The Wardman Wire

Dear Wardman Wire Readers,

We’re in the midst of conference season, so I thought it might be worth a peek behind the scenes at Britain’s first internet-based political TV station; 18 Doughty Street - just so you can digest something a little bit different.

During the last conference season we were just gearing up towards our launch and focussed on handing out flyers to promote ourselves. In the early days people really didn’t get what we were about at all. We even had a local councillor from a few boroughs away pop in one morning thinking that we were a traditional radio station set up just for Tories. I pointed her to Tory Radio initially, but then learned that she didn’t have access to the internet, or even a telephone for that matter, so perhaps the new media revolution was not quite for her.

Back in those days we were definitely branded with the Tory brush. It was our own fault I guess, but as time went on we realised there was much more to be had by occupying the centre-ground of politics and giving all areas a voice. We increased the number of programmes presented by left-wing presenters: Talking with Tatchell, Wolmar’s World and Claire Fox News (although Claire is a tough one to define on the left-right axis - her programme is very good.)

As we approach a year of broadcasting I look back at the technology behind our operation and wonder if we got it right first time.

We’re actively looking at throwing out the Windows Media Format and bringing in the Flash video for starters. You see, Windows Media Format doesn’t play nicely with Macs, or Linux, or any other system that is not Windows for that matter. But, on the other hand, the set-top-boxes that will offer internet TV only support Windows Media Format at the moment.

So, the question I am asking myself is: Do we go after the browser-based market with Flash or focus on the set-top-box market with Windows Media Format? I’ve not yet found an answer; and the main reason for that is because it is so hard to see where the set-top-box market is going at the moment. BT Vision have taken an early lead, but models are starting to pop up that do actually support Flash and even tune you into YouTube. The appeal of these might well outweigh the offering from BT Vision in a few months.

Of course, the other option is to just do both formats. There is equipment that will allow us to do that, but before we spend the thousands of pounds needed to procure it we have to be sure that we’re going to benefit from it. My directors don’t want equipment sat around not being utilised properly, and I can quite understand this.

Another area that I’ve been reflecting on is the website itself. We’ve had a number of attempts to get this right and I don’t think we’re there yet. I think it’s time for a slimmer offering - perhaps taking the approach of other video websites out there. Those sites have videos on the front page and you can jump around to other videos on the site. There’s categories, keywords, tagclouds, and other innovative features, including very good search engines.

There are two issues with moving to that style of delivery. First, the Flash issue as mentioned above - we’d almost definitely have to put everything into Flash, which means expensive equipment needs to be acquired. Second, is the consideration for live streaming.

When I look at websites I try to follow the activities of the end-user and imagine them sat there using the site. If they’re landing on the site during live broadcast hours and hit the player on the front page what happens if they then decide they want to click away into something on the sidebar, for example? That means the page reloads and the video is lost. A potential solution to this is to use some JavaScript to load the player in a new window whenever a link is clicked. And so the process goes on - thinking about every possible action the user might take on the site and coming up with an answer - it’s not easy, particularly with such a diverse range of shows.

Alas, another year, another project. The journey goes on. We get our cameras ready to make the journey to Blackpool and wonder if we’ll ever be able to capture all the footage we collect in time - another bit of kit needed there, perhaps.

Indeed, we might need to get new bits of kit here and there, but on the whole we’re holding together quite nicely. Even I have to admit to having my doubts at various points, but like the time I quit smoking, I tell myself that if we’ve made it this far we can go further.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s guest post. Please do leave a comment if you can.

Mike Rouse