BBC Parliament has leapt into the future with a broadband media player showing not only the channel itself, but live House of Lords, Select Committees and Westminster Hall highlights, previously only available on the television channel as recorded coverage.
As I grew up I never saw myself becoming a geek. But then I found myself doing a new-fangled, post-graduate course in online journalism and so began my first faltering steps on the road to techo-land. My journey passed a millstone, sorry, milestone last month with the launch of an online media player for BBC Parliament.
BBC Parliament seems to have a reputation as something of a sleepy hollow in the hurly-burly of BBC newsmongering. But now the soporific qualities of Westminster's debating chambers can be scrutinised with a pioneering, hi-tech toy.
In 2003 I was charged with improving the audio-video output of the Parliament channel over the internet. The ensuing two years have been long and winding, but I didn't know then what I know now.
During the aforementioned post-grad course I was taught to think of blue skies. In the cold realties of working life I have learned to dodge the perpetual smog and occasional storm clouds.
My shopping list of web-desires has been nipped and tucked and pinched and poked and probably made a lot more sensible than it was before. It was a question of tempering what was best for BBC Parliament with what was technically and politically possible and with such taut purse-strings.
It seemed we were asking for the impossible in some ways. Such is the nature of the fast-changing world of the new media.
Slightly ambitious?
We were attempting to build a comprehensive AV service for BBC Parliament using a staff of one and the firepower of one-and-a-half slightly ropey BBC desktops. This was at a time when the powerhouse of web media that is News Online was only just reorganising itself in readiness for the predicted explosion of broadband uptake.
So it was probably always slightly ambitious to expect four live streams of Parliamentary mumbling, with on-demand versions of the juiciest exchanges, supported by fully-interactive bill tracking and MP information and dynamic alerts. Not to mention the kitchen sink and maybe a cuddly toy.
Several sympathetic types lent me their ears and let me eulogise about the brave new world of connecting Parliament with "the people" like never before. And then gradually my hopes and dreams were pared down to something considerably more manageable.
In the early stages we were hampered by the defection of our project manager to the commercial world. We were getting into the swing of things with her replacement when he was hospitalised with an incredibly unpleasant infection that wiped him out for months. And then there was the small matter of developing the main body of News Online's AV-offering as a priority.
But by February we were ready to unleash the live stream of the channel in a specially crafted BBC Parliament console, incorporating broadband - as well as narrowband - versions in both Real and Windows media formats. And we filled in the gaps with some of the channel's home-grown, backgrounder documentaries, also in four flavours.
Six months later we were able to show more of Parliament at work than ever before.
A first
In the same week that Radio 4's legendary Today in Parliament celebrated 60 years of reporting from the Palace of Westminster, BBC Parliament took Parliamentary broadcasting into the future, with two new live web streams in broadband.
This is the first BBC channel to have its own online media player, enabling the live broadcast of the Lords and committees and other political events around Westminster and beyond.
With the help of News Interactive we have had several key moments promoted on the front page of the BBC news website. On 7th December 2005, Conservative Leader David Cameron's first appearance at Prime Minister's Questions secured over 75,000 hits - a combination of those watching the debate live and on demand later that day.
With results like that, we can only hope that it won't be long until we can move the Parliamentary console into a new phase of development and make more of our output available on demand.
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