Brief
Telstra approached Raw Ideas to produce an interactive video recording system within “Bluey”, Telstra’s two-storey truck that travels around Australia to events. The system was required to interact with the existing infrastructure, the Samsung Media Wall and Samsung Touch Screen.
The marketing concept allowed fans to record a Telstra Video HeroMessage® through an interactive system.
This system required the following functionality:
- User interaction with a 40” touch screen.
- User selection of their favourite V8 driver on the touch screen, to update the background on the Media Wall with a full screen driver graphic backdrop.
- Control the recording of a video camera through the touch screen.
- Edit the video with a five second opener and closer sting.
- Tag highlighted videos for archiving
- Send a delayed Picture Message to the user with their Telstra Video HeroMessage®
The deadline was very tight, as any delay could cause the project to miss its fixed installation date at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide 2010.
Solution
As pre-existing technologies needed to be interfaced, the system was broken down into multiple components. A web-based system was the most practical and cost effective solution to meet the requirements.
A Linux server was built as the web and video recording server: the “brains” of the system. This meant the touch screen and media wall only required a modern web browser to interact with the system.
Three components were developed: the core system, touch screen system and media wall interface.
- The core system handles the video recording, video conversion and transferred the final product to COSI by FTP. COSI then handles the uploading of the high resolution video to the consumer website (http://beinvolved.com.au) and queues the user’s Picture Message until after the event.
- The touch screen system handles all of the user’s interactions, from entering the user’s mobile number, selecting their favourite V8 driver and recording the Shout-Out video message.
- The media wall interface drives the 3x3 screen displays, which displayed the user’s favourite V8 driver backdrop.
During the development of the system, the client requested two additional features: Demo Mode and Live Preview.
- Demo Mode allows the system to show promo videos to entice the public to interact with the system while it was not in use.
- Live Preview allows the operator to view the output of the video camera while the recording is taking place. This proved technically challenging due to the limitations of the touch screen. The developed solution allowed a live video feed to be displayed on the touch screen via a USB capture card, providing the ability to view a webcam in the interface. This allowed the operator to position the user for recording and gave the public the ability to watch the recording live.
The system was developed within the tight timeframe and was installed by Raw Ideas on site in Adelaide.
The Telstra BigPond Bluey is a standard promotional device along with the Telstra Image Processing at the V8 Events throughout Australia.
Raw Ideas continues to provide technical monitoring and support for Telstra BigPond Bluey.