Canning Stock Route Exhibition in Canberra

The National Museum of Australia are reprising their Kaninjaku: Canning Stock Route exhibition in Canberra until April 2016. This is a smaller version of the exhibition which I saw in Canberra in 2010 and has been touring Australia. It features paintings from significant Australian indigenous artists and the best use of multimedia at a museum I have  seen (by Lightwell). If in Canberra, do not miss this free exhibition.

Australia's first enhanced eBook?

Greetings from the National Library of Australia in Canberra, where cultural historian and folklorist Warren Fahey is talking about his book "Australian Folk Songs and Bush Ballads". This is claimed to be Australia's first "enhanced" eBook.

A representative of the NLA did a gushing introduction about ebooks. Warren provided an entertaining history of his involvement with technology, starting with the crystal wireless and tin cans and string telephone. He then talked about his involvement with bush music and the ABC. But so far no explanation as to what an "enhanced eBook" is. I assumed it had digital audio files, along with images and text.

Warren went on to explain how he obtained a copy of his own field folk song recordings from the NLA and converted them to a suitable format for the eBook.

Warren used what appeared to be an Apple iPad for a demonstration of the eBook. He showed what looked like a traditional book format, with video displayed like a still image (click on the image to play the video) and audio controls (click the play button). The audio used seemed to be short excerpts, with links to on-line stores to purchase the full recording.

Warren said that volume was 600 Mbytes, due to the sound files. The publisher is splitting the book into volumes.

What was a little confusing was that I could only find an Amazon Kindle eBook edition of the book on-line. Warrne explained that Amazon refused to carry a Kindle eBook with links to Apple iTunes (for the audio). So a different edition had to be produced with different links in it.

This is a brave attempt at an "enhanced" eBook. But I am not sure that including the audio files in the eBook file is worth the effort. Instead the files could be downloaded from the web as required.

Warren ended by discussing what effect eBooks will have on book publishing and distribution. This provides a world market for the author, but cheaters challenges for the local bookstore and library.

At question time I asked what Warren's next ebook would be like. He said he wanted to do a book for children, being the 21st century of the Coles funny picture book for kids.

Someone asked how the cost of producing an enhanced ebook compared to a PDF ebook. Warren replied it was must more expensive by PDF ebooks were so static and dull.

This appears on topic for Senator Kate Lundy's Digital Culture Public Sphere on-line and in Sydney, 6 October 2011.

Last Man To Die Interactive Art

There will be a performance of Last Man To Die at Gorman House, Canberra, 7pm 4 December 2010. The installation is open today for free viewing at the Gorman House Arts Centre. I had a look today while Christmas shopping at the Gorman House Markets. The usually brightly lit Canberra Contemporary Art Space (CCAS) has been turned into a twilight world lit by video projectors. You are handed a bar coded ticket on entry. Placed under a scanner, this activates multimedia presentations, with projections onto hanging screens. Exactly what this was all about I was not sure of (like all high art, it needs to be explained). Tonight's performance will include live performers in the venue as well as music transmitted live from Sweden. The concept reminds me of the excellent "True Logic of the Future" by Boho.

Future of museum multimedia in Canberra

The National Museum of Australia (NMA) Yiwarra Kuju Exhibition features a painting by Rover Thomas and an 8 metre interactive multimedia display. Museums Australia ACT Chapter organised a "Hands-on demonstration and debate: The future of museum multimedia" as one of a series of events associated with the exhibition. The video makers and multimedia artists involved described the origins of the project and the design choices made. I felt a little out of place being about the non-museum person, but had the sense I was seeing history in the making, with a change in the way museums work happening before me.

In my view, this one multimedia display is of more value, and more significance, that the whole of the rest of the NMA, its building and collection. This reminds me of several years ago when Australian universities formed AARnet, to provide networking services. AARnet when on to foster the development and use of the Internet in Australia. While the universities see AARnet as a minor service function it is perhaps the most useful and valuable service universities have ever provided to Australia. Similarly, this one multimedia display is enough to justify the cost of setting up MNA, even if the Museum never does anything else of value.

One frustration with the event was that I did not know exactly who all the people speaking were, as they were not listed on the museum's invitation. The first speaker was a film documentary maker, who described how the project worked with local people to record interviews.

Then "Michael", the multimedia display maker, discussed the table top multi-media presentation. He showed previous examples, including the "number" display at the Berlin Jewish museum and the timeline at the Churchill war rooms in London. He pointed out that this form of display allowed for social interaction between people as well as with the system.

One subtle difference I noticed with the NMA display is that the screens are staggered, not in a neat straight row, like Berlin and London. Michael pointed out that his was a multi-touch display. This allows a more free-form use including control of images.

One frustration I have with the Canberra exhibition is that few people will see it. This is partly because it has been very poorly promoted and also because the display is limited to the physical exhibition in one room in one place. The exhibition is intended to be sent around Australia, but even so few people will get to see it. There is a web site associated with the exhibition, but this does no more than hint at the significance of the paintings and the multimedia. The obvious next step would be to create an online version of the interactive display and also a conventional linear documentary film version.

The display devices used are made by a start-up company in Finland co-founded by Professor Giulio Jacucci at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT). These are "MultiTouch Cell" units from MultiTouch Ltd of Helsinki (Australian agent: Lightwell, Chippendale, Sydney). The units feature a backlit LCD display (better than front projection units) and have a smaller bezel than the Microsoft Surface product, allowing multiple units to be placed together for a bigger display.

The MultiTouch units appear to be reasonably robust and might provide useful for command and control facilities in military and emergency headquarters, such as the new Joint Task Force Headquarters (JTFHQ) Afloat, to be installed on the Canberra class ships HMAS Canberra and HMAS Adelaide. The US 7th Fleet may also wish to re-equip the Joint Operations Center on USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19). Also these displays might be used in the new emergency centres being built by the Victorian and ACT governments. At tens of thousands of dollars each, these screens are relatively inexpensive. The units have survived six weeks use so far by the public, including children, which is a severe test.

The design for this display was first prepared on a full scale paper mock-up on the floor. This stage the value of having the screen tessellated became apparent. This provide more space for people to stand around the display.

The modular nature of the display could also prove useful in military and civilian command and control applications, where separate units could be reconfigured as required.

Another interesting aspect of the design was the use of audio. Each unit has its own audio and so there could be competing sound, but in practice this works. This could also be useful in command and control applicators, with staff naturally gravitating to the relevant display a, but still being able to hear what is happening around them.

One improvement which could be made to the multimedia display, and the whole exhibition, would be to make it less isolated. I was reluctant to enter the imposing front door of the exhibition. When I entered the exhibition I felt as if I was in a big black box, cut off from the world. It seemed odd that an exhibition about a very bright desert was shown in a dark cave. Perhaps there could be some live input to the display, from the stock route in real time and from people around the world looking at the same display.

At question time the issue of extending the interactive display online was raised by several people. Also the use of mobile devices was raised. It seemed obvious to me that a version of the multimedia display should be made avialable on the web and that it would make a compelling application when displayed on an iPad or similar multi-touch device.

At question time, I pointed out that because of the title of the exhibition I was expecting a few old stock whips and this was taken up by one of the panellists. Apparently "Canning Stock Route" was intended only as the subtitle. But the title of the exhibition is not in English, and so will be meaningless to most of the Australian public. This is the single point on which the exhibition could fail. Perhaps the ACT government and non-government tourism promotion bodies should step in to promote the display while it is still in Canberra. This exhibition has the potential to be more popular than the blockbuster Musée d'Orsay exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

Another interesting question was if the format of short idea snippets of video would displace longer linear film documentaries. This is an issue I was interviewed recently regarding text. The film maker explained that the video snippets are designed to standalone but also be joined together to be a longer film.

One disappointing aspect of the event about the exhibition was the video recording. The session was recorded, but this was done with one camera and some poorly placed radio microphones. This distracted from the event, with audio feedback and the camera continually swivelling around. It seemed a shame for the NMA to invest so much in an event about multimedia and not correctly use microphones and cameras. Perhaps NMA need some advice on how to hold a live event with multimedia. The National Library of Australia do this very well with their Innovative Ideas Forum.

Painting by Rover Thomas and Multimedia at National Museum of Australia

The National Museum of Australia's Yiwarra Kuju Exhibition features paintings from the Canning Stock Route collection, including Rover Thomas. It also has an 8 metre interactive multimedia display and online Education kit for schools. The exhibition in Canberra is free and is on until 26 January 2011.

The exhibition was not well attended, when I visited on Sunday, perhaps due to the uninspiring English title "The Canning Stock Route", making it sound like a display of agricultural equipment, not an internationally significant art exhibition.

The 8 metre long multi-touch multimedia display is a remarkable achievement. About 14 large format flat screens are arranged horizontally as a desktop surface. The screens display a map of the stock route and viewers can touch icons to display images and videos. In addition they can draw in the virtual sand depicted on the surface as virtual ants crawl around. Dozens of people can interact with the display at once, using it from either side (each end of each wide format screen is designed to be used from either side). There is a rack of Dell PCs in a cabinet at the end of the display to drive the system.

This is the most carefully designed computer museum display I have seen and deserves to win an international award. It manages to be impressive, without distracting from the traditional art around it. There will be a forum about the display and the role of such technology in museums, 26 August.

Hands-on demonstration and debate
The future of museum multimedia

Meet the creators of the impressive 8-metre multimedia display in the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition. See behind the scenes, discuss the interpretation and debate whether multimedia is the way of the future for museums. Supported by Museums Australia (ACT Branch).
Free
Bookings essential. Telephone (02) 6208 5021 or email bookings@nma.gov.au.
2.30–5pm
Thursday 26 August
Meet at the Information Desk

GEM IPTV Interactive Interface

Around 2001 I looked at the web based Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) standards for adding web like features to broadcast TV and was not very impressed. There is now Globally Executable MHP (GEM), a followup specification for adding web-like interaction to digital broadcast TV, IPTV and Blu-Ray players. I am also not impressed with GEM.

Like MHP, this is a formal set of standards (ETSI TS 102 819, ETSI TS 102 728, ITU Recommendation ITU-T J.202). GEM assumes the consumer device has Java and then assumes the makers of a class of devices (such as set top boxes or DVD players) define a set of features for such devices.

Like MHP the features of each GEM implementation has to be very carefully defined, as the devices will be produces in the millions and the communications media for broadcast TV and DVD players is very constrained and non-interactive. The consumer device can't simply request a different version of some content from the broadcaster or from the DVD disk, as the communication is one way. The consumer does not expect to have to keep upgrading their low cost box with more memory and software.

In the case of IPTV the situation could be different, as IP indicates "Internet Protocol" which is usually interactive. However, devices and series from the broadcast industry for IPTV tend to build the same limitations as broadcast TV in.

While I see standards such as GEM as being needed for enhancing broadcast TV and DVDs, I don;t see these as very important platforms or ones with large growth potential. The future web-like format for use on Internet-like networks is simply the actual web on the actual Internet. Rather than the Internet and the web constraining themselves to fit with the limitations set by old fashioned broadcast digital TV, I see digital TV being a legacy service on the Internet.

Parliament Media Archive Specification

The Federal Department of Parliamentary Services has issued a Request for Tender for "Provision of Equipment and Services for Media Asset Management and Archiving Solution" (ATM ID DPS09001, 5-May-2009). They are seeking hardware, software and services for digital capture, segmentation, delivery, archiving and management of audiovisual content from the Parliament. They also have an existing 55,000 hours of broadcast quality video of Parliamentary proceedings to digitise. What makes this interesting is that the tender documents (available to registered companies) include a detailed specification of the system including free TV metadata:

6 STATEMENT OF REQUIREMENT (SOR) ... 33
6.1 Overview ... 33
6.2 Content Capture ... 35
6.3 Content Enrichment ... 39
6.4 Non Linear Editing ... 41
6.5 Content Storage ... 42
6.6 Content Distribution—Platforms ... 43
6.7 Content Distribution—Client Access ... 44
6.8 System Management—Administration .... 48
6.9 System Management—Health/Status Monitoring .... 49
6.10 System Management—Information Reporting ... 50
6.11 System Management—Account Access and Content Security ... 51
6.12 Data Migration of File Based Content ... 52
6.13 System Integration ... 52
6.14 System Architecture and Technology ... 54
6.15 Project Implementation Plan .... 55
6.16 Acceptance Testing ... 56
6.17 Documentation .... 58
6.18 Training .... 60
6.19 Support and Maintenance ... 60
6.20 Additional Services—Back-Capture of Archive Content ... 61
...
9 STAGE 3—TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS ... 79
9.1 Solution Overview ... 79
9.2 Content Capture ... 79
9.3 Content Enrichment ... 85
9.4 Non-Linear Editing .... 89
9.5 Content Storage ... 90
9.6 Content Distribution—Platforms ... 93
9.7 Content Distribution—Client Access ... 94
9.8 System Management—Administration ... 100
9.9 System Management—Health/Status Monitoring ... 103
9.10 System Management—Information Reporting .... 104
9.11 System Management—Account Access and Content Security .... 106
9.12 Data Migration of File Based Content ... 107
9.13 System Integration .... 108
9.14 System Architecture and Technology ... 110
9.15 Project Implementation .... 113
9.16 Acceptance Testing .... 113
9.17 Documentation ... 116
9.18 Training ... 118
9.19 Support and Maintenance ... 119
9.20 Additional Services—Back-Capture of Archive Content ... 121

Appendix A—Metadata Exchange
Appendix B—EMMS Metadata
Appendix C—Data Storage Backup and Recovery Principles
Appendix D—APH Style Manual
Appendix E—User Permissions
Appendix F—APH ICT Architecture and Standards
Appendix G—Chamber Microphone Interface
Appendix H—ScheduAll Data Schema
Appendix I—ParlInfo Schema
Appendix J—Broadcast Standards Manual ...

From Table of Contents, "Provision of Equipment and Services for Media Asset Management and Archiving Solution", Department of Parliamentary Services (ATM ID DPS09001, 5-May-2009).

Documentary of Newcastle 2007 Floods

The multimedia documentary "A June to Remember" was produced by

Geoff Overmyer at radio station 1233 ABC Newcastle. This consists of still images provided by the community, commentary provided live to ABC Newcastle local radio with linking new video and commentary Carrol Duncan and music by Bruce Mathiska. As well as being available as a DVD from ABC Newcastle and streamed online, the material is avialble as five podcasts:

1. A June to Remember - Wild Weather
2. A June to Remember - The Pasha
3. A June To Remember - Wild Weather Continues
4. A June to Remember - The Day After
5. A June to Remember - Hunter Floods

In addition to the documentary there are related materials in the ABC's Newcastle Storms and Floods Microsite. Events covered include the gorunding of the 76 thousand ton ship MV Pasha Bulker on a beach in Newcastle, 8 June 2007.

Record Id:	43215401 (Australian Library Collections) permalink
Title:	1233 ABC Newcastle presents a June to remember [videorecording]
Also Titled:	June to remember
Published:	Newcastle, N.S.W. : 1233 ABC Newcastle, [2008]
Description:	1 videodisc (DVD) (ca. 48 mins.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.
Summary:	In the lead up to the June long weekend in 2007, most people in Newcastle were looking forward to a few days off work. What eventuated was far from a relaxing long weekend. On the June long weekend in 2007 two low pressure cells brought gale force winds that battered Newcastle and caused fatal flash flooding. Massive seas and cyclonic winds pushed the coal freighter Pasha Bulker aground on Nobbys Beach while the region was left stunned by widespread storm damage worth an estimated billion dollars. Nine people died and hundreds of people were forced out of their homes because of flooding and storm damage. For three days, 1233 continued an around-the-clock emergency broadcast. This coverage was only possible thanks to dedicated staff and passionate listeners. This is the story of the June long weekend storm. The voices are yours and the images are the ones you shared with us.
Credits:	Original music by Bruce Mathiske ; produced by Geoff Overmyer ; concept: Philip Ashley-Brown
Performer:	Narrated by Carol Duncan.
Subjects:	Pasha Bulker (Ship) Storms -- New South Wales -- Newcastle. Storms -- New South Wales -- Hunter River Region. Floods -- New South Wales -- Newcastle. Floods -- New South Wales -- Hunter River Region. Stranding of ships -- New South Wales -- Newcastle. Nobbys Beach (Newcastle, N.S.W.)
Other Authors:	Duncan, Carol. Mathiske, Bruce. Overmyer, Geoff. Ashley-Brown, Philip. 1233 ABC Newcastle (Radio station)
Want to contact your library about this item?:	Find contact details
Libraries that have this item:	Lake Macquarie City Library (NLMPL) held Newcastle Region Libraries. Newcastle Region Library (NNPL) HELD

From: Catalogue Entry, National Library of Australia, 2008

ABC Newcastle provide a page of NSW emergency information, with Local contacts, Current warnings and Online resources.

Pocket and Palm Projectors

Mint Wireless Limited loaned me one of their Aiptek Pocket Cinema V10 projectors to try. This is a unit about the size and shape of a mobile phone and projects an image of up to 1.27m. It will play videos and audio as well as show still images at 640 x 480 Pixel VGA resolution. It has a built in battery and charges from a USB cable as well as mains adaptor. You can also play composite video and stereo audio.

However, the unit has several limitations. The unit does not appear to be able to display the live image from a computer screen: there is no VGA connector and the USB link only works to transfer files for later display. The screen is not very bright and so needs to be used in a dim room. The sound quality from the tiny internal speakers is poor. The price is under $AU700.

DELL offer the much larger (but still small), Dell M109S On-the-Go Projector for $US499. This has 858 x 600 SVGA resolution and VGA input. It appears to lack the speakers, battery and internal storage features making it dependent on external devices, whereas the Aiptek Pocket Cinema can be used on its own.

Like the Apitek, the Dell uses a LED light source in place of a conventional light bulb, making it more efficient and longer lasting. The Dell uses more power and therefore hopefully is brighter. The Dell unit looks better for use with a PC for presentations, whereas the Apitek may be useful where you just want to play a video or an audio slide show.

Rodos Sound and Light Show

In the Municipal Gardens of Rodos, just outside the wall of the old city or Rhodes is a sound and light show about the history of the island. Unfortunately it wasn't operating when I was visiting, with the city council worried about the cost. These shows seem to be common in tourist areas and are an inexpensive form of entertainment and education for the tourists. The audio commentary is provided in several languages, with different times for different languages. The lighting effects are computer controlled and synchronized with the commentary and music.

Bridge of HMAS Brisbane at the Australian War Memorial.

The bridge from the warship HMAS Brisbane has been installed as a multimedia display at the Australian War Memorial. Unlike other exhibits at the memorial, which are hopused in the building which you can walk around, this now forms part of the building and you walk inside it.

The bridge is about the size of a two story house and has been attached by a walkway to the back of the new "Conflicts 1945 to today" gallery. You walk up a metal stairway, much like on a ship and onto the bridge. At this point you have actually stepped out of the building, but this is not apparent, as the windows of the bridge have been blacked out. The six windows immediately in front have been covered with large LCD screens and play two videos, reenacting operations of the ship off the coast of Vietnam and in the Persian Gulf.

The video displays are a little ghostly: they show the sea and sky, as it would appear out of the windows of the ship, with the crew reflected in them. This is a clever ides, but the images of the crew are indistinct. The LCD monitors used are a bit too big and do not fit in the space of the bridge windows, partly spoiling the effect (smaller LCD displays could be used). Also the bridge is so dark is it difficult to see anything (and dangerous for elderly visitors).

The AWM might want to change the presentation so it starts with the view of the sea and then introduces the images of the crew, gradually fading out the sea. At the end of the presentation, they could be faded out and the sea reappear.

More floor level lighting could be used (from LED strips), to help visitors, particularaly the ederly.