These pages are intended for competition organisers and supplement the direct mailings you will have received.

Roles
This service lets you, the competition organiser, be the Film Director who decides what goes out. We are the operators (Camera-men, Computer Operators, Webmasters..) who make it work.

The Audience
This is a service that enables organisers to make live coverage of their swimming competitions available, potentially, to the (estimated) 80 million on-line viewers world-wide over the Internet. However, do not expect to get 80 million viewers because (a) half the world are asleep during British daylight hours (b) many people are not interested in swimming (c) many are too busy viewing other attractions or doing their business work on the net. This leaves a small number who are just curious and some bona fide swimmers who are the real target audience. The service can be used to give swimmers who cannot go to your competition, a chance to see what it is like and what they are missing.

Description of the Service
The service makes use of a web camera or "webcam", which is a relatively small and cheap video camera attached to a computer. There are many hundreds of these permanently on-line to the Internet, providing full colour input from all parts of the world, from Antarctica to Alaska, Texas to Japan, covering subjects such as the weather, local news, the insides of peoples homes and offices, views from their windows, their fish tanks, San Francisco bay, Colchester High Street, etc. and all accessible within a few seconds to users of the Internet. Most webcams, once set up, are unmanned and we too may wish leave our webcam unattended.

Because the bandwidth on the Internet is (at present) insufficient to support many of the features of commercial television, severe compromises have to be made and the presentation is NOT comparable to commercial television (at present) in the following respects:

Picture size is not "full screen", but typically is 1/4 or 1/16th. screen size, i.e. about 1.5"x 2" (inches) but it is still clear enough and comparable to small colour photographs
The frame rate is not the 25 frames per second that are used for smooth continuous movement, but typically 1 frame every minute (i.e. 60 frames per hour) or 1 frame every five minutes.
There is no sound.

Publicity
An announcement of the "live" showing will be made on the British Swimming Competitions website in the weeks before the competition, so that "viewers" are aware of the event and can "tune in" on the day.

The Requirements
This service requires the availability of:

A standard British 3-pin 13 amp electricity power socket and agreed continuous use of the electrical power by the pool management. We have a 10 metre extension cable if necessary.

A connection to a standard British telephone socket and agreed continuous or periodic use of the telephone line by the pool management. We have a 15 metre extension cable if necessary. A public Payphone is not suitable.

A position for the equipment and operators: (a) with about 3'x3' (foot) of stable level surface that is jog-free, (b) preferably dry, (c) preferably low-humidity, to prevent steaming-up of lenses and electrical short circuiting of computer equipment, (d) with a good uninterrupted view of the subject (d) preferably inaccessible to curious (young) swimmers with wet fingers, etc. (e) preferably in a secure area where the webcam can be left operating, unattended (f) with seating for operators (one or two people) next to the equipment.

Vehicle access to near the pool entrance, for carrying the equipment into the pool. The nearer the better, in wet weather.

The Costs
The main costs are the telephone line and possibly personal expenses. The electricity costs are negligible. The following standard BT "local call" rates apply, unless the pool uses another telephone company, e.g. if you live in Hull it is all free:
Weekends: 1p per minute (+ VAT) (i.e. 60p per hour)
Weekdays after 6pm: 1.5p per minute (+ VAT)
Weekday working hours (8am - 6 pm): 4p per minute (+ VAT).

Thankfully, most competitions are at weekend rate. At weekends, a typical 3 hour session would cost £1-80 (+ VAT). Non-stop, all day, from 9am to 9pm would cost £7-20 (+ VAT). The line could be disconnected between sessions to reduce telephone costs. These costs are small compared with the overall competition costs. You will need to make arrangements with the pool management to agree the use of a telephone line and to settle these costs.

If the competition is a long way from Luton, and I am not swimming in it, I may need to claim travel, and possibly subsistence and accommodation expenses, so this needs to be discussed in advance.

Suggested Exploitation
There are no fixed rules about how the webcam media should be used. It is up to you. But let us know in advance, what you intend to do so that we are prepared. Here are some possibilities consider.

As you will typically get snapshots of a view of your competition transmitted every few minutes, you could provide a "complete pool" view from a far corner of the pool or a "starting blocks" view from a position near the blocks. Although usually sited in a fixed position, there is some scope for movement of the camera between shots and between sessions.

Usually, people appear as rather small objects (like ants) so there is no real problem with "prying eyes" or zoom lenses from the back of the stand. Close up views are possible (such as the Introduction message on the British Swimming Competitions website), but these have to be deliberately planned and are probably not appropriate for most competitions, unless there are "presentation of medals" shots or static displays to be shown. The webcam can focus down to about 1.5 foot.

A continuous playback can be viewed on the computer monitor. This playback could be relayed to other nearby displays (that you would have to provide) giving an effect like CCTV.

If you have underwater viewing windows, you could video part of the event from there.

If you have an unused high diving platform, this might give a good/unusual view of the competition.

The webcam can also be used for face-to-face video conferencing, which can be provided if you can think of a suitable swimming related use.

Other Related Supplementary Services
You may wish to consider using the webcam in conjunction with other multimedia and video services: