About

KMi Stadium logo colour

KMi Stadium was the generic label for a suite of activities and software tools that had been evolving since mid-1995. The common goal of these activities was to stage large-scale live events and on-demand replays while providing remote participants across the Internet with a sense of being there.

A combination of up-to-date web technologies—including the latest-generation browsers, helpers, and plug-ins—was used alongside proprietary technologies implemented in Java. These included synchronised audio, multimedia, and Macromedia Shockwave. Since the technologies, research interests, and approach evolved rapidly, the KMi Stadium label encompassed multiple variants and types, which are categorised accordingly below.

Stadium Project Design History

Shockwave Arena Prototype
This was the latest implementation of the KMi Stadium Arena environment, which was used to service the business applications within BP Amoco and for events such as the virtual degree ceremony. This was the software used by our spin-off company WebSymposia to help corporate clients explore their webcast requirements.

KMi ‘Maven of the Month’ Internet Talk Radio Interviews
Talk-radio-style interviews were conducted with noted personalities (‘maven’ = expert or connoisseur), using RealAudio. Questioners filled in Web forms, and we then phoned them, using a telephone patch panel/balancing unit to handle the worldwide question queue.

Auditorium presentations (slide shows, tutorials, and panel discussions)
These were formal presentations or discussions, accompanied by high-quality graphics in a custom slide-show viewer, which could be controlled indirectly by the presenter using synchronisation cues signalled in a separate frame to the remote participants.

Java Podium 100% Java-based presentations
Similar to (2) above, but streaming audio and remote control of graphics were all done entirely in Java, enabling precise fine-grained synchronisation.

Internal and External Webcasts
Events were based primarily on audio content delivered via RealAudio and occasionally accompanied by static graphics or a simple HTML slide show.

Java Arena Prototype
This was the original KMi Stadium Java implementation, widely known for the world map, ‘choose-your-own-face entrance,’ ‘cartoon presenter hands,’ and ‘applause/laughter’ buttons. This was a design prototype that influenced all of the others above.

Team

The KMi Stadium Project drew upon the skills of an extensive team over the years:

  • Harriett Cornish – Graphics and user-interface design
  • Chris Denham (ACS) – Audio encoder support; Java chat room server and client
  • Marc Eisenstadt – Stadium Scenarios
  • Adam Freeman – Design/implementation of architecture for Lyceum and servers
  • Ben Hawkridge – Shockwave Applet design
  • Mike Lewis – Webmaster and RealAudio servers/encoders
  • Jon Linney – Graphics for ‘Stadium 1’ Java prototype
  • Ross Mackenzie (ACS) – Java ‘Mapplet’ live audience map
  • Andy Rix (AV) – Audio mixing decks and live event coverage
  • Craig Rodine – Lyceum implementation rollout
  • Peter Scott – Stadium Scenarios, Javascripting, and Live Webcasting Concepts
  • Tony Seminara – Graphics and user-interface design
  • Malcolm Story (ACS) – Coding assistance, IDLCON Java clock
  • Mike Wright – Control booth & remote-control interfaces and live/replay production control

Acknowledgements

Other Open University departments involved were as follows: ACS = Academic Computing Service Centre for Educational Software, AV = Audio-Visual Services.

Stadium is a technology that is still in use at The Open University for it’s ‘Webcasts From The Berrill Lecture Theatre‘.