Monday, October 31, 2011

Week 8 - Blog Summary

My idea to have a running live feed of all SU athletic facilities has greatly developed over these past 8 weeks. It started with a simple idea to have a live video feed of all work out facilities on the campus of Syracuse University. It is now called ScoUt where the SU stands for Syracuse University. ScoUt will have live constant feeds of all SU Athletic Facilities on campus including south campus. The past blogs have helped develop this small idea into a full blown website.
The Blog post about privacy is probably one of the most important posts because signs would have to be posted throughout all monitored facilities to let the students know they are on camera. RFID chips are also a relatively new feature that could greatly effect the results of this website. If every students SUID card had an RFID chip on it we could simple set up a scanner in each facility and take a quick poll on how many people are currently using the facility. This will allow ScoUt to display how many people there at a specific facility are in ratio to the max capacity. This can give students a percentage on how busy each facility is and help plan the students time to work out etc.
ScoUt will simply be beneficial to everyone and will free up space at the SU work out facilities. In my blog review I reviewed a company that specializes in life video feeds and actually used there technology at a Mixed Martial Arts gym. The idea has been used but SU can take it to the next level and make it campus wide. I can tell you from first hand experience that time management in college is everything and going to a gym when it is fully packed can make everyones workout a lot longer. My website has developed over these eight weeks into something that could actually be implemented here at SU. Here are the other student blogs I commented on.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Week 7 - Digital Color and Networking

This blog post is going to be about digital color for the website. Knowing all of the color codes will be very useful when designing the website especially for Syracuse University. Orange and Blue are obviously SU colors and should be incorporated in the color scheme for the website.
The HSB models will also be very important when we add photos of the live feeds (almost like preview before you tune in. Some areas of the gym will probably have to be brighter than others to help see how many people are using what machines.
Networking will also play a huge role with the development of this website. We must be able to send information too and from other users in a very short matter of time. The video feeds must be clear and as close to live as possible so the results don't change by the time students get to the work out facilities.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Week 6 - Blog Review

The blog I chose to review is HD Relay Blog because it is very similar to the concept of my entrepreneurial idea. As you know my idea is to provide live video gym feeds for all of the SU Athletic facilities. HD Relay is a company that provides live video feeds with over 5,000 state of the art cameras deployed around the world. Their blog consists of different events that they provided feeds for and how people use their business.
The most recent post on their blog was about the famous Big Fresno Fair hosted in California. The blog post was dated October 5th, 2011 which means that they are constantly covering different events and updating their blog. This company has a good head on its shoulder and could be a potential participant in helping out with the SU Athletics Live Gym feed.
A blog post dated September 6, 2011 definitely caught my attention. It is a post about how a Mixed Martial Arts (Victory MMA) gym teamed up with HD Relay to provide live gym feeds of their own facilities. The MMA gym is very proud of their new live gym feed and use it to promote their business. They are trying to get customers to move towards their MMA facility rather then a normal health facilities. However not many people know what an MMA gym would look like and this is why they provide virtual tours. This is where HD Relay comes into play. The Victory MMA gym has now moved away from virtual tours and provides live gym feeds to excite their customers. Consecutive members use the video feeds to watch different MMA techniques in the cage or to watch a class and see who is instructing. According to the MMA gym the live video feeds have been extremely successful and are worth the money.
This is given proof of a gym using live video feeds to their benefit. This is why SU should move towards the live video feeds and allow students to view the facilities.

http://blog.hdrelay.com/

Monday, October 10, 2011

Week 5 - Bytes

This website will be taking up a lot of Bytes from all of the video feed that it provides. We want the quality of the video feed to be as clear as possible which means it will take up more space. The website cannot be slow because it is supposed to be a live feed so when it is created the designers should have enough storage so the video quality is clear and constantly providing live feed.
The website will also have to run on a decent size server because there will be multiple video feeds and many users watching the feeds at once. Connecting the cameras to the website will be very difficult due to installation expenses but it will be much like a security system only it is being used for a different purpose.
Providing consecutive live video feed can be a very difficult task but it already exists and SU can use it to their advantage. The website and the video feed will take up a lot of capacity so it is key to make sure the website's server will be able to handle it efficiently.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Week 4 - QR Codes

My last blog mainly talked about the use of RFID chips and how beneficial they can be to Syracuse University. Using RFID will be very useful to SU facilities and the new program I am trying to develop at the gym. However this website with the live video feeds will need to be campaigned some how so people know about it and can use it beneficially and free up time at the athletic facilities. This can be done using QR codes.
I recently picked up a newspaper and saw a QR code on the third page. Took out my iPhone scanned it and it linked me to an Syracuse University webpage. I believe that QR codes can be beneficial if they are posted throughout the gym or around campus. The codes will make students curious and help spread the work about the new website launch.
Of course the website will have to be built and established before QR codes are made for it but it is always good to plan ahead. Making the new live video feed a known factor on campus will bring more users to the site throughout the use of QR codes. This also gives the students a direct link to the website so they don't have to worry about searching on Google for it.