BBC Olympic Coverage

The BBC will be broadcasting the London 2012 Olympic games in a way that has never been achieved before. For a starters the coverage will all be filmed in high definition. And the Olympics will be broadcast live on 24 dedicated digital channels - this is too cope with the maximum number of simultaneous live events during the games. ALL 24 channels are coming to your Sky HD Planner very soon!

Here's your options for watching the BBC Coverage:

• On TV Olympics coverage will be available on the BBC channels BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC One HD and BBC HD as well as through the Red Button digital streams for digital Freeview viewers.
• Sky will be launching 48 new channels dedicated to the BBC's Olympic coverage. 24 will be standard definition and 24 high definition. The channels are free-to-air and available to any Sky home, including Freesat from Sky homes. The HD channels are available on any Sky+HD box and do not require a subscription, but do require an HD ready TV. Customers will require a Sky subscription in order to use Sky+. These channels will be availble from the 24th July 2012. More Info from Sky. 
• Online at the BBC Sport Website through the BBC's new interactive video player which will provide standard definition and high definition video streams, separated into chapters. You can watch a live event or previous events throughout the day, and overlay detailed information about the athletes and events to help guide you through each sport.
• On the new BBC Sport App which provides the 24 live streams too, where ever you are. If you want to catch highlights from events which have already happened, or check the statistics such as the medal table, it's all on the app.
• BBC coverage of the 2012 Olympics can also be enjoyed on mobile phones via the mobile browser version of the BBC Sport website.
• A 24-hour digital radio station, Radio 5 live Olympic Extra, will complement BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra for the duration of the Games.

So between the coverage online, on TV, and on mobile devices everyone should be able to get access to watch their favourite sports during the Olympics. The Opening Ceremony will be live on BBC One and BBC One HD on Friday 27th July at 7pm (Ceremony starts at 9pm).

Get yourself ready for the games with the UK version of the BBC Olympic app for smartphones and tablets that can be downloaded now for these platforms:

• Android 
• Apple 
• Blackberry 

And for those outside the UK, the global version of the app (does not contain live video streams) can be downloaded now from:

• Android 
• Apple 

Sky's New Formula 1 Channel

Sky have announced that Formula 1 will be shown on a dedicated new channel: Sky Sports F1 HD.

They have also launched a new webpage on their Sky Sports webiste to include news, opinion and reaction to on and off track action. And keeping up to date with Sky's F1 coverage can be achieved through their new Twitter account: @SkySportsF1.

Sky's deal is to show all of the 2012 Formula 1 races and qualifying live, whereas the BBC will be reduced to showing a selected number of races (these include Silverstone, Monaco & Brazil) next year. Sky Sports currently consists of 4 channels (imaginatively named 1,2,3 and 4). There is also a Sky Sports News channel to show the latest sports news. It is great news for Formula 1 fans that the F1 will not be squeezed into one of the existing 4 Sky Sports channels as these are largely concerned with Football, Rugby, Tennis, Golf, the list goes on. This is also a huge positive for the fans as the pricing structure is different to Sky Sports 1,2,3 and 4.

Sky Sports F1 HD will be available to all HD Sky customers and a SD version will be available to non-HD customers who have Sky Sports 1 and 2 in their subscription pack. - although their appears to be much confusion at the moment and lots of questions on Twitter be directed at @SkySportsF1

Sky confim that the races will be shown uninterrupted, unlike when F1 was shown on ITV, much to the fans continued disgust.

More info from Sky's announcement

Image from Sky's webpage.

2012 F1 Calendar

The 2012 Formula 1 Calendar has been announced by the sports governing body, the FIA. There are going to be 20 races in all, and as expected Turkey as been dropped from the calendar. This is a shame as it always provides a good race. This year, notably, the DRS activation zone was acredited with a large number of 'easy' overtakes and attendance of the grand prix has generally been poor, the BBC reports.

Here's out it lines up.

18 March - Australia

25 March - Malaysia

15 April - China

22 April - Bahrain

13 May - Spain

27 May - Monaco

10 June - Canada

24 June - Europe

8 July - Britain

22 July - Germany

29 July - Hungary

2 September - Belgium

9 September - Italy

23 September - Singapore

7 October - Japan

14 October - Korea

28 October - India

4 November - Abu Dhabi

18 November - United States

25 November - Brazil

Full story via F1.com and BBC Sport

Wimbledon Finals in 3D

Introducing Web Warp Blog's first guest blogpost by PunctualWaffle

This weekend saw the first free-to-air Television broadcast in 3D, as the BBC showed the Ladies’ and Men’s finals of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships live from the All England Club. The matches were freely available in 3D to anyone with access to the BBC HD Channel and a 3D compatible TV. (And of course those magical 3D glasses, without which 3D viewing would be rather unfulfilling).

Sport in 3D on UK television is not a particularly new development, with Sky launching it’s dedicated 3D channel in October 2010. But this weekend’s showing was the first time that 3D viewing was available without subscription.

Wimbledon has a history of technological experimentation and advancement with regards to television, being one of the first events to be broadcast in colour, and then in HD a few decades later. This could yet prove to be an important historical event in the technological development of Television, although ultimately only time will tell.

Currently a technology available in very few homes, an event like this broadcast in 3D could be exactly what the technology needs, to capture the public’s imagination and gain popularity. Maybe the draw of one of the world’s great sporting events will result in 3D television becoming a slightly more familiar sight in the average living room.

Perhaps the relatively slow uptake of 3D television (apart from the obvious cost factor and the current scarcity of 3D content,) is due to the mixed opinion on the quality of 3D viewing in general. 3D does not appear to be universally loved by all those to have sampled it. 3D TV and indeed 3D films in cinemas appear to have split opinion amongst the public, and there are certainly differing views on which sports are best suited to 3D.

Many feel that Tennis in particular may lend itself to especially engaging 3D viewing, with it’s simple camera angles and the relatively confined environment of the court; perhaps more so than football or rugby, for example.

I for one am not a fan of the oversized glasses and am yet to be convinced of the true merits of 3D viewing, especially in the cinema. But I would love to know if seeing Tennis in 3D has converted any viewers, who until now had made a similar, sceptical judgment.

Did you watch the Wimbledon finals in 3D? Is this the kick-start of 3D TV? Or will it be just another passing fad? Let Web Warp Blog know what you think with a comment below.

PunctualWaffle

Radio 1's Longest Show

This is an unusual post for a technology blog, but everyone likes good music, charity and record breaking, so I thought why not!

Congratulations to Chris Moyles and Dave Vitty for becoming Record Breakers for Comic Relief with the Longest Ever Radio Show! More information from the BBC Radio 1 website here. They have raised over £2 million!

Whilst one air they were introduced to TUNE by Mista Jam.

Bass Cannon - Flux Pavilion

News Websites Redesigned

The BBC News website and Microsoft's MSN homepage have both recently been redesigned. Both websites have moved to a cleaner looking page with larger text and multimedia content. The BBC News website in particular pushes video content utilising higher quality video using it's iPlayer technology. Another similarity is the menu system. Both websites use a clean horizontal menu system to help users navigate their sites. MSN have moved to a default white background which users of Microsoft's Hotmail and Windows Live services will be very familiar with.

MSN have toned down their use of advertising too, which was used far too much screen space before.

For more information on the redesign from the BBC, click here.
Check out the news designs for yourself:
BBC News
MSN

TV's World Cup Final: BBC vs ITV

With the FIFA World Cup Final in South Africa the world was watching, but the question is how? In the UK viewers could choose from two terrestrial channels, two HD channels and several online streaming services. Both the BBC and ITV showed the World Cup Final on their flagship and HD channels: BBC One, BBC HD, ITV1 & ITV1HD respectively.
Both offered live streaming online through BBC iPlayer and ITV Player services. Other streaming sites such as Catchup TV also played out the final live.

The BBC reports that the BBC One coverage was the most popular from the viewing figures. The BBC attracted 17.9 million viewers compared to ITV's peak of 3.8 million. The BBC showed that throughout the tournament that viewers wanted analysis at half time, not endless adverts. And they certainly didn't want to risk another mishap on ITV1HD which lead to many viewers missing a crucial moment of the first England match.

It is also wide spread opinion that the commentary was of a better quality on the BBC; again throughout the tournament.

With this world cup being broadcast for the first time in HD for every match, what can we expect in four years time? The rate of the development of technology is so fast that it is likely that the young market of 3D TV will be widespread by the 2014 World Cup. Although many people will resist the change to 3D because you have to where 3D glasses.

Online streams will also improve in quality and by 2014 it is likely that matches will be broadcast online in high quality over fast fibre optic networks to homes in cities and large towns in very high (if not HD) quality.

RT @punctualwaffle Proof that nobody likes watching live sport on #ITV http://bit.ly/a8kLJu #itvfailless than a minute ago via webwebwarpblog
webwarpblog

Muse at Glastonbury 2010

MUSE headlined the Saturday line up of the 2010 Glastonbury Festival with an immense set featuring a wide range of their tracks. It was broadcast on the BBC and is available to watch again on BBC iPlayer until 1:59am Sun, 4 Jul 2010. Click Here or on the iPlayer logo for Muse at Glastonbury. It is highly recommended!

Set List
Uprising
Supermassive Black Hole
New Born
Map of the Problematique
Guiding Light
Citizen Erased
Nishe
United States Of Eurasia
Feeling Good
Undisclosed Desires
Resistance
Interlude
Hysteria
Time Is Running Out
Starlight
Stockholm Syndrome

Where The Streets Have No Name (U2 cover with The Edge)
Plug In Baby
Knights of Cydonia (With Chris' extended harmonica intro)

Muse are currently on tour playing to stadiums across Europe. See www.muse.mu for more details!



The setlist can be found at www.setlist.fm.
Image: http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/

Should I refrigerate my PC?

As temperatures in the UK begin to rise for summer (BBC Weather), the silly question is: Should I refrigerate my PC?

Your PC contains several components that get hot when used, particularly the processor (CPU) and the graphics card/chip set (GPU). Anyone who uses a laptop for more than half an hour will begin to see the effects of modern design. That is to say that more powerful chip sets = more heat, and that, modern design = minimal provision for cooling. So laptops without a hard surface to sit their 2mm feet on soon overheat. It does make you consider chucking it in the fridge to cool it down! Unfortunately this is not a solution. If you put your laptop in the fridge you are likely to get condensation forming INSIDE your laptop. This would not be very helpful as electricity and water really don't mix. You could in fact wreck your laptop.

To prevent your laptop from overheating you should properly ventilate the area around it. Always use it on a hard surface. If it runs really hot (like when playing games/DVD's) you can cool it with a fan. Overheating components are more likely to fail or even catch light. So happy hot weather weather computing from www.webwarpblog.co.uk just in time for the British summer.

Sky launches 3D TV

Sky has launched 3D TV by broadcasting football in 3D to 9 pubs across the UK. The Sky 3D service will be coming to Sky+ HD subscribers during the year. 3D viewing will require special glasses. Sky will continue to build moment between now and the launch of the public service by showing to rugby games in 3D in cinemas during February. For more information click here to read the BBC News article or click here for sky.com.