LiveNewsCameras.com Blog

A few quick updates:

A schedule page is on the way - that will show you what programs are on when, excluding breaking news, of course.

We have a new front page on the way that will dynamically update based on what the host/moderator decides are the big stories at the current moment.  As you can imagine, there are some serious back-end developments going on to allow that to happen, but you should see the new front page soon.

Regarding pagination - based on feedback, we’re going to add forward and back controls to the bottom of the page. 

Lets be realistic here -there’s simply no way to include all the live streams on one page - so pagination is a necessary evil. 

We’re well over 100 live streams now and could be at 200 soon enough - of course, organizing them is a challenge, but we think the changes outlined above will help keep the site easy to use, and  navigate as the amount of content continues to grow.

We do value the feedback and certainly take it to heart - so keep it coming…

We just pushed a big code update up to the LiveNewsCameras.com site. 

It features:

-Pagination
-Categories
-Sort
-Social networking tools (”Share This” button - take a look)
-RSS feed through Twitter
-1024×768 design to maximize compatability
-Hide moderator feature
-More feeds

And there are more features and streams coming soon.

Remember - this is very much still a beta site and we are looking for feedback - please send us a message if you are experiencing an issue or problem ((info at livenewscameras (dot) com)) - and we’ll do our best to get it taken care of!  Thanks! 

- The LiveNewsCameras.com crew

Big changes on the way - you’ll look at the site in a whole new way - come back and see us on Thursday Friday! 

Steve & the LiveNewsCameras.com team

Where Are The Moderators?

Our moderators are all over the United States.  They are working in newsrooms and our goal is to have a moderator 24/7.  We split it up right now among the time zones.  There are some great people who have volunteered to help us moderate all of the live feeds.

Why Are Some Live Feeds Changing?

We have the website set up so we can get thumbnails of what is on the feed from most of the partners in this effort.  When we add someone new, sometimes it takes a little time to work with the source to get the system set up so we can get constantly updated images.

Who Is Participating?

This is a website that links to many different networks and parts of the country.  We welcome stations that want to participate but we are not just talking to television stations.  We have been in conversations with newspapers and other news organizations that are starting to experiment with live news video. 

Do We Read The E-Mails?

Yes we do.  We are glad so many of you take the time to use the site and we welcome your keeping an eye on the site and letting us know about breaking news.  We soon will have many more live feeds and we welcome your suggestions for more.

Can You Add A Stream From A Certain Location?

We’d love to - but rather than just taking content without asking, we are working with partners around the world to get new content on our site.  You’re certainly welcome to email your local TV stations, or any stations for that matter, and encourage them to join in on this project.  And at the same time, let us know about them as well - just send an email to info@livenewscameras.com.

 

In addition to refining the code, we’ve been working with our friends at Mogulus to improve the quality of the stream on the moderator camera here at LiveNewsCameras HQ.

We’re now using Flash Media Encoder to provide a much better signal into the Mogulus platform, which has resulted in a better picture for you at home.  The moderators lips should now sync up with what is being said, better than before, and you should have a clearer picture too.

We’re working on bringing back some of the world feeds, along with more streaming video from our partners here in the USA.

More later,

Steve

Thanks for checking back in to LiveNewsCameras.com and our development blog.

We’ve been working on the back-end of the site, and as a result, have made some refinements to the front end as well.

You’ll notice the page loads much faster and does not use as many resources of your computer now - and it should also be compatible with virtually every browser on the market, and perform equally well on PC and Mac systems.

There are more features on the way this week, so check back in again - I guess we can say for real - you never know what you’ll see!

I’m happy to say we have added two NBC affiliates to our site, owned by Raycom Media! 

These are the first two of many stations that will be joining LiveNewsCameras.com over the coming days, and we couldn’t be happier to have them on board. 

If you’re with a TV station or group who would like to join in - please email me - the address is steve (dot) baron ((at)) foxtv (dot) com.

So now, here we are on a cold and gray Saturday morning here in Chicago.  After a long day at work yesterday filled with Mountain Dew and Chinese food, we pushed up some new code to the site last night that should make the site display better in a variety of browsers and load much faster. 

We also alphabatized the order of the cities that are displayed and are working towards letting users of the site re-arrange the page in any order they would like. 

We’re also making lots of other improvements behind the scenes that will improve the way the pages behave as the site grows.  While it won’t make much of a difference to the average user - the “plumbing” behind the site is really important to us as the site grows.

I tried to take a few pictures yesterday but the batteries in the camera were dead - they are coming -I promise - along with a page featuring our moderators, and a bit more about each of them.

Steve

Well, here we are wrapping up day #3 - on the verge of a few very big things you’ll all see soon enough.  Today was another big day for us, with lots of news going on (anyone catch that giant sinkhole in Denver?  holy cow!  not to mention the dog flying around in the helicopter…) and a great job by our team of moderators/hosts/NJs.

“NJ” is a new term our VP of News Andrew Finlayson coined today - combining the skill of a DJ with the essence of a newscaster - NJ meaning “news jockey”, of course.  I’ve spent many years in front of the camera, and still anchor weather here in Chicago once in a while - but the thought of spending 4, 5, or 6 hours in front of a camera the way Sarah, Kat, Andy, Kelly, and others are doing - wow - its not as easy as it might look.  And I hear all of it - since the camera pointing at the moderator is actually mounted on my desk!  I’ll try to take some pictures tomorrow and post them here.

As I said earlier, we’re close to adding in several new features - including links back to the sites where the video streams are originating from.

Ali Hassan joined our development efforts full-time today from a different part of our news operation, and I’m really excited to see someone with his skill-set working on our team.  I built the core of the site with brute force, and got it working - Ali has the skills to make it graceful, and - brace yourself here - standards compliant -  (there, I said it) and even cross-browser compatible (Safari users - we hear you!  Shouldn’t be long now…)

One more thing - and this is big.

If you are part of a news gathering organization anywhere in the world and would like to be part of this project - regardless of network affiliation - please get in touch with me by email (steve.baron (at) foxtv.com).

I am happy to say as of today we are open to working with anyone and everyone who would like to be a part of LiveNewsCameras.com.

Thanks for checking in,

Steve

Thanks to all who have checked out our site so far - and especially to those to have taken the time to leave a comment or send an email - it’s really appreciated.

We’re learning lots and lots every day, and are working to tweak a few (ok…many!) things that have been pointed out.

Particularly, look for a better way to communicate with us - one that takes the level of interactivity between the moderator/host and the site visitor - up a notch.

And we’re also going to give you an option to remove the moderator box entirely - and let the twitter feed fill up the whole right side of the screen.

Also, the never ending process of making sure all of the thumbnails are updated, and working - continues to crop up - we know about that and are working on it as well.

Thanks again, and feel free to leave a comment if you’ve got any feedback,

Steve

Consider this a warm welcome to our project - thanks for stopping by and checking out our new way of bringing you news! 

Just a few things to know now that you’re here - this is very much a beta version of our site - please consider it a work-in-progress and a sneak peek at some much larger things to come. 

We know there are a few issues that still need to be worked out, code that needs to be cleaned up, and graphics that need to change - and all those things will happen soon.  But we thought Super Tuesday was the perfect day to give everyone the chance to choose their news - the same way voters in many states were chosing candidates.

You’ll also see some new faces in the moderator role of our site, including Kat Bockli, Sarah Kustok, Kelly Kraft, Julia Fello, Andy Roesgen, and a few others.  They’re your guide to what’s happening across the country - you can listen to them by using the volume control under the video player on the right side of the screen. 

If you want to mute the moderator, and just channel surf, turn down the volume on the moderators player, and turn up the volume on the player in the middle of your screen.

Here’s the deal - we know this isn’t ideal - and are working on a way to better manage the volume of the two streams, but for now - hey, it works!

You’ll also have to deal with one of the inherrent limits of Windows Media streams - that being the dreaded “buffering”.  It can take anywhere from two to 10 seconds for a Windows Media stream to load, so just be patient and most of the time the stream will load, if you let it go long enough.

We’re looking for your feedback - you can reach us by email at - please drop us a note.

On behalf of General Manager Patrick Mullen, and Vice President of News Andrew Finlayson, thanks for coming by!

Steve Baron
Fox News Chicago