We are giving a talk called "Cool Accessibilty Hacks and Subtitles using BBC Redux"
UPDATED!!! On BBC Redux every programme page now has the option to download the subtitles in XML!!! Yay!! Thanks Tom!
UPDATED! Lots and lots of XML subtitle data available. Download it here.
A BBC Digital TV service is a combination of different information lumped together. We take Video A, Audio B and C, Subtitle stream D and interactive red button service E. We bolt them together and call it BBC1.
At Kingswood Warren we're interested in making TV services more flexible and accessible than that.
Instead of a TV service being a fixed combination of components, how about we make the components available separately? You can combine them the way you want, to make your own personalised version of the service.
It would be great if people are interested in making some personalised TV experiences; How about:
For Mashed we're making an archive of our TV and radio programmes available on the web on a system called BBC Redux. At http://www.bbcredux.com you'll find our programmes in their native broadcast form (MPEG-2 transport streams or .ts files).
These files are big (around 2GB per hour) and contain the video, audio and subtitles for the programmes, plus the audio description for visually-impaired viewers when available. On the day we also hope to make data available for download in other formats, including machine-readable XML-based subtitles.
You can also get an RSS feed of the last day's programmes from REDUX, and you can navigate through the RSS to to the programmes themselves and is an excellent way of interfacing to Redux
ACCESS TO THIS SYSTEM HAS NOW BEEN RESTRICTED
For more information on the day, please talk to Mike Evans and Sam Davies
If you're reading this before Mashed has begun, and you'd like to ask any questions, chat about the sort of things you could do with subtitle data, or with any the stuff we're making available, then please post to the BBC Backstage Mailing List. It's just possible we'll be able to sort out the tweaks you need before the weekend.