The Canoe Boys - New BBC Website with extras & TV stuff^

[Simon Willis]

NEW INFO AT BOTTOM OF ENTRIES

The trailer is playing on Radio Scotland so after two years planning, it must be happening. I didn't make this promo but it's OK. "Makes the programme sound like a Western", was one comment. At least the Queen doesn't storm out...

Unless Mark reckons this advertising is against "the rules", I'll offer occasional updates about when & where the programmes can be heard, especially online.

The first TV piece is tomorrow night (Wed 7th) but only in Scotland on BBC-2 at 7pm as part of the Adventure Show. If you saw my presentation at Paddle 07, you've already seen this.
S

[Mark R]

Unless Mark reckons this advertising is against "the rules", I'll offer occasional updates about when & where the programmes can be heard, especially online.

It certainly isn't, unless you want our cash in some way.

[applejack]

I'm just reading it at the moment. Jeez they were brave given the primitive craft they were paddling and the conditions they met.

Modern paddlers are big girl's blouses by comparison !

I can get BBC Scotland so I'll loook forward to it.

[gary bb]

Sky Channel 990 by any chance?
Shame I only read this at Ten o clock.

[Simon Willis]

That Sky channel sounds about right for BBC-2 Scotland. It's somewhere up there. Thanks for pointing that out Gary - and it's on tonight Wednesday so you haven't missed it.
S

[gary bb]

No problem Simon.
Shame I didn`t switch my computer on earlier!

[MikeB]

Well, I caught the trailer for the intrepid pair this evening - on the telly! And most impressive it looked too.

So impressive that I cannot help but question the thinking behind such a visually impressive piece of media going out on radio - - -

Or am I missing some subtle, but important point?

Cailean looked suitably composed all the time, and Simon gave a passable impression of being less so - excess modesty perhaps, but it looked good.

Mike

[Simon Willis]

Thanks Mike.

The forecast was F6 against a 7 kn tide (it was springs) so in the shore interview I was genuinely cr*ping it!

When we got out, the wind had swung to NE so we had shelter and it was flat-ish as you saw. We went through a few times, hung around until the tide sped up, then went back again hoping for bigger sea. Actually, I was relieved. The director was not, as he'd envisaged something a little "more exciting".

Why radio not TV? For 2 years I tried and failed to get TV interested. I understand STV came close to doing the project a few years earlier. The not so subtle but very important point is - money.

I know of more than one kayaker who would love to recreate the whole trip - get the canoes re-built and paddle in vests and a kilt. On the strength of this I'll try again...

That said, I think it works well in sound only. As the old saying goes, "the pictures are better on radio".

[MattB]

I certainly enjoyed the Adventure Show, it's always good to out a face to the voice of the (excellent) podcasts. Where did you launch for the paddle, I know the map was shown but I missed it.

Simon perhaps you could pull some strings in the BBC and get the adventure show series put on DVD and sold in Tiso's. I'm sure it would make it's way into many stockings and would cost the Beep not a lot!!

Watch out for me on the next adventure show there were a few cameras out on the OMM course last month.

Matthew

[councildog]

Does any one know if they repeat the adventure show at any time

My sky HD box decided it didn't like a power cuts
half hour before the show started :-(

[Simon Willis]

You can now watch the Canoe Boys item by clicking Watch The Canoe Boys Feature at the bottom of this page. It opens in the BBC iPlayer. The Canoe Boys will soon have its own webpage with lots more on it, hopefully later today. I'll put details on my blog.

There will also be a feature in The Herald Magazine on Saturday.

The whole Adventure Show is available through the BBCiPlayer for six days after transmission if you have a PC (not a Mac- yet). Here's the link

As to selling copies of the Adventure Show - believe me this is something I am trying to make happen! I have lots of good material from the CB programmes and would like it to have a longer life than one showing on TV and radio. There are several copyright issues to overcome, but if I can make this work, it could be good for lots of folk who compete in races featured in the Adventure Show.

S

[Jim]

Thanks to Scotrail and their red herring excuses I caught the last minute of the show. Still Autumn watch was worthwhile (Bill Oddies lack of presenting skill has me in stitches but Simon King's sections are fantastic) and then on Nature of Britain Alan Titchmarsh landed on a rig I have been doing some design work for recently. I almost forgot how angry I was at Scotrail.

I might follow that link to the iplayer version tonight, if I get home at a reasonable time....

Jim

[geyrfugl]

It opens in the BBC iPlayer.

Not if you don't run Windows - a piece of software I wouldn't have in the
house. BBC discrimination against minorities, AGAIN !

Andy

[Simon Willis]

Photos from Alastair Dunnett's personal scrapbook embedded in an audio stream, video we shot along the route, our recording diary and my podcast with Duncan Winning are all now online on a new BBC Website for the Canoe Boys programmes. I've put more detail on my blog.

Tomorrow, The Herald Magazine (last week's issue is online as of Friday) will hopefully run a feature about The Canoe Boys and plug our programmes.

The programmes start Wednesday 11.30am and can be heard live or for up to seven days provided the BBC iPlayer works on your computer. Personally, I'm very sorry if it doesn't.

I'm away from all of this until Sunday night, hopefully, kayaking.
S

[Mark R]

Okay ... I just tried to go through it all, inspire me for my working day and all that.

BUT the only thing I could get to work was the Duncan Winning interview.

I have Windows Media, up to date - what am I missing?

[Simon Willis]

Hi Mark,

I'm sorry it won't work for you and I don't know why. I'd be very grateful if you'd ask the BBC folk who make all this work - there's a feedback form here. I wouldn't mind knowing what they say too....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/

The BBC iPlayer works fine on my PC and Mac, but it wasn't so long ago I couldn't get it to play on the Mac. What changed I do not know.... (I think I might have added a free prog that allows Quicktime to play Windows Movie files)

S

[applejack]

I can't get the BBC player to work on my computer either.
It definitely won't work with Firefox but even when I switch back to IE it won't let me log in even with the correct log in passwords etc.

[Simon Willis]

It's obviously immensely frustrating to spend two years working on something only to find one form of delivery is not reaching some people. What makes it worse is that BBC Scotland is really pleased with the online offering.

Of course, unless the BBC online folk are told the site doesn't work in your configuration, they won't know.

I'll flag this thread to them, but I'd ask you also filled in the feedback form please.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedback/

[SJ]

It all worked fine for me once I resurrected IE and put MS MediaPlayer up to date. (I usually use Firefox and VLC.) Haven't actually watched the programme yet though!

The 7-day restriction on the data after first play makes me think that it wasn't worth waiting for the download. It's a shame that we can't get access to the regional BBC channels via FreeView instead of the masses of +1 channels and quiz/shopping channel rubbish.

[Simon Willis]

Mark & Applejack

I'm told Real Player is the best way to view the media embedded in the website. When the player pops up, I think there's a box to change the settings to RealPlayer. I say think, because astonishingly I can't watch it in the BBC due to firewall restrivtions.

I know you don't like RealPlayer Mark, and it seems the BBC knows there are issues with certain browsers, but our head of new media has had it running on her Mac using Firefox with RealPlayer.

SJ, I'm glad you managed to get the iPlayer working - which is a completely different piece of kit, allowing you to watch whole programmes for a week after transmission. I haven't even attempted that yet. When analogue is switched off, digital will be boosted, and I think we'll all have access on Freeview to other regional broadcasts.

How I long for the good old days of binary choice - TV or Radio....
S

[Mark R]

I'm told Real Player is the best way to view the media embedded in the website. When the player pops up, I think there's a box to change the settings to RealPlayer. I say think, because astonishingly I can't watch it in the BBC due to firewall restrictions.

No box pops up that I've seen. Infact, I'm pretty sure that the media I've been trying to watch is based around Windows Media. But I'll install RealPlayer (Nnnnnnnn) and give it a try.

[Simon Willis]

I just got on a computer where I could look at this.

When the BBC Scotland Player opens, if it fails to show anything, click the bottom left hand corner where it says "Change how I view of hear this" which should allow you to selec between Windows Media Player or Real Player.

Real Player is what you need. This is just too difficult....
S

[applejack]

I've finally got there. When I tried to sign in to BBC player it was telling me 'username not recognized' and 'password too short' despite it being the password the BBC gave me.
I've re-registered,updated media player and switched over from firefox to IE and this afternoon I was able to download the Cambridge folk festival as an experiment.

Very good quality I must say.

[SJ]

I think that there's some confusion in this thread between listening to the radio programmes from the BBC Scotland website and watching the Adventure Show TV programme via iPlayer.

In my understanding, it is best to use RealPlayer to listen to the radio programmes. To use iPlayer to watch TV programmes you should (unless you want to spend time hacking) use the combination of Windows XP SP2, Internet Explorer 7+ and Windows MediaPlayer 10+.

Cheers,
Sean

[Simon Willis]

Hi Sean
Thanks for explaining that so clearly. What you wrote is correct, but I'd add a little.

The BBC iPlayer
This a (new-ish) download program for PCs which allows you to download many BBC programmes to your computer to watch for up to 6 days. I haven't used this so thank you Sean for explaining how to make it work. Controversially, you need a PC running Windows.

The BBC Scotland Player
The box which pops up when you follow the links in this post OR go to the Canoe Boys BBC website to try to listen to Radio Scotland live or use the listen again feature OR watch an audio slide-show with Alastair Dunnett's images OR watch the CanoeBoys feature from the Adventure Show. The BBC Scotland Player requires a free version of RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. I hope you think these programmes are worth it or I'm in trouble...!
S

[Jim]

And there was me expecting it to be a plugin I already had by a BBC moniker! When I click on the videos a plugin launches (media player I think), but fails to play anything (I get videos off the long way down pages).

Will need to try downloading the iplayer tonight.

Just to confirm I use XP x64 edition with Firefox (have IE7 installed but hate it) and Media Player 10. Is it likely to work?

Andy - I'm pretty sure real player is still available for Linux (and probably Mac although I guess you are too purist to use that OS), but as I recall the license is not GPL so you won't find it in all distos.

[SJ]

Hi Simon,

The 7-day restriction on the data after first play makes me think that it wasn't worth waiting for the download.

Just to clarify, my comment was about iPlayer rather than any particular programme! I feel that it would be less hassle to get BBC Scotland programmes by another means, such as recording them from satellite TV.

If I'm going to bother downloading a programme then I want to be able to watch it at my convenience, which might well be over a longer period than seven days. I would also rather watch it on the TV rather than the PC. Perhaps I have been spoiled by years of using a FreeView PVR.

I'll certainly be watching the programme and the short section that I have seen so far was good. However, I am planning to uninstall iPlayer.

Cheers,
Sean

[Simon Willis]

Jim

The BBC Scotland player which launches when you click on one of the video links on the Canoe Boys webpage can play either windows media or real player. BUT - these particular bits of video are only encoded for RealPlayer. I don't know why. So you need RealPlayer installed on your machine to play them.

And you need to switch to RealPlayer in the BBC Scotland Player by clicking the bottom left hand corner where it says "Change how I view or hear this".

iPlayer will not play the website video clips. It is only a means of downloading certain BBC programmes for up to six days after TX.

SJ
I suspect your experience of iPlayer is not uncommon. The iPlayer is new and has been hailed by the BBC as a development as significant as Colour TV. I'm less convinced.
S

[Jim]

Does realplayer still try to install a host of spyware and adware when you install it? Or was that musicmatch?

Jim

[Chris Bolton]

The programme is highlighted (Wednesday morning) with a big photo at the top of the national BBC home page. Well done Simon!

Link to topic with more info.

Chris