BBC's Blog, page 41

Asian Stars

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

Asian Music Stars is an insightful and entertaining TV programme which explores the lives of three internationally renowned artists Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Adnan Sami and Kailash Kher as they embark on concert tours across the UK.

The Red Button programme will offer its audience a unique and intimate insight into each of these three artists; their upbringing and personal life experiences. Through interviews, musical demonstrations, behind the scenes footage, crowd testimonials and multi camera concert coverage, the three artists will be compared, contrasted and celebrated.

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Mon 14th May - Fri 18th May, 6:00am-4:00am

Freeview:

Mon 14th May - Thu 17th May, 6:00pm-6:00am

Fri 18th May, 6:00am-4:00am

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 14th May - Sat 19th May, 6:00am-7:00pm

Freeview:

Mon 14th May, 6:00am-10:50am

Tue 15th May, 6:00am-7:00pm

Wed 16th May, 6:00am-2:50pm, 6:10pm-7:00pm

Thu 17th May, 6:00am-10:20am

Fri 18th May, 6:00am-10:35am

Sat 19th May, 6:00am-6:50am

Maestro at the Opera Winner

Four well-known personalities compete to take on the prestigious task of conducting a full act of a legendary opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Red Button viewers can watch in full, the winner's truly incredible performance conducting Act II of Puccini's masterpiece La Boheme on the main stage of Covent Garden.

This gripping performance signifies the climax of the entire series and also features insightful commentary from Maestro Judges and cast of the Royal Opera House.

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media/Freeview:

Fri 18th May, 9:55pm-4:00am

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 six sensational new songs available, from the heavy metal Luddites and eccentric Queen Mary 1st, The Pilgrim Fathers and Charles Darwin, to the 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 - bbc.co.uk/cbbc/horriblehistories

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 12th May, 7:00am-12:25pm. 2:30pm-7:00pm

Sun 13th May, 7:00am-11:40am, 4:00pm-7:00pm

Freeview:

Sat 12th May, 7:00am-9:45am, 11:15am-12:45pm

Sun 13th May, 7:00am-12:00pm

In It To Win It

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.

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?

Available on Sky/Freeview:

Sat 12th May, 7:45pm-8:40pm

Sat 19th May, 8:00pm-8.50pm

CBBC Extra

CBBC Extra is the home of exclusives. Watch funny clips, out-takes, star interviews, pop music, backstage previews and episodes from Children's BBC.

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

CBBC Extra website

Available on all platforms

Freesat/Sky/Virgin Media:

Sat 12th May, 7:00am-10:00am

Mon 14th May - Thu 17th May, 7:00am-10:00am, 3:00pm-6:00pm

Fri 18th May, 7:00am-10:00am, 3:30pm-6:00pm

Sat 19th May, 7:00am-10:00am

Freeview:

Wed 16th May, 3:00pm-6:00pm

News Multiscreen: Video Choice

Each weekday BBC News' On Demand team will be rounding-up the day's strongest news pictures to bring viewers a two-minute package of highlights. On weekends the tone becomes more conversational when Red Button viewers can watch a topical interview in 'Five Minutes with...' or a round-up of the week's weird and wonderful videos in OddBox.

Video Choice: Weekdays (available around the clock)
Five Minutes With... / OddBox: Weekends (around the clock)

BBC News website

Available on Sky and Virgin only

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!

Now 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 us to offer the best games tailored to each system.

CBeebies Red Button is available now 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


Triathlon - World Triathlon Series. Live coverage of the men's race from San Diego.
Cricket - England v West Indies. Test Match Special commentary with live scorecard.
Formula 1 - Spanish Grand Prix. Live coverage from Montmelo.

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

At the end of the BBC Online Briefing, Tim Davie, Roly Keating and I sat down to take questions. Here is the video:

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Ralph Rivera is the Director, BBC Future Media

Sarah Montague asked Roly Keating why the archive wasn't online, and whether the BBC should be more relaxed about allowing people to use its platforms.

Scott Driver of O2 asked when the BBC would refer to consumers rather than audience members.

His colleague picked up a panel discussion about supporting the streaming of the Olympics, and talked about how technology companies are organised for the challenge. His sentiment was tweeted by Paul Barwick:

it is true - this will be the first multi platform and multi media Olympics #bbconline - 2:50PM

Steve Parks from Code Enigma , himself a former BBC Radio journalist, asked what the supplier can do to make sure the relationship between supplier and BBC goes well - and what can be learnt from when projects have gone badly.

Balaji Abbabatulla ‏ (@balaabba) tweeted the heart of Ralph Rivera's answer:

Setting mutual expectations right is the key to successful relationships with suppliers @RalphRivera #bbconline - 2:54PM

Tim Davie talked about removing barriers, as Code Computerlove tweeted:

The BBC are breaking down internal walls to share great ideas and agencies #watchthisspace #bbconline - 2:55PM

Chris Jackson from Metabroadcast asked how quickly the ideas from Connected Studio can be driven into the core of the business.

Tim Davie talked about the drivers behind the move from bespoke systems, but Ralph's comments about the British words he's picked up gathered more social media comment.

Glyn Povah from O2 tweeted:

@ralphrivera thinks "we're on a journey" is code for "it'll take longer than we want". He is right. #code #bbconline - 2:59PM

Lee Thompson from BT Vision asked about Redux , which Sony's Edd Uzzell summed thus:

BBC Redux sounds like a better Usenet. 5+ years retention, all the content transmitted in that timeframe and growing. - 3:05PM

James Thornett and Clare Hudson describe the briefs at the start of the Connected Studio day.

Last month we introduced the Connected Studio programme and invited people to join the first studio around homepage, search & navigation. Today we'd like to share the second Connected Studio call - for Weather - and update you on progress from first event.

Update on the First Creative Studio for Homepage, Search & Navigation

On Friday 4th May, we launched the Connected studio with the Creative Studio event in Salford. There were 96 attendees who spent a full and stimulating day working up concepts against a brief.

A good selection of blog posts have been written from the participants' perspective - from redBadger, , Athernet and the Unthinkables - which give us confidence that we are on the right track in creating useful events.

A great deal of credit goes to Future Media's Marketing & Audiences team who worked closely with the Product team to create the brief and structure the stimulating programme of day. 

The stand-outs were the 'speakers corner' of experts offering Q&A on audiences, market, technical and design as well as the audience panel feedback sessions.

For the studio team, the most positive note was the way in which all of the 96 attendees worked in open and collaborative way - sharing ideas, insights and pitches. Everyone just got on with making the most of the opportunity and it certainly reaffirmed our belief that we can generate high quality concepts by bringing diverse skills & expertise together.

From the excellent and wide-ranging 32 pitches that were presented in open & closed sessions at end of Friday, the product team reconvened this week for a further 4 hours of review, heated debate and final decision making.

They have decided on 10 projects they wanted to take forward into the two day Build studio. Those that didn't make it through have been sent feedback to explain why they didn't progress but we stress it was a very tricky set of choices and hope the unsuccessful teams will join future studios.

The concepts we are taking forward (in no particular order) are:
Athernet - Linear Personalisation (Personalisation/ User histories)
Box UK - Search results in discovery zone (Customisation/ Search)
Dean Vipond - Ambient personalisation (Personalisation/ User tracking)
Goss - Horizontal/Vertical carousel scrolling (Customization/ Four Screen solution)
Kent Lyons - Browser-based personalisation (Personalisation/ Profiling)
Red Badger - Timeline approach (Personalisation/ Live)
The Workshop - Homepage becomes a whole stream (Home/ Live)
BBC Team A - What's new red button (Home/ Live)
BBC Team B - Zoom in/out w/out leaving homepage (Customisation/ Homepage Reveal)
F.Iglesias(BBC) - Take BBC to the web (Personalisation/ Social Media)

They will hopefully all be back in Salford on 21/22 May working with BBC teams of experts to build key elements of their concepts and put together their proposals for piloting.

We have learnt a lot from this first event and will be making some changes to improve them. For example, we will not run closed pitching sessions on the same day, will offer more support to create collaborative teams and ideas, and offer greater support in developing your pitch.

Connected Studio for Weather

Places are now available to work with the Weather and Travel News product teams at the Creative studio event on June 14th12th. The main focus will be on weather, although the team will also be interested in innovative, complementary uses of available travel data.

You can read the Weather innovation brief (PDF) explaining how the weather product works and the teams' future ambitions. We have also drawn up "Principles of Engagement" (PDF) and a Connected Studio "What you give, what you get" chart (PDF) to explain the benefits of getting involved.

Connected Studio is open to small, medium and micro businesses, individuals, digital agencies from the creative sector who want to work with the BBC developing new functions, features or formats for BBC Online audiences. It is also open to BBC staff.

If you have got good ideas and want to attend then we want you to sign up by emailing [email protected] including "Weather Creative Studio Tuesday 12th June 2012" in the subject line.

You’ll need to include your name, role and the company you work for (if applicable). If you’re a BBC staff member please tell us your job title and the department you work in. Submit two links to previous work that you consider innovative, at least one should be relevant to the innovation brief.

We don’t want full reports or proposals, just an indication of the work you do. We will let you know if you have a place by June 1st.

We are really excited to announce that the Creative Studio event for Weather now has space booked at the new Google Campus in London on June 12th. Be aware that if the concept you present at the end of Creative Studio is selected, you'll be invited to the follow up two-day Build Studio on 26th & 27th June at MozSpace in London, so pencil those dates in your diary too.

So we are really looking forward to taking Connected Studio into East & Central London with the Weather Product team - hope to see a few of you there.

What's Next!

If you can't make the next Connected Studio event then don't worry - the programme will be running a series of studio events through until next spring - roughly one a month. Go to www.bbcconnectedstudio.co.uk to find out more.

The current (and changing) schedule looks like:
July: CBeebies in Salford
July 19/20: UX&D Studio in Salford
August: CBBC (venue/s TBC)
Sep- Dec: Sport, TV / iPlayer
Jan- Mar: News, K&L, Radio & Music

Sign up for updates by emailing [email protected], or follow @BBC_Connected on twitter.

Adrian Woolard is the Project Director, North Lab, BBC Research and Development and is responsible for Phase 1 of the Connected Studio programme

I was pleased to be able to share the stage at the BBC's historic Radio Theatre with Sarah Montague, the reknowned presenter from the Today programme, and Anna Tavares, the Executive Product Manager of Online Curation with BBC Future Media.

From the Q&A that followed, it's clear that the BBC - while embracing curation - may not yet see the future as being in the hands of people formerly known as "the audience". Can you curate for a passive consumer, or is curation a team sport?

Not sure if we answered the question - but we tried.

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Steve Rosenbaum is the author of "Curation Nation"

Sarah Montague noted that Anna had focussed on curating BBC content, and asked if the BBC should be curating content from outside.

Keith Fisher of LShift asked what the BBC sees as the balance between curation by algorithms and curation by humans.

At the BBC Online Industry Briefing at Broadcasting House, my talk followed a thought provoking presentation by Steve Rosenbaum - author of Curation Nation - around the challenges and opportunities for big media companies to curate and make sense of the vast quantities of information and data created in today's internet age.

I shared the work I have been doing within BBC Online to describe what the curation challenge means for the BBC - and how we will go about tackling it.

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Anna Tavares is Executive Project Manager, Online Curation, BBC Future Media

When you walk into the new BBC Broadcasting House you can't help but think that you are standing at the starting line of a race to the future. The gleaming newsroom, not yet open or full of staff, is steeped in promise.

And then, hearing Ralph Rivera, the head of Future Media, speak about the new Connected Studio initiative, it's clear that the BBC understands that the future is going to be about opening access and connecting with its audience in a whole new way.

But as I stand on stage at the historic Radio Theatre, the impending cloud of “digital overload” hangs in the air. Can the BBC evolve from maker to curator? Will audiences that are looking for information in new, bite-sized, embeddable chunks bring their new media habits to the venerable Beeb?

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That - and the promise of a new content ecosystem - forms the backdrop to this talk that I presented to the BBC Online Briefing on Friday.

Steve Rosenbaum is the author of Curation Nation. He blogged here last week that Curation is King.

Code Computerlove (@computerlovers) enjoyed how Steve usurped a familiar metaphor:

Is the cloud made of storm clouds? #loveit #bbconline - 1:46PM

Gina Fegan tweeted a summary of the talk:

#bbconline @magnify Curation: 1. Original voice; 2. Separate signal from noise; 3. Distribute content where people are. @d_media_network - 2:03PM

At our BBC Online Industry Briefing event in the London Radio Theatre, Mark Friend and I presented our strategy for the Radio and Music Product. Following the presentations we had a Q&A session. Here is a film of that session:

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Andrew Scott is the Head of Radio & Music, BBC Future Media

Sarah Montague asked Mark Friend if there was any evidence that "watching radio" was doing anything to stem the decline of youth radio listening. Mark pointed to the new Radio 1 homepage. Site builders @MadeByKite tweeted their appreciation.

Sarah Montague grilling Mark Friend. Terrifying! Radio 1 homepage is his shield. #BBCOnline - 1225PM

Mark also talked about the many comments Radio 1 receive and don't necessarily use. Katz Kiely tweeted:

Thousands of comments on the bullying campaign... All binned. That could be seriously powerful collateral if curated #BBCOnline - 12:27PM

Euan Miller of Disturb Media asked about the challenges in making use of user-generated content and comment; he suggested that the digital framework sometimes holds people back. Mark said it was more the BBC's compliance framework than the digital framework.

Simon Willis, Head of Content at Wise Buddha , said that commissioners in radio don't have the same multiplatform expectations as those in TV. He asked about whether that demand would change to suit the platform. Mark responded that the culture was changing very fast.

Clifford Boobyer of Firedog asked about commissioning different agencies to work on the same project. Mark and Andrew talked about the different ways the BBC divides up work in projects with multiple agencies, and about a single agency sometimes being "on point" as the direct supplier.

At our recent BBC Online & Red Button event in the London Radio Theatre I did a presentation with Andrew Scott, who is Head of Radio and Music, BBC Future Media.

We shared our strategy for the BBC's radio and music online offer across four screens and how we go about delivering this working with external suppliers.

We showed the Radio 1 homepage as a demonstration of how we want to make the live radio experience more visual, social and plugged into other online activity.

Here is a film of our presentation:

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Mark Friend is the Controller, Audio and Music Interactive

Mark and Andrew talked about how the product will integrate seamlessly with broadcast radio, as @valtech tweeted:

Product update on radio&music: The Internet is changing the medium! What is played on on the website will be played on the radio #BBCOnline -  12:48PM

Kite staff were happy to see the Radio 1 homepage they built used as an example:

Radio 1 Homepage on screen LIVE! Kite mentioned! #BBCOnline #wemadethat #pride - @MadeByKite, 12:10PM

 

Being in the Radio Theatre and New Broadcasting House for our third Online Briefing was really very exciting. 

It was a great opportunity to look back on the year since our first Online Briefing at BAFTA.  It was also time well spent looking at the incredible year ahead, and the themes shaping it. 

Here is the video:

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Ralph Rivera is the Director, BBC Future Media

Delegates reacted to the reach of mobile and tablet applications - particularly Ralph's comments that the iPlayer on iPad was reaching where the Internet fridge had tried to stake a claim. @GinaFegan of D Media Network tweeted:

#BBCOnline iPlayer for iPad is the No.1 app in the UK - & has made the holy grail of entry to the kitchen! - 11:43AM

Dean Johnson (@ActivRightBrain) retweeted the news, noting:

[It's now a default download!] - 11:52AM

Something Else's Trevor Klein (@TrevorRidge) got nostalgic about the fridge:

Fifteen minutes in to BBC Spring Briefing and we have a mention of the Internet fridge. Love it. #bbconline (cc @rooreynolds) - 11:43AM

Ralph returned to his theme from the first briefing about the intersection of storytelling and technology, as indie "Code Computerlove" summed up: 

How do we combine storytelling and technology to leverage connected experiences? Good stuff #bbconline - 11:54AM