A few changes to the site…
There have been some subtle changes to the site that havn’t really been advertised. I’ve taken a moment to outline them for you:
Mobile Site Revamp
There were two major changes to our mobile website. The first was the outsourcing of the site to a third party called Quattro Wireless. They allow us to automatically reformat the mobile site depending on which device you are using. So the site you see on your Blackberry will be formatted for the Blackberry. While a visitor from a cell phone will have the cell phone version of the site displayed to them properly.
The second change we made was to automatically detect if users are coming from a mobile device if they visit www.cbc.ca. If they are, then they will automatically be directed to our mobile site: m.cbc.ca. There were a few bugs with this auto-redirection, but they have been ironed out this week.
This way, you have one url you need to remember: cbc.ca. If you visit from a phone, blackberry, or desktop, you will automatically be sent to either the mobile or regular website.
Flash Video
We have had flash video on the site for a while now. We’ve recently rolled this out to the news areas of the site, specifically The National.
This new video format allows us to provide higher quality video at a lower bit rate. It also allows us to almost guarantee that the video will be played on all platforms as the flash format is supported in most browsers.
You can expect to see Flash video to slowly replace all the windows and real media video on the site. We are currently testing live streaming with the flash player as well.
Anything Else?
There are some pretty cool projects going on that I will reveal over the course of this year as they roll out. So stay tuned!
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Moving the video to flash from WM is GREAT news!
Why in the h*** are you redirecting mobile users? Don’t you know anyone that knows how to build/use CSS profiles?
Do you even know what CSS (cascading style sheets) and HTML are?? Even generally??
No wonder TeaMakers and Joe Clark think yall are stupid.
Rick why all the hate?
I’m sure hell would make it in and y’all has an apostrophe after the y.
Nothing wrong with redirecting mobile users to a site that loads faster and is configured for a smaller screen.
Outsourcing there’s a term that the folks in HR like.
Funny how a study a few years ago decided not to outsource HR.
“You can expect to see Flash video to slowly replace all the windows and
real media video on the site.”
Offering only Flash video for consumers, especially on a site like CBC
that is dedicated to communicating to *all* Canadians, is a *horrible*
idea.
Flash is not accessible. Screen readers and other accesibility
technologies cannot understand it as well, and neither can search
engines index it as well.
Links directly to flash video are harder to find or distribute. Flash
is not a standard and thus can not be trusted to be supported by all
devices. 64-bit systems, many operating systems (such as Haiku,
Debian/Hurd, and MINIX), and iPhones (among other things) do not even
have a Flash player available.
Flash also uses patented codecs. This causes an ethical issue for some
people.
I propose that the CBC offer video in multiple formats (one of which may
optionally include Flash). At least one format should use a patent-free
(such as OGG/Theora or Matroska/Dirac) or patent-expired (such as
MPEG-1/H.261) codec.
See:
http://ossguy.com/?p=145
http://ossguy.com/?p=226
http://ossguy.com/?p=233
http://ossguy.com/?p=252
For more information.
I, for one, take issue with the move to Flash.
I found the Windows Media stream URL (the alternative you used to provide to the Windows Media Web player) for the National to be much more reliable, (especially on older PCs) and would prefer it if CBC would once again make a Windows Media URL available for those of us for whom the Flash Player is also unreliable. Otherwise, those of us with older PCs will be locked out.
So – this is a bad plan generally.
It reeks of lack of consultation with the IT Department.
Honestly, a huge and complicated CSS might be a bad thing, and a mobile site might be good.
A flash format is not good for most people. Using a format which is supported most places is better. An open one such as mpeg4 would be better since anything that can play videos can view it. Flash is actually less common.
Any reason why you don’t want to use a video format rather than an animation format?
“You can expect to see Flash video to slowly replace all the windows and
real media video on the site.”
Offering only Flash video for consumers, especially on a site like CBC
that is dedicated to communicating to *all* Canadians, is a *horrible*
idea.
Flash is not accessible. Screen readers and other accesibility
technologies cannot understand it as well, and neither can search
engines index it as well.
Links directly to flash video are harder to find or distribute. Flash
is not a standard and thus can not be trusted to be supported by all
devices. 64-bit systems, many operating systems (such as Haiku,
Debian/Hurd, and MINIX), and iPhones (among other things) do not even
have a Flash player available.
Flash also uses patented codecs. This causes an ethical issue for some
people.
I propose that the CBC offer video in multiple formats (one of which may
optionally include Flash). At least one format should use a patent-free
(such as OGG/Theora or Matroska/Dirac) or patent-expired (such as
MPEG-1/H.261) codec.
I’m having trouble viewing The National latest broadcast. After clicking the Play button, I get a black screen. If I click on the black screen it takes me to the Grand and Toy website.
My son can now see all of his 200 TV channels on his iPhone, and stream live video to his sister in Vancouver while walking down Yonge Street.
Also access and control his home computer, lights and heat.
He’s thrilled, and looking for more challenges.
@ghurley: There’s a preroll ad for G&T before the main video (which I know is another can of worms opened, but let’s move on…), hence the odd clickthrough. If you can’t see the video itself, one thing to try is to follow the link under the video player itself to upgrade your Flash plugin to the latest version. If that doesn’t work, use the form at http://www.cbc.ca/contact/ to send in your operating system, browser, and Flash plugin versions, along with a description of the problem.
@Stephen Paul Weber: are you seriously citing a lack of iPhone support in a free software advocacy argument? RMS will not be pleased. (Although you are kind to think about the Minix user. He/she/it gets so lonely these days.)
I will also chime in and say that flash is a horrible idea. It is a closed format and is not universally available to all platforms. There are good FREE solutions. For the CBC, which WE pay for, to spend money on licenses for this crap is just terrible. Who’s getting kick backs?
I am also in agreement with Tom B (previous comment) on how moving to flash only for the latest broadcast of The National is a bad idea. I have not been able to watch daily streaming of The National after it was switched to Flash only as I have inconsistent and slow internet connection.
I am using a MAC with QuickTime along with Flip4Mac Windows Media Plugin (+ latest Adobe Flash Plugin 10,0,12,36.) In the past, I was able to watch The Nation daily after the latest broadcast stream was opened and fully pre-loaded into Quicktime buffer or “Cache”, once pre-loaded I would watch the entire show without interruption or visual/sound delays.
With change to the latest broadcast of The National to Adobe Flash only, I am no longer able to open the latest The National in Quicktime with pre-buffer or Cache. With only real time streaming, and due to my inconsistent and slow internet connection, the audio/video of the stream would pause and delay making the show unwatchable – 100% of the time.
In providing a solution, can you investigate 1) reinstate the latest broadcast to open in Quicktime (or provide an option for those who need to) as to allow the program to buffer and Cache or 2) if you chose to remain with Flash streaming only, to allow the browser to pre-load or buffer the cache with the entire show before I watch it. This pre-loading or allowing buffering cache is used on Adobe Flash for YouTube and PBS Frontline also.
In adapting future online enhancements through new technologies or platforms, please keep in mind the legacy features and not discontinue them to quickly as it can be disruptive for those who rely on these features i.e. needing to buffering or cache streams due to slow/inconsistent internet connections or older PCs.
@kev: I have the latest version of Flash, but it’s Adobe’s Linux Flash plugin (which has never had trouble with CBC before) so that might be it. I’ll use the form you suggested. Also, I think you’re being unfair to Stephen Paul Weber. He made an open format argument, not a free software argument. Granted, there are better example to use than Minix. I’d like to add CBC is using the rtmp protocol for their streaming flash video. There are Free alternatives to the Adobe plugin, but none of them support rtmp very well. This is because rtmp is a secret protocol. Luckily, Adobe appears ready to change this as can be seen here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/rtmp/
@Kev It’s not really a “Free Software” argument, although that’s a factor. It’s a “Flash is inaccessible and bad” argument, which is different. Even if Adobe released the flash plugin libre, I would be against it.
@ghurley: I’m using Adobe’s linux plugin as well, version 10 r15 on Ubuntu 8.10. Seems to work okay. And SPW was definitely making a free software argument, using the accessibility thing as a prop. For one thing, it’s not accurate to say that Flash is intrinsically inaccessible. It is possible to build accessible Flash sites, though I’ll grant that the vast majority aren’t. But that was only one point in a comment that also referenced patenting and OS support. So let’s call it as it is.
While it’s an admirable stance to take, there isn’t a real world install base or delivery infrastructure to support any of the suggested free video formats, and downgrading to an old one is not a good use of taxpayer money. The fact is that, while not perfect, FLV allows us to reach the vast majority of users (including users of free OSes) , in a way that makes economic sense. There is definitely work to be done on the implementation, there always is, but someone seriously suggesting OGG/Theora probably isn’t going to have much to add to that discussion.
I was probably more sarcastic than I needed to be, but it seems to me that uninformed advocacy is probably more of a harm to the cause than a help.
@Kev what does OS support have to do with Free Software? It has to do with accessibility and portability. Some operating systems Adobe doesn’t support are free (like Haiku) some are not (like SkyOS).
@Kev H.261 (MPEG-1) is not really a “downgrade”. For web video, it does the job just fine.
@Kev note that I was not against FLV, but against Flash.
If they give us links directly to FLV files, then that situation is no worse than the current situation, and I’d not be upset about that.
@kev: I see that CBC is using Icecast to stream its online radio. Why not use it for Theora video as well?
Oy. Just out of curiosity, how many large media sites have the two of you run?
I’m going to chime in here as this would be the third change in direction of video/audio format since I’ve been here.
You can’t please everyone. When real media was the exclusive codec on the site people complained that the player was terrible, littered with Ads (provided by Real) and the quality suffered.
Users were asking for an alternative.
When we switched to windows media, users complained that we were “in bed with Microsoft”. We didn’t support the Mac or Unix users, or were using proprietary codecs.
The cycle is repeating it self as we start our move to flash video.
The problem this time around is not necessarily format, but bitrate/quality. Unfortunately the powers that be decided to use 500kbs/s as the bitrate for the flash video. This is extremely high and locks out most users from having a good video experience.
The windows media versions of The National were encoded using a 200kb/s bitrate. This allowed most users to watch the video without rebuffering/skipping.
It’s important to be patient with the transition. It’s also important to get your feedback sent to the right channels. I really mean it when I say that we do listen to your feedback.
Anything that is submitted to the “Contact Us” page is handled by our audience relations department who, every week, send out a detailed report and a copy of your comments to us for review.
Nice dose of that CBC arrogance, Kev.
Moving CBC video to Flash is terrible news.
Remember when the CBC was using RealMedia files and streams? Remember how well that worked out?
It wasn’t an issue of that protocol’s technical ability. It was wide-spread enough (at least for Windows users). The problem was with RealNetworks (the company), when it started implementing shady practices – I think the RealMedia player was one of the first big spyware apps.
Adobe is already on the way to that slippery slope with its inclusion of DRM in Flash. Needless to say, the Flash DRM specs aren’t available (even if the rest of the Flash spec is open source). What does the CBC have to do with DRM? Why should the CBC have to pay extra for stuff it isn’t going to use?
HTML5 will have a standards-based “video” element, and Firefox 3.1(beta) already supports it. The CBC would be far better off planning for this, using actual video formats (yes, I would prefer Ogg/Theora) rather than proprietary Flash, which is unlikely to be included in the HTML standard any time soon.
In fact, I venture that when HTML5 becomes more prominent, Adobe will significantly change the Flash spec to try to compete, meaning that both users and the CBC will need to upgrade (users gratis, CBC probably at great cost).
Please learn from the RealMedia history, and don’t repeat it with Flash.
–Bob.
@Blake: Does that mean we should re-post our comments on the “Contact Us” page, or will the comments posted here receive equal treatment?
–Bob.
@Allan: I think you’ll find that that was world-weary nerd arrogance. But please feel free to keep racking up the hate points against CBC employees.
I solved my video problem. It turned out to have nothing to do with the Flash plugin.
To all the Flash haters… like it or not, perhaps you didn’t notice Flash become the defacto standard for video EVERYWHERE on the internet over the past 5 years.
CBC is one of the LAST websites to catch on to this. There’s this thing called “The You Tube” now that the kids like. Maybe you guys should try surfing to a few other websites than CBC from time to time.
Bob: no, comments here are not “official”. If you dont feel like filling out the form on the website, you can email your comments to cbcinput@toronto.cbc.ca