The BBC Big Screens are customised to reflect life in its host community with a broad range of local content, including a “City Diary” listings service, local events and partnerships with community, arts & media organisations.
The screens are connected to the BBC’s broadcast network with screens in Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Hull, Rotherham, Bradford and Leeds. More are coming soon.
- Energise the hearts of cities by bringing together communities to share local, national and international events and broadcasts.
- Develop a digital city centre meeting place
- Create a public news and information point
- Improve public awareness of local issues, developments, initiatives and activities
- Offer a hi-tech showcase for community and educational activities, and public service information
- Provide a high profile outlet for visual arts, digital innovation and local film-making
- Generally help urban regeneration by improving city centre environment The Big Screens are interactive! Find out how they engage with communities around the country.
Every Thursday evening, as part of the Alive After Five celebration, a big outdoor PlayStation session is held. Software designed by ICDC (International Centre for Digital Content) in Liverpool, projects objects onto the screen that interact with people’s movements.
Blink media asked Pocket Flash to come up with a solution that enabled joe public to Bluetooth the pictures onto the Big Screens. A Bluetooth dongle, some ftp and php coding and a Flash application did the trick, creating a slideshow on the screen. Images went through BBC event managers, using an online approval/delete system.
The first use of the setup involved all three cities in a simultaneous event for the Illumination celebration. The Beeb was so please they bought the system.
Laser TV screens use red, blue, and green lasers to generate images on the screen. They’re expected to be lighter, thinner, brighter and cheaper. Network your state. All nature, all the time. Newspapers could provide photo stories (and reader submissions).
If IBM and Cray can get $500 million from the government for “Petascale” platforms, you’d think U.S. cities could get FEMA to pay for Big Screens. Better yet, charge ‘em $1000/day — or $1000/hr for access to the “cell” grid. Have fun while saving money. It’s Democracy with a big “D”.
