I'm Garry Green. I work in the BBC Blue Room at Salford Quays – and being part of the Lowry Festival at the start of November was a great joy.
The Blue Room monitors new and emerging technology: devices, gadgets, and set-top boxes etc – the sorts of things that we might have at home…although, there are so many different devices to buy. Unless you've got a particular piece of equipment yourself, it can be hard to know how it works, and what it does – and that's one of the reasons the Blue Room is here.
Demonstrating the wonders of the Blue Room to visitors.
On Saturday 1st November, towards the end of a unique tour of the BBC’s Quay House, visitors came to speak to us about some of these devices, and to see some of the many BBC apps and experiences that are available now, free. Some of the things we spoke about included:
• The Connected Red Button (currently available on many SMART TVs, and the Virgin Media Tivo box), which allows you to enjoy the BBC iPlayer, BBC News, BBC Sport, Weather, and more, on your television;
• Playlister – where you can create your own personal musical playlist, whilst listening to BBC radio programmes (via iPlayer Radio, for instance). Your playlist can then be transported to one of four other sites, so you can get hold of the songs you've heard;
• iPlayer on different devices – from SMART TVs, to the Now TV box, Amazon Fire TV, to its use with Chromecast. There are so many ways to watch programmes that have been broadcast by the BBC over the past 30 days, and more;
• Interactive eBooks - download a free BBC eBook that offers so much more than a standard book. Yes, you can read text, but you can also watch video, listen to audio, and enjoy it in such an amazingly different and intuitive way. As it's a trial, there are only a few are available - such as 'D-Day's Last Heroes'.
Garry with his fellow Technology Demonstrator, Ahmed
It was an enjoyable day, with some great conversations. We tried to talk about the wealth of BBC apps and services available to visitors, and help them get the best from the BBC out of the devices they own. As the BBC does so much, and there are so many ways to get hold of them, 15 minutes sometimes just wasn't enough, but we made sure we succeeded in pointing people to the right places to find-out more.
For more information on the BBC Blue Room, have a look at us on Twitter, where our address is @bbcblueroom, or look at a recent blog from Alice Webb (Chief Operating Officer, Project England) about the Blue Room at Salford Quays.
* The Blue Room visits were included as part of a free tour organised by BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility. The tours were part of the wider Family Festival, taking place across Salford Quays and MediaCityUK on 1st November. Seventy-three visitors joined the BBC for an interactive tour of studios and to meet staff behind the scenes at Quay House - the home of BBC Breakfast, BBC Sport, Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Manchester and BBC North West Tonight, to name a few.
