(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)Frontline’s Frontline Video
It was a turning point in Internet history, and it happened in October of 1995. Frontline had been investigating the 1993 Waco siege for an upcoming report when David Fanning, the Executive Producer of Frontline, made the decision to put a good deal of the material derived from their research and reporting (photos, FBI surveillance audiotapes, reporting notes, interviews) on the web for everyone to see. It was their very first website and done with a staff of just two people. That single act not only created the concept of open (or transparent) journalism but forever changed the way we look at and what we expect out of the World Wide Web.
...forever changed the way we look at and what we expect out of the World Wide Web...
Frontline, still led by David Fanning, has continued that tradition of being the first to bridge Internet technology with program content. Having taken an early lead in streaming their programs after the broadcast, there are now 60 to 70 hours of programs streamed and viewable on the Frontline site making it one of the largest of its kind with literally millions of viewers visiting regularly. Frontline/World is gradually being added to that incredible resource as well.
This is the great promise of public media. This is where we hold our work for the future, our public library, our contribution to the intellectual commons.
-- David Fanning, Executive Producer, Frontline
Your Local Station Website
...Frontline Video is back, and it's all grown up now...
You may be wondering what this has to do with your local station website. After all, it's been a while since we've had Frontline content available to us as local web content--not counting RSS feeds. The original Frontline Video module that some of us once utilized on our local sites was a rather short-lived experiment, and even the more long-term Headlines module (much lamented in its passing) eventually faded into history. So what is there now that could inspire a public television station web developer like myself to bring up such a sore subject? Well, you're not going to believe this, but Frontline Video is back, and it's all grown up now.
Sam Bailey, Frontline's Director of New Media and Technology, has spent the last two years developing a new, enhanced web video player designed specifically to play high-quality, large-frame video of full Frontline programs directly off of local station web sites. The new player will be able to play at a bitrate of 350k--a considerable increase over the current 220k--in a fairly large and customizable playing window, and PBS is providing the bandwidth for it. The only downside is that it's available for broadband only.
We're going for incremental improvements here. I think eventually the bitrates will go higher, but, right now, 350k is a good number for us (and for PBS who has to pay the bill.) Frankly the quality of many broadband connections and general latency is such that higher bitrates can sometimes not work so smoothly.
-- Sam Bailey, Director of New Media and Technology, Frontline
One exciting aspect of this delivery system is the distinct possibility that West Coast station sites could actually receive the latest program through their website prior to the on-air broadcast. Frontline's current plan is to make the shows available online on the same day they're broadcast which means that West Coast station sites will have direct access to the shows three hours earlier in the day (in terms of local time) than East Coast stations. This aspect of the player's behavior is still under consideration but probably won't change.
But Wait, There's More...
I know it sounds like a bad commercial, but this player has a lot of other innovations that will make it indispensable to your station website. It appears initially as a small piece of page content (probably sidebar,) but what it does next is controllable by you. There are two different options that you can set up to control what happens when a user clicks the link; it can open a player window or a menu page.
The Player Window
The Player Window is the heart and soul of this new module. It's designed to open as a small, popup window over your page and begin playing a Frontline program of your choice. The real innovation, however, is that there's a space around the window that can be customized for station logo and messaging that you can control. If only CSS control could be built into the final version (which is not currently planned,) then this player could be reskinned locally as each station sees fit. Still, it's definitely going to be an important part of the local station site and yet one more really awesome service to offer to the community.
The Menu Page
The Menu Page option opens as a new page. It currently contains a selection of 16 available videos, but there are at least 10 shows in the coming season that are due to be added. For the entire archive, we'll still have to send visitors to the Frontline site, but I plan to do that with a simple, localized "More Videos >>" link at the bottom of the page pointing to the Frontline Video view page.
You get to customize this menu page as well with your information such as upcoming broadcasts of Frontline and your other public affairs programs as well as other messages you might want to convey, pledge drives, local events, appeals for membership...
-- David Fanning, Executive Producer, Frontline
Other Issues
Implementation
...will come as a standard toolkit...
The implementation of the player is quite simple and will come as a standard toolkit complete with multiple templates, full instructions, and even promotional materials. Frontline's web team (in conjunction with PBS Interactive) will be available to advise and assist participating stations. My personal plans are to set up a homepage version pointing at the most current episode available for viewing and a news page version set up to open the Menu Page for the site visitor to choose from. You, of course, might choose differently.
Marketing
Frontline's marketing department will create materials customized to your station to help get the word out to your viewers. They have a vested interest in making this work, and they're willing to go out of their way to get your local station viewers to go to your site and try this out. They're offering a number of promotional materials:
- On-air promotion spot
- Member Magazine article
- Press release for local publications
- On-air tag reminder to go to your website and watch the program again any time
- Ecards or postcards for online and mass mailing promotion
It might even be worth asking for if you can think of something else to add to the list.
Objectionable Content
...online broadcasts (webcasts) have no such limitations...
Although on-air broadcasts of Frontline occasionally require editing for "objectionable content" and fall within applicable FCC decency regulations, online broadcasts (webcasts) have no such limitations. So Frontline is looking at the Internet as having "another level of gatekeeping," because you have to actively chose to click (or take some other action) to get to the content. Their plan is to carry an "appropriate warning" in the program description and go ahead with streaming the unedited version. There's still some discussion as to whether to create a special edited version for schools to access, but it seems to me that the easier answer to that would be to simply point schools to a more limited collection of videos, ones without such content.
Player Rollout
...multi-phase rollout with changes and updates over time...
There will be a multi-phase rollout with changes and updates to the player over time. The plan is for the first round of stations to launch at the start of next season, October 3. The first version will make use of Flash and Quicktime, and the content will be delivered via HTTP--"at least this version; the Windows Media version is another matter entirely."
I should say up front that some of this may not be set in stone yet. We're busy rebuilding part of this right now.
-- Sam Bailey, Director of New Media and Technology, Frontline
Accessibility
To their further credit, Frontline (or, more specifically, Sam Bailey) actually considered accessibility issues in the creation of this player. Some of it is in place now, and some will require more work later. They're linking from the video to the existing transcript on the Frontline site and captioning is possible in the player.
This initial version will only have limited captioning, because the archived shows are not captioned at this point. We're exploring going back and having them captioned now, but there's no timeline for it. As for keyboard navigation, we're pondering that at the moment, but, other than rudimentary stuff like play and stop arrows and the return key to select a program, we don't have much in there right now. We need to talk about accessibility options with NCAM if the test goes well.
-- Sam Bailey, Director of New Media and Technology, Frontline
Some Final Words
On Revolution and Renaissance
...was then a new media with infinite possibilities, television...
There's a lot happening in public broadcasting right now, and the Internet is a major part of that. Many of the current models and methods are failing to work in this 21st-century view of instant media. Strangely, many of the earliest models and methods of public broadcasting are being resurrected, dusted off, and seeing new light. They were envisioned for what was then a new media with infinite possibilities, television.
We're all witnessing an accelerating shift in the television landscape. We're in the midst of a great technological revolution in delivering programming.
-- David Fanning, Executive Producer, Frontline
We may well be in a "technological revolution" as far as program (or content) delivery is concerned, but I'm seeing the effect on the programming itself as more of a renaissance for public broadcasting. Not since its very beginnings has there been such a wide open landscape of possibilities for what public broadcasting can do and be. It's being reborn and redefined almost daily--as is the station website.
We know that there are all sorts of discussions about how we're going to enter this new age of congruence between the Internet and television, but we don't want to wait around. We want to get our service out to you as soon as possible so that public television, Frontline, and your station are on the forefront of the revolution.
-- David Fanning, Executive Producer, Frontline
Personally, I'm going to stick to the forefront of the renaissance. The revolution can take care of itself.
The Changing Role of the Station Website
...then that site begins to be more of a separate channel of station programming...
The advent of this player marks the beginnings of a new role for the station website as well. If more national programming follows Frontline into this model of online delivery to the local station site, then that site begins to be more of a separate channel of station programming rather than just a convenient online station brochure. That's an entirely new direction for the local station website, and it will attract a whole new audience. That, in turn, will translate into station membership.
What's interesting is that a new, younger audience is finding us on the Internet, and so too is our old audience. By harnessing the Internet's simple technology to send your viewers what they want, when they want it, freely available and accessible, we are trying to build that audience and deliver for the future on the great promise of public broadcasting.
-- David Fanning, Executive Producer, Frontline
I don't know about you, but I think that that future is looking pretty bright, and I can't wait to make this new tool an integral part of my station websites. I think that it brings a whole new resource to the local communities I serve and adds to the overall value of the stations themselves. Watch for it to be available. Check it out immediately. I know that you'll agree.
Thank you all, code well, and good night.
If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed!
Fan Me >>
Follow Me >>
Where is there a mock-up or on-line sample of this technology?
Good question. I wish there were one. I would have been linked right into it and sending everyone there. Unfortunately, the decision was made by the folks at Frontline to not have it up at all (anywhere) until their main scheduled release. The pictures you see posted with my report about the module were all from non-public development phases of the project. By the time the final release comes, it may look entirely different than what I’ve posted.
If they seriously want participation by local stations, they are going to have to give us a better idea of the technology they have in mind to deploy. We have created our own system here at KET, but it is early enough in deployment that we might easily decide to go with a different model were it demonstrably better. Are they afraid that Nova is going to steal their idea?
We’ll release screen shots of the working version as soon as we’ve finished our initial testing – right now there are still some rough edges and we have yet to start working with our pilot stations to customize the look and feel to fit their specific needs. We’ll let you know when that’s ready.
Thanks for the interest (and this great write up.)
To be fair to Sam and all the folks at Frontline, I should have made it clearer that the Player is still under development. However, with the planned rollout date of October 3 fast approaching, they’re not leaving much time for planning out page design or promotion even at the stations already slated for the initial release.
As impressed as I am with the technology involved and the possibilities of what this can do for local station websites, I have to agree with Paul here. There needs to be something more tangible than a few pictures and a lot of talk before any serious decisions can be made. I can describe this thing to people in great detail, but until they can actually try it out for themselves and see the Player in action as a potential site visitor might see it (even if it’s only available in Station Remote Control,) they cannot seriously commit to using it–especially on their home page. My telling them to “Trust me; it’s cool.” isn’t going to carry any weight–even at the stations I work with daily.
I hope that Sam (or others from the Frontline team) will come back by here regularly and keep us informed of the ongoing progress and availability of this module. As much as we may want this for our sites, it still requires some advance discussion and planning. Currently, all we can do is think about it.