channel. The playlist includes a look into interactive documentary making and digital predictions for 2013. They will be, I hope, an invaluable resource for those who couldn’t attend.
Students from the University of the West of England produced excellent films on digital innovation with expert guidance from the BBC Academy’s Deidre Mulcahy.
It was great fun and a big learning curve in how we can use partners to provide camera and edit support around events. At the same time it provided a worthwhile learning experience for the students. Find these clips and more on the BBC College of Production Website.
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Tips on making apps from Max Whitby
BBC Technology also delivered a great Technology Fair with a range of stands on everything from how to use the BBC archive more effectively to accessibility.
An event of this scale involves support both from partners and many different parts of the BBC. A full thank you list would be too long for this blog. But credit must go to the BBC Academy, in particular Tracy Hall and Zoe Brandon and colleagues from BBC Bristol Sue Soni, David Aston and Andy Corp.
Lastly, thanks to everyone who supported this event and produced sessions. We were all delighted with the results and I personally hope it will inspire other events of this kind in the future. If you have any feedback or questions about the week, then please leave a comment below.
Mark Jacobs is programme manager, BBC Academy.
Read more about Digital Bristol on the About The BBC blog and the BBC Academy website.
February 13, 2013
Transparency and the Internet blog
The Internet blog was set up in 2007.
Its aim has always been simple: to provide a place where people from the BBC’s technical and editorial teams who work in BBC Future Media and BBC Online can talk about their work and get feedback from readers.
Over the years the subjects covered by this blog have changed a great deal. Andy Quested was a regular contributor about BBC HD at one point, at another Anthony Rose’s posts about the development of BBC iPlayer always caused great excitement and in 2011 the latest version of the BBC Home page was covered in detail.
Traffic to the Internet blog between July and September of 2012 – does publishing graphs like this one aid transparency?
From time to time myself and the content producer discuss with colleagues the performance and editorial direction of the blog. As Eliza explained the blog recently migrated to a new platform with a new look and feel. So this feels like a good time to pause and think about what we’re doing and what we could do.
As you can see from the above graph of traffic the blog did well in the summer of 2012, driven by the posts that we published about the Olympic Games. In fact the Olympic spike for the blog were the best numbers the blog has ever achieved to my memory.
So some people are reading what is published.
But I thought it might be useful to consider what we do on the blog in a different, more philosophical way.
'Transparency' is a word I’ve been hearing a lot recently.
The BBC Trust has a statement on its website saying:
"As a public body the BBC has a responsibility to operate as transparently as possible. The Trust takes this duty seriously and has tasked the BBC with setting new standards in openness and transparency."
Transparency has lots of different meanings in different contexts. Wikipedia has various definitions.
So to stimulate my thinking I’d like to ask you, the readers of the blog some questions:
What does 'transparency' mean to you?
Does the Internet blog help BBC Online be more 'transparent'?
Is there any new content or features that you feel would increase 'transparency'?
Please leave a comment and I will respond. Try and focus your comments on the Internet blog rather than the BBC as a whole as this will make for a better conversation and as always remember the house rules.
Nick Reynolds is public accountability executive, BBC Online.
Audio and Music Technology at the BBC
Hi I’m Ian Astbury a senior investigations engineer in BBC Technology and I work with a small team that provides technology expertise across BBC Audio & Music (A&M).
As well as supporting existing production facilities we aim to help A&M in finding new and innovative ways to enhance the experience for our audience.
LUFS (Loudness Units with respect to Full Scale) meter
Much of our work is behind the scenes – for example planning new studio facilities or modifications to existing parts of what we affectionately call the ‘broadcast chain’.
It’s an apt name to describe the huge number of stages that our programmes pass through on their way from studio to transmitter or internet feed.
A large part of the chain is concerned with routing audio and data (for example text describing a programme item) to the right place at the right time.
Then there are the more controversial stages in the chain such as the audio processing that we use so that our listeners can enjoy their favourite programmes as much in their cars and kitchens as in a quiet living room.
The whole subject of loudness and dynamic range - the ratio of loud to quiet parts within a programme - is something that we are currently reviewing.
Recent work in partnership with other broadcasters and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is refining the way in which audio levels are measured, linking them more closely to subjective loudness rather than signal peaks.
The Proms available on Radio 3’s HD Sound internet stream
One of the great things about radio today is the diverse ways of listening which (apart from making our job more interesting!) gives us the flexibility to innovate.
A good example of this was the launch of Radio 3’s HD Sound internet stream. Initially seen as an opportunity to showcase our audio quality at its best during the 2011 Proms season, it has since become a permanent feature of BBC iPlayer.
Just set the bandwidth to ‘HI’ on Radio 3’s live or on-demand streams and enjoy superb sound via a 320kbps AAC audio codec.
Another topic generating a lot of interest is ‘radio visualisation’ in which video content from our radio studios is added to a station’s online output.
What began as simple webcam feeds is now becoming more sophisticated and can provide good quality video. Any presenter who thought that working in radio meant no worries about hairstyle had better think again!
Other aspects of our work focus on the logistics of making programmes – how best to capture and transport the audio and the systems required for editing, scheduling and playout.
An increasingly important part of this is managing the metadata associated with the audio – in itself a huge subject.
In all of this we value our close partnerships with other BBC divisions and external service providers.
Of course, this is just a brief overview - the diverse nature of our work and the collective experience within our team means that we are occasionally approached for advice on some very obscure subjects!
Over the coming months our team will be blogging in more detail about some of our projects.
Ian Astbury is a senior investigations engineer in the Audio and Music Technology Controller team.
For more behind the scenes information on developments at the BBC, visit the BBC Radio Blog and Research & Development Blog.
February 11, 2013
What's On BBC Red Button 9th - 16th February
Look out for some great music content on Red Button this week. We’re got 6 Music Live with Lauren Laverne and the Sound and the Fury with a special Red Button performance from the London Sinfonietta.
For regular updates follow @BBCRedButton on Twitter.
Lauren Laverne presents 6 Music Live
6 Music Live
Lauren Laverne presents 6Music Live from the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, hosting another week of very special live performances from Suede, Foals, Everything Everything and Richard Hawley. You can find out more and get the full line up at 6 Music Live at Maida Vale
Mon 11th February, 8:00pm-11:30pm
Tue 12th February, 12:30am-10:30am, 5:30pm-7:00pm, 8:00pm-9:55pm
Wed 13th February, 5:00am-1:00pm, 4:15pm-7:00pm, 8:00pm-6:00am
Thu 14th February, 6:00am-1:00pm, 8:00pm-1:55am
Fri 15th February, 4:00am-12:00pm, 15th February, 4:15pm-9:30pm, 10:30pm-6:00am
Sat 16th February, 6:00am-7:00am
Mark Williams as Beech in Blandings
Blandings
Want to take a closer look at the castle and characters in BBC One’s Sunday-night comedy? Join us as Beach gives a guided tour of Blandings Castle and its ancestral history - watch out for encounters with some of the residents including the Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth's prize Sow.
Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:
Mon 11th February, 11:30pm-12:30am
Sound & The Fury
Beginning on Tuesday 12th February, on BBC Four, The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Modern Music traces the turbulent history and ground-breaking music of the last century, uncovering how the last 100 years have changed music and the way we listen to sound forever.
In the first episode, Wrecking Ball, a host of renowned composers explore the foundations of contemporary music and discuss why 20th century composers deliberately chose to discard the traditional structures of form, melody and rhythm in favour of consonance and dissonance.
The three episodes also feature specially filmed performances from a number of ensembles including the London Sinfonietta, which can been seen in full on the Red Button after each programme. This week features music by Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Charles Ives.
Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:
Tue 12th February, 9:55pm-5:00am
Fri 15th February, 1:55am-4:00am
In It To Win It PAQ
Dale Winton’s In It To Win It, the game show where people use their general knowledge to win a big money jackpot, is back. Think you can do better than the studio contestants? Every Saturday press the Red Button during the show to pit your wits against our studio contestants.
Available on Sky and Freeview:
Sat 9th February, 8:20pm-9:10pm
Sat 16th February, 8:10pm-9:00pm
The 4 O'clock Club
The 4 O'Clock Club
Grab your sandwiches and do up your tie because CBBC Extra is going back to school!
Press Red and join Cel and Hacker T. Dog as they introduce a wealth of visual goodies celebrating the return of CBBC’s The 4 O’Clock Club!
See what happened when Hacker visited The 4 O’Clock Club’s home, Elmsbury Academy, in search of some new additions for his imaginary talent agency, catch up on some totally cool character profiles and watch an exclusive sneak peek of a never before seen episode!
As always you can read Chris and Dodge’s blog, check out the answers to some of your questions and read your horoscopes as written by Yonko.
Go on, press red… You know you want to!
Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:
Sat 16th February, 7:00am-1:00pm
CBeebies Red Button
CBeebies Red Button welcomes younger viewers and grown-ups with a sense of adventure to the big, bright and fun world of CBeebies interactive!
Your children's favourite characters are at the heart of the interactive TV experience. Satellite and digital terrestrial viewers will have slightly different offerings from one another. This has enabled the Red Button team to offer the best games tailored to each system.
CBeebies Red Button is available on the CBeebies channel.
Visit the CBeebies website to find out more.
Available on Freeview and Sky only
BBC Sport
Catch up on all the latest Sport here on the Red Button.
For the latest information refer to the BBC sport website and Red Button schedule.
Snooker: Coverage of the Welsh Open
World Championship Skiing: Men's Super Combined Slalom
**Note all Red Button times are subject to change at short notice**
Red Button digital text changes
Over the next weeks, we'll be making some changes to the BBC's Red Button text services. We are performing some technical work behind the scenes to remove the final parts of the publishing processes still powered by the recently discontinued Ceefax service.
We've tried to keep any changes to the public service to a minimum, but there will be some alterations to the content provided. For full details of the changes are listed on the Red Button service on p998.
Red Button events on Virgin Tivo
Right now Connected Red Button does not currently feature eTV (enhanced TV) streams on the Virgin TiVo service. While users can already enjoy live coverage and highlights from a range of Sporting events on the service, we are working to extend this capability to a wider range of events, on and off-schedule content during 2013.
Please note that there was delay to this blog going live due to technical difficulties.
February 8, 2013
Building Connected Red Button
Hi I'm Duncan Fortescue the technical lead for the BBCs Connected Red Button.
Last month saw a major milestone for our team here in MediaCityUK in Salford as we launched the Connected Red Button on its first platform (Virgin TiVo).
See Matt Coulson's blog post for more information.
Connected Red Button on TiVo
This has been a fairly long journey for us in terms of the use of agile techniques in a technology project so I'll attempt to give you the what, why and how of the project from a technical point of view.
Techies like requirements
The project team responsible for this first iteration (or version) of the Connected Red button is a dozen strong multi-disciplinary software engineering team but due to the nature of the project many other areas of the BBC have been involved in a design or engineering capacity.
The high level requirements for the Connected Red Button were outlined by Daniel Danker in his blog post.
In short it had to:
• Be multiplatform
• Be accessible from the red button on remote controls
• Overlay broadcast
• Be contextual to broadcast
These requirements sound quite simple but it’s not all as trivial as it first appears.
Put it on the telly
From the beginning the requirement for multiple TV platforms dictated some of our architectural choices.
IPTV platforms on the market in the UK today come in several different breeds and flavours including many different client presentation technologies (examples include HTML and AS2/AS3 Flash).
Even when the technology is the same there are often different implementations from one manufacturer or operator to another.
Regardless of which platform came first it was blatantly obvious to us that we must create the vast majority of the application logic as a common service and allow it to be used by many applications.
This gave us a very simple Client-Server architecture with the ability for multiple client implementations to be driven by the same data.
The client implementation just provides the user interface 'paint' to present the content to the user.
Now we have one server side for multiple client implementations we can just build more clients right? Well, not quite.
The different platforms have different requirements from a performance and optimization point of view. For example ActionScript based devices perform best interpreting XML, but HTML devices tend to perform best with JSON.
There are also other subtleties such as slightly varying channel line ups and reliance on different streaming technologies.
This forces us to identify the client implementation on each request made to the server side for us to be able to provide the correct data.
Data, data, everywhere...
The data that BBC Future Media produces is enormously varied and contains a huge amount of information. As it is domain specific BBC iPlayer data looks quite different to BBC News data which again looks different to BBC Weather data and so on.
This variety led to our next significant architectural decision - domain providers.
For each section we created a provider service that is aware of the source data for that particular domain.
Each provider can then transform that data into a structure common across all Connected Red Button providers and decorate it with all the information a client will need to render it.
In order to tie these providers together we created another provider for the navigation. This means that any client implementation only needs to know how to request its navigation and the navigation provider can then tell the client how to access the rest of the data.
Press what?
We have to be able to launch our app from the red button on TV remote controls. But how do you launch an app that needs linear broadcast for the product to make sense in the world of app stores?
You can’t. The whole ‘Press Red’ paradigm is fantastically simple for our audience but causes us real headaches in a software world – particularly in a ‘Request – Response’ model as we are here.
Launching applications from the red button varies from platform to platform. This requires us to have mechanisms specific to the client implementation.
In a MHEG/HTML world an MHEG application must use a specific resident program to launch the HTML Browser at a specific URL. This is only just appearing in UK smart TVs.
What happens when a flagship show’s presenter says “Now press red for more…”? Well a proportion of the current audience on that channel will press red within a very short space of time.
Up until now our trigger mechanisms have all been broadcast over the data carousels rather than IP so we have no really accurate figures for exactly how many requests could be made and in what time period.
We have implemented a significant caching strategy including a serve stale while revalidate mechanism that ensures the user gets a quick response while our service gets new data.
In short we’re monitoring it very closely to make sure we can always cope as the demand increases.
‘tis but a scratch
Showing an error message on a TV is something we really want to avoid.
From an operations point of view we can turn on and off sections individually without releasing new software. This is fine but we prefer to build in preventative steps to stop that being an issue.
For example we have built in default images for when none exists and employed robust detection and degradation for data errors.
Developing for constrained devices also requires we monitor system resources very closely.
We perform extensive profiling during the development process to identify bottlenecks such as load times and this allows us to reorder events to give an improved user experience whilst still doing the same amount of work.
This profiling also shows us where memory is being used and more importantly when it is released.
Baby Steps
Even though the Connected Red Button was only launched to the public last month we’ve had it running on a select few set top boxes in people’s homes for many months.
Like most software projects at the BBC we work using agile development methods incrementally adding small features to the product.
Our first version of the product had just two buttons and all it did was launch iPlayer over broadcast.
But this was enough to be able to see it work on a set top box and then iterate adding functionality at every sprint.
Our team tends to work in a scrum framework predominantly using two week sprints but this varies depending on the features being developed.
For each sprint our product owner Matt Coulson and stakeholders from around the BBC can see the new features developed in that sprint and decide if it should be released.
Now we have released the first version we are continuing this methodology so you’ll see features coming fairly frequently and enhancing the service.
Building the Vision
Like other software teams at the BBC we have recently adopted behaviour-driven development (BDD).
This practice involves our product owner sitting down with a tester and developer to write the acceptance criteria for each feature in English but with a strict syntax describing the scenarios of how the software will behave.
We then use this ‘feature file’ as the basis for our testing. This testing can be manual but is increasingly automated and triggered to run as part of our continuous integration process.
These automated acceptance tests provide us with an integration test suite that we can run on devices and show the software works at a fundamental level allowing the testers to use their expertise to stress the system in other ways.
This process is augmented using test-driven development (TDD) at the unit test level.
TDD allows the pairs of engineers to have a huge degree of confidence when writing new code and performing small refactors. The automated test suite extends that safety net to larger scale refactors and regression testing.
To Infinity and Beyond
The future holds more great BBC content on more platforms supporting Connected Red Button.
Both the press release [link] and Matt’s blog [link] indicated that we’ll be rolling Connected Red Button out on smart TVs later this year. What you’ve seen so far is only the beginning.
Duncan Fortescue is the technical lead for the BBCs Connected Red Button.
February 6, 2013
Dara O Briain's Science Club: Delivering extra content while you watch
I’m Michael Orwell a producer from BBC Knowledge & Learning specialising in science and based in London.
Join the Science Club
Dara O Briain’s Science Club was a six-part BBC Two series which began in November 2012 where the big ideas in science were taken apart and viewed from many different angles in an irreverent but penetrating manner.
While the number of viewers may not yet rival series like Horizon or Wonders of the Solar System, it has a dedicated, growing group of fans.
The ambitions of the Knowledge & Learning product are less about providing supporting content for programmes and more about providing onward online journeys for a factual topic that might have ‘sparked’ curiosity in a BBC audience member.
As the product is still in development my team and I had the opportunity to experiment with existing content formats to let curious viewers get a bit extra out of an area or topic which is featured in a BBC programme.
We set up a Twitter account - @bbcscieneclub, alongside live web chats which have been used in Stargazing and Volcano Live.
Finally we commissioned news features around ideas from the episodes to whet the audience’s appetite for those big science stories.
Trying something different with Twitter
With @bbcscienceclub we decided to tweet out highly relevant content, closely synchronised to what was happening on-screen.
Obviously other BBC Twitter accounts have taken a ‘live tweeting’ or second screen approach but we used early versions of the recorded programme to research and in some cases commission highly relevant, synchronised ‘micro-content’.
So if you liked an idea on the big screen there would be something extra on your laptop, tablet or phone right there waiting for you, straight away.
Engaging the audience
Each tweet’s success is measured in part by a term called ‘engagement’ that is calculated by the percentage of followers of an account who reply, ‘re-tweet’ or ‘favourite’ it.
We aimed to make most of our tweets consumable in the Twitter browser itself so we expected quirky ‘micro-facts’, famous quotes, backstage photographs and our exclusive ‘doodles’ to engage well.
But we also found that tweets which linked to deeper content, by which I mean more in-depth content, could perform equally well if tweeted at the right point of the programme.
The following tweet linked to a BBC News Magazine feature about how phantom limb syndrome had been effectively treated with just a mirror.
It was tweeted after an in-programme demonstration of limb confusion caused by a prosthetic arm and a hammer!
This was re-tweeted 150 times and the link clicked on more than 2,400 times. The tweet also contained a surprising fact about the high proportion of amputees who experience the syndrome which people seemed to find interesting.
Generating discussion
Here you can see the social media analytics showing activity around episode three of Dara O Briain’s Science Club which had an extinction theme.
The big peak in activity at 9.35pm was in response to Alok Jha’s film about the ethics of ‘big species’ conservation. We organised an on-screen hashtag to be displayed and tweeted out the question to our twitter followers.
The benefit of taking a discussion like this to Twitter is that it includes people who aren’t necessarily watching the show, but it also encourages viewers to start posting their own links and blog posts to support their take on the discussion.
Our programme-inspired ‘discussions’ trended once (#talktoaliens) and the general hashtag #scienceclub trended several times in the UK showing that the range of topics on offer seemed to get viewers strongly engaging.
Clicking through to deeper content
Over the course of the series links posted in tweets were clicked on 19,297 times often taking viewers into ‘deep’ content.
Towards the end of the series exclusive web content was very popular with the online clip of Imogen Heap’s technologically impressive musical performance visited nearly 1000 times during broadcast.
Imogen Heap
Other surprisingly popular tweets resulted in 720 clicks to a scientifically proven motivational playlist and over 1000 clicks to the BBC’s seminal SEX ID test, demonstrating the continued appetite for BBC Lab UK style tests and surveys.
This level of engagement with deeper content is remarkable for a programme with a medium sized audience and small but growing number of followers.
Building a following
The BBC Science Club account was only opened on the 1st of November 2012, just four days before the first programme transmitted.
However in under two months we built a following of over 20,000 which is still increasing. I think this is due in part to the engaging nature of the programme but also shows the benefit of a thoughtful and well-resourced social offer.
Chatting to an expert
We also wanted to experiment with using the webchat tool called Cover it Live to post the same scripted content but also to encourage more comments and questions from the viewers.
We recruited some experts to watch the programme as it transmitted, giving their thoughts and answering questions from viewers who were intrigued by the ideas in the programmes.
We had to be careful not to create an activity that distracted too much from the central activity of watching the programme but complemented it.
This approach opened up the question of whether it is better to invite people to ‘come to you’ or whether you should take the discussion to where the online audience already exists.
Throughout the series we encountered far fewer interactions with the webchats than in Twitter but the webchats provoked some fantastic questions which created excellent content for the rest of the live chat audience.
These chats clearly allowed ‘superfans’ to have a ‘deep-dive’ into the themes of the programme and this seems like a valuable part of the experience for factual online content.
What’s next?
Both these content platforms provided great, relevant content to curious and interested viewers of Dara O Briain’s Science Club.
The audience’s high engagement with the Twitter account does suggest that scalable efforts for pre-recorded factual programmes could be very worthwhile and also offer hints at how connected TV / IPTV apps could help deliver extra digital content as you watch the best of BBC Science programming.
Many thanks to Joelle Allen and Jennifer Green for providing statistics and analysis.
Michael Orwell is a producer for BBC Knowledge & Learning.
February 1, 2013
What's On BBC Red Button 2nd - 8th February
For regular updates follow BBC Red Button on Twitter.
Billy Bragg at the Folk Awards
Folk Awards 2013
The Folk Awards 2013 took place at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 30 January 2013 as part of the Celtic Connections festival. Highlights are available at selected times by pressing the Red Button from any BBC TV channel.
Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:
Sat 2 Feb, 6am-9am, 1pm-2.30pm, 7.30pm-8pm, 10.50pm-1.15am
Sun 3 Feb, 12pm-2.45pm, 4am-11am
Mon 4 Feb, 4pm-7pm, 4am-9.45am
Tue 5 Feb, 12.05pm-9.45am
Wed 6 Feb, 12.10pm-5pm, 7.30pm-9.55pm
Thu 7 Feb, 6am-7am, 4pm-7am
Mark Williams as Beech in Blandings
Blandings
Want to take a closer look at the castle and characters in BBC One’s Sunday-night comedy? Join us as Beach gives a guided tour of Blandings Castle and its ancestral history - watch out for encounters with
some of the residents including the Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth's prize Sow.
Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:
Sun 3 Feb, 6.55pm-8pm
Mon 4 Feb, 11.30pm-4am
In It to Win It play-along quiz
Dale Winton’s In It To Win It, the game show where people use their general knowledge to win a big money jackpot, is back. Think you can do better than the studio contestants? Every Saturday press the Red Button during the show to pit your wits against our studio contestants.
Available on Sky/Freeview:
Sat 2 Feb, 8pm-8.50pm
Sat 9 Feb, 8.20pm-9.10pm
Sir David Attenborough
Attenborough
David Attenborough and his early years are the subject of a new collection from BBC Four. Watch an interview with Sir David as he introduces highlights from the BBC Four collection on the Red Button.
Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:
Wed 6 Feb, 9.55pm-7am
Fri 8 Feb, 9pm-2.30pm
Dodge T. Dog from CBBC
CBBC Extra
If you’re a Sadie J fan then join Chris and Dodge for a whole bunch of Sadie J exclusives including an extra special look behind the scenes of the set and a sneak peek at next week’s episode. Just press red!
Also on CBBC Extra this coming Friday we are celebrating Big Fab Friday with a whole host of exclusives including a look behind the scenes of The Dumping Ground and Sam and Mark’s Big Friday Wind Up and a sneak peek at the next episode of 4 O Clock Club.
American Football
BBC Sport
Catch up on all the latest Sport here on the Red Button.
For the latest information refer to the BBC sport website and Red Button schedule.
American Football: Super Bowl XLVII
Rugby Union: Six Nations Forum and highlights
Skiing: Men’s and Ladies’ Super G
**Note all Red Button times are subject to change at short notice**
CBeebies Red Button
CBeebies Red Button welcomes younger viewers and grown-ups with a sense of adventure to the big, bright and fun world of CBeebies interactive!
Your children's favourite characters are at the heart of the interactive TV experience. Satellite and digital terrestrial viewers will have slightly different offerings from one another. This has enabled the Red Button team to offer the best games tailored to each system.
CBeebies Red Button is available on the CBeebies channel.
Visit the CBeebies website to find out more.
Available on Freeview and Sky only
Red Button events on Virgin Tivo
Right now Connected Red Button does not currently feature eTV (enhanced TV) streams on the Virgin TiVo service. While users can already enjoy live coverage and highlights from a range of Sporting events on the service, we are working to extend this capability to a wider range of events, on and off-schedule content during 2013.
Links: BBC iPlayer, Sports app updates, Freeview in Wales, Online Votes and BBC R&D
Hi folks
After the relaunch of the blog it feels like a good time to have a roundup of news and stories about BBC Online over the last couple of weeks.
The most reported BBC Online story in recent days has been the record viewing figures of BBC iPlayer: 1.94 million requests gained in 2012.
BBC iPlayer app
The Guardian reported on the increase of mobile and tablet viewing which along with internet connected TVs overall accounted for a third of the requests last year. “A surge in watching TV shows on mobiles and tablets on the way to work fuelled a rise of more than a third in viewing on the BBC's iPlayer video-on-demand service last year, with Danny Boyle's London Olympic opening ceremony the most requested programme of 2012.”
December saw a significant spike in iPlayer usage via mobiles, tablets and IPTVs with seven million programmes requested on connected TVs alone, a year on year increase of over +1000%.
There were also 13 million requests via mobile phones and 10 million on tablets, an increase of +596% from last year.
In the first week of January executive product manager for Sport Lucie Mclean blogged for us on the release of the new BBC Sport app for iPhones. A large number of you commented with many people questioning the lack of a release on other devices.
This week updates have been released to the iOS app allowing users to watch live and on-demand video clips as reported by The Next Web. “Given that almost a third of BBC Sport’s traffic comes from mobile during the weeks, rising to 40% at weekends and as high as 45% on a Saturday afternoon – it felt a little premature. People have come to expect video (and radio) through the main BBC Sport portal, so the omission was an odd one, even though we knew an update was imminent.”
BBC Sport App for iPhone
The Next Web point out until the release of an app for Android and other device users without Flash on their mobiles will have to watch video content by downloading the BBC Media Player app.
BBC News reported on the Freeview retune in South Wales as local airwaves are cleared for the roll-out of 4G mobile broadband, while BBC One Wales HD was launched.
Martin Belam blogged on his past experiences of working in online voting at the BBC and the risks of basing insights on the information gleaned from online votes. “Although people will look at the technical details, and blame the website security and the programmers, in the end it is the editorial decision to take the number [of votes] at face value, and to commission content on the back of this kind of vote that has been their downfall.”
This week I attended some of the Digital Bristol events organised by the BBC Academy. As well as a chance to meet BBC teams at the Technology Showcase and get a glimpse of some cutting edge camera technology from various Bristol providers, I also attended a panel discussion on The Right Environment for Exploiting New Technologies which included BBC Research & Development’s Dr Libby Miller.
The Loudness Meter demonstrated at the Technology Showcase at Digital Bristol
Libby recently published a post on the Research and Development blog on Visualising near-real-time iPlayer usage data. “Our approach is to think about how real-time data might benefit our audiences and also BBC programme makers, and then develop some initial application ideas and prototypes from those discussions.”
You can catch up on more content from BBC R&D including videos from their In-Session series, a “curated series of video interviews that explore the key engineering issues defining the future of broadcasting and content distribution” by visiting the R&D blog.
BBC User Experience architect Paul Rissen writes for The Literary Platform blog on closing the gap between the storyteller and the audience and how BBC R&D can facilitate this: “as new technology, and yes, new media, become ever more commonplace in our lives, enquiring minds are toying with the ways in which the process of writing, delivering and experiencing stories might change.”
While in the same place R&D senior researcher Chris Lowis outlines some resources either in use or in development which allow BBC staff to deliver these new storytelling experiences.
An example of this is the Mythology Engine which “allows the storyline [of a TV programme] to be described using an Ontology. This storyline can then be presented either in a linear way, mapped to the traditional TV structure of episodes and series, or deconstructed to let you examine a single story arc within a complex narrative.”
Have a good weekend!
Eliza Kessler is the content producer on the BBC Internet blog.
January 30, 2013
What's on BBC Red Button 12 - 19 January
Here's a breakdown of what we've got on the Red Button this week. To stay updated on everything Red Button follow us on Twitter or visit bbc.co.uk/redbutton.
Winterwatch
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Mountain Hare camouflaged against the winter snow
The Winterwatch webcams return, live from Aigas in the Scottish Highlands where the team hope to be following the beavers and pine martens again, as well as some new species.
Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:
Mon 14 Jan, 11pm-10am, Tues 15 Jan
Tues 15 Jan, 11pm-10am, Wed 16 Jan
Wed 16 Jan, 11pm-10am, Thu 17 Jan
Antiques Roadshow Play-Along Game
Fiona Bruce at Cawdor Castle
Fiona Bruce and the team head to the north of Scotland for a busy day in the grounds of Cawdor Castle near Inverness. Objects under scrutiny include original artwork given in payment for hairdresser's bills, the best bargain-buy dolls ever seen on the show, and an early 18th-Century travelling chest that may once have been owned by Queen Anne.
You can now also play along on a mobile or tablet. Find out more and read the step-by-step instructions and don't forget to tweet your scores to #antiquesroadshow.
Available on Sky/Freeview:
Sun 13 Jan, 7:55pm-9pm
EastEnders - Dorothy Branning: The Next Chapter
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What's up with Dot?
Why has Dot Branning stayed away from Walford for so long? Why won't she come home? We're about to find out when Abi Branning leaves the East End on a mission to seek out her Grandma Dot.
This epiosde is also avaliable on iPlayer to watch anytime for seven days. Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview: Sun 13 Jan, 12:45pm-4:45pm
Casualty - The Crash
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Matt Bardock as Jeff Collier
A repeat of the mini-episode for Casualty fans to enjoy as one of Holby's most hard-bitten characters gets a rude awakening. Available on Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview: Sat 12 Jan, 9:35pm-1:15am
Paramedic Jeff Collier thinks he's seen everything the job can throw at him and there's nothing left to shock him. But nothing can prepare him for what he sees when he arrives at the scene of a school coach crash...
In It To Win It Play-Along Quiz
Dale Winton returns with another series of In It To Win It, the game show where people compete on general knowledge for a big money jackpot. Available on Sky/Freeview: Sat 12 Jan, 8pm-8:50pm
Think you can do better? Every Saturday press the Red Button during the show to pit your wits against our studio contestants. Come the final round will you still be In It To Win It?
Sat 19 Jan, 8pm-8:50pm
BBC Sport
Catch up on all the latest Sport here on the Red Button.
Highlights include:
Live Darts: BDO World Championships
Live Masters Snooker (and highlights)
Ski Sunday and Ski Sunday Extra
For the latest information refer to the BBC Sport website.
**Note all Red Button times are subject to change at short notice
Have your say on BBC Online and BBC Red Button
The BBC Trust carries out an in-depth review of each of the BBC's services at least once every five years. This time the Trust is looking at BBC Online and BBC Red Button Services.
The Trust wants your views and suggestions on these services and how they can be improved. There is also space in the consultation to raise any other points not covered by our questions. The consultation is open until 23rd January 2013.
To find out more about the consultation and how to take part, visit the BBC Trust site: BBC Online and BBC Red Button Service Review
If you would like a paper version sent to you, email onlineandredbutton@bbc.co.uk or call 0800 0680 116.
To request the questions in audio or braille please call 0800 0680 116 or textphone 0800 0153 350.
Large print is also available to download via the BBC Trust site:
BBC Online and BBC Red Button Service Review
CBeebies Red Button
CBeebies Red Button welcomes younger viewers and grown-ups with a sense of adventure to the big, bright and fun world of CBeebies interactive!
Your children's favourite characters are at the heart of the interactive TV experience. Satellite and digital terrestrial viewers will have slightly different offerings from one another. This has enabled the Red Button team to offer the best games tailored to each system.
CBeebies Red Button is available on the CBeebies channel, and via page 5900 on other channels.
Visit the CBeebies website to find out more.
Available on Freeview and Sky only
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