Psiphon, Slingbox & Democracy - UK TV Channels Live on the Net for everyone?

Psiphon
Psiphon is software that I was thinking of for getting around Geographical IP problems as it might be a method by which overseas viewers can receive UK-only BBC web content? . It "allows citizens in uncensored countries to provide unfettered access to the Net through their home computers to friends and family members who live behind firewalls of states that censor."

Broadcast TV (ITV, BBC etc) Live on Democracy Player
And of interest is a recent posting on Backstage which hypothesises how this software along with slingbox could be used by someone, anyone with 10k and a some techy know-how, to take the live BBC TV broadcast and make it available to anyone through the Democracy Player.

"One 3.5m satellite dish with a four way LNB, connected to four Sky boxes with four Media
Sling boxes attached to four Macs, because that is what I like, each with a couple of "realtime" Automator actions, stream the whole lot to Democracy from behind Psiphon. Perhaps £10K for the lot. I believe that it will happen by the end of February, BBC1-4 live'ish on the net." - IMPRESSIVE!!

- Paul Williams

Lost - audiences down, or moved to Myspace?

Staggered global release is slowly becoming less of a problem for avid fans of overseas shows. No longer are fans restricted to illegal downloads we can now get see our favourite shows legally as more services go live.

Myspace is moving into the broadcast arena! What will that do to the TV audience of the show - I keep hearing that the audience to Lost etc has declined, but we need to bear in mind that the audience has not necessary declined it has just shifted.
- Paul Williams

In Broadcast online (the TV industry newspaper) today:
Social networking website MySpace is to stream free episodes from the new season of Lost.

Following a deal with Sky, the first two episodes of the US drama's third season, which began airing on Sky One last week, will be available to view on demand from today (24 November).

The deal makes MySpace the only place that non-Sky subscribers can legally watch the new season of Lost in the UK.

Visitors to the MySpace LostOnSkyOne page will also be able to view season updates, cast interviews and other features.

The deal with Sky was announced by MySpace's managing director for UK and Europe, David Fischer.

Also today, Sky will launch its rebranded legal downloads service, Sky Anytime (formerly Sky By Broadband). Sky One subscribers will be able to pay £2.50 to download and keep Lost episodes as soon as they've aired on TV.
Jane Hoskyn

DEMOCRACY - a revolution in TV on the net (Now with added BBC)

The democracy player is a brilliant piece of software helping to unlock the power of TV on the net - and its free and open source!

I've been using the VLC player for a while as this is a great open source media player, but the democracy player really takes us to a whole new level with its multi-compatability, allowing everything from RSS to Bittorrent to be managed through it. You can view YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video very easily and download films from these services.

Now with added BBC

RSS's are used to create "channels" - I recently added the BBC Video Podcasts and the Nat Geo Video Podcasts as "Channels" on the Player so these can be easily viewed and downloaded (without having to turn to iTunes).

NB: Don't install on your BBC desktop as it won't be supported by Seimens, but if you want to get the best out of TV on the net then install this at home. The current version is Beta, so work in progress, but its worth playing with.

- Paul Williams

"Want to see the future of Net video? Download the open source Democracy Player" - Wired Magazine

"Television is the most powerful medium in our culture, and it's moving online. There's a huge oppurtunity to hear new voices. But if video on the internet is dominated by just one or two huge video websites, we're all in serious trouble. Openness, competition, and decentralisation make the internet work. We need to ensure that online video has that same freedom."

...but what makes it awesome?

1. Play All Your Videos
Play virtually any video-- Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, and more. Browse your collection, make playlists, stay organized.

2. Get Internet TV Shows
Subscribe to any video RSS feed, podcast, or video blog. Explore hundreds of free channels with the built-in Channel Guide.

3. Search YouTube
Download and save videos from YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and other sites.

4. High Definition and Fullscreen
Your computer screen is a high-def display. Watch free HD videos in gorgeous fullscreen.

5. Torrent Power
Easily download any BitTorrent file. Fast. Then watch it in the same app. Simple.

How Battlestar Gallactica changed the world - The Future of Bittorrent

This is a great overview of how bittorrent works and why it is successful. Mark Pesce discusses how Battlestar Gallactica and Dr Who helped rapidly increase the growth of this peer2peer network, and how this might actually be good for TV.



Read the transcript.
"October 18th, 2004 is the day TV died. That evening, British satellite broadcaster SkyOne ran the premiere episode of Battlestar Galactica. (That episode, "33," is one of the best hours of drama ever written for television.) The production costs for Battlestar Galactica were underwritten by two broadcast partners: SkyOne in the UK, and the SciFi Channel in the USA.

SciFi Channel programers had decided to wait until January 2005 (a slow month for American television) to begin airing the series, so three months would elapse between the airing of "33" in the UK, and its airing in the US. Or so it was thought..."

- Paul Williams

Web 2.0 presentations now live

Talks from the recent "Connecting Somerset" Web2.0 seminar are now live on the web, video alongside the ppt slides (produced with Camtasia). Click on the names below to launch the presentation. (Apologies for the speed of my bit - I only had 10 minutes to talk about some of the cool things the BBC are doing in the world of Web2.0!)
- Paul Williams

The speakers were:
Kevin Redpath - Introduction to the conference.

Dan Hilton - Web 2.0 It's all just Semantics. What meaning can add to your website?

Simon Price - Web 2.0 Webs of People, Webs of Data.

Paul Appleby - Web 2.0 A BBC perspective.

Paul Williams - BBC 2.0

Paul Boag - Web 2.0 Pragmatic web design

Web 2.0 - a jolly jape with cheese

This is an excellent overview of the Web 2.0 seminar I contributed to.
By Adam Stone of Rokkmedia.

7 November, 2006
I was lucky enough to blag a free ticket, ahem, attend a conference last night (6/11/06) in Taunton, Somerset concerning the topic of Web 2.0. Not only was my good friend and colleague Bill Wells (of 2.0 Ltd - I kid you not!) organising the video recording of the event (for future vidcast), but ‘podcast-rockstar’ Paul Boag (http://www.boagworld.com/ - reputedly the worlds’ most subscribed-to web design podcast) - someone who has been hugely influential in Rokk Media adopting Web Standards some time ago, was one of the guest speakers (after I introduced him to the event) - so I think my complimentary ticket was well deserved!

The event was well attended, and probably one of the most professional I’ve been to in these here parts - so congrats to all involved.

The theme of the evening was the hot-topic de jour - “Web 2.0” buzz or bizz - hype-full or hope-less!

Speakers included Ben Hilton from Rubberductions, Simon Price from Bristol University (who demonstrated some amazing applications for gathering and interpreting web-based which he insisted was Web 1.5); and two very eloquent Pauls from the BBC - who showed some amazing web-based applications that the Beeb have been working on. Finally Paul Boag who took a swipe at the hype filling a very entertaining 20 minutes or so.

Most speakers, possibly with the exception of Simon, showed how Web 2.0 can be fairly neatly boxed into a huge take-up of broadband fuelling a massive growth in social network/communicate centric sites that use cool technologies like AJAX and Ruby On Rails (among others), and a clean, matter-of-fact design approach aimed at getting straight to the heart of the proposition. Paul Appleby from the BBC was also keen to point out that the web is Darwinian - evolving, gene-like, and could not therefore be realisticaly likened to a software application in the version x.0 mould - fair point Paul!

After the speakers concluded with a Q & A (a much nicer term than FAQ - what went wrong there in Web-lore?), a sumptious buffet of rustic fare was provided - apples, cheese, scones and strawberries - oh yes.

On my way back from the event, battling to keep from crossing lanes on the motor-way in a 3 foot visibility pea-souper, I mulled the wise words of the five speakers and something else occured to me. Thinking back to the eleven or so years that I’ve been involved in web design and development I can see a definite growth-curve emerging - but not so much with regards to the technology or appearance of sites (in fact I can probably show you a duplicate example of anything that exists today that emerged in a previous time). The growth I have seen, is in the understanding and appreciation that clients have for the Web - and how it can enhance and rocket-fuel their individual businesses.

Ten years ago - for example - you couldn’t give away a Web Site! In fact the bulk of our ‘hot prospects’ were “The Internet you say? Oh yes, heard of that - could you come over and show me what it looks like?”. Ten years later and the landscape couldn’t be more different. Clients come to us now knowing exactly what they want out of their web presence, fully aware of the power an online presence can have on their success of their business.

From our point of view this is fantastic. No longer do we have to go through the painful process of convincing our clients that the Web is the way to go!

For me that’s the real evolution of the Web.

Rokk on!

My "Web 2.0 Live" Presentation - A broadcasters perspective

Here are the slides from my recent presentation at Web2.0 Live.
A video podcast of all the talks will be available soon at the Web2.0 Live website: www.web2live.co.uk/

I gave an overview of web2.0 (what ever that means) from the perspective of someone in the broadcasting community, what does it mean to our future, and how do I see the BBC facing it - projects I discussed included, BBC Connector, BBC Collect, Augmented Reality & BBCJam, Creative Archive, Springwatch and the BBC presence in Second Life and other virtual worlds.

Click on the image below to launch the slideshow:


- Paul Williams

TIOTI: Tape It Of The Internet

Here's a new web service that looks like it will help to define what web2.0 is all about: "Tape it off the internet" http://tapeitofftheinternet.com/

One of its aims is to break down the huge variations in global release schedules, so we no longer have to wait months for the next series of Lost when the USA has already had it.

I can't wait to have a play when it goes live in a couple of weeks as does look like it could be very interesting as far as how broadcasters reach our audiences - sharing TV socially over the internet. How do producers get their programmes accepted in an online community? How do they reach any audience when the audience is creating peer-reviewed shedules?

mariposaHD - The First HD Show for the Internet

MariposaHD is the first high definition program made to be distributed directly over the internet. The show can be downloaded for free in either of both HD formats (1080i and 720p). It is also available in the Ipod video format for portable viewing.






The show, which is filmed in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina, is primarily a selection of footage designed to show off the potential of consumer grade HD technology. The four-man crew go around with their camera filming everything from nature hikes, to swimsuit models, to new technology. Often, a URL will be overlaid so that the viewer can find more information about what is being shown.

Distribution of such large (~2 Gigabyte) video files is made possible via Bittorrent technology, which means that every person who downloads becomes an uploader to other downloaders (see my other posts which explains Bittorrent technology futher)

Visit: http://www.mariposaHD.tv/

Illegal Places to Get iPod Videos

You’re probably familiar with most of these options, but if you aren’t then they’re new to you!
Search the BitTorrent network for iPod.
Check Podtropolis and The Pirate Bay!

I must say that my official line, particularly as someone working in the TV industry, is that I do not condone the use of illegal sources to obtain media but I think it is important that people are aware that these mechanisms exist.

Free and Legal Places to Get iPod Videos

There are some great resources for finding iPod compatible videos that are both free and legal!

• Channel Frederator offers up some of the best short animations anywhere.
• PodGuide.tv
• Channel 101 and Channel 102 offer up some brilliant downloadable shows.
• The iTunes Music Store’s podcast section is loaded with free videos.
• The Chronic..What?..cles of Narnia. Need I say more?

The Intarnet Archive is great for old videos and movies like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. The Archive’s 256Kb MPEG4 Downloads are unfortunately not iPod-ready as previously thought. The format’s correct, but there are audio pops when played back on the iPod. You’re probably better off downloading the MPEG2 videos anyway. The 265Kb files were pretty low-res and it’s a snap to re-encode the MPEG2 files for your iPod with iSquint.

Channel Frederator is like The Cartoon Network without commercials.

What is Bittorrent?

The Three Basics
1. BitTorrent is used for transferring files.
2. It is peer-to-peer in nature.
3. Users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file.








The Tracker
The system relies on a central server (called a tracker) which coordinates the action of all the peers. The tracker is usually part of the package of a torrent website such as www.torrentspy.com

The Bittorrent Philosophy
The key philosophy of BitTorrent is that users should upload (seed) at the same time they are downloading (leaching.) Therefore the bandwidth (speed of your internet connection)is utilised as efficiently as possible.

Bittorrent works better as the number of people interested in a certain file increases. So the more popular a file is the quicker everyone can get it.

Read on for more... Including:
* A handy Analogy as to how Bittorrent works

I will post "How to become a Bittorrenter soon"
Please note that I do not condone any illegal uses of bittorrent.










An Analogy for the bittorrent system

1. Visualize a group of people sitting at a table.

2. Each person at the table can both talk and listen to any other.

3. These people are each trying to get a complete copy of a book.

4. Each person has different pages of the same book

5. The People Share copies of their pages and everyone gives copies
of the pages that they have until everyone has a copy of everypage available at the table.

6. The Seeders role.
He has a complete copy of the book from the beginning, and so doesn't need anything sent to him. He sends out pages that no one else in the group has. At first, when everyone has just arrived, they all must talk to him to get their first set of pages. However, the people are smart enough to not all get the same pages from him.

After a short while they all have most of the book amongst themselves, even if no one person has the whole thing.

In this manner, this one person can share a book that he has with many other people, without having to give a full copy to everyone. He can instead give out different parts to different people, and they will be able to share it amongst themselves. This person who we've referred to as 'S' is called a seed in the terminology of BitTorrent.

Just a point - Does the image below show an ancient greek using a photocopier?!!

How To Bittorent

NB: I do not support the use of Bittorrent to download copyright material.

60% of all internet traffic is illegal downloading of media through the bittorrent system. Bittorrent itself is not illegal but much of the content shared on the system is. If you are interested in finding out how people are downloading BBC programmes illegally then please read the following guide - 5 steps to bittorrenting.

Please note that I do not condone the illegal downloading of content, however, I do feel that it is important that the BBC are aware of these methods and that we take steps to either beat or join them.

1. Download Bittorrent software.
Azureus is a popular and user-friendly one.

2. Find a Torrent Site.
Most torrents are advertised on a torrent site such as Torrentspy or Demonoid

3. Find a Torrent.
Torrent sites usually have a directory with such groups as Windows Applications, Music, Films, Documentaries, TV etc. They also have a search function so that you can search for all Torrents listed as “BBC” or “Lost” etc.

4. Open the Torrent.
Click the torrent link and open up the file. This will automatically send a signal to the Azureus software on your desktop to start connecting to peers (other people downloading the torrent you are interested in).

See the image below showing programmes being downloaded.














5. The File Downloads
Azureus will connect to all other peers around the world. They will start sending you little packages of data and then you will start sending them packages that you have received from other peers. By passing these little packages of data around, the file you are interested in is eventually assembled on your computer like a jigsaw.

More and more people are choosing to use this system to receive their media, often many months before the programmes are is broadcast on television. Many of the BBC Programmes downloaded through a torrent site contain extra indents at the start of the programme, added by the original person who created the torrent.