Case study: TechWeb Today

When RealNetworks introduced the preview version of its G2 player in June 1998, it offered its content partners (those that had a default button on the player itself) a few basic G2 templates to help create simple presentations. Many partners used those templates. However, to create TechWeb’s daily streaming media show, TechWeb Today, the TechWeb team, including producer Leah Goldberg, decided to slave over the hot code and build a unique show from scratch. That way, they could explore and take advantage of the capabilities of this new streaming-multimedia platform.

In this section, we cover the steps Leah Goldberg used to build the TechWeb Today show featured in Figure 7-8, including code examples and helpful workarounds to common problems.

A screenshot of the main channel of TechWeb Today within the customized G2 Player

Figure 7-8. A screenshot of the main channel of TechWeb Today within the customized G2 Player

Deciding what to show

The first step to constructing a G2 presentation is to establish your content plan and graphic design. You have to determine what media and datatypes you plan to use. Will your show contain a video, or will you instead present your information in the form of a slideshow with an associated audio track? Will you stream information as text, or will you make and stream graphics that contain text?

The TechWeb production team decided to develop a segmented presentation to offer a more targeted user experience. ...

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