Final MPI104-2007 Post

Well again it is that dreaded assessment time when sleepless nights are spent on work you will never care about again. Well in the case of this class I don't think that is the case I may even be a little sad (not as bad as that kid). What I have learnt and experienced about having 'an online presence' has been not just educational and interesting but a look into how technology can become a vital part of work and the social scene. Blogger lets me express myself to the world and del.icio.us and flickr let me share links and images with the world and those I have come into contact with both in the real world and virtual one.

Blogger
Well how has my work on Blogger, flickr and del.icio.us met the interestingness and aesthetics criteria, the balance between form, content and function. Well firstly it would be fair to say that the form of my blog has been changed from what it was. I got into the template and made the site background a tiled industrial/technological metal while changed the background where there was text to a more neutral dark grey to allow legible text. I also changed the header along a similar theme. I added boarders to the text sections to help 'pop' them out from the background. I have slightly adjusted the font colour and sizes to match this new look. My post on Web Aesthetics and the links on it helped me work out what my site needed. Images and links I found are very important as well. A site needs these to help the viewer find more info or understand a point. All my images I think help to get my posts message across like this one and this one. I have also adjusted my sidebar to an order which I think provides the most useful information and links first then moving down to the less important stuff. I have also tried to space my text out increasing legibility.

So I think I have experimented with the form, content and functionality of my blog and heave learn much from it.

Flickr
Flickr is an interesting thing to me because although I work in television I have never really been one to care much about photos. However because of flickr's design and function I have found it interesting. I can belong to groups with images I am interested in like this one and this one. Flickr has very limited layout options but I have selected a layout I like. It would be nice to have access to the premium layouts that cost money as well. I have found tagging very help full and sets also great like this one with proddies. Being able to aggregate favourites and sending others images is a very cool function that I should take more advantage of. I have used flicker to store images for my blog as well like the background.

Being able to clip images from sites on the web was great in order to evaluate them and I can see the use of flickr in a professional environment for similar purposes.

del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is an interesting service that I am still only beginning to get a handle on. My initial impressions were that it just duplicated the bookmarks of a browser but as the semester has progressed I have seen ifs full power and use. I have since been forwarding links that others may find helpful or interesting, using bundles to organise links and subscriptions to tags.

my del.icio.us

In Closing...
Commenting has also been a fun thing to do on blogger and flickr, it is something which I really have to get into more. Although this subject is almost finished I think I will try keep at it with my web presence. Not that I think anybody cares or reads but because it is a way I can express myself.


So from me in the chopper, have a good one!

Experimenting with 'The Look'

Well I have in the past experimented with the look of my website with varying degrees of success. You see I know what I like in a web page but do not necessarily have the ability to pull it off. In the past if I needed any web design done I would get someone who already knew how to do it. So when it came to getting into the guts of this blogs design I decided to get into its guts.

To the left is what my blog originally looked like. Very plain and a little too dark. As you can see by the current design of my blog I have gotten into its guts. I have applied a global tiles background but because the text became hard to read I modded the template to have a solid background for the blog entries and side bar. I also widened the blog to better accommodate larger screen sizes. I also chages the colours and added boarders to the sidebar and blog entries to 'pop' them out. I changes the font of the articles subtly and the header to match my blog.

I had to get into the padding and margin html to achieve the end result and now understand html and how it functions a lot better.

Check what some other people have done to mod their blogs;
drewpov
Crazy Comets
The Monkey House

More on Web Aesthetics

Aesthetics on the web is an interesting thing. I believe it is more about relationships than about beauty or how pleasing to the eye something is. Let me explain. The internet is functional so it needs to be practical to use, it is limited by technology so it needs to conform to standards, it needs to contain content or it is pointless and all this needs to be legible to people can see it easily. Aesthetics on the internet is the relationship between these factors.

Form + Content + Function = Aesthetically Good

All factors must be present and they must all also compliment each other and that is what makes good web aesthetics in my opinion.

Good Web Design Ideas
What Makes a Bad Website

Visit Spying?

So I know that you can monitor the visitors to a blog for all kinds of things. Here are a few graphs of my blogs stats. I have now noticed some limits to statcounter.com. Firstly it does not keep on record all visits only the last 30 visitors are recalled for detailed analysis and even for total site visitor it will not generate graphs longer than a few months long. I wish I had of known this earlier as I would have not used this service and looked for a less limited one.

Flickr allows to a certain degree for each account holder to see who has been visiting their images. Flickr allows users to see how many times images have been viewed and can also see any comments that have been written about them.

The Blog Watcher

It is useful to collect information about visitors to your blog because you can know if other people are reading what you are blogging and what they are reading. Blog writers like to know how many people visit each day, are they repeat visitors, how much do they read, where they come from and where they came to your blog from. Also getting an idea of the other blogs they frequent enables a blogger to understand what their readers are into.

I have had a counter on my blog for a few months. I use Statcounter.com because it was one of the first on the google search found and offers lots of feedback about visitors in an easy to understand way. I have had almost 300 hits on my blog in the time I have been using it. I think they mainly come from my MPI104 class at university which is why I created this blog however some have come from Technorati. I also found out that some come from France, China and Italy. Most stayed for less than five minutes and most only looked at my front page, so I should make the links to past posts more accessible.

All About Technorati

Technorati is an interesting service to blogger and blog visitors. It enables users to track the popularity, viewer-ship and links to their blogs. One of Technorati's features is its ability to search blogs registered with it. This is very helpful providing relevant and accurate results. However it is not just a search engine it is as said before a tool for blog users and writers. Users and aggregate blogs they like and topics they want to read about. It also allows bloggers to give brief information about their blogs and a profile of themselves. It is different from Google in that it is specifically for blogs and provides additional feedback.

Blog writers are able to monitor their blogs in terms of 'authority' which measures the links to the writers blog from other blogs. The higher the authority the higher the rank. So the blog with the highest authority has the highest rank also. At the time of writing my authority is 5, not too good but its early days!

Good Web Design Mystery

What makes a good website? Is it the overall design, functionality, legibility, speed or navigation. What makes a good website is a combination of all these factors and one that cannot be totally understood, the 'X' factor as some call it. Lets look at a these points to get an idea of what would make a good website.

Overall Design
Is it visually pleasing? Does it make you cringe? A good website should look like it belongs together and do so in harmony. Imagine a 4WD with 5 inch wheels, a 16 cylinder engine with a rag top. Pretty stupid idea. Same thing applies to websites. Each element, the menu, text, links and media must all fit together into an appropriate package for the aims of the website. Websites also need to take into account the fact that not everybody has the same size screen and the site should work on a variety of common screen sizes.

Functionality
Does the website do what it needs to? Does it do too much? Is it easy to use? A website must function in a way that aides the user not just permits them use. People need to be able to search for things on sites and refine these searches. Buttons and links should be straightforward and totally functional. The functionality should also be unified. All buttons should be similar.

Legibility
Is the text readable? Are the colours distracting? A website needs to convey information or it is useless. The text content needs to be clear and not a strain to read. Titles need to be understood at a glance. Many website allow users to change font size according to personal taste so each user can make the website legible for their needs.

Speed
Does the site take a minute to load? Are there videos and animations on every page? Even with broadband becoming the norm bandwidth costs money and multimedia content still requires load time. Keep images to a reasonable size, let the user choose whether to watch a video or not. DO NOT play music on the home page and definitely DO NOT have a flash intro, I don't want to wait 30 seconds to get into the site.

Navigation
Can you get to right info fast? Is it the same throughout the site? Navigation is paramount for a good website. The user should be able to get where they want to go fast and easily. Navigation should also be clear so the user does not get confused.

X Factor
Its up to you whether you like a site or don't. Some people love black backgrounds while others like white...

The Pleasing, The Ugly and the Aesthetics

Aesthetics
Aesthetics is an interesting word. It specifically relates to the philosophic study of the way human sensors perceive things and the emotional responses that result. The area of study for example looks at why some things elicit emotions of disgust like a decomposing animal while others such as flowers usually give positive emotion. This idea is very pertinent to web design as users want aesthetically pleasing content to view and web designers and programmers want to be able to provide an aesthetically pleasing web experience to their users. An interesting note about aesthetics is that different cultures have different ideas of what is aesthetically pleasing. These differences can be seen in architecture, art and what type of human features are considered pleasing. When taking about aesthetics in reference to the World Wide Web the functionality of the content must also be considered because of the functional purpose and nature of the Web.

Wiki site on Aesthetics


A Pleasing Website
A website that I find find pleasing is Apple.com. This website is both nice to look at and highly functional. The site maintains a common theme throughout its various areas and is both easy to use and highly functional. I have found that accessing the various areas of this website requires less navigation and the navigation is more intuitive. The text is very clear and the menu system takes up minimal area. The website scales well onto my large widescreen display allowing me to take full advantage of the enlarges screen area. Importantly most of the high level screens contain few images to speed the load process and when media is integrated it is seamless unlike many other websites which have weird embedded players that feel out of place. Pages on the site that are updated regularly have very nice history interfaces as well. In terms of look the website in minimalist with black text on white background. Apple.com is a great example of a visually pleasing website that does not skimp on functionality much like Apples OS X.

Ugly Website
An example of a ugly website would be HRODC.com. I am not going to comment on the content of this website but focus on it terrible aesthetics and prehistoric functionality. Firstly the colours, speckled grey background with bright red text boxes filled with crammed white text and over six different fonts and a bit of bright yellow for good measure. This site makes use of the most annoying and useless html feature; scrolling text, the most annoying of which tells the site visitor t scroll down to see the vast mass of links and tables which make the front page about 10 000 pixels long. No one in their right mind would care to navigate to the depth of the front page let alone seek anything further inside. This website does not take into account its users. The website is also very hard to understand because of the lack of unifying design. With no common design ideas each section is ordered differently and behaves differently. Not only is this website creating a terrible impression on anyone but it could definitely loose the company business.

Print vs Web Aesthetics

Aesthetics applies to both the print and web mediums. Where as print is purely visual the web is visual, audible and functional. The addition of sound and functionality make web aesthetics so much ore complicated than print aesthetics. In print when you are finished you are done but the web is constantly updated and upgraded. New images, video, audio and text are constantly being added. Web pages are in a sense like an artwork that will never be completed.

Here are some websites giving some more insight.
Print Design vs. Web Design
Web vs. Print Fonts
Word Processing: Print vs Web Documents
Digital Aesthetics

Google Reader is My Choice

Google Reader was my choice for RSS aggregator becasue I already have a google account and quite frankly I am sick of the 000's of web accounts for each individual service. Google has a good reputation for easy to use, reliable and feature rich services. So in conclusion until a universal web identity is established I will be trying my best to never open a new friggen account.

XML and RSS and other internet abbreviations

XML
XML stand for Extensible Markup Language. It is a general markup language. Markup languages are essentially a programming language which contains text and information about that text. XML is a free to use language that enables cross platform compatibility of web content. Applications can also be inplimented within XML by adding semantic constraints. XML is used in XHTML and RSS feeds. More information about XML can be found here at Wikipeida.

RSS
RSS can stand for Rich Site Summary or more commonly Really Simple Syndication. RSS is used to provide feeds of updates to the rapidly changing web based content such as blogs, news and podcasts. RSS is a family of web formats used for this purpose. RSS is based on the generic XML format mentioned above. These feeds can be subscibed to by programs called feed readers or aggregators by a user and so the user can see any new content since they last checked. RSS is very iimportant because it enables rich content like podcasts to be subscribed to and the latest episodes downloaded. It also enable new or interesting articles to be identified quickly and simply. RSS allows advanced web functionality demanded by the growing group of web 2.0 users. More information about RSS can be found here.

My First Assesment Post

Well here it is the final blog entry before my assesment. It is a little scary but I have learnt a whole lot from my experience with blogger, flickr and del.icio.us so far and I can't wait to learn more this term. Firstly I will address the question of interestingness. I thinnk this is a very subjective term and depending on you and your interests anything may have any level of interestingness. Overall I have focused on television production and some aspects about it. I think I have made some interesting points on my Blog and shared some interesting sites through del.icio.us. Flickr has enabled me to share some of the photos I like with my friends especially those ones from productions and assignments.

In my blog I have completed 15 blogs posts (including this one). I have worked steadily over time and covered a variety of areas both related to my blog aim and some random ones. I particularly like this one on Supervillians and this one on the real Homer Simson. I have extensively used tags for my blogs as well as pictures and links. I was very pleased to work out the Ink Roll, counter and Technorati things which are on my blog. I have also looked at the different templated fiddling with font size type and look to achive the modern low key look of my blog. Relaxed corperate I call it. I like commenting on others post that I can relate to like this one on Candy and this one on Music.

Next up is my flickr account. It took me a little while to get around the idea of just looking and exploring images but I really like it now. I have several contacts which whose images i regularly look at an sometimes comment on. I have joined a group about Television Transmission and there are some images I find really interesting and with another classes assignment about broadcast envrironments the images helped to visualise more complex environments. I like benig able to show other people my images and especially the landscape ones from the helicopter and around Wollongong. I feel that this site is a great way to easily present a visual portfolio or happy snaps to far off friends and family. I like this picture from skindogg86. It was good to relect on some good times in the TV studio. The image tags really help finding the right image and I have used them extensively. The batch tools were very helpful for processing my images.

Finally del.icio.us has been very helpful for me as a tool for my assignment and to keep track of those weird sites you find from time to time. I used it to track some of the websites I used for research and it really helped for checking the back on information and confirming references. I also was able to use it to forward websites to some of my friends that wanted to know where certain sites were. The tagging this was gold here and realy helped to organise my links and find other I might be interested in. Bundling is super good. I have about 40 links but have used many more from networks. It is really interesting to see what other have found on the net.


All these wesites have helped me in some ways but I think I need to work more on integrating them into my daily workflows to get the most out of them. It's good then that I have another term to do this.

Rewiring the Studio

Recently I had the pleasure of helping to reconfigure the internal wiring of the television studio. To accomplish this task I had to return to Wagga Wagga a week early. That sucked. Basically the idea was to run two SDI lines from the studio to the video router and sync lines from the black generator to use the two new JVC HD cameras on the studio floor. We also has to rewire some SDI inputs into the vision switcher to accomodate more routable inputs.

I arrived and got to work straight away. We had to run 4 cables through concrete walls, under floors and terminate them on each end. This proved to be fairly simple but I had to make sure the new connections were integrated into the studio video router correctly. This turned out to be a very difficult task. The Lecturer in charge of the operation did not remember how to use the router and the instructions were written by an engineer with no concept of end user. I left on the Monday with lots of new cable but no picture.

The next day I arrived at 9am and immediately got to work looking throught the tome that was the Router Manual. I started fiddling with the windows 3.0 reminisent software. I has some successes and finally the video came up onto the monitor. Great but now I had to totally reconfigure the remote routing panels to accomodate these new system inputs. Two hours later and after a strange visit from the Department of Immegration Affairs video people the system was up. All I have to show is four sockets and three labels on some random panels.

Broadcast Router Manufacturer

IT Networks and Television 1

The broadcast industry has in the past-required very specialised equipment in order to operate, from high quality video recording machines and reel-to-reel recorders to editing, sound and processing equipment. The expense of this equipment has allowed only well-financed and large organizations to be involved in television broadcast because this equipment is necessary for the production of high quality material that is expected from broadcasters. The broadcast industry has in the past, been slower than other industries to take up new technologies because of the cost of investment in it and the investment in past technologies. There have been few times in the television industry’s history has a technology changed the way content is produced. The technology behind television has become more streamlined, smaller and higher quality but few changes in technology have been revolutionary.

However in recent years the merging of information technology systems into the broadcast environment has opened up new and unique possibilities that have started to change the nature of broadcast television. From acquisition to broadcast, editing to facilities management, information technology is merging with the world of broadcast technology. In particular the traditional data network is revolutionising broadcast television and as the end viewer become more connected to the Internet with broadband and mobile communications become faster and more accessible this trend is set to continue.

Traditional information technology networks are having impacts both on the production and broadcast of traditional television as well as new distribution methods that are now becoming available, specifically IPTV (internet protocol television). This emerging area of the broadcast industry is very exciting both for those working in television creating and delivering the content and those consuming it.

Broadcast Television Papers
Broadcast Engineering.com

TV OB Info

I was looking through the different technical documents that Free TV Australia have on their website and i saw something that I found very interesting. They have drawn up documents that specify the OB requirements of various sporting events. From swimming to football, just about every detail of the camera layouts and cable requirements have been spelt out.
Free TV Engineering Page.

It was interesting to see that Free TV has taken this step. I thought about why such a move was made and came to the conclusion that these documents must have been produced by the people who actually broadcast and organize these events. For example in the cricket plan there are 24 cameras that are specified that should be used. However these include the third umpires cameras and the cameras used by the Hawk Eye technology.

After reading the brief on the technical documents the reasons why they need these documents at all. Free TV tell us it is to create common operating practices, match the international expectations and to make sure the required safety measures are in place.

Such documents would also be very helpful to those people who are in charge of or building venues that may be broadcast from. It would be much more attractive to broadcast from a venue which has taken into account the possibility of a major outside broadcast at the venue. As a student I found the engineering information very interesting as i am very interested in pursuing Outside Broadcasts as a career option. It also made me aware of the immense amount of planning and technology that goes into seeing the sport we love put onto TV. It also shows the extent of the need for very consideration to be taken into account regarding the particular needs of each sport.

Apple Hype Effects

It seems with all the hype surrounding Apple products something has to give. Just take a look at die hard Apple fan sites like AppleInsider and Think Secret and you begin to get the picture. Rumours of products, product updates, inside information and secret patent filings from ten years back. Who really knows what is what. Not only do most of these rumours seem to come from 28 year old apple nerds who don't have a life many of them are plain stupid. One particular one made note of a patent filing by Apple about six years ago that showed a mock up of an iPod design for demonstration purposes and this was turned into a new secret mega iPod Steve Jobs has been working on in his lair.

I am a Apple fan and user but I am getting sick of all the ideas people are getting that they somehow have the ability to look inside the working of one of the most secretive companies in Silicon Valley. I have no problem with speculation but please keep things real. Not only can such hype reate negative sentiment for Apple over expected products that will never exist but for the normal people who like Apple we want to know what is really happening.

The Evil Genius Dilemma

One thing that has always really bugged me about the whole superhero movie genre is that the evil villian never wins. Sure the villian may get ahead but by the end of the movie (or trilogy) the villian is foiled and destroyed. I have several theories about why this is the case but I think I'm going to disregard the obvious answers and look to the fantasy world to find out why.

1. Supervillians are Conditioned to Fail

Supervillians are super villians becasue they have failed in the past. For example in Batman Forever Edward Nygma is fired from his job a Wayne Enterprises. He fails at his job and he is also romantically a failure. Nygma then transforms himself into the Riddler alterego. At first he tricks Batman but ultimatly loses. Once a failure always a failure, Supervillians are conditioned through the riggors of life to fail.

2. Supervillians and Superheros are in Cahoots

Superheros and supervillians always seem to have some sort of connection above and beyond the nemesis relationship. One prime example is Spiderman and the Green Goblin. These relationships ineviably leads to the idea that the supervillians and superheros might be setting up confrontations to raise their own profiles. Villians like Lex Luthor often reoccur, why doesn't Superman kill him? Becasue they are in Cahoots and the good guy always wins so they can keep up the charade.

3. Supervillians are Socially Mal-Adjusted

Much like point 1 supervillians are socially mal-adjusted. They do not know how to interact wth their society so they resort to violence and madness. Pick any supervillian and they are all socilly weird; TwoFace Harvey, the Joker, all X-man villians and well they all seem socially disfunctional. Society has rejected them already and their final defeat by the superhero is simply the final act.

4. They Never Kill the Superhero (Even when given the chance)

Every single supervillian has the oppertunity to fill their nemesis superhero but doesn't. Instead they organise an elaborate and time consuming way for the hero to be destroyed. The villian then proceeds to leave the hero to his/her own devices. Plain stupid. The hero escapes and wins, beating the villian from the inside out.

4.1 Supervillians Always Reveal the Plan

As an addition to not actually killing the hero when given the chance the villian also reveals all the horrible details of their plots. This gives the hero all information to he needs to stop the plot and defeat the villian. Superman, Spiderman, X-men , James Bond and others have all taken advantage of this and beaten the bad guy.

5. Villians Lack PR Knowhow

Villian will never succeed becasue they just can't market themselvs. In the free market economy only the best and most respected brands survive and no evil villian is able to understand this to take the advantageous market position to overcome the market forces of good.

>>
I hope this give some insight into why villians never win. They really need to take note and stock of their positions to gain the upper hand.

O Week TV DVD's Available

For all those people who have not heard the 2007 O Week TV DVD is now available. Not onyl do you get all 5 episodes digitally remastered but bonus features not available anywhere else. All this in a two disc set is an offer too good to refuse. For only $10 you can have all this. I hear some asking how can we do it that cheap. Well using our patented process we can but be one of the first 50 customers and get two copies for the inceadible price of $20. That is unbeatable. DVD's available by contacting me on swillm02@postoffice.com.au or get them direct from House 309 Nappy Ally.

CSU TV Site

Note: Only people from Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, Australia can take advantage of this once in a life time offer.

Computer Networks and Broadcast Television?

Television today now relies on so much computer and information technology that in order to understand how an image gets onto your television screen you need to understand how it travels through a traditional data network. This is the area of research I have selected for my third year television research project.

Everything from video editing, scripting, signal broadcast to equipment management needs computers. One particular area of growth in television is IPTV (internet protocol television). IPTV is the big catch word for content providers at the moment. But what exactly is it and what does it do. Basically instead of receiving the television signal through an antenna it is received through a broadband internet connection.

IPTV is available in two varieties, Video on Demand and live TV (multicasting) Video on demand is where you can select when and what you watch and live TV is exactly the same principle as free to air TV. At Charles Sturt University a multicast IPTV channel operates where television production students are able to broadcast their work to all on campus computer and even broadcast live shows and content.

With internet connection speeds increasing, prices dropping and more people being connected IPTV looks set to become to TV what TV was to radio. It is very exciting and means that the cost to broadcast is many times lower than it has ever been because no special equipment is required other than a computer. However is also means that people like me wanting to enter the broadcast job market need to have strong information technology skills as well.

The REAL Homer Simpson

Fearscape Played in Wagga!

Well to little fanfare and ceremony one of Australia's best metal bands played in Wagga on over weekend. Their name is Fearscape. This is how they describe themselves 'A progressive mix of brutal riffs, atmospheric doom and fast thrash/black metal'. One special thing about Fearscape is that my brother is the guitarist. So as well as getting to see this cool band I was able to hang out with my brother which I am not able to do often because he lives some 5 hours away. The metal night at the Bass Bar was really quite exciting with many bands playing. Out of the three I and my mates saw Fearscape was definately the best. They played two of their older songs and two of their new ones. Their last some had me savagely head banging which for someone as reserved as myself is no easy task. The band will be recording a new album to followup their successful 'Sleeping in the Light' album. Check out some tracks on their mySpace.

Fearscape's MySpace
Fearscape's Homepage
unDark Metal Forum

My flickr Account

Check out my new flickr account. I hope to add images that are both interesting and unique. There are already some cool ones from a Coffs Harbour helicopter ride. It is just great that images can be so freely shared, opening the way for anyone to show what they have seen or experience and like they say a picture is worth a thousand words! I have often used flickr to see images other people have added so now it's my turn!

My flickr Account

flickr Homepage

My del.icio.us Account

I have now signed up for a wonderful del.icio.us account. This allows me to share links with everyone and allows others to share their links with me. It enable a free flowing of ideas and content. This sort of networking and sharing can only help people collaborate.
my del.icio.us account

Let the Last Year Begin

We'll it is the start of my last year at University. I know many people who loath to leave the safe confines of a tertiary institution but I for one can't wait to leave. That said there is a lot to look forward to in my last year.

One of the major highlights of my last year will be the projects that we will get to undertake as Television Production students. We get to pitch our own ideas and see them through to the finished product. We also get to choose own own crews. This is very exciting as up till now we have been placed into groups for better or worse.

Another highlight will be the two weeks of placement within the Television industry. Many student get jobs directly from these internships and I hope I will be able to as-well. Finally I look forward to conducting research into specific areas of television. I want to look into the technology and process of live links in television, be it through microwave, traditional telco lines or next generation data networks. I want to specifically focus on how data-networks are replacing and complimenting the traditional forms of link transmission. So I hope to keep this blog updated on these topics and any others that come up over the rest of the semester.

Here are a few television type links.
CSU TV Proddie Page
Microwave Link Wiki Entry
Free TV Australia

One particular area of television I am interested in is the area of Outside Broadcast. After reading some information about minimum requirements for sorting and concert Outside Broadcasts it is clear to see that they are major operations. Sports such as the cricket require over 20 camera's many of which need instant replay facilities and the new super slo-mo playback. Each camera needs an operator and many need an assistant as well. Add to this the sound crew, tapes crew, control room crew, engineering crew, executive crew, titles crew and statistician crew you can easily have close to 100 people working on one game of cricket. I didn't realise the scope of the this until doing some research.

Here are some links for Outside Broadcast type stuff.
Outside Broadcast Wikipedia Entry
ABC Outside Broadcast Facilities
Television OB Requirements

P.S. One other aim of this blog is to bring interesting internet resources for television production to light.

My First Post

As part of my university studies I am required to set up a blog to create a web presence for myself so here it is! My name is spelt with a ph as in Stephen not Steven. I also have a mySpace.