BBC's Blog, page 37

Hi. I'm Kim Shillinglaw and I'm the head of 3D for the BBC.

Summer seems to have finally arrived, and with that continues the BBC's 'Summer of 3D'. We've had Wimbledon - and what a final to have captured in three dimensions - and I'm now looking forward to the rather impressive Planet Dinosaur 3D in August, and the 3D simulcast of the Last Night of the Proms on 8th September.

Before all that though, we will of course be broadcasting Olympic highlights in 3D. For those of you who (like me!) didn't get tickets, you may want to sample some of the BBC's coverage. These free-to-air broadcasts in 3D will be available to anyone who has access to a 3D TV set and to HD Channels, regardless of which digital TV provider they use. For more information of how to access the BBC's 3D content go to www.bbc.co.uk/3d.

As previously announced, the BBC will be broadcasting The Opening Ceremony, Closing Ceremony, Men's 100m final and a highlights package at the end of each day in 3D.

Today I can confirm the full 3D schedule for the Olympics:

27th July 2012      

Olympic Opening Ceremony  

20:50 - 00:00 (approximately)

5th August 2012    

Men's 100 metre final              

20:30 - 22:00

12th August 2012 

Olympic Games review          

20.00 - 21.00

12th August 2012 

Olympic Closing Ceremony    

21:00 - 00:30 (approximately)
(followed by highlights of the day)

Daily Olympic Highlights will be broadcast every day of the Games from 23:00 - 24:00.

And watch out for the completely stunning 60 second films of athletes in action at the start of each evening's coverage. Shot in 3D with the help of a phantom camera, to the sound of Elbow's music, they are really breathtaking.

This 'Summer of 3D' is part of a two year trial we are running - testing production, distribution, partnerships and appetite in different genres of 3D. Our strategy is to co-produce 2D and 3D together, as we did with the Strictly Come Dancing Final last December. This will continue with Planet Dinosaur in August, allowing the two year trial to be run in a very cost effective way, whilst still getting valuable insights into this embryonic area.

Above all, it's a trial - so I'd welcome your comments on any of the summer's 3D output.

Kim Shillinglaw is Commissioning Editor, Science & Natural History & Head of 3D, BBC Vision

London 2012 Olympics

Olympic Stadium in Stratford, London

From Wednesday 25 July you will be able to watch up to 24 streams of Olympic content on Red Button (satellite and cable) and Connected TV.

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Connected TV:

Wed 25th July, 15.50pm onwards

Full details are available on the Olympics schedule website.

BBC Sport Multiscreen**

During the Olympics you can catch up on all the latest in other sports via the BBC Sport multiscreen. Headlines are available around the clock

with up to five streams available to cover the best that BBC Sport has to offer.

Please note that Red Button sport timings are subject to change at short notice.

For the latest information refer to the BBC Sport website.

Highlights


Live Olympics coverage
Golf: Open Championship


Casualty

Jane Hazlegrove as Dixie and Matt Bardock as Jeff

in Casualty

As the Holby riots rage on, paramedics Jeff and Dixie find themselves trapped in the middle of the chaos.

It's against every instinct they have to stay put, but that's what their orders are. Jeff's misgivings are

soon proved correct when a fleeing rioter JJ hides from the police in the back of their ambulance. As Jeff and

Dixie attempt to protect themselves from the tearaway kid, Jeff is injured. Trapped, and expecting major

trouble to kick off at any moment, Jeff is forced to face the grim reality of his own family situation...

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 21st July, 10.05pm-4:00am

Freeview:

Sat 21st July, 10.05pm-10:50pm

Horrible Histories Karaoke

Fancy testing your singing skills against famous Horrible Histories legends? Press red to sing along with

the Horrible Histories Karaoke! There are seven sensational songs available, including the new

Olympic special song 'Flame!' Not forgetting the heavy metal Luddites, eccentric Queen Mary 1st, Pilgrim

Fathers, Charles Darwin, boy-band Fighter Pilots of World War II, and 'The Thinkers' of ancient Greece. Take

your pick!

The Horrible Histories Karaoke - only here on CBBC, just press red!

Printable song words plus more Horrible Histories goodies are also available on the Horrible Histories website

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 21st July, 7:00am-9:30am

Mon 23rd July, 7:00am-10:00am & 3:00pm-6:00pm

Tue 24th July, 7:00am-10:00am & 3:00pm-6:00pm

Wed 25th July, 7:00am-10:00am & 3:00pm-6:00pm

Thu 26th July, 7:00am-10:00am & 3:00pm-6:00pm

Fri 27th July, 7:00am-10:00am

Freeview:

Sat 21st July, 7:00am-9:50am

Mon 23rd July, 7:00am-8:50am

Tue 24th July, 7:00am-8:50am

Wed 25th July, 7:00am-8:50am

Thu 26th July, 7:00am-8:50am

Fri 27th July, 7:00am-8:50am

Secret Fortune - Play Along Quiz

The National Lottery: Secret Fortune - The ultra-tense quiz show with lots of twists returns to BBC One,

hosted by Nick Knowles.

Studio contestants compete to win their Secret

Fortune, anything from £100 to £100,000. Press the Red Button during the show to
play along at home with the contestants. What would your Secret Fortune be?

Available on Sky/Freeview:

Sat 21st July, 8:20pm-9:20pm

CBBC Extra

Press red on the CBBC channel this week and you can read Chris and Dodge's blog, get answers to some of your questions, read your
horoscopes and see if the jokes that made Chris and Dodge LOL will have the same effect on you.

Go on, press red... You know you want to!

CBBC Extra website

Available on all platforms

CBeebies Red Button

BBC 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.

CBeebies website

Available on Freeview and Sky only

**Note all Red Button times are subject to change at short notice

CBBC Game Workshop 2 Attendees

I'm Jon Howard, Development Manager for Games in Children's Future Media.

As part of my role I run the Children's Future Media Games Stream which is responsible for developing all of the games on CBBC and CBeebies websites - overseeing agency builds as well as making many hugely successful in-house games.

Making games for children demands a huge amount of specific knowledge about how kids use computers, appropriate cognitive load and how to maximise engagement. The most important factor of all is fun, and making sure that fun is at the core of all BBC Children's games.

We spend a lot of time working with children while testing our games to ensure we maximise their input into our development processes. When invited to get involved at Games Britannia we jumped at the chance to let the kids lead on the game development front while we facilitated.

Games Britannia is a schools video game festival featuring 5 days of hands-on interactive workshops and lectures from leading figures in the games industry.

2011's Next Gen report by gaming guru Ian Livingstone and visual effects veteran Alex Hope called for programming skills to replace business software training in ICT classes.

If the UK is to be a hub for the video games industry, more focus needs to be put on how to write software than how to use it. This is at the heart of what Games Britannia is trying to achieve. The great and the good of the UK games industry, from Namco and Sumo to Bafta Games and UKIE, were drawn to such a noble cause.

paper prototyping at the workshop

Most of the kids who signed up for the CBBC game workshop were Key Stage 1 (5 to 7 year olds) with some Key Stage 2 (7 to 10). Our aim was for each team of children to build a working game that they could access online from their home computers after the workshop.

It was felt that programming would be too advanced given the available time. However game design is a discipline that we could cover which would allow a great deal of creative freedom. We wanted the attendees to feel inspired that they could create as well as consume.

To enable this, we developed a two hour workshop session that would allow multiple teams of children to first examine the constraints around a game, develop an idea, frame a game name and description, then to design a lead character, paper prototype and finally construct a scene into a game.

Team Two builds and tests their game

A character animation system was built that would allow a paper template design to be easily transferred and automatically animated into a game.

An optimised line-intersection physics system was developed which plugged into our game engine and level editor.

This gave the kids an environment for easily putting 'platform' games together. Platformers are still hugely popular and the most played game type on the CBBC website.

Into this system we added some great looking characters and themed assets - a wonderful array of digital building blocks.

Screenshot of Creepy Land by Team Nine

We were able to keep the explanations of how the systems worked to a minimum by keeping the palette of available mechanics simple. All non-player characters had one of just two collision behaviours - either they sent the user back to the start point or the user was flung high into the air. These two behaviours allowed for some very sophisticated challenges to be implemented by the kids. It was amazing how quickly game design techniques were understood by such a young audience. Very advanced conversations quickly sprung up across the different teams about how to construct a puzzle or a problem that would be challenging to the end user.

The unbridled joy on the faces of the participants extended from the kids to the BBC team who came along to help. The team - a discipline mixture covering game developers, designers, producers, project managers, and researchers - all volunteered to take part feeling that here was an opportunity to get at the heart of what makes our core audience tick. The audience insight gained from engaging with kid's creativity in the game space will surely help drive future games on BBC Children's.

It was amazing to observe the wide palette of influences that children draw from in a creative situation. Typically a veteran gamer would have a very parochial view of what makes a game, but here ideas flowed that didn't seem shackled by convention - and that is great to experience.

While at the Games Britannia event, Children's FM and CBBC hosted an expo stand allowing children and teachers to connect first hand with our product and teams. This provided a great opportunity to interface with our audience and talk openly about core ideas, likes and dislikes.

Qualifying for the Jet Boat Barney world record attempt

For added fun, we ran a qualifying session for the right to play new Blue Peter game Jet Boat Barney live on the main stage to set a new gaming world record. A hugely successful endeavour - we now have a world record holder!

The Jet Boat Barney game was built (in-house) to represent Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood's impressive entrance to MediaCity for the show's first recording in Salford.

It needed to be easy and quick to play, require some skill, have gradation for world record separation, and lots of fun. The game is going to be launched online later in the Summer.

Jon Howard is Development Manager, Games, Children's Future Media

Related link:

Games Brittania: Play the CBBC Workshop games

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash Installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

Hi. I’m Tim Plyming and I’m the project lead for the BBC’s Super Hi-Vision trials taking place during the London 2012 Olympics.

As I spoke about in the video above, I’ve just finished a fantastic week of Super Hi-Vision filming in London with a crew made up of staff from Japanese broadcaster NHK and the BBC. Given this and the fact we’re now 11 days before the start of the Games, I thought this would be a great opportunity to tell you a bit more about the BBC’s Super Hi Vision trials.

So, what is Super Hi-Vision?

Developed by NHK, Super Hi-Vision is an Ultra High Definition television format combining images 16 times the resolution of High Definition television with a 22.2 multichannel surround sound. Experienced on a big screen, the effect is of feeling like actually being at an event.

The London 2012 Olympics will be the first time this ground-breaking technology will be used to deliver exceptional quality content in the UK, so I’m extremely excited that you will be able to experience it for the very first time.

Building up to Games Time

As mentioned earlier, we’ve been filming at a range of iconic London landmarks over the last couple of weeks for a special film which will play ahead of the start of the Olympic Games. It was particularly exciting to capture what I think will be one of the iconic Olympic images of Tower Bridge, dressing with the Olympic rings, in Super Hi-Vision.

We have been using a brand new Super Hi-Vision camera and microphone and a specially adapted outside broadcast truck which have all been shipped from Japan to the UK.

At the same time in our R&D test studio (TC0) at BBC Television Centre in west London, a talented group of colleagues from the BBC’s Research & Development have been working with NHK to build the first Olympic Super Hi-Vision production studio.

A history of innovative partnerships

Our Super Hi-Vision trials build on the BBC’s history of innovation – experimenting with new broadcasting technologies and looking at new ways to bring quality BBC content to audiences in the future.

The Olympics has always been one of those moments where the BBC showcases new broadcast technology - due to the size and scale of this momentous event. Looking back at past Games:

First TV broadcast - at the last Olympic Games in London in 1948, the BBC used specially built outside broadcast trucks and cameras to bring all the excitement of an Olympic Games to audiences at home on TV for the first time.
First live colour transmission - in 1968 the Olympic Games was transmitted live in colour for the first time across the Pacific ocean to audiences in the United States
First HD broadcast - in 1984 experimental High Definition cameras were used for the first time to capture an Olympic Games

The London 2012 Olympic Games will be the first to be captured in Super Hi-Vision – using the only Super Hi-Vision equipment in the world.

Three cameras will capture sporting action from the Olympic Stadium, Aquatic Centre, Velodrome and Basketball Arena. Alongside highlight packages, we will be showing live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies, the 100m final live as well as a whole day of action from the Aquatic Centre.

Working with over ten global partners, the Super Hi-Vision signal is being sent around the world. In the UK we are working in partnership with the JANET high bandwidth academic network to bring Olympic content to our audiences at our public viewing venues.

Where can you experience Super Hi Vision?

Working with teams at three venues across the UK, we are also building special public viewing theatres which will present Super Hi-Vision on giant screens with special speaker rigs to recreate the 22.2. multichannel sound.

Our viewing theatres are:

London: BBC Broadcasting House
Glasgow: BBC Pacific Quay
Bradford: National Media Museum

Regular screenings take place Monday 23rd July – Sunday 12th August. We’ve also just released tickets for another six sessions to come and see (and hear) this amazing technology for yourself – but be quick as they sell out fast.

Screenings in London and Glasgow can be booked through the BBC ticketing website at bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/events/. Screenings in Bradford can be booked through nationalmediamuseum.org.uk.

Viewing theatres are also being set up in Tokyo and Fukushima in Japan and Washington DC in the United States.

I really hope you get the chance to experience Super Hi-Vision for yourself and look forward to hearing about your experience or what you think of our plans.

We’ll keep you updated in the build up to the Games – and look forward to sharing our learnings with you from this exciting trial.

Tim Plyming is the project executive for digital services, Editor Live Sites and leading the partnership between BBC, NHK and OBS to capture the Olympic Games in Super Hi-Vision.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash Installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

Hi. I’m Tim Plyming and I’m the project lead for the BBC’s Super Hi-Vision trials taking place during the London 2012 Olympics.

As I spoke about in the video above, I’ve just finished a fantastic week of Super Hi-Vision filming in London with a crew made up of staff from Japanese broadcaster NHK and the BBC. Given this and the fact we’re now 11 days before the start of the Games, I thought this would be a great opportunity to tell you a bit more about the BBC’s Super Hi Vision trials.

So, what is Super Hi-Vision?

Developed by NHK, Super Hi-Vision is an Ultra High Definition television format combining images 16 times the resolution of High Definition television with a 22.2 multichannel surround sound. Experienced on a big screen, the effect is of feeling like actually being at an event.

The London 2012 Olympics will be the first time this ground-breaking technology will be used to deliver exceptional quality content in the UK, so I’m extremely excited that you will be able to experience it for the very first time.

Building up to Games Time

As mentioned earlier, we’ve been filming at a range of iconic London landmarks over the last couple of weeks for a special film which will play ahead of the start of the Olympic Games. It was particularly exciting to capture what I think will be one of the iconic Olympic images of Tower Bridge, dressing with the Olympic rings, in Super Hi-Vision.

We have been using a brand new Super Hi-Vision camera and microphone and a specially adapted outside broadcast truck which have all been shipped from Japan to the UK.

At the same time in our R&D test studio (TC0) at BBC Television Centre in west London, a talented group of colleagues from the BBC’s Research & Development have been working with NHK to build the first Olympic Super Hi-Vision production studio.

A history of innovative partnerships

Our Super Hi-Vision trials build on the BBC’s history of innovation – experimenting with new broadcasting technologies and looking at new ways to bring quality BBC content to audiences in the future.

The Olympics has always been one of those moments where the BBC showcases new broadcast technology - due to the size and scale of this momentous event. Looking back at past Games:

First TV broadcast - at the last Olympic Games in London in 1948, the BBC used specially built outside broadcast trucks and cameras to bring all the excitement of an Olympic Games to audiences at home on TV for the first time.
First live colour transmission - in 1968 the Olympic Games was transmitted live in colour for the first time across the Pacific ocean to audiences in the United States
First HD broadcast - in 1984 experimental High Definition cameras were used for the first time to capture an Olympic Games

The London 2012 Olympic Games will be the first to be captured in Super Hi-Vision – using the only Super Hi-Vision equipment in the world.

Three cameras will capture sporting action from the Olympic Stadium, Aquatic Centre, Velodrome and Basketball Arena. Alongside highlight packages, we will be showing live coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies, the 100m final live as well as a whole day of action from the Aquatic Centre.

Working with over ten global partners, the Super Hi-Vision signal is being sent around the world. In the UK we are working in partnership with the JANET high bandwidth academic network to bring Olympic content to our audiences at our public viewing venues.

Where can you experience Super Hi Vision?

Working with teams at three venues across the UK, we are also building special public viewing theatres which will present Super Hi-Vision on giant screens with special speaker rigs to recreate the 22.2. multichannel sound.

Our viewing theatres are:

London: BBC Broadcasting House
Glasgow: BBC Pacific Quay
Bradford: National Media Museum

Regular screenings take place Monday 23rd July – Sunday 12th August. We’ve also just released tickets for another six sessions to come and see (and hear) this amazing technology for yourself – but be quick as they sell out fast.

Screenings in London and Glasgow can be booked through the BBC ticketing website at bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/events/. Screenings in Bradford can be booked through nationalmediamuseum.org.uk.

Viewing theatres are also being set up in Tokyo and Fukushima in Japan and Washington DC in the United States.

I really hope you get the chance to experience Super Hi-Vision for yourself and look forward to hearing about your experience or what you think of our plans.

We’ll keep you updated in the build up to the Games – and look forward to sharing our learnings with you from this exciting trial.

Tim Plyming is the project executive for digital services, Editor Live Sites and leading the partnership between BBC, NHK and OBS to capture the Olympic Games in Super Hi-Vision.

EastEnders

Omid Djalili as Hercules and Perry Fenwick as Billy in Eastenders

Billy Mitchell sees his role as an Olympic torch-bearer as a chance to make his family proud but, as the

big day looms, his nerves take over and his sleep is plagued by visions of what could go wrong. En route to a

promotional event, things go from bad to worse for Billy - and he soon finds himself in a desperate race

against time to fulfil his dream. Can cheeky cab driver Hercules and a whole host of sporting legends and

celebrities avert Billy's Olympic Nightmare?

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:

Mon 16th July, 8:25pm-4:00am

Tue 17th July, 7:55pm-4:00am

Sat 21st July, 1:20am-4:00am

Dead Boss

The cast of Dead Boss

Holly Walsh and Sharon Horgan, the writers of Dead Boss, talk about the process of making their BBC Three series. Follow Holly as she prepares to tackle her cameo role in the final episode and speaks to the rest of the cast about what it takes to be an actor. Featuring exclusive interviews with Jennifer Saunders, Caroline Quentin, Carl Barât and many more...

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 14th July, 2:35am-4:00am, 9:40pm-4:00am

Sun 15th July, 9:00pm-4:00am

Wed 18th July, 9:00pm-4:00am

Thu 19th July, 9:00pm-4:00am

Fri 20th July, 9:30pm-12:50am

Freeview:

Sat 14th July, 9:20pm-4:00am

Sun 15th July, 9:00pm-4:00am

Wed 18th July, 9:40pm-4:00am

Thu 19th July, 9:00pm-4:00am

Fri 20th July, 9:10pm-1:10am

Secret Fortune - Play Along Quiz

The National Lottery: Secret Fortune - The ultra-tense quiz show with lots of twists returns to BBC One,

hosted by Nick Knowles.

Studio contestants compete to win their Secret

Fortune, anything from £100 to £100,000. Press the Red Button during the show to
play along at home with the contestants. What would your Secret Fortune be?

Available on Sky/Freeview:

Sat 14th July, 8:20pm-9:10pm

Sat 21st July, 8:20pm-9:10pm

Casualty

Jane Hazlegrove as Dixie and Matt Bardock as Jeff

in Casualty

As the Holby riots rage on, paramedics Jeff and Dixie find themselves trapped in the middle of the chaos.

It's against every instinct they have to stay put, but that's what their orders are. Jeff's misgivings are

soon proved correct when a fleeing rioter JJ hides from the police in the back of their ambulance. As Jeff and

Dixie attempt to protect themselves from the tearaway kid, Jeff is injured. Trapped, and expecting major

trouble to kick off at any moment, Jeff is forced to face the grim reality of his own family situation...

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 21st July, 10.10pm-4:00am

Freeview:

Sat 21st July, 10.10pm-10:50pm

Andy's Wild Adventures Quiz

Andy and Kip would like to take you on a wild adventure of your own. So join them as they travel on the

KipMobile far and wide in search of weird and wonderful animal facts. Along the way, they'll ask you lots of

fun questions which you can answer using the coloured buttons on your remote control.

Available on Sky/Freeview

Sky:

Sat 14th July, 6:00am-1.30pm

Sun 15th July, 6:00am-7:00pm

Mon 16th July, 6:00am-7:00pm

Tue 17th July, 6:00am-7:00pm

Wed 18th July, 6:00am-7:00pm

Freeview:

Sat 14th July, 6:00am-11:40am

Sun 15th July, 6:00am-9:40am

Mon 16th July, 10:10am-1:50pm

Tue 17th July, 10:10am-2:50pm

Tue 17th July, 6:10pm-7:00pm

Wed 18th July, 10:10am-2:50pm

CBBC Extra

Press red on the CBBC channel this week and join Chris and Dodge. T. Dog as they introduce a wealth of access-all-areas, behind-the-scenes exclusives including Friday Download, Shaun

the Sheep Championsheeps, Young Dracula and Sadie J.

You can also read Chris and Dodge's blog, answers to some of your questions, read your horoscopes and see

if the jokes that made Chris and Dodge LOL will have the same effect on you.

Go on, press red... You know you want to!

CBBC Extra website

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 14th July, 7:00am-10:00am

Mon 16th July, 7:00am-10:00am, 3:00pm-6:00pm

Tue 17th July, 7:00am-10:00am, 3:00pm-6:00pm

Wed 18th July, 7:00am-10:00am, 3:00pm-6:00pm

Thu 19th July, 7:00am-8:30am

Fri 20th July, 7:00am-8:30am

Freeview:

Mon 16th July, 7:00am-10:00am

Tue 17th July, 7:00am-10:00am, 3:00pm-6:00pm

Wed 18th July, 7:00am-10:00am, 3:00pm-5:50pm

Thu 19th July, 7:00am-8:50am

Fri 20th July, 7:00am-8:50am

Horrible Histories Karaoke

Fancy testing your singing skills against famous Horrible Histories legends? Press red to sing along with

the all new Horrible Histories Karaoke! There are seven sensational new songs available, including the new

Olympic special song 'Flame!' Not forgetting the heavy metal Luddites, eccentric Queen Mary 1st, Pilgrim

Fathers, Charles Darwin, boy-band Fighter Pilots of World War II, and 'The Thinkers' of ancient Greece. Take

your pick!

The Horrible Histories Karaoke - only here on CBBC, just press red!

Printable song words plus more Horrible Histories goodies are also available on the CBBC website -

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 21st July, 7:00am-10:00am

Freeview:

Sat 21st July, 7:00am-10:00am

CBeebies Red Button

BBC 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.

CBeebies website

Available on Freeview and Sky only

BBC Sport Multiscreen**

Catch up on all the latest Sport via the BBC Sport multiscreen. Headlines are available around the clock

with up to five additional streams available to cover the best that BBC Sport has to offer.

Please note that Red Button sport timings are subject to change at short notice.

For the latest information refer to the BBC Sport website.

Highlights


Olympics Torch Relay: Live coverage from Southampton
Women's Basketball: Live coverage of Great britian v USA from Manchester
Golf Open Championship: Live coverage from Royal St. Lytham

**Note all Red Button times are subject to change at short notice

BBC Olympics app on Android

Last month I wrote on this blog about the new mobile video services we've developed to help you enjoy the summer of sport - including live and catch-up video on your mobile and tablet.

My team, the mobile sport and 2012 team, has been using your feedback on our Euro 2012, F1 and Wimbledon coverage to continue improving the service, working on the video quality and reliability of playback.

And as we build up to the Olympic Games, I'm excited to be able to announce the release of our next new BBC Sport mobile product - the BBC Olympics smartphone app.

It's available on Android and iPhone, and we are introducing a shortcut for Blackberry devices too.

BBC Future Media's Mobile Platforms team, based alongside us at Mediacity UK in Salford, built the app.

Great Olympic content

The BBC Olympics app is built on the same content as the Olympic mobile website, including:

a page for each of the 36 Olympic sports - the perfect place to find out more about the rules or what's happening when
every athlete and country has their own page with medal tallies, news stories and key facts
minute-by-minute live text commentary to give you that crucial overview of 36 sports during the live action
comprehensive schedule and results service to help you stay in touch with all the results as they happen
most importantly, thousands of hours of live video during the Games plus highlights of the best medal-winning moments

Native app features

We've taken advantage of the extra functionality available in native apps to include some additional features.

In both the iOS and Android versions you can download the latest stories to read offline - perfect for when you're on the go and in an area where there's poor mobile reception.

If you want to manage your data allowance, this can be switched off (say, on 3G), or set to take headlines without images.

The iOS app is designed for iPhones and iPod touch devices on iOS 5.0 and above. Users can personalise the iOS app, by adding their favourite Olympics sports to the customisable tab bar.

The Android app is for handsets with OS 2.2 and above. Android users need to have Flash installed to be able to watch the video.

You can see a demonstration of the app's main features in the video. Some of its content (such as medals, live video and results) won't be available until the Games start but there's plenty of news and information available now.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash Installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

Please do download the new BBC Olympics app and let me know what you think.

We're working on the BBC Sport app already, and we would love to hear your Olympic feedback as we prepare the BBC Sport product.

Lucie McLean is Senior Product Manager, Mobile Sport & 2012, BBC Future Media

Find out more about the BBC Sport Olympics app at the Media Centre

Hi, I'm Richard Cooper, the BBC's Controller of Digital Distribution for BBC Future Media.

As some of you will have noticed, we suffered a major failure of BBC Online last night. The site started to fail at 20:10, and by 20:25 was completely down. It stayed down until 21:10, when it started to recover, and by 21:30 the site was back. Some of you may then have experienced problems accessing some pages between 21:55 and 22:10 as we restored full resilience, and from 22:10 onwards we were back to full operation.

The problem was caused by a failure of the traffic managers in both our data centres.

These traffic managers are a critical part of our infrastructure, responsible for handling all requests to the site, and routing those requests to the right servers. They are designed to be highly reliable, and have served us very well to date.

We are still investigating the root cause of this incident, and I would like to apologise for any inconvenience that this outage may have caused. We are working hard to make sure that the causes of the issue are addressed, and that this does not happen again. I will keep you updated on this blog in the coming days.

Richard Cooper is Controller of Digital Distribution, BBC Future Media

The same Olympic content appearing across different devices

I'm Nick Haley, the Head of User Experience and Design for Sport & London 2012 at BBC Future Media.

As the final pieces of our four-screen Olympic jigsaw come together, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of the design thinking that has gone into delivering this huge sporting event across desktop, tablet, mobile and connected TV.

Our Olympic project started back in 2011 and one of the key aims was to create a family of products across different platforms. During the Games, you will be able to access an incredible range of content via a wide range of devices and it was important that the experience across each was joined up and consistent. So whether you're checking the latest Team GB news in the morning on your phone or looking at rowing results on your computer at lunch, we wanted a sense that they all form part of the same overall experience.

The design team's ambition was to make it easy for you to find and interact with the content you want, when you want to. That meant understanding the different ways people use different devices, as well as getting to grips with an event of the scale of the Olympic Games.

Another aim for 2012 was to build on the foundation established by the BBC Sport website redesign. This meant reusing, where appropriate, the new page layouts and design language that had been created for Sport, but also exploring where we could go further and provide you with richer features and a greater depth of content.

Audience

During the initial research phase of the Sport redesign project, along with the Marketing and Audiences team we had identified an audience profile we call the "Main Eventers". This audience can be described as those for whom sport doesn't play a big part of their everyday life, but who really get interested during sporting events like Wimbledon, football's European Championship and the Olympics.

For 2012, we wanted to design sites and apps that worked really well for our core knowledgeable sport audience, but would also serve the millions of people who will come to site for the first time because they are excited about the Games - and who need to get up to speed really quickly on how the sports work.

Vision

On a project with so many moving parts it was important to have a single unifying idea that could bring focus to the work.

Our vision for 2012 is "Never miss a moment". Originally, this phrase was created for the live Interactive Video Player - however it grew to encompass entire Olympic proposition.

We think it works not only because the BBC has extensive video rights but also because of the huge breadth of content we are offering, such as a page for every athlete.

This shared vision across the BBC helped us make decisions about what we were designing for the Games and is brought to life not only in the interactions you'll find on the digital products and services we've created, but also across TV and radio.

Live Video

The live interactive video player displaying a sport guide, which can be found in the extras panel

My colleagues have already blogged about the BBC's digital coverage of the London Games and how they will be available across four screens and also on Facebook.

From a design perspective, aside from the crafting of the video players themselves, what was important was how we created awareness of live video in a way that is clear and intuitive irrespective of the device or platform used.

Going back to the vision - asking ourselves if you would a miss a moment - helped us validate our designs.

As the same content is also available across multiple platforms, there was an opportunity to design similar ways to navigate through it.

Throughout the redesign of the BBC Sport site our focus was on "Live Beyond Live" and how we could make you more aware of live content.

One of the more obvious changes we made was to use different design treatments - in particular the use of blue to signify live events. These indicators of live, which were initially created just for the desktop sport site, were extended across mobile, smartphone apps and connected TV for the Olympics.

The Olympic homepage showing links through to live video and our live text page

The Olympic homepage on mobile showing links through to live video

As a way to navigate through video content on desktop and connected TV we settled on a carousel, which allows you to move easily through live and catch-up content.

What's on now is prioritised and displayed first, then a timeline is shown with catch-up content to the left and content coming up on the right.

It was also important that the user experience could be elegantly scaled to accommodate the varying number of events that take place during the Games. For example, on day one there is only one event taking place but on day nine there are 23 happening simultaneously!

The "more video" panel in the Interactive Video Player, allowing easy switching between up to 24 live streams at any time

The homescreen of the BBC Sport app, again allowing easy navigation between up to 24 live streams during the Olympics

Navigation

A big challenge for the Olympic project was navigation, not only within the main Olympic site but also across the many 2012 sites.

One of the ways we solved this problem was through integrating an Olympic area into the new global toolbar, an element that displays on every online BBC page. This promotional slot allows the 2012 portal site to be permanently featured, reflecting the series of events taking place during 2012.

The global toolbar, shown here on the BBC homepage with the Olympic area prominently displayed.

BBC Homepage on mobile, with Olympics on global toolbar

On desktop, the toolbar slot also has a pushdown element which indicates the three most significant London 2012 events taking place at any given moment. The promotional slot can be found on our mobile global toolbar as well, the smaller space meaning we use a straight link through to the mobile portal.

While working through the complexities of our Olympic site, we also knew we wanted the navigation to follow the template established with the recently refreshed Sport site.

One of our design principles was to keep the navigation as streamlined as possible so we didn't overload you with options.

Permanent links to Schedule & Results, Medals & Olympic Sports are placed on the right-hand side in order to ensure you can access them at any time. Contextual links on the left-hand side of the navigation give a sense of place within the site and allow you to explore that section in more detail.

On mobile, we again wanted to keep the navigation simple so that as much of the screen is dedicated to content as possible. Three links form the main navigation and links to other areas are found further down the page and in the footer. This system allows you to access the same Schedule, Medal and Sport content quickly from wherever you are.

Our iPhone and Android apps take an even more streamlined approach, removing a lot of the site-wide navigation found on our mobile sites to focus just on the Olympics, optimising familiar header and footer elements to move around.

The Olympic site navigation which can be found on desktop, mobile and our iOS and Android apps

The Olympic Schedule

From our research we knew that, irrespective of device, one of most important things people want during the Olympics is a schedule of events. With the Olympics being a series of 302 competitions within one overall competition, it was a major Interaction Design and Information Architecture challenge, one of the team describing it as like trying to play 3D chess!

Initial sketches and concepts from the design of the schedule

 

The schedule has many views and slices of content but on desktop and mobile it is optimised to answer two key questions:
What's on today and what's happening right now?
When is a sport I am interested in taking place?

 

As well as a destination we also break up and distribute schedule content across the site, which you can see on both sport pages (eg swimming) and on athlete pages.

The finished desktop schedule showing a day view during the Games.

During the Games, the schedule on desktop and mobile will first display what's on today while providing links to specific sports from those pages.

On each day you will be able to see editorial "picks", navigate to live content, and see results.

A page for every country, athlete, venue, and medal event

As well as more than 2,500 hours of live video content, we also have a huge range of content on our sport Olympic site.

Enabled by the new dynamic semantic publishing technology introduced earlier in the year, it's been possible to create an incredibly comprehensive site.

We designed an aggregation for each of the 36 sports and 302 medal events with news, stats, key info, schedule information and Twitter feeds being displayed. We also have pages for every country, venue and athlete.

When designing these pages we extended the templates originally created for Sport. The indexes created for pages such as football are what we classify as "high traffic" and can accommodate not only a huge range of content types but also a high volume of articles. However for more niche Olympic events like men's volleyball, and for lesser-known athletes, we needed to design a page that could still work well when a smaller amount of content is created. For our list pages such as countries or venues, we created pages that could accommodate large photography and individual country flags.

Early sketches of the 100m page.

An example of a country page

The same range of content is also found on mobile, where our approach was not to limit or reduce the content available on that platform, but design pages that were optimised for the mobile context.

Compared to desktop where we had already templates from the Sport redesign, on mobile we created everything from scratch, including the sport mobile design language.

User Testing

A huge amount of user testing took place during the 2012 project. We did numerous rounds and a typical test would see us set up two days of labs in London, Manchester, and other locations in the UK. This allowed us to test each time with 12 participants to gain an understanding of how useful and usable our products were.

User testing is one of my favourite parts of the UX and design process, as you get to validate your thinking. As well as testing individual products, we were also keen to test cross-product journeys such as from iPlayer to Sport and from the BBC homepage to the Torch Relay site in News.

Testing was crucial in allowing us to get feedback on our designs, as well as understanding typical behaviour on the site during the Games

What we learned from each round was then factored back into our design work, in particular around comprehension of the "live timeline" and "chapter markers" in the video player.

We removed some features and added others. "Sport guides" were not in our original designs but were integrated later into the video player. They allow you to find out more about what you're watching without leaving the video, as well as having guide content available on sport pages.

Our Athlete pages were also modified after user testing, changing the position of additional information. Placing key information at the top of the page makes it faster to find out more about who a competitor is and the sports they compete in, before moving on to news and video content.

 

The "Stadium UK" look and the TV trail

We launched our "Stadium UK look" on desktop and mobile sport Olympic pages last week. The design takes the concept of "Stadium UK" from the TV trail and applies it to our four-screen digital products.

On the desktop site, we use a combination of animated and static backgrounds, which can be found in the footer area of every Sport Olympic page, linking through to the full TV trail.

Early prototyping of the "games time" look footer

The finished "Stadium UK" footer for the javelin scene, showing links to replay and click through to the film

On mobile, we went for a more streamlined approach, creating close-ups of the characters from the trail, with a link through to the full film. The same approach was taken on our iOS and Android apps, although here we could also create an Olympic splash screen when the apps first load. On connected TV and Red Button, we also use the splash-screen approach to create consistency across platforms.

The splash screen shown on the BBC sport app for connected TVs

And finally

The Olympic project has been a great opportunity to design brand new digital products and services across four screens and I've only really scratched the surface of all the great work that has been done and then launched in the past 18 months. It's been a huge collective effort and I'd like to thank all of those in the 2012 UX&D team who have been involved.

Shaping, structuring and arranging Olympic content for many different contexts and devices was a big challenge but hopefully the end result is an overall experience that feels joined up and cohesive, and most importantly something that you enjoy using. I also hope I've been able to shed some light on the design process involved in the first truly digital Olympics.

If you would like to find out anything more about the work of UX&D please ask below.

Nick Haley is the Head of UX&D for Sport and London 2012, BBC Future Media

 

 

First Night of the Proms

Proms 2012 illustration, featuring the Royal Albert Hall

First Night of the Proms begins the world's greatest classical music festival in 2012 on BBC Two. Viewers will be able to press the Red Button to follow Radio 3's Sara Mohr-Pietsch on Twitter, as she guides you through the performances of the First Night with her Twitter Notes.

She also invites you and a selection of well-known names to share your thoughts about the Proms on Twitter.

Join in the conversation during the First Night of the Proms by including #bbcproms in your message. We'll be featuring some of your Tweets on Red Button throughout the programme.

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:

Fri 13th July, 8:30pm-10:30pm

T in the Park

T in the Park at Balado, Kinross-shire

The UK's liveliest festival crowd and an iconic setting in rolling Scottish countryside always make T in the Park a huge spectacle. Viewers will be treated to extended coverage on Red Button - full sets and uninterrupted music from three stages at T, as well as tracks from some of the stars of the future performing for BBC Introducing.

This year's artists include current crowd favourites Tinie Tempah, Professor Green, Jessie J, Example and Emile Sandé. The Main Stage will play host to a party of epic proportions on Saturday for headliners The Stone Roses, on stage after Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. More quality nostalgia is provided over the weekend by New Order, Simple Minds and The Happy Mondays. Other festival favourites playing include Kasabian, Snow Patrol, Florence & the Machine, Chase & Status, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Swedish House Mafia and Elbow.

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 7th July, 3:35pm-7:50pm, 9:30pm-2:00am

Sun 8th July, 5:00pm-2:00am

Mon 9th July-Fri 13th July, 6:00am-6:00am

Fri 13th July, 6:00am-5:30pm, 11:00pm-2:05am

Freeview:

Sat 7th July, 9:20pm-2:00am

Sun 8th July, 8:10pm-2:00am

Mon 9th July, 7:10pm-5:50am

Tue 10th July, 9:40pm-5:50am

Wed 11th July, 7:10pm-9:45pm, 11:10pm-5:50am

Thu 12th July, 8:10pm-10:45pm

Fri 13th July, 4:10am-5:50am, 10:00am-1:50pm, 2:00pm-8:00pm

Dead Boss

The cast of Dead Boss

Holly Walsh and Sharon Horgan, the writers of Dead Boss, talk about the process of making their BBC Three series. Follow Holly as she prepares to tackle her cameo role in the final episode and speaks to the rest of the cast about what it takes to be an actor. Featuring exclusive interviews with Jennifer Saunders, Caroline Quentin, Carl Barât and many more...

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Thu 12th July, 10:55pm-4:00am

Sat 14th July, 2:35am-4:00am

Freeview:

Thu 12th July, 10:55pm-4:00am

Sat 14th July, 2:15am-4:00am

Secret Fortune - Play Along Quiz

The National Lottery: Secret Fortune - The ultra-tense quiz show with lots of twists returns to BBC One, hosted by Nick Knowles.

Studio contestants compete to win their Secret Fortune, anything from £100 to £100,000. Press the Red Button during the show to
play along at home with the contestants. What would your Secret Fortune be?

Available on Sky/Freeview:

Sat 7th July, 8:20pm-9:10pm

Sat 14th July, 8:20pm-9:10pm

Casualty

Jane Hazlegrove as Dixie and Matt Bardock as Jeff in Casualty

As the Holby riots rage on, paramedics Jeff and Dixie find themselves trapped in the middle of the chaos. It's against every instinct they have to stay put, but that's what their orders are. Jeff's misgivings are soon proved correct when a fleeing rioter JJ hides from the police in the back of their ambulance. As Jeff and Dixie attempt to protect themselves from the tearaway kid, Jeff is injured. Trapped, and expecting major trouble to kick off at any moment, Jeff is forced to face the grim reality of his own family situation...

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 14th July, 5:00pm-2:00am

Freeview:

Sat 14th July, 5:00pm-7:20pm

Feed My Funny

The Red Button will be showing highlights of the seven web exclusive comedies produced for BBC Three. Feed My Funny online exclusives extends BBC Three's reputation for breaking new comedy talent on TV, and now you can watch them on Red Button. From new sketch show formats like For The Win and Dawson Bros Funtime to hidden camera stunts in Impractical Jokers, a vehicle for exciting new stand-up

Imran Yusuf and surreal silent comedy from The Boy With Tape on his Face - this is diverse British Comedy that until now you could only see online.

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Mon 9th July-Wed 11th July, 9:00pm-4:00am

Freeview:

On freeview?

Andy's Wild Adventures Quiz

Andy and Kip would like to take you on a wild adventure of your own. So join them as they travel on the KipMobile far and wide in search of weird and wonderful animal facts. Along the way, they'll ask you lots of fun questions which you can answer using the coloured buttons on your remote control.

Available on Sky/Freeview

Sky:

Mon 9th July, 6:00am-2:00pm

Tue 10th July, 2:30pm-7:00pm

Wed 11th July. 6:00am-7:00pm

Thu 12th July, 6:00am-7:00pm

Fri 13th July, 6:00am-5:30pm

Freeview:

Mon 9th July, 6:00am-9:50am

Tue 10th July, 6:00am-1:50pm

Wed 11th July. 6:00am-7:00pm

Thu 12th July, 6:00am-2:50pm

Fri 13th July, 6:00am-9:50am

London Collection

Aerial view of London, looking east towards Canary Wharf

The London Collection is an archive collection that celebrates the people and places of London. Highlights are available on the Red Button and the full archive collection is available online at BBC Four Collections. There will be various programmes on both BBC Two and BBC Four which are supported by this collection.

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Tue 10th July, 7:30pm-4:00am

Wed 11th July, 9:55pm-4:00am

Thu 12th July, 7:30pm-4:00am

Freeview:

Wed 11th July, 9:55pm-11:00pm

CBBC Extra

Press red on the CBBC channel this week and join Chris and Dodge. T. Dog as they introduce exclusive clips from a wealth of CBBC goodies including Dani's House, Blue Peter's Olympic Tour and Sadie J. Chris also goes behind the scenes on the set of all new Shaun the Sheep Championsheeps!

You can also read Chris and Dodge's blog, answers to some of your questions, read your horoscopes and see if the jokes that made Chris and Dodge LOL will have the same effect on you.

Go on, press red... You know you want to!

CBBC Extra website

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 7th July, 7:00am-10:00am

Mon 9th July, 3:00pm-6:00pm

Tue 10th July-Fri 13th July, 7:00am-10:00am, 3:00pm-6:00pm

Freeview:

Thu 12th July, 3:00pm-5:50pm

CBeebies Red Button

BBC 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.

CBeebies website

Available on Freeview and Sky only

BBC Sport Multiscreen**

Catch up on all the latest Sport via the BBC Sport multiscreen. Headlines are available around the clock with up to five additional streams available to cover the best that BBC Sport has to offer.

Please note that Red Button sport timings are subject to change at short notice.

For the latest information refer to the BBC Sport website.

Highlights


Formula 1 - Live coverage from Silverstone.
Tennis - Live coverage of the Wimbledon Championships 2012.
MotoGP - Live coverage of the Moto3, Moto2 and Moto GP races at the Sachsenring, Germany.

**Note all Red Button times are subject to change at short notice