Global InformationBBC Redux information
BBC Redux was a BBC Research & Development system that digitally recorded[1] television and radio output in the United Kingdom produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation.[2]: 2 It operated from 2007 to 2022[1][3] and contains several petabytes of recordings[1] and subtitle data.[1] It is notable for being the proof of concept for the Flash video streaming version of the BBC iPlayer.[2]: 15
It was an internal research project developed for testing[4][5][6] which acted as a giant video on demand or personal video recorder (PVR).[4] It contained a complete digital archive, recording both television and radio twenty-four hours a day, of all of the BBC's national and also some regional broadcast output since mid-2007,[7][8] and automatically compiled without human input.[2]: 5 [6] The BBC stated that BBC Redux was one of its major contributions to the field of digital archiving and preservation.[9]
Some accounts for accessing the system on a temporary basis were made available at Mashed 08[10] and again at Culture Hack Day 2011,[11] providing streaming-only access to BBC content broadcast during the weekend of the event.[12] As well as streaming, the system enables high-quality downloads of television and radio content,[13] and has had the option to download subtitles from programmes since 2008.[14]
BBC Redux had originally been developed at the BBC's Kingswood Warren campus,[15] in only two months,[16] and with the investment required being significantly less than the iPlayer.[6] The saved content can be used for broadcast compliance checking[2]: 16 and by BBC programme researchers.[17] BBC Redux was only available to employees, because existing legal contracts with content producers limited how material could be broadcast, distributed and made available to general consumers.[18][19] The Readme file for associated API frameworks hosted on GitHub states:
BBC Snippets and BBC Redux are tools designed to allow BBC staff to develop new ways to view and navigate content. As such, they're not open to the public.[20]
In May 2022, in a blog post, the BBC confirmed the sunset and ultimate closure of the Redux service. Redux content was migrated to the new BBC Archive Search, which operates on Amazon Web Services. New programmes are delivered to the BBC Archive automatically as they are ingested for playout.[3]
- ^ a b c d Solon, Olivia (16 June 2011). "The people and projects inside the BBC's vast R&D lab". Wired. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
- ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference
birdwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "The future of searching the past: Transitioning from BBC Redux to Archive Search". 26 May 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- ^ a b Butterworth, Brandon (27 October 2008). "History of the 'BBC Redux' project". BBC Internet Blog. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
- ^ Saran, Cliff (20 April 2012). "BBC wants to build a cultural API". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
an internal version of BBC iPlayer called Redux, which was originally developed for testing
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
rosewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Tinley, Dominic (8 November 2011). "ABC-IP and work on audio archiving research". BBC Research & Development Blog.
- ^ Tweed, Jonathan (7 November 2011). "Introducing Tellytopic: Navigating programme archives by topic". MetaBroadcast. Archived from the original on 30 October 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
BBC Redux, a playable archive of almost everything broadcast since mid-2007
- ^ Wright, Richard (16 June 2010). "The Value of Everything". BBC Research & Development Blog.
- ^ Johnson, Bobbie (26 June 2008). "Hackers fan the flames of imagination at Mashed". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
- ^ Williams, Dan W. (14 January 2011). "BBC Archive − A number of Redux accounts giving…". Tumblr.
- ^ "Datasets". Culture Hack Day. 14 January 2011. Archived from the original on 2 December 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
- ^ Programme (PDF). EBU Seminar on P2P delivery. Geneva: European Broadcasting Union. 24 September 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
BBC Research developed a Redux site enabling a high quality download service of some BBC TV products.
- ^ "BBC Redux". Mashed 08. Backnetwork. Madgex. 2008. Archived from the original on 15 September 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
- ^ Forrester, Ian (14 March 2011). "Goodbye Kingswood warren". Cubic Garden.
- ^ Singleton, Alex (May 2008) [13 March 2008]. "Linux at the BBC" (PDF). Linux Format (105): 50. Archived from the original (Platform-neutral content) on 1 September 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
Brandon Butterworth explains: 'People thought it would be really difficult to run on all platforms, that it would take years to develop. But I led a team to do a Flash version that would work on Linux and we did it in two months'
- ^ Highlights of the Year (PDF). BBC R&D Annual Review 2009–2010 (Report). 10 March 2011. p. 4. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
- ^ Rivera, Ralph (11 May 2012). "BBC Online Briefing: Spring 2012 Final Q&A" (television question and answer session, offset 23:28–28:30). BBC Internet Blog.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
tinworthwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Haynes, Matt (25 January 2012). "README.md". redux-client-ruby. GitHub. Retrieved 13 May 2012.