Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú

Hello Everyone,

I know the extended silence has been frustrating you - I've been away from the office for some of the time, and also handling a range of other issues. Looking at your comments and questions, I thought that it might be useful to give you a sense of what I do apart from writing this blog - not just to justify the time I spend away from it but because I think it might help to give you a flavour of the range of current issues for the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú and HD.

On a daily basis, when I get into the office, I look at the overnight log from the broadcast engineers. That identifies any technical problems with the channel - and unfortunately, as many of you will be aware, frequently highlights problems with HD transmissions. Sometimes the cause is clear - human error or a system not doing what it should - and often we're only talking about a few seconds of interruption. But on other occasions (audio drop outs from the Electric Proms) it is harder to get to the bottom of what is going on.

Like you, I find it deeply frustrating that more than 20 months after we launched the channel the service still doesn't always run smoothly. I appreciate that we are deliberately pushing at the boundaries of what has been done before - regular live broadcasts, switching between different channels and different types of content, but I would like us to be in a better place than I feel that we are, and believe me, I'm working with a team of others (hopefully) to get us there.

I also receive on a daily basis the channel audience figures from BARB, colloquially known as "the overnights". Across channels they are a less than perfect guide to viewing, but they are the basic currency all channels work with. With Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD figures which I know some of you look at, there are particular concerns. Numbers of those with access to HD are growing all the time, which must make it difficult for BARB to keep pace. HD households still represent a relatively small proportion of the total TV audience and therefore the figures are less reliable than they otherwise might be. Take those factors together with the prevalence of recording devices for those with HD, and the willingness to use them, and it means that while the figures give us a sense of how programmes have performed relatively, they are just one of a number of sources of information which we look at to evaluate the channel's performance.

Those issues out of the way, the day, tends to be taken up with meetings. In no particular order, the issues I'm focussing on at the moment are....

Picture quality: I know this is a big concern for some of you, and honestly, I don't need lots of complaints to start to worry about this. I'll defend to the hilt a programme like Criminal Justice, which I think looked fantastic, though others are entirely within their rights to dismiss the "film look" that it went for. But of course I want to make sure that we keep up the standards of the HD offer from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, and I want to make sure, through looking at both technical and audience filters (pardon the pun), that we are in good shape.

I've launched some further work around this - not because I believe there is a problem, but because I want to make sure there is not - and together with Andy Quested I will of course bring you the outcomes of that work as soon as I can.

HD programmes and schedule: As you'll know, we're still a growing channel. We're actively exploring whether we can extend the channel hours overall, but meantime there is plenty of work to do in growing the amount of content that the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is making in HD. Lots of time is spent on conversations with producers inside and outside the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú looking at whether they make a move to HD, how they do it, and how much it will cost. I really feel that we are experiencing a sea-change here.

When I started last Summer there was a marked reluctance to consider HD in many areas, and very little proactivity from producers. We are now reaching the point where in some areas there is more demand to work in HD than we have the resources to support. It is a good problem to have, but it also generates a second, much more difficult issue of which you will be well aware: With more and more content coming through, how do we best schedule the channel? This Autumn we have a particularly rich mix of programming, including The Restaurant, The Culture Show, Children in Need, new drama and comedy, new US acquisition from Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Two Defying Gravity, and of course Life, Strictly Come Dancing and Top Gear.

We know that programmes work best for you when we show them at the same time as the standard definition channels, but with such a diversity of content we can't always deliver it, and we're as frustrated as you are when we have to make those choices.

Navigation: Many of you comment on the difficulty in knowing when things are on. I run the channel, I sign off the schedules, and I also as a viewer sometimes find it difficult to locate content I'm looking for. There are a variety of routes to solving this, and believe me when I say that I am working my way along all of them. Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD is not like other HD channels in the UK. Because 100% of our programmes are made in HD, we are not a simulcast of another channel that you know and has a familiar structure.

Because we want to bring you the very best programmes across the full range of flavours from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, you will find programmes from Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú One, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Two, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Three, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Four, Cbeebies, CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, and even occasionally some programmes which can only be seen on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú channels in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, or on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Red Button. I want to make it as easy as possible for you to enjoy Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD, rather than to battle with it, and therefore to find effective ways to plan your viewing, and to move between Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú channels to access the HD versions of programmes which you love on other Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú services.

Freeview HD: A lot of the thinking in the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú about HD has been around making sure that HD does not become an exclusive, subscription-only offer in the UK. You can get Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD even on without paying an additional subscription, and of course getting the channel (and other HD services) on to as well as and is an important part of ensuring that everyone can have access to what we believe is simply the next, normal TV standard.

I'm expecting that when HD arrives on Freeview at the end of the year the platform will probably play a significant role in the growth of HD homes through 2010, although I think that HD take-up from the other existing platform providers will also increase over the next year . There are plenty of other people around the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú who are actively involved in making HD on Freeview, because of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's involvement in switchover and the overall development of the digital terrestrial platform. Really, I'm just a channel provider. But I'm conscious of the need to make sure that Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD is fit for the mainstream audience which I'm sure will come to HD over the next 12 months or so, through a variety of platforms.

Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD Strategy: I know that many people ask where the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú goes next with HD, and a number of you have thoughts about what the answer to those questions should be.

Thinking about our service development is just one aspect of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's approach to HD. I also have to work with others to address the questions around how fast we move Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú in-house production across to HD delivery, how we move programme commissioning across, how we work with independent producers around these issues, what cameras and other resources we should use, and how we ensure that we deliver the best possible value for licence payers out of the investment we're making in HD at the moment.

I don't think that HD is a luxury for the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú - it is the way that TV production is going and we could not turn our backs on it, anymore than viewers would have thanked us for deciding that colour TV was not for us. But that doesn't mean that there is lots of money to spend on this area, nor should there be when across the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú we are looking for savings, and trying to make money go as far as possible. That of course presents daily challenges around how we make the budget we have stretch to encompass our ambitions for you - the HD audience.

In between meetings - and of course in the evening - I do what I hope you would want and expect me to do: Watch television. I try to look at what we are about to broadcast, and what we do broadcast, but also need to see programmes we are considering for HD delivery, and I try to watch other channels - both SD and HD - to get insights into other ideas that we should be considering.

I also - of course - check this blog for your comments and feedback, and even write a new post when I can and have something to say. I don't want to give you just marketing for programmes and therefore, I'm afraid, there may be longer breaks between posting than any of us would ideally like. I hope this is useful, and even possibly interesting. I will be back.

Danielle Nagler is the Head of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Vision.

Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD is the new sign in system for Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online. It's currently being rolled out across all services that require a user to register or sign in.

On Monday November 2nd we'll be switching all of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's blogs to Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD from the previous Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú membership system. And in the New Year our message boards and other communities will be heading down the same route.

Those of you posting comments to the Strictly Social website over the weekend may have been asked to upgrade your Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú membership to the new Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD system. And anyone who has contributed to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer message boards in recent weeks will already have created a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD. They'll also be aware of some of the teething problems we've had. These should by now have been ironed out.

By March 2010 Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD will be the single sign in for all Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online services. If you have an existing Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú membership account for blogs, message boards or other services at some point in the next few months you will be automatically prompted to upgrade to Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD.

We do need to replace the old system, but we don't underestimate the inconvenience the transition will represent for some of our users. We apologise for this and hope that you will find the service improvements that Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD will support over the coming months for example, working on mobiles - make it all worthwhile.

We've tried to answer the questions you may have about the new system .

If we've missed anything, please let us know. Most users should be able to upgrade their account from a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú membership to a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD when prompted with a minimum of fuss.

We'll be keeping you up to date with the roll-out of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD via the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Internet blog.

NB: There's one thing you will need to think about if you have more than one Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú membership account:
If you have more than one Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú membership you'll only be able to upgrade one of those accounts to Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD using your preferred username and email address. That Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iD account will retain links to your previous membership account and any comments and posts you made using it. So if you have more than one Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú membership, make sure you upgrade your favourite one.

Ian Hunter is Managing Editor, Internet Group, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Future Media and Technology.

As part of my role as Controller Audio & Music & Mobile I work with the as an EMEA board member. Over the last few weeks I've participated in several events highlighting the ''.

According to , as of September 5.5 million people utilised Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú mobile services in some way - out of an estimated audience of 13.2M users/month using 'the mobile web'. This puts us as the 3rd highest mobile service in the UK. Of our users 80% are under the age of 45 and 15% of the users do not utilise other www.bbc.co.uk services.

Due to our size, this puts us in a unique situation in the UK. We are able to work directly with the network carriers - Primarily , , , and ; but with others as well - and major handset manufacturers to customise our services to work optimally. This has worked well for us as we've launched new services, like iPlayer on Mobile, over the last year; however, as new services come to market we will have a lot of work just to keep up with the changes around us.

To this end we are working with others in the market to help define a set of standards we can all work with to grow the marketplace. From the , here are a summary of the objectives:
The MEF Enablers Initiative would have the overarching objective of promoting the most rapid implementation of a coherent, profitable and workable model for "smart pipe" enabling services, to the benefit of the entire mobile entertainment industry. Its ultimate objectives would include:

• The implementation by operators of a coherent and market-focused set of smart-pipe enabling services, based on standards which fully recognise the needs of the content community.
• The implementation of the "smart pipes" model by the large majority of operators, to ensure that the mobile entertainment community could rely on complete operator coverage in its core markets.
• The enthusiastic uptake of newly-available enabling services by content and service providers, so as to encourage operators to implement the broadest range of enabling services.

There will undoubtedly be other enabler services for other types of content, but for the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú we are specifically interested in:

Location Services

• Knowing where a user is so as to serve appropriate content for the location, e.g. local news/weather/traffic
• Where we have upstream content right issues we need to properly set access rights for where you are

Quality of Service

• Can the network serve video to you where you are right now?
• For your location, what data rate can be sustained? This allows us to serve the right quality of content for you.
• Can we work with the carrier to provide you with a quality of service guarantee?

Common technology challenges

• Common interfaces across multiple providers/countries so as to avoid extra software development work
• Simplify the support matrix for the numerous devices we already support

Set cost expectations

• Are you on a data tariff?
• Will this activity cost you? If so how much - have us ask you in advance
• Avoid bill shock for you, the carrier and the content provider

In the end our goal is to find a way of working with others in the market to set standards we can all work with. In the end we aim to help grow the Mobile market in the UK and to provide better products to our audience as quickly as we can.

Mark Kortekaas is Controller, A&MI and Mobile, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Future Media & Technology.

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust's rejection of the Open iPlayer appears to have fuelled speculation about where the iPlayer's future lies. have been talking about a global pay iPlayer that could also feature content alongside the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú. The managing director of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú.com is quoted as saying:

"The press coverage this story has generated over the past few days has not been reflective of where we are in the process - any paid for VOD content service on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú.com is very much an aspiration for Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿ÚWW and one that would need to be approved by the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust. Any service would be developed on a territory by territory basis to complement our successful Channels and TV sales businesses around the world.")

Last week's Round up mentioned that Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú online boss Erik Huggers was appearing on R4's Feedback. Huggers' radio performance led Internet blog regular Russ to open his comment thus:

"I struggled to understand any of Eric Huggers' attempt to justify why people abroad should be allowed to access iPlayer free of charge..."

"...we simply cannot fund the potentially huge cost of iPlayer TV streaming outside the UK..."

The Internet blog got a look in with a post on the future of the iPlayer regarding syndication. Some of you have already left some questions and ideas of where you'd like to see it go and we're rounding them up and hoping for a response from the iPlayer people in the near future.

Speaking of syndication (see what I did there?) Paidcontent revealed the .

Across the spectrum of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú blogs there's been a high level of dissatisfaction about the closure of Red Button interactive streams. The Sport Editors' blog reiterates that the changes only affect Freeview. Having perhaps accepted that the changes are irreversible comments have turned to which channels and services should be sacrificed. Commenter groovyccb121 suggests putting the snooker on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Parliament when it's in recess. I like the image of the mistaken tax-payer outraged at finding snooker playing MPs on their telly.

What is it with The usual story is Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú person makes Linux gaffe, , makes some positive comments and everyone's happy again. So how exactly does Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú tech correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones answer his own question:

"So would I actively seek to install Ubuntu or any other Linux variant on a machine I already owned?"

And finally, the current post dealing with HD PQ has 812 comments, and the big news is regular user paul_geaton had received to his Freedom of Information request to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú.

"The FOI emails revealed that the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is using Grass Valley encoders for Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD."

All very . One day there'll be a book written about Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD.

(Ed's note: Before anyone asks the picture is from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú German Language Service:12/06/1964 and shows Guenther Bardelang describing to listeners the control room at Barclays Bank Computer Centre in London. It is not, sadly, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Internet blog towers.)

Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog.

It's been a few days now since I posted the news that on Tuesday 27th October we'll be closing two of the interactive streams on the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Red Button on Freeview to make way for free-to-air HD coming to the platform. Lots of you have commented with a wide range of opinions and I wanted to get back to you on a few of the main topics.

Firstly I can absolutely understand why some of you disagree with these changes. It affects the content you love to watch, and I want to reassure you that we are doing everything we can in conjunction with our colleagues in Sport to schedule events to ensure that we try and accommodate all the major sporting events on Freeview; that we continue to online and this is made available to TV listings magazines to help you know when which sport is on and to remind you that Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Sport video available via the Red Button is also available on .

During major events we will also look to free up bandwidth available to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú across Freeview as we did during the Summer Olympics in 2008.

On Friday last week the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust signed off the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Executive plans to a £1m increase in the amount of money we spend on Children's websites at bbc.co.uk. This comes as a fantastic endorsement of the important role the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú has to play in empowering children as they become more experienced online and supporting them to develop the skills required to operate safely in the digital world.

Take a quick glance at (published a couple of weeks ago) and you realise how timely this is. Children are spending more and more of their allotted screen-time online, both supervised and unsupervised. Fortunately CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is amongst their most popular children's websites already, but in recent years we've seen massive growth in the 'other' sites they're visiting. And the reality is not all of these are appropriate for younger children.

As usual, it generated a number of newspaper headlines about how young children are being let loose in the wild west of the world wide web but as ever, the knee-jerk reaction seems to be 'ban the internet' altogether.

Apart from being completely impractical, it overlooks the huge positive benefits that children can gain using online resources. And in a society where we adults increasingly rely on being connected in our working and social lives, it's not only hypocritical but also wreckless to deny children access to the support and tools they need to become the "netizens" of tomorrow.

To use a real world analogy, you wouldn't refuse to take your child to the swimming pool until they're 16 and then expect them to sink or swim on their first poolside holiday alone.

At CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú we believe the solution has to be more practical. Our ambition is to create a safe online environment where children can have fun, laugh out loud, satisfy their curiosity for the world, be creative and at the same time develop all those essential internet skills.

I would argue this is more important now than ever before. In a world where TV viewing is becoming ever-more fragmented, particularly in the Multichannel Kids' TV space, it's inevitable that children are gravitating to the connectivity the web offers to have new types of shared experience with their friends.

As Ofcom research shows, growing numbers of 10s, 11s and 12s are being drawn to social networking sites - which, by their own terms and conditions are often not designed for this younger audience.

Under 13s are increasingly discovering these through their siblings, the almost-daily coverage in the media and probably parents like us who have embraced the new social opportunities these sites have to offer.

Rather than pretend this phenomenon doesn't touch children, we believe they should be offered alternative ways to connect and interact with their friends online that are designed around their needs and don't jeopardise their safety.

Everything we do is built around the 3Cs: Safer content, contact and conduct all built by design rather than leaving it to chance.

Content should be age appropriate, but also reflect the needs of children growing up in Britain today. is dominated by non-children's sites and US "kids'" brands. The CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú website stands out as a place for British children to hear and see other young people like them and share in our unique British entertainment brands.

Preventing inappropriate contact is also a fundamental principle of our online service. All free text is pre-moderated - personally checked by human beings before it get's posted - so children don't inadvertently reveal personal details that allow them to be identified. We insist they use nick-names in profiles rather than email addresses (as these invariably read first name dot surname). We also pre-check all UGC (user generated content) that goes on our site.

However, these human checks and balances can interrupt real-time activities so we're also looking closely at more immediate methods of non-verbal communication that allow children to interact instantaneously without divulging sensitive personal information.

The last C is for responsible conduct. Whilst adults usually cite predation or strong content as their biggest issue for young internet surfers, children tend to be more concerned by cyber-bullying online or via mobile phones. So at CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú we also try to encourage respect and a sense of decent civil behaviour on our message boards and other services like Bugbears.

I think it's obvious we strive to be the gold-standard in safety for children. But this can be a double edged sword. The last thing we want is for parents to think their children are safe at CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú and absolve themselves from paying an active interest in what their little darlings are up to online. They need to engage in how the web is being used at home and provide support, explanation and house rules about what is acceptable.

CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is currently one of the most loved online brands amongst 6-12s in the UK. In the months ahead we want to build on that reputation, by maintaining our safe credentials but also working hard to ensure we remain relevant to world in which they inhabit.

The work we've just kicked off at CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is all about giving children the opportunity to find and connect with the brands and activities they love and also have fun online. We want to carry through all those great values that children already associate with our CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú TV programming to provide great online entertainment with a British twist.

And we want to combine that with the best functionality. Great technology works at its best when it makes our lives easier and simpler and CÂ鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú aims to take the pain out of the web for this younger audience who have some very particular needs. Young children who are still coming to terms with the letters in the alphabet can be completely flummoxed by the QWERTY keyboard. Some struggle with scrolling, others are only attracted to bright visual imagery. We need to understand all these needs and build that into our navigation and designs.

We're also working on new ways for them to discover content and navigate around it, and share both our "stuff" and their own in safe ways. We want to help them extend their playground friendships into the virtual spaces so they can have the equivalent of the adult water cooler moment and at the same time inspire them to be more active in the real world.

It's a fallacy that busy online children are automatically more sedentary. What we've discovered is that actively engaged and creatively inspired web users tend to replicate those behaviours offline too. So they deserve environments and services that stimulate and challenge them, provide moments of laughter and opportunities to escape or chill-out, and crucially, destinations that cater to what it means to be a child growing up in Britain today.

In short our ambition in the year ahead is to put the younger audience first and create an online service that most adults would be envious of.

Marc Goodchild is Head of Interactive and On Demand, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Childrens.

Just a quick note to let you know that there's a new Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú blog, About the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, which will interest many of the Internet blog's users. This is how the blog's editor Chris Jones describes its role:

"We'll be using this blog as a place where decision makers and experts can talk about things going on inside the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú. This could include anything; from major announcements to how parts of the corporation operate."

Visit the About the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú blog to read more and leave your comments.

, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú and other broadcasters are currently working to provide HD channels on Freeview.

Nothing comes for free though, and inevitably, this means that the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's existing Freeview service has had to change to help accommodate HD.

It's been a busy time for Freeview users, with them as part of a country-wide rearrangement of broadcast transmissions. Now at the end of October, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú will have less room to broadcast interactive TV on Freeview. More details on this are provided here.

For Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú News, this means that we're no longer going to be able to provide one of our services.

Read the rest of this post and leave your comments on The Editors blog.

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust's decision to not approve Open iPlayer and the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's proposal to share the iPlayer technology with other broadcasters is today's big news at Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Internet blog towers. Commenters on are baffled by the ruling:

"It would be hugely to the advantage of licence fee payers to be able to receive all the channels and available programming via one-stop iPlayer .... what does someone have to be on to think otherwise?!?"

As , whatever else it may be up to, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust certainly isn't in cahoots with Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú management.

Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú and Arqiva have agreed on their DTT HD upgrade plans as .

Talking of HD TV, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Head of HD Danielle Nagler is due to appear on Points of View in a few weeks and is, according to the show's presenter Jeremy Vine, waiting for your comments and complaints. You can send in your opinion as a video (but note bandwidth is limited - smaller than 10mb or less than 30 seconds).

Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú online boss Erik Huggers on the iPlayer and other related items can be heard on Radio 4's Feedback.

On Digital Spy there's a lot of comment on Neil Christie's thread .

And finally don't let the cold weather put you off pottering round the garden. To help you know what to do when developer Duncan Robertson has created a . And no, it's not the singer.

(Exec Editor's update (NR): My favourite blog post of the past fortnight comes , who says of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Internet blog:

"Who is this blog written for? I don't know. It seems to be random pieces of information surrounding Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online, recent projects and challenges. I love it."

Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog.

As Controller of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Red Button service, I have to look at what's available for viewers on the service and balance it with the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's full digital aspirations. This sometimes means I have to make hard decisions about what we do and what we can offer to our audience.

From October 27th, Freeview viewers will see some changes to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Red Button service that is part of a government backed UK strategy to bring HD broadcast channels to a wider audience, first announced by Ofcom back in 2008.

In order to make space for HD broadcasts in the future we need to now switch off two of the three interactive streams we use to deliver Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú content on Freeview. This means that Freeview viewers will no longer be able to see the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú News Multiscreen and the interactive stream (known as 302) will also cease to be used for Red Button content.

So what does that mean for you watching on Freeview?

Read more and comment on Press Red blog

Many of you may have seen Micro Men on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú 4 (or on the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer) last week. It was an interesting reminder of the UK home computer boom of the early 1980s. Much has changed since then but I think there are some parallels to be drawn between the emerging UK microcomputing market then and the connected devices market of today.

In the 80s rival manufacturers were unconcerned with developing systems that could be used or operated reciprocally. Each hoped to emerge from a fragmented but rapidly growing market as the winner. It happened in computing, it's still happening in mobile, and it could well happen in connected TVs. This post is about how we deliver our video-on-demand service to a variety of platforms so that audiences can enjoy Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú content on them.

When we launched the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer in 2007, it was initially in Windows, but we wanted to make the service available on as many platforms and devices as was technically possible and economically sensible. It remains important that the platform strategy complements our content syndication policy. This means that, as well as taking the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer itself onto multiple platforms, we will continue to license Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú content to a range of third parties. This policy has worked well for the industry and for audiences.

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer has now been rebuilt for more than 20 different platforms and , enabling Licence Fee payers to access Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú content in a way that is convenient to them and delivers public value. We now average 100 million streams a month and although most viewing is still via the web, already more than a quarter of views are through the connected pay-TV platform and just under 10% through the . Increasingly users are also accessing iPlayer on mobile devices.

We hope to add more platforms before the end of this year, but to deliver a high-quality user experience we sometimes need to adapt the product ourselves, and the huge variation of standards in the market makes this an expensive and complex process.

The number of connected devices entering the market over the next few years is likely to accelerate. We'd like them all to be able to access iPlayer, and we'd encourage them to use our standard technologies to do so. However, for some that may not be possible. An ever increasing number of companies want us to build them a bespoke iPlayer; more than we can reasonably afford.

Today we've published new guidelines that outline how potential partners can syndicate our standard iPlayer product. They also lay out the scope for our investment in customisation and bespoke development for larger platforms.NB Editor's note - the text in the previous paragraph was inaccurate and we have now corrected. Apologies.

Today we've published a clarification on where the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú believes the balance currently lies between generating public value and value for money considerations.

We hope this move will make life clearer for the industry, and easier for people to access and enjoy our content, whatever device they use and wherever they are.

(Update 21.12.09) In light of the Trust ruling on IPVision we have taken down the clarification published in October. The clarification will now be considered as part of the Trust's review of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's on-demand syndication policy, which begins in January 2010. In the meantime, we continue to rely on our pre-existing policy until the Trust complete their review.

Kerstin Mogull is COO Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú FM&T

Earlier this year, we broadcast another fantastic season of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Proms. Every concert is broadcast live on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio 3, with some concerts also broadcast on television - mainly Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Four, but also Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú HD, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Two and Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú One. That meant many live broadcasts live from the Royal Albert Hall - a building which is a number of miles away from Radio 3's studios in Broadcasting House.

So how does the audio get from the Royal Albert Hall into my FM/DAB/Internet Radio at home? And what happens to it along the way? How much is the audio in the Royal Albert Hall "dynamically compressed" (where the quiet bits get louder and the louder bits get quieter), and is any of the audio signal chucked away by using bandwidth limiting? And how might you get the best quality from our Proms coverage? I've always been interested in this; so here's what happens:

For Radio 3 transmission, on iPlayer and others...

Read more and comment at Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio Labs blog.

I'm at the Online Access Forum as mentioned by Seetha today.

And here are a few impressions of the event so far (which ends at 3 p.m.).

09.08 introduced Sam of h2g2 to who is now involved in media literacy. So that's one good thing out of the day already!

09.11 "My mum and dad don't use the internet so I'd like to find out how to help them. If you don't use it you miss out on so much. I was showing my Dad my iphone..."

09.38 Mark Thompson starts with a mention of Micro Men. Also a Get Online day next week involving Radio 2 and Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú local radio, and the new media literacy portal.

09.58 The internet: "It's for people like you", "You won't break it".

10.08 Email still very important and compelling. Mobile increasingly important.

What strikes me is that we should not assume things about people who aren't online. Some may never have used a computer keyboard. This can be "overwhelming", indeed scary: like going back to school.

10.20 Gavin Esler now talking to some new adopters of the Internet. Internet useful for job searching, rather important at the moment! Many spoke about an initial barrier of "the IT suite" and anxiety around using a computer for the first time.

In the photo: talking about their e-Neighbourhoods programme. Just behind her is Alan Fisher who mentioned how competitions on crisp packets exclude people who don't have the internet.

Other quotes from new adopters:

"Once you go online all of sudden the world opens up... its amazing"

"It took me a week to book an airline ticket..."

11.10 Interview with . Mentions .

"There's always money in connectivity."

Update: 13:49 Had a break for a meeting and lunch. Back for a panel session with Peter Barron (ex Newsnight), Amanda Farnsworth, Helen Milner and Simon Milner.

Nice point that not everyone agrees that increased online access is a good thing. To some media industries it's still seen as a threat.

"It's about people, not pipes"

"You can only do big things with partnerships"

Point about public sector reaching out to their own employees and making sure that all of them are properly online.

14.40 Johnny Ball takes the platform. His theme is that to connect the unconnected it has to be done by people - it's person to person. A recurring theme throughout the day.

Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online

Russ has asked in the comments to my previous post, 'What happened to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online Access Forum announced by the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's COO Caroline Thomson at the summit on 17th April?'

Talk about timing. It's this Friday. Hosted by Mark Thompson, the day is part of the ongoing collaborative and productive dialogue taking place with a number of different organisations. Earlier this week, I heard , Digital Inclusion Champion on Radio 4's to have the same choices and same rights as the people who are connected. makes sombre reading. Digitally excluded households are missing out on making savings between £270 and £560 per year from shopping and paying bills online, and the most economically disadvantaged families are missing out on combined savings of over £1billion.

I sit on the task force Martha chairs and what's energising is the commitment of organisations such as and the determination of initiatives such as to get everyone in Barnsley online by 2012. Together, we now have a national call to action. Have a look and see if you can get involved.

Why does digital literacy matter? The facts tell their own story. More than 10 million adults across the UK have never used the internet, and worryingly 4 million of this group is also socially excluded. All of them are missing out on the connections, the opportunities and the cost efficiencies that the web has to offer. Of the 4 million adults offline who are socially excluded: 39% are over 65 years old; 23% are unemployed and 19% are in families with children.

At its core, inclusion is about enabling people to be part of our community. Or in other words, it's a wonderful way of opening up worlds, of communicating, and alleviating loneliness and exclusion.

What can we do to help those who have never had the opportunity to use the web for simple day-to-day life-enhancing activities?

There is a generation now retired who missed the IT revolution completely. Why should they not be able to enjoy all the opportunities and benefits offered by the Internet? Take the simple question of language. We put up web addresses - but to some this makes no sense at all. They need help to understand- what for them is a new way of life that has somehow by passed them over the last 10-15 years.

We need to ensure that the bewildering often mystifying language and terminology is made simple and clear. They also need help which is not patronising. Then there is fear; fear of learning and being shown up. Perhaps this can be lightened with support from a family member or neighbour? Perhaps volunteering is one part of the overall solution. I'd like your thoughts and suggestions on what we can do individually and collectively to make a difference. Do you have examples of helping an older relative get connected, or perhaps a friend?

I believe a simple and effective need is making bog standard technology simple - easier to understand and therefore use. We have all known the frustration of the system crashing and the sheer rage that can sometimes grip you when you've lost hours of work. I deal with the frustration of my wireless not working (even though the modem is winking green) by pulling all the wires out, taking a deep breath and starting again. Websites that crash give new hesitant users a feeling of failure rather than frustration. They need reassurance that it's not them - it's the machine!

, online shopping, , free phone calls, video conferencing, consumer advice and information, find-a-friend services have over the years helped make the web relevant to our lives. What the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú can do with the myriad stories it tells is to use our creative storytelling skills across a variety of platforms to help encourage that take up. And we can do this with the faces that have become familiar over the years.

At the Access Forum tomorrow, we will show e contributions from Terry Wogan, Adrian Chiles, Kirsty Young, Jonathan Ross, Kirsty Wark, Ken Bruce, Kwame Kwei-Armah and members of the EastEnders cast and Blue Peter team. I'll make sure this is available for you to see

A sizeable group of those not online at home are the young. Most access digital services at their friends' houses, schools, colleges, or universities. It is now about making them more confident, better users, so they appreciate what they need to do or not do, and how to express themselves creatively. They need to grasp how (and why) media works as it does, what is legal and what is not, and how to protect their identities and rights...

Later this evening, I am going to the launch of to promote Digital Participation. The aim is to increase the reach, breadth and depth of digital technology use across all sections of society. The Consortium has over fifty members who will contribute expertise and communications channels to promote Digital Participation. Some of the larger members include , the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, and .

The forum we are hosting tomorrow is but one chapter in this continuing narrative. Chaired by Gavin Esler, speakers include: Martha Lane Fox, the Government's Champion for Digital Inclusion; Peter Barron, Director of Communications, Google; Simon Milner, Group Director, Industry Policy, BT and the broadcaster Johnny Ball. Members of the public, who have just embarked on their own online journeys, will tell it like it is.

Nick Reynolds will blog about the day and you will also be able to see some of the short films we will show during the discussions. We will publish our research into home broadband adoption. There is a huge groundswell of support in trying to get the country online - but we need your help. Please post your ideas in the comments.

Seetha Kumar is Controller, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online.

After reading this morning about Sky's submission to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust about project Canvas I wanted to respond on behalf of all partners (Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, ITV, BT and Five).

Central to the thinking behind project Canvas is that we can create an open platform for the next generation of internet-connected TV devices, and by open, we mean that all content owners, internet service providers and device manufacturers can get involved. Openness delivers scale, which will be central to all the partners' ambitions to make the platform a mainstream success.

The , which outlines Sky's objections to the proposals, highlighted a few misconceptions we would like to clarify on behalf of all the partners.

Canvas will not be a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú platform. It is a proposal for a new joint venture - much like Freeview or Freesat - with commercial partners, and ITV, Five and BT have already committed their support. The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's involvement in this venture is subject to Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust approval and we expect their emerging conclusions in the Autumn.

Nor is it a "Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú standard" that the venture would adopt. A standard for connected TVs is being developed now with the Digital Television Group - this was always our intention and work has already begun. Our ambition is that the Canvas platform would be compliant with that standard.

The partners would welcome the support of any ISP (i.e. including Sky), who could help us reach these aims, by offering the platform to their subscribers or as a venture partner, provided their ambitions for a free-to-air platform and open competition match ours.

And subscription-free doesn't mean all the content has to be free. Like the internet, the Canvas platform would support a range of monetisation options - from advanced targeted advertising, micropayments or straightforward subscription. And as an open platform, the rules of access would be the same for any video on demand service, be it Lovefilm, ITV player, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer or Blinkbox. Sky could increase the reach of its video-on-demand service Sky Player through the Canvas platform.

Canvas is in addition to, not instead of the syndication ambitions of all of the existing partners. Making content widely available is fundamental to the economics of free to air content providers and Canvas adds to the range of options available. As a platform, it is intended to reduce the barriers to accessing the television set that some content providers already experience.

Public service or not, we can all contribute to supporting a Digital Britain: be it in increasing the availability of online services such as NHS Direct, helping to drive broadband uptake by delivering service innovation or by investing to ensure that our subscription free TV platforms continue to evolve. The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú thinks that Canvas is central to delivering these aims and is keen to work with partners who believe the same.

Richard Halton is the Director of Project Canvas.

This week, for Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú programme makers, producers and journalists.

For the first time, the public is being asked to comment on them in draft form before they are finalised. Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú staff will also be consulted, by our Editorial Policy department, on their attitudes to the new draft.

One of the issues they cover, picked up by the , is writing for the web.

The new draft, also for the first time, fully integrates the original editorial guidelines and the (formerly separate) ones for Online...

Visit The Editors to read the rest of this entry and to leave a comment.

's Director of Media Partnerships is in the Broadcast Centre today. She showed various cross-media projects that they'd been involved in including the .

The slide behind Chloe shows a trending graph and visualisation of the time after . "And so what?" you're probably saying. However, what was interesting (or alarming depending on your POV) is the fact that MTV had a , , at the awards who popped up throughout the coverage on broadcast TV to report on and analyse what was being said in the . While watching 20 seconds of iJustine is decidedly not for the faint-hearted the nearest comparison I could find from the UK would be election nights with .

It's that time of year again when we look out our heels, get on the glitter and polish our mirror balls for the biggest show of the year. And that's just what the men in our offices are doing.

Even before Strictly Come Dancing was named in new 2010 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, the website, broke our own records by scoring more than 300k uniques on the single day of the celebrity reveal. As the dancers were announced, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Homepage, the Strictly mobile and web site, and Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Big Screens all over the country broadcast exclusive interviews of the excited celebs.

So the new series is now in full swing and this year, what's happening is all about the fans and giving them daily access to their favourite show. On the website, the message board community takes centre stage, and Strictly's Senior Producer Paul Condon has found to be an invaluable way to reach out, talk to and tell people what's going on, in real time.

The content on the site day by day, week by week, will mostly reflect and be responsive to what the fans are talking about and asking for. This video message to the fan groups which have emerged on the boards is a typical example: it speaks directly to those groups and acknowledges their dedication. There will be more rewards like this through the weeks.

But the big online event for the show this year is what we are calling Strictly Social.

This project is a development of The Apprentice Predictor, our first toe in the water of social viewing and playalong. But it does a lot more.

With Strictly Social, we hope to learn even more about what people expect from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú in social media, especially older fans. The TV show traditionally has an older, female audience who don't tend to come online, whilst the site attracts the younger web savvier audience. This year, we hope to do a bit of a digital literacy job in attracting more of the older TV audiences who might not have come to the site previously. For that reason, we are not focusing on , as the more traditional TV audiences are probably not there.

It attempts to give people some lighter interaction (you can boo, wow or gasp along at any time) and help people share their emotions when they feel them with others Every week there will be a guest pro dancer joining the commentary too. It is playful (you can guess what the judge's score will be and get rewarded for accuracy) but will hopefully be simple enough to not distract you from the main event: the show itself.

It's an experiment, but it will be fun. So what are you waiting for? Grab that glitter and come join us.

Jo Twist, Entertainment Multiplatform Commissioning Executive, Entertainment & Switch, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Vision

Editor's update: The Strictly Come Dancing embeddable widget (embedded below) is now available on the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú widgets page. If you'd like to add it to your own website or blog there are full instructions on the widgets page or, if you've done this sort of thing before, click on the 'Embed' button on the widget in the bottom right hand corner to get the HTML you'll need.

Since our Red Button blog appeared you have been great at feeding back to us about what you like and don't like; what works well and what doesn't and we've enjoyed the fact that you want the best out of the Red Button service as much as we do!

Now you have the chance to tell others how you feel and to influence what we do in 2010 and beyond!

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's governing body, is holding a public consultation about Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú One, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Two, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Four and Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Red Button. Go to to have your say.

Read more and comment at Press Red.

John Denton is Managing Editor for Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Red Button

On the Internet blog we spend a lot of our time keeping track on what's being said, discussed and debated about the things the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's up to in the online and digital space. Often the good stuff is found on people's personal blogs where they get to share aspects of their Beeb work.

On the Managing Editor for the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Mobile Platforms shares the slides from his presentation showing some of the things the Beeb's up to in the mobile space as well as Jason's predictions for the next big things in his area.

The that:

"The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust has frozen the budgets of three of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's online learning services pending a review of their market impact. The investment freeze follows a complaint from the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) which was partially upheld by the trust."

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust has also released new draft editorial guidlelines for public consultation. The rounds up some of the background to the new draft but wonders:

"How many members of the public actually read through the 190-page document is another question, and obviously it is impossible to say how much attention the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust will actually pay to suggestions."

There's an interesting debate on the use of open codecs developing over on the Radio Labs blog in response to a post on the phasing out of RealMedia on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú services. Elsewhere on the Radio Labs blog there's Duncan Robertson's intriguingly titled post: Fun with Quartz Composer in Snow Leopard and the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio Schedule.

Finally, the team putting together the TV documentary history of the Web currently known as Digital Revolution (working title) are asking for suggestions for a new name. They've also made available rushes of interviews with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Howard Rheingold  under a permissive licence if you fancy editing them into your own Web documentary.

UPDATE (PM): It's just been pointed out to me by my colleague Jonathan that while many of this blog's readers are no doubt interested in the latest findings of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Trust (see above) he was rather suprised that we hadn't even mentioned Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú4's Micro Men shown last night. It's a comedy drama about inventor Clive Sinclair, ex-employee Chris Curry and the nascent British home computing market of the 'eighties. You can watch it on the Micro Men programme page for the next six days.
Sam Wollaston gave it on the Guardian website and has an interview with its producer and a review which ends neatly with this:

One final thought: before the film was shown, the continuity announcer warned us there will be some strong language; I guess I was the only one who thought, 'Perl as well as 6502 assembler?'

Paul Murphy is the Editor of this blog.

Last Friday, took place in the philharmonic studio at , Oxford Road.

working in partnership with , and produced a free public event bringing some of the experience of the to the North of England. Mixing talks and conference videos, there was a rich set of presentations from inspiring experts (regional and Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú) on the future of technology, entertainment and design.

Over 250 folk - students, academics, indies, staff, corporates and regional agencies took time out to listen, network and hopefully get more sense of an Open Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú. You can get a small sense of the day from these .

There are numerous reviews and summaries of the event that are well worth looking at - try or as good starting points.

It's also worth noting that the whole event was captured as a purely tapeless digital production in HD using Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú R&D's system. We should have all the video of the presentations as well as edited highlights up in couple of weeks as a new episode of R&D TV.

It's through events such as this that we can build in the future Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú FM&T's commitment to the overall ambitions of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú North.

Dr Adrian Woolard is Project Lead (R&D North Lab), Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Research & Development.

At Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio we try to deliver the best experience for users of our streaming services. We constantly review our services to make sure they deliver 'public value'. The four drivers of public value are: Reach, Quality, Impact and Value.

When streaming services are evaluated against these measures, we take into account where different formats might need to be implemented, evolved or deprecated.

The streaming service provided in RealMedia format has been with us at the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú since 1996. At the time it was the best option available, but more recently alternative methods of delivery have become just as important. These include Windows Media and Flash.

When evaluating services with our public value tests, which includes the costs of the services, we came to the decision that RealMedia was something we needed to phase out.

Read the rest of this entry and leave your comments on the Radio Labs blog.

We've been delighted to hear lots of positive feedback from the blind community after we launched Audio Description on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer at the end of August. It's been great to hear stories of the difference this feature is making to many of our user's lives on programmes such as the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's 'In Touch' radio show and talking with blind people directly at the recent .

Today I have more good news for vision-impaired iPlayer users.

I'd like to announce that we have now completed the work needed to increase the amount of Audio Described programmes on iPlayer to be broadly the same as broadcast on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú TV - approximately 40 hours a week. You'll see these additional programmes - from CBeebies, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú3, and the overnight Sign Zone - appearing in the Audio-Described category from today onwards.

It's been a good week for our team too, as we picked up the Access-IT@Home award at this year's Access-IT awards with iPlayer being recognised "the best ICT-based service in Europe that advances independent living for people with disabilities or who are elderly".

This is a great result, and is testament to how important video-on-demand is to the quality of life of elderly and disabled people across Europe.

The judges remarked:

"We recognised the immense value of emotional well being through an application that gave users a sense of cultural identity and entertainment for free and on demand. Millions of users access this software and content daily, and the opportunity to access media that is amongst the best in the world as and when you want it should not be underestimated. The work of the winning entry in creating a free, accessible solution is significant, and for these reasons the award goes to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer."

They recognised iPlayer as being the most accessible video-on-demand service in Europe:

Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer was the first VOD site in the UK to include BSL signed content in March 2008;

the first VOD site in the UK to include subtitles in May 2008;

the only VOD site in the UK to achieve >90% of programmes with subtitles;

and the first VOD site in the world to include audio description in August 2009.

Picture: Gareth Ford Williams, Jonathan Hassell and James Hewines picking up the award

As a result of the award we are already getting requests from broadcasters and governments across Europe asking how they can replicate what we've done in making iPlayer such an inclusive service.

So it couldn't have been a better time for Erik Huggers to introduce the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's 'Open iPlayer' plans to help other broadcasters by sharing iPlayer technologies with them, as he.

Maybe someday all VOD services will be made this way...

If you have any comments or suggestions about how the accessibility of iPlayer could be further improved, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Audience Accessibility Team would love to hear your views.

Jonathan Hassell is Head of User Experience & Accessibility, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú FM&T

Last Tuesday, I attended an illuminating session organised by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, with the support of, our own College of Journalism on 'The rise of social media and its impact on mainstream Journalism'.

The panel (The Guardian's , The Telegraph's and the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's ) reflected on the dynamics created by the web's unique ability to support the 'many to many conversation'. It was a lively discussion with unanimous agreement that 'social media' enables the telling of better stories and making better relationships.

User engagement (or what we have long thought of as audience involvement) was a recurrent theme last week. On Friday night I was at the BFI participating in a discussion on web production, with members of our audience. It was a useful forum to ruminate on topics such as Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online reaching its 12th birthday this December, the current challenges of digital literacy and social exclusion, the worrying lack of viable business models for commercial online publishers, and the creativity and new forms of storytelling made possible by the web.

Afterwards, mingling and chatting, I was asked about press reports about I had read the stories earlier last week with bemusement and the has clearly .

Our continuing concern is to make Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online better for our users. This includes looking at how we can genuinely make Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online part of the web and meet our users growing expectations that they can contribute in different ways to our site. A number of ideas are in train; including allowing users to add comments to news stories as they can at many sites, including and . However, those ideas are aimed at allowing us to keep pace with what users have come to expect - they do not add up to a radical" social" overhaul!

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú has always sought a close relationship with the people who provide its income. Interacting with audiences is intrinsic to our heritage even if the means of doing so constantly evolve. I remember debates with viewers via letter, arguing in response to complaints and closely monitoring daily call logs during my programme making days. These kinds of feedback helped - and still help - programme makers to shape and sharpen the output for which they are responsible.

Newer forms of audience participation are audible or visible across our output, whether in Nicky Campbell's compelling morning show on R 5 or in . And, of course, feedback is the u.s.p of shows such as the appropriately named Feedback on Radio 4 and Points of View on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú ONE. In these programmes, value for the whole audience is provided by the contributions of a few - and this is a pattern we want to be part of Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online in future.

Mark Thompson talked recently of the importance of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú as a 'shared, independent, not-for-profit public space.' Key to this is the power of digital media to build deeper and closer relationships with our audiences. And Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online is uniquely positioned to enrich and sustain this 'public space.' The web, with its developing tools and functionality provides a great platform for a mutually enriching, many to many conversation.

The Apprentice Predictor is a recent example. Users could predict which apprentice they thought was going to be fired, - a good example of how social functionality can add interest and drama to our best-loved shows. We hope to build on this kind of interaction with Strictly Social, a recent addition to the Strictly Come Dancing site. Users will be welcomed to the site by an avatar of Judge Len Goodman, and can submit their own ratings for the contestants as well as select their favourite moments while the show is on air to view afterwards.

So, we are looking at a number of ideas. But in addition to asking what our users want we also need to be aware of the impact anything we do might have on other UK sites and services. Our aim is to be part of the much more joined up internet that is emerging; not compete with other service providers. Indeed, in order to become more part of the web we need to interact successfully with other sites and services - and that means effective collaboration. From being a digital repository for the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's digital content, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online aims to co-exist more fruitfully with other services and significantly improve the way it signposts and embraces content and services that exist outside the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú.

More ambitious, but also more complex perhaps, are emerging plans to work with partners in the sharing of technology and other service elements like metadata. This is the thinking behind many of our partnership proposals - such as and Project Canvas. The same principles and intentions are informing our thinking on social media.

Seetha Kumar is Controller, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Online

The issues surrounding HD and DRM were fuelled further this week by Cory Doctrow .

This isn't the time to further discuss the DRM debate, or speculate on the relative merits of copy protection but I do want to re-state the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's position, and correct some of the inaccuracies in .

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú does get caught up in this debate from time to time. The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is a content producer, a licensee, and a distributor and we have a commitment to make our content as widely available and accessible as we possibly can to our audiences. We also want to be able to secure a proportion of high-value content from external sources to ensure our channels remain varied and attractive to licence fee payers.

As I stated in my last post, this includes our commitment to launching an HD service on Freeview, which creates both technical and licensing complexities. We believe we have come up with a solution to this challenge.

Without wanting to negate Cory's contribution to this debate, he got a number of major points wrong in his analysis and in particular there are five key areas that need clear correction.

1) "fell apart after years of acrimonious discussion"

No. This is an agreed standard that is now available to the marketplace (though completely unconnected to this debate).

2) The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's proposals will "freeze out" British entrepreneurs, "increase the cost" of HDTV in the UK, "limiting competition"

We are working on the standard with the UK's . The DTG's purpose is to agree standards with the consumer electronics sector. Consumer electronics companies generally operate in global markets, and by nature, shared standards mean a level playing field for all in the sector. Further, the fact that you have a properly certified standard through a respected body means consumers have the assurance that the product will work, as well as a shared brand to promote the standard (in this case Freeview HD) - which creates scale. This is good for consumers, and is not just a point of view: it's proven in the case of Freeview and virtually any other market where economies of scale exist.

3) We make the consumer electronics market "subject to the whims of the " in effect, sidelining .

This is not how the DTLA works and is a misrepresentation of the 's role in this process. The DTLA is responding to our requirements - not vice versa. With access to its technology, consumers will be able to share high definition content across home networks. With the consultation that is going through Ofcom, it stretches credibility to suggest that they are being sidelined in this process.

4) We "create a mountain of e-waste" and "break existing equipment"

As I stated in my previous post, this is simply incorrect. Standard definition outputs from HD receivers will be unaffected, so existing DVD and VHS recorders can be used to record all HD programmes in standard definition. SD Freeview boxes remain completely unaffected, the SD signal won't change. This is about new Freeview HD devices. Note that DAB radios, mobile phones, and TV remote controls will also (happily) remain unaffected.

5) The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's "cosy negotiation" with rightholders and "secretive consultations" amounts to us neglecting our responsibilities and a desire to slip this process through quietly

This point we take most seriously. Above all else, we are a public organisation funded by the Licence Fee and have committed ourselves to greater transparency and openness because we believe that this is an obligation we have to our audience.

The fact is that discussions with both the DTG and Ofcom about how we solve this issue have been ongoing for months. We have consulted a wide range of stakeholders, and haven't tabled these proposals lightly. Further, we sent Ofcom a formal letter with every intention to undertake this open, public consultation. None of these actions demonstrate an attempt to conceal our intentions.

Perhaps Cory does know all this, but is just unhappy that we won't fight for his cause. However our focus is not to champion causes - it's meeting our public service remit which means serving our many audiences as best, as fairly, and as openly as we can.

Graham Plumb is Head of Distribution Technology, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú.

The week started with reporting that the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú were working on a and the .

The including (or as The Telegraph calls it) saying that to include more social media. The correction featured on and on the .

You can hear some of what the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is actually doing in this .

The Guardian marked the launch of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Wildlife Finder by calling it the .

Times Online Labs produced but are asking for your help:

"We'd welcome any suggestions to meaningfully integrate data about Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú online. The main statistic the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú makes available is that its website averages 27.2m unique UK users a week."

Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog.

(Audio on this page is broken. Am investigating the fault. - Update Ian McDonald 17 May 2012)

They recorded for Posterity: that means us!

The recent collection from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Archive team, marking the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII, has made me reflect on the pioneers of the Sound Archive, men and women whose vision meant we have such remarkable recordings to share, together with images and documents seventy years on.

The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Archives are regularly subject to sometimes forensic scrutiny about what the Archive doesn't have from the past, and quite right too - Sarah Hayes wrote a blog post about this very issue - but today I'm unashamedly indulging in what we have got, and our debt to the men and women of the Recorded Programmes Department of the 30s and 40s.

Recording is something we take for granted now, but in the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú of the 1930s it was by no means a given. Our first recording machine, a (pictured left), was not installed until 1930, eight years after the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú started broadcasting.

Consequently, there were no archives to illustrate the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's 10th anniversary and the move to Broadcasting House from Savoy Hill in 1932. The solution was to ask a number of contributors to re-read parts of their broadcasts. Happily, we still have the recordings as used in The End of Savoy Hill programme.

Even with the technology available, there was a suspicion and sometimes prejudice about using recording in broadcasting. Some took a dim view of pre-recording music as they considered re-takes and editing did not result in a genuine performance. When recordings were used for scheduling reasons or to broadcast to another time zone, the Radio Times always noted the fact. At the end of the programme, the announcer would state "you have been listening to a recording" to ensure that the listener was not deceived.

Nevertheless, Sound Archive pioneers such as Lynton Fletcher (pictured) had already been experimenting with using recordings for new programmes in Pieces of Tape (1932). The 'tape' by the way was actually thin steel, edited using wire-cutters and the ends welded together.

By 1939, things had moved on. As well as the steel-tape method, disc recording was widely used and the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú had 18 recording machines including six mobile units in trucks and cars. Happily for us, Fletcher was rather good at archiving himself and we have a number of recordings of him and his staff talking about the Recorded Programmes Department of which he was Director.

Here, he explains the three reasons why the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú made recordings.

The acetate discs made had a relatively short playing life but were suitable to immediate broadcasting needs. Any selected for the Permanent Library (not yet known as the Sound Archive) had to be sent to a record company to be processed into more durable discs. This cost a few pounds per disc, so each selection had to be justified and it was all rather tentative. Typically, a recording of a notable person might not be selected because they were already represented in the Library: the content or the figure would have to be quite something to warrant a second example. Perhaps four or five four-minute recordings or shorter extracts a week were selected.

In 1939, some 200 recordings a week were being made, but once war had begun, this increased enormously: 7,000 by June 1944. Marie Slocombe, Recorded Programmes Librarian from 1937 to 1972, another great pioneer of the Archive, recalled that 'history was piling in' leading to 'hopeless arrears'. Marie's work was celebrated in an Radio 4 Archive Hour in 2007 and .

What does come across very strongly is the very real awareness both Slocombe and Fletcher had of the significance of their work for future generations: they were determined to preserve some representation of the life and times they were living through. This determination was of course intensified in wartime. A 1942 series about the work of the Recorded Programmes Department reveals the clear sense of purpose and appreciation of the significance of their work for future generations. Fletcher envisages the serious student of history or just the curious being able to 'recreate for themselves...the scenes and events that we're living through now'.

Listen to more of Fletcher here:

In that clip Fletcher talks about listening to those from 'all walks of life': both he and Slocombe ensured that not only the 'Great and Good' were preserved for posterity. As Slocombe put it in a 1972 interview 'we believe, that ordinary people who have stories to tell and experiences to relate, are part of the history of our time and which are worth preserving, in sound.'

You can hear Slocombe herself here:

We'll be hearing many more recordings from the war as more collections are released and in appreciating the often perilous work of celebrated War Correspondents and their lesser known, but just as courageous recording engineers, let's spare a thought for the pioneers of the Sound Archive whose efforts and vision ensured we have so much to share with you today.

Simon Rooks is a Multi-Media Archivist, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Information & Archives.

• Visit Roger Beckwith's website.

What kinds of music does Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú radio play? Which bands are played most? Which DJs play 70s music? Radio Waves is a prototype visualisation that takes data about music played recently on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio and creates a time profile for any individual radio network, musical genre or radio show. The graph shows, year by year, how many albums were released by the artists recently played on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio.

Click here to explore the visualisation or read on to find out more.

After our recent hackday on music visualisation we ran a quick two week sprint with the R&D Prototyping team to develop a combination of the best and the most feasible of the ideas that came out. Radio Waves is the result of that sprint.

Read more and comment at Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio labs blog