IlluminaInnovation

Things change. New technologies emerge, new business models arise, consumer demand shifts, environmental factors affect costs. Each change can have a radical impact on an organisation if unprepared. Wherever your organisation requires technology, Illumina's Innovation team will investigate new opportunities for value creation along the way.

Illuminate

'Illuminate' is a content management and website editing environment developed to meet the needs of small to mid sized websites that do not require a full blown CMS but do require a site that is editable and expandable. It also allows clients to create an editorial work flow with different level of authority. We understand that a vital element to the successful build of an online resource powered by a CMS is to make sure there is flexibility; templates must be determined by the content and not by the technology.

Core functionality

• Meta data tagging
• Text editing
• Image and rich media (Flash elements and Video) content management
• Page creation
• Multiple levels of authority
• Testing and evaluation engine
• Searching

Learning Functionality includes

• Registration and Log in as required
• Student progress tracking
• Creation of multimedia assignments and assessments
• Assignment download and submissionn
• Bookmarking
• Teacher/learner communication
• Message boards

Illuminate is developed in PHP and MySQL and sites within a Linux environment.

eSeq

eSeq is an online video editing application built in Flash 8 which is designed to work in browsers running Flash Player 9. The application allows users to assemble mashes using video clips and music files either supplied by clients or filmed by Illumina. In addition, users can record video from a webcam and upload video clips, stills and their own audio files for inclusion in their mashes.

The most significant hurdle for manipulating media assets online is the need to move around large files at differing levels of connectivity. eSeq has been developed to avoid these problems. It is a Flash application which progressively downloads heavily compressed video assets. Flash is almost universally available. The sequence that is uploaded consists only of a data string of clip identifiers and in- and out-points; no actual video transfer is required to save a sequence on a website. eSeq has been developed to work on BBC servers.

There is a long line of developmental iterations of Illumina's first online video editing application, eSeq. The first iteration was built for London Gifted and Talented. It provided a basic editing facility for online learners wishing to explore how the same footage can be manipulated through editing to tell completely different stories.

Subsequent iterations have been for the BBC - BAFTA winning Open Earth Archive and BBC Blast; it is at the core of Channel 4's Breaking the News website which won an RTS award for Education and the The National Archives' Focus on Film resource.