As Andy Williams sang, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Yep, it's Christmas! And here at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Red Button, we like a bit of the Christmas spirit in our London office, so at the end of last week, the Christmas tree went up!
Last year's tree was decorated with remote controls, so we knew this year's follow up had to be even better. So the tree decorating committee started planning for something a little special for the theme. A theme of planning in fact!
In our team we use an agile development process called SCRUM. As part of that process we hold short planning sessions, usually every two weeks, and write a batch of user stories so the team know what they're going to be doing.
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Here's our regular look at what's coming up under the red button...
Doctor Who: Audio Commentaries*
As David Tennant makes his departure this Christmas
´óÏó´«Ã½ Red Button will be tearfully retracing the Tenth Doctor's final steps
offering digital viewers episode commentary from the cast and crew during
´óÏó´«Ã½ Three's repeat showings of The End of Time and also during the
45 minute Doctor Who animation, Dreamland, showing on Christmas
Eve.
- Doctor Who: Dreamland
America, 1958. The Doctor makes a new friend, Cassie, who reveals that anyone
approaching the Top Secret Dreamland Army base goes missing. The Doctor
discovers an alien army hatching beneath the New Mexico desert while inside
Dreamland, survivors of an extraterrestrial war possess a weapon powerful
enough to destroy EarthÂ…
Press the red button to listen to additional commentary on Dreamland provided
by the writer Phil Ford and the director Gary Russell.
- Doctor Who: The End of Time
David Tennant embarks on his final journey as The Doctor in this two-part
special guest starring John Simm as The Master, Bernard Cribbins, Catherine
Tate, Timothy Dalton, David Harewood and June Whitfield.
During the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three repeats ´óÏó´«Ã½ Red Button viewers can hear commentary
from Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner.
Dreamland: Christmas Eve 24th December, 9.30am, ´óÏó´«Ã½ One, Sky, Virgin &
Freeview
The End of Time, Pt.1: Sunday 27th December, 7pm, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three, Sky, Virgin
& Freeview
The End of Time, Pt.2: Sunday 3rd January, 7pm, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three, Sky & Virgin
only
(not available on Freesat)
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Here's our regular look at what's coming up under the red button...
Strictly Social / Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two
Strictly Come Dancing fans are in for
a treat as the show nears its exciting climax. For Saturday's semi-final some of the best features from the Strictly
Social website will be quick-stepping it over to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Red Button.
Digital viewers will be able to press red to see what the nation is saying
about television's favourite dance extravaganza while the host of the Strictly
Social site invites users to share their opinions on some of the night's
most pressing issues i.e. "Is Ola's dress hot or not?"
Meanwhile on Thursday evenings viewers in Scotland can press the red button
to join Claudia Winkelman and guests for uninterrupted coverage of Strictly
Come Dancing: It Takes Two. The programme can be seen on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two in
all other areas.
Strictly Social
Saturday 12th December, from 6.45pm, Sky, Virgin & Freeview
(not available on Freesat)
Strictly: It Takes Two
Thursday 17th December, 6.30pm, Sky,Virgin & Freeview
(not available on Freesat)
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A few months ago, before the leaves began to fall and before the cold seeped in and before Jedward forced their way into our living rooms, I wrote a post about what it was like to work in a Live production environment managing the Red Button service for Glastonbury.
I mentioned that I was severely hampered by the content management system we use to build interactive services like Glastonbury. This system was absolutely fine for building a service pre-transmission. We build it, leave it alone and the service plays out with no fuss. However having to coax this system through a live event where constant updates are required of it is rather like trying to drive a tank in a Formula One race.
It was therefore decided that a new system was needed - our very own Brawn F1 version so to speak - which would enable us to make quick updates with speedy response times.
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