Digital-Lifestyles

UK

  • BBC iPlayer: A Flawed Gem

    iPlayer Open Beta: A Flawed GemToday the BBC has opened a list for up to 500,000 UK TV license payers to sign up for access to iPlayer – if they have an appropriate computers setup.

    Over the next six months, those who sign up will be let on to the Beta trial to use iPlayer. (Those of us who have been on the 15,000 people iPlayer trial will have noticed that there was a new release of the software last night.)

    Let’s be clear, we do think that the iPlayer is an advance for the BBC, and the functions and control it gives views are welcome.

    Where it really lets itself down is that it is dependant on a very thin slice of technology needs.
    (more…)

  • BBC Trust OK With No DRM On BBC Shows

    BBC Trust OK With No DRMIf you listen to our interview with Mark Taylor, you’ll have heard a very interesting point that was raise in the OSC discussion with the BBC Trust.

    The BBC Trust are totally fine with BBC content going out to over the Internet _without_ content protection – ie DRM.

    This would be in-line with the BBC’s view of distributing their TV content over satellite in the UK, where in 2003 they made Sky beam out the BBC TV channels without encryption – much to Sky’s displeasure – saving themselves £40m – £85m in the process.

    This is of course still an avenue open to the BBC. We wonder how much of the License payers money would be saved on DRM if they were to take this route?

  • iPlayer: OSC Interview After BBC Trust Meeting: Podcast

    We got the exclusive opportunity to interview the members of the Open Source Consortium (OSC) that has met with the BBC Trust, directly after they had been discussing the BBC iPlayer with them for the first time.

    From there we scooped the iPlayer On Linux a must story, but there was a lot more detail in the interview than we could get into the piece.

    Various highlights were

    • How discussion went with the BBC Trust
    • The path that the OSC has been following
    • Discussion with Ofcom
    • How iPlayer is based entirely on the Microsoft stack
    • concerns under the BBC Radio player being rolled into the iPlayer and the loss of support of other players that would occur
    • BBC Trust’s different view on BBC Content and content from other production companies
    • Support for a Linux iPlayer from the “the most popular Linux desktop client in the world”

    If you, like many others, are unhappy about the iPlayer only being available on a particular version of Windows, get yourself over to the iPlayer petition. Every vote counts, so join the current 12,000+ that have said they don’t like it.

    Sorry about the popping in part of the recording (like the beginning), but I left the mic windshield at the office – blast!)
    [audio:https://digital-lifestyles.info/media/audio/osc-post-bbc-trust-iplayer-meeting.mp3]

  • Ofcom Wants VoIP 999 Services

    Ofcom Wants VoIP 999 ServicesOfcom has published a proposal that some VoIP services should allow users to call 999 to connect to emergency services as soon as by early 2008.

    They’ve carried out research that has revealed that as many as 78% of those with VoIP thought that they could, or did not know if they could.

    Ofcom’s concern is that VoIP users cannot connect to emergency services when they really need it – ie. in an emergency.

    If people have to locate a landline or mobile phone, costing them a delay of seconds or minutes in getting through to emergency services, it could prove critical.
    (more…)

  • Is Silverlight the BBC iPlayer Silver Bullet?

    Is Silverlight the BBC iPlayer Silver Bullet?We’re all aware that the BBC is planning to make their iPlayer compatible with Macs … and we even know that now that the BBC Trust has committed to make it work with Linux (shock horror).

    Well if you’re like most of the tech population, you might be scratching your heads, wondering how the bleep they’re going to be doing it – given that the whole system relies on Microsoft technology to deliver any of it, and in particular the DRM. Especially as, to date Microsoft has steadfastly refused to deliver a media player for the Mac that has DRM built in.
    (more…)

  • BBC Trust Statement On iPlayer OSC Meeting: Bit Woolly

    BBC Trust Statement On iPlayer OSC Meeting

    We’ve been in touch with the BBC Trust today, to follow up the statement that was mentioned in our piece about the BBC Trust position on the iPlayer and Linux playback. Here it is in full with our observations at the end.
    (more…)

  • BBC Trust: iPlayer On Linux And Mac A Must

    BBC Trust Want iPlayer Mac And Linux Support: OSCThe Open Source Consortium (OSC), the organisation leading the charge to make the BBC iPlayer open to all platforms, not just Microsoft Windows, met with the BBC Trust yesterday to find that there was a lot of agreement in their ambitions.

    (The BBC Trust has now issued a statement.)

    Speaking to Mark Taylor of the OSC straight after the BBC Trust meeting, I learnt that The Trust had declared that they “share the vision” of the OSC. Not surprisingly the OSC representatives felt very buoyant but the very positive meeting.
    (more…)

  • Ben Lavender, iPlayer Inventor Leaving BBC Today

    Ben Lavender, the person who came up with the idea behind the BBC iPlayer, originally called iMP, is leaving the BBC this afternoon.

    We’d been told about the news a while back, but have held off until the information was public. Looking at his Linkedin profile, we see that it now shows his new role, as Group Digital & Product Director at LoveFilm.
    (more…)

  • Twofour Get Parliament Webcasting Deal

    Twofour Get Parliament Webcasting DealTrebles all round at Twofour Digital as they announce the winning of the three year contract to produce and host the webcasts of all proceedings from the House of Commons and House of Lords, made available through the Parliament Web site.

    The webcasts include live coverage of all UK parliamentary proceedings and Select, Public Bill and General Committees as well as selected archive footage.

    We imagine this is in no small way due to Phil Haggar now being within the Twofour fold, them having bought his Makeni Webcasting production company back in April this year.

    What’s the relevance? We first met the very competent Mr Haggar when he ran Westminster Digital way back in 1999 – whose business backbone was … Webcasting Parliament.

    It appears that Twofour’s ambitions don’t stop there, besides growing through acquisitions of companies, it’s also working for the European Parliament to design and deliver a ground breaking webTV channel broadcasting scheduled content in 20+ languages.

    Twofour Digital

  • AWOMO, Virgin Games Company To Float For $1Bn?

    AWOMO, Virgin Games Company To Float For $1Bn?We nearly fell off our chairs when we saw the Independent reporting that Virgin-backed games company, A World Of My Own (AWOMO) were hoping to list for $1Bn in London and Frankfurt.

    The Big Idea is that people will use the 3D world of AWOMO to download their games.
    (more…)