Internet TV… some opening thoughts…
I mentioned a few days ago that I had a lot of opportunities coming my way at the moment… so here’s what’s going on… in brief…
My main employer, a Students’ Union who currently employ me as a Web Developer, have been extremely receptive to an idea I pitched. I have been asked to write a proposal for an Internet TV service for the students. This is an extremely attractive proposition for me as I have been looking for a long time to find a job that will allow me to move my skills further in the direction of video production and editing.
The idea behind the online television station is to firstly promote the students’ union, its services and provide a better communication method with the students. Secondly, it is designed to be a platform for student content. A group of students could decide to have a weekly TV show, a film student might want to upload their short film or video production students might upload a piece of their coursework. I even had a conversation with the Live Music Society today who are keen to get vodcasts of their gigs up on the site.
So… I have never written a proposal of this sort and any advice anyone has to offer would be much appreciated. My main area of concern is scale. How do I decide what to do myself and what to buy in? How do I decide if to buy a whole studio of pro kit or a budget cam and imovie? I am very much aware that the Union doesn’t have a lot of money and it’s for this reason that I want to make the financial area of the proposal as reasonable as possible. Realistically, I would like get this thing off the ground with a basic hosting package, a Mini-DV cam, a mic, a iMac and a copy of Final Cut Pro. However, do I host my own server on the University network? Do I buy lighting? Do I buy a green screen? There’s loads of shit I could use but end up costing a lot of money.
A colleague of mine is very keen to do everything ourselves and this raises issues of how involved the students become. I have, given the amount of time I’ve spent writing my own code, become very fond of implementing pre-existing technologies. I want this project to “just work” I don’t want to spend my time bug-fixing or patching servers together with gaffer tape. I want to spend time being creative and working with video and the web in a creative manner, not complicating my life with pathetic bugs and failing servers.
It leaves me with a lot of questions, spend a little with the room for possible expansion? risk under budgeting my project? spend a lot and have a lot of pressure? do everything ourselves for the sake of custom enhancements or use pre-existing solutions for stability?
Lots of choices, any advice?
K
personally, I’d go for showing all options. High end, mid end and budget. giving the pluses and minuses for each. Start with the objective, source the elements needed to fulfill it, and don’t forget to round it all off with your ‘professional/suggested’ opinion. Where there’s gaps in your knowledge.. that’s gunna be the hardest bit, just source as much info as you can, but no project will be flawless, so don’t beat yourself up about not getting everything spot on first time. I think their main concern will be the usage. Will it be a self sustaining project? can it generate revenue for them to cover the server costs at least? What exactly will be shown on it? (possibly create a mockup weekly schedule, so they can picture it) Will the students actually use it? and want to use it? I’m sure the answers are yes, but once its up and running in whatever basic form it needs initially, you’ll have a better case for upgrading and improving features later. Particularly if the stats add up and the feedback is good.
my t’penth
on a side note… if you don’t want those huge icons of peoples faces on the left comments area of your blog, you can change that. Goto: Presentation > Widgets > Recent comments… and there will be an option to change the avatar icon size.
just incase you weren’t aware
delete this