Interactive - Update

After the initial meetings with the head of interactivity (Max Saunders) and our interactive engineering team the ball is finally rolling. The main focus has been on the 'interactive pods', these will be placed around the venue and delegates will be able to use them to access live streams on the Channels along with on-demand content. The defining feature this year is the addition of a CV selection interface. The idea is that delegates can select a piece of media, watch it and then using the touch-screen, access a list of the crew that worked on the production. From here they will then enter a pin number that will enable them to select students CV's to be sent to their registered email address.

This requires several back-end database components to be built:

• Student CV Database – this will contain each crew members contact details along with being tied with their stored CV’s. The proposed idea is to use an existing database that has been created for Media Bugs.
• Media Asset Database – this will contain all of the metadata (crew student numbers) that is assigned to each media asset when it is created on the Final Cut Server (FCS).
• Delegate Database – This will contain at the very least the delegates email addresses and assigned pin numbers.
  

For the website it has been suggested that we look into using Silverstripe (Link to website to help with the construction,), although there were several concerns that this may not be flexible enough for what we wanted to use it for.

Live Streaming:

When it comes to live streaming there are two ways that this can be achieved. The first is to use LiveStream, a free advertising subsided platform. The other is to continue using Narrowstep, with whom we already have a working relationship. Both situations require the streams to be pushed out of Matter after having been encoded, this will be done using the Cisco 2000 box, but it will require Matter to open up some ports on their connection.

Ticketing System:

The original idea was to use a free, third party ticketing system. However this would present the problem of gaining access to their database to obtain the relevant information (delegates email addresses) due to privacy laws.

The proposed now is to build our own system where a delegate is assigned a pin number upon entry into Matter, then in order to obtain a students CV they enter their pin on the touch-screen. What still needs to be looked into is whether or not the email sending is done automatically and instantaneously, or whether it is done manually after the event.

These are just the initial points and ideas that were raised by everyone, there are a couple of questions that need to be asked to Matter, in particular how fast their connection is and also whether or not we can get certain ports opened.

Engineering - Update

The Matter contract was signed yesterday, so now things can really get going. Since the start of term we have has two meetings with all of the engineers (including the first years) along with several other meetings with each department. We have decided to split engineering into three areas each led by a different person:

• Outside Broadcasts (George Alton) - Dealing with all of the live shows on the day, building the flyaway and operating the truck, QC and Post Production support have also been grouped under this area this year.
• Interactivity (Alex Govett) - Creating the website and media management assets for the pods inside of Matter.
• Transmission (Jamie Fletcher) - Applying for DTT license along with managing playout and the transmission flyaway.

On the day itself there are plans for:

• A live channel and a prerecorded channel to be broadcast via DTT
• 3 Live events - 2 run from the OB truck and the other run from a flyaway
• A Post Production area where there is to be continuous ingest of material recorded throughout the day to create the final montage
• Interactive pods placed throughout the venue the delegates will be able to view the live streams along with the pre-recorded content, they will also be able to access students CV's via email.

These areas are the main focus of each department, once general plans have been drawn up then we can start assembling equipment and testing different methodologies to find the best way to make Rave Live happen.

A wiki area for engineering has been set up so that at every stage we know exactly where we are heading:

http://confluence.rave.ac.uk/confluence/display/FComm/Rave+Live+Engineering+Page