A first for internet HD broadcasting

Our students are at the cutting edge of new media technology; in 2010 their TV station was the first to broadcast live, in high-definition, over the internet.

The University of Southampton Students’ Union Television Station (SUSUtv) built on this success in 2011 with an ambitious three-hour live online broadcast, in high-definition, marking the Union’s Sabbatical and Trustee election.

The broadcast was a world first for any students’ union in terms of the technology used and the level of interaction it enabled. It generated impressive viewing figures – the broadcast was viewed in 21 countries and reached 10,000 people.

New technology supplied by multimedia production company Inqb8r enabled students to watch via mobile devices, including iPhones and iPads. It offered live interactive features, including live viewer voting, gender-specific advertising breaks and social media interaction via Twitter feeds.

Results were announced throughout the evening, with live exit polls and green room interviews with the candidates, interactive votes from the online audience and pre-recorded features from the campaign week. The operation involved 60 crew members, £150,000 worth of equipment and over 40 screens. Inqb8r’s live Flash platform removed the need for expensive live graphic machines by using the power of viewers’ own computers to generate the graphics within the player. Live votes, exit poll and results graphics were all drawn in real time on viewers’ screens.