Case Study

The "Shape-it" internet TV project

"The on-line community internetTV station has been an amazing success so far and is proving to be one of the more compelling components of the overall programme for our current users and wider stakeholder audience. It has attracted acclaim from a leading Broadcast organisation and has provided us with a platform from which we can support the Council’s wider aims around e-Government and Economic Development & Regeneration.

Mizu have met our expectations to date and we intend to build on our relationship further into the longer term as we develop and exploit Shape-it.org."

Leigh Gripton (Service Director) RCT Local Authority

Back in August 2004 Mizu took this IPTV solution and made a proposal for a groundbreaking project named 'Shape-it'. Shape-it was to become a portal that housed a community driven online TV station that was to push the boundaries of IPTV, managed by the council and driven by the community as a whole.

Based in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, this project had one main aim, to engage the community and regenerate the area through a community portal. The new portal was branded 'Shape-it' and was funded by the European Union Objective 1 programme. This was a £3.4 million project and was to provide information, networking opportunities and services to the local community including an online TV station for virtual communities.

Research already carried out by the council in 2001 had highlighted that the citizens of RCT associated more with visual communication methods than other forms of contact so the online TV station, the first of its kind, was to be managed by the council containing video and audio content generated by the community.

Shape-it development and implementation

It was essential that the Shape-it IPTV platform was not used and viewed as a 'one way' communication mechanism. Unlike traditional TV stations and broadcasting, this project was to involve the RCT community in the entire process from design through to completion ensuring that the player met the communities' personal needs.
Through extensive use of community forums, the planning group was able to evaluate the current needs of the community, levels of video production and the potential for increasing media production activity within the county. The process included an identification phase where potential media partners were approached to provide skills and/or access to production equipment and facilities. These satellite facility stations offered a localized focus for production activity within the community at the same time as increasing their presence in the community through affiliation with the project.

By using Shape-it outreach workers to acquire existing content from their allocated sub-regions, the IPTV platform was able to launch carrying identifiably local content.

Figure 1, The process for content creation was approached through various community groups and institutions each feeding into the platform to make sure the penetration levels were maximized.

Crucial to the project's success was the continuing relationship between the community and the outreach teams. To promote this from the outset, the team produced a series of videos to introduce themselves and the project. These formed a key part of the launch content. In total, a 10-hour package of content was prepared for staggered delivery through the launch period. This reflected a significant cross-section of interests from across the community, including both video and audio.

In providing professional video training to the core team members, the planning group was able to ensure that the delivery team's skill set was capable of providing sufficient encouragement, advice and assistance to potential contributors. The trickle-down effect of this was intended to increase levels of participation, media literacy and IT skills across the community, one of the many benefits seen of initiating the project. Through liaison with local educational centres, who were going to be content providers, the Shape-it TV platform was positioned as a gateway to learning for those who would otherwise have remained disengaged from education.

As part of the implementation phase, Mizu provided advice on production issues and assisted planning an innovative range of programmes to maintain output quality and content diversity. Mizu continues to manage a content production unit aimed at sustaining the project and the teams production skills.

Shape-it Content production

The aim of the content itself was to engage and appeal to the vast range of demographics across the region, stimulate involvement helping to maintain public interest in the station and entice community programme production. With this in mind the platforms user-friendly functions and features allows smooth operation whilst encouraging improved production levels increasing site traffic and the penetration of end users.

Figure 2 shows the Mizu IPTV Station Management homepage screen. This initial login screen displays up to date information about the station's current status whilst also providing shortcuts to frequently used functionality.

Divided into channels and programmes the platform provides features relevant to specific areas of the community including entertainment, learning and education, local news and events, local businesses awareness, health, arts and culture. Local businesses are able to set up their own channels, encouraging awareness and strategic partnerships. The platform also allows local organizations to highlight their objectives providing an outlet for information helping to make their work more inline with the much discussed 'edutainment'.

The simplicity of submitting content is as easy as sending an email and attachment. An information pack makes the systematic process clear and accessible to the entire community. The format of the content is managed by the RCT station management team however Mizu's IPTV platform actually comes with an auto-encoding module, which can transfer all video into the required format for play-out.

The approval process makes it impossible for any unwarranted content or copy to access the front end through a multi layered security and approval process managed by the Channels and Programmes Management System.(CPMS).

Figure 3 Each channel can have multiple playlists allowing for different channel content on different dates. This screen shows the calendar based interface used to configure the playlists available in a channel.

Shape-it Station management

The Channels and Programmes Management System is designed to manage any scale of programming allowing the channels and programmes to be monitored and approved before they are made available online. The Shape-it team managing this process is made up of a five levels of approval:

System Administrator
Channel Administrator
Programme Administrator
Play list administrator
Reviewer

The system is password protected and each level of administration has a security module to protect content and misuse of the platform. Any number of team members can sit within each of the five levels and each will have their own individual password for access allowing all actions to be captured by the reporting process.

Figure 4 All programmes are reviewed before public viewing and the approval / denial process is logged to provide a paper trail for each piece of content.

The management team maintains and approves all content and this includes the ability to generate the links for the unique 'Interactive button'. Just like UK digital TV's interactive red button this feature allows the user to click on it during programme playback and link to anywhere on the web.

The project has been seen as a huge success and so far there are an estimated 250,000 unique users utilizing the portal, this is expected to increase to over 400,000 throughout 2006.

Shape-it Statistics

Around 12 channels currently available with available content
48 individual pieces of video content currently playing and sub mitted by the community
Around 100 pieces of video content in the system to be rolled out over the next period
12 pieces of individual audio content currently playing and submitted by the community
Around 125 pieces of audio content in the system to be rolled out over the next period
Over 2000 local citizens have accessed the station for content submission purposes since its pilot launch in December 2005 - the full assessment process has not begun yet and the council are looking at a regional assessment framework to establish how well the content is being utilised and comparisons to the television. Mizu has a statistical reporting engine with can sit within this solution however, Shape-it did not decide to purchase this.

Figure 5 An example of the player interface showing the clear menu structure for browsing the available video and audio content.