About

The KMi Stadium project supported various educational webcasting experiments within the Open University and with external clients. Managing these events from a web-based perspective led to the development of the Stadium Backlot System. This system enabled the organization and maintenance of both live webcasts and replays, with a management hierarchy that allowed the coordination of multiple venues or event groupings. For example, venues ranged from the Berrill Lecture Theatre to Sound and Vision Studios, and events included course webcast series and vice-chancellors’ open management meetings.

All audience-accessible pages generated by Stadium Backlot were defined by header, footer, and template files, making it easy to modify the appearance of a given stadium. The content of these web pages was dynamically created based on time, location, and user identity. Consequently, the events list page displayed the current status of viewable events based on the viewer’s location.

For individual events, the web page displayed the title, date, speakers, venue, and description, along with a downloadable calendar file before the event. As the event approached, the page refreshed regularly, and buttons appeared to allow the audience to join, offering different data rates depending on the user’s internet connection. After the event, managers could enable buttons for viewing event replays.

The management of Stadium Backlot was secured through username and password access. Managers could add or edit data via web-based forms, with varying privileges ranging from access to all stadiums to specific tasks within certain stadiums.

Examples of managed Stadiums included:

• Berrill Stadium
• KMi Podium
• AUA Stadium
• Webcast@OU