Buckinghamshire New University has launched Bucks Television, the University’s brand new webTV site, and the first of its kind at a UK university. Bucks Television is unique as unlike other competitor sites, the webTV platform is completely customisable. It also provides multiple channels of changing content, a concept which is entirely new.

Showcasing to the audience the talent and creativity of students, Bucks Television enables users to access a schedule of changing video content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and video on demand. The site was designed by Bucks New University students and built by Twofour using some of the most advanced web technologies available.

Philip Haggar, Twofour Director, says: “This project is a delight. The whole concept of this webTV platform is that Bucks New University should be free to do as they want. Free to choose video formats, free to choose design rather than being constrained by a ‘standard video player’, and free to choose what content to put on air when they want, as well as providing a full searchable video-on-demand library. The site looks great and proves that students from Bucks New University are not only great at media production, but also at website design.”

Bucks Television provides an amazing window into the University and the world of its students, and acts as a communications tool featuring a news and events channel, as well as channels for music, film, and animation, together with a live webcam feed from the building site of Bucks’ new campus.

As a visitor to the site you are immediately entertained with high quality videos, streaming in Flash video. With the opportunity to ‘Shout About It’ (tell a friend); Download it (to an iPod or mobile phone) as well as linking to it or embedding it into a blog, the site has the full ‘Web2.0’ functionality. There’s even an opportunity for registered viewers to comment on the videos and create user profiles.

Bucks Television is accessible for everyone to join in; the University community - students, prospective students both here and abroad, staff, friends and families - and also the extended regional community, as well as potential employers, partners and other external organisations.

Dr Ruth Farwell, Vice Chancellor at Buckinghamshire New University commented: “Bucks Television is revolutionary in its field. It is something very special and the University is proud to be a leader in this area. It provides a real example of the ‘new’ in our name, demonstrating our existence as a new generation university and strengthening our creative and innovative reputation. The webTV site is a fantastic forum for our students to display their work publicly, and to share their creativity with fellow students.”

Twofour is also currently creating a sophisticated webTV platform for the European Parliament that will stream both live and archived programmes in more than 20 EU languages across four channels.

How does Bucks Television work?

• Step 1: Faculties, schools, students, staff and potential employers are invited to register at bucks.tv and create their own personal profile on the Bucks Television site.
• Step 2: Faculties, schools, students and staff are invited to submit any video footage that they would like featured in DV tape, DVD/CD, AVI or MOV (Uncompressed Quicktime) format
• Step 3: Any questions? Simply email content@bucks.tv
• Step 4: Watch and enjoy!

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