NOW on PBS – Client Build for Jumpstart Productions – NYC

In April, 2008, Jumpstart Productions, producers of the independent news and environmental awareness documentary program “NOW on PBS” asked CNDG to build for them a private island representing an environmental station in the wilderness, from which they could broadcast their presentation to the 2008 Annual PBS Programmers Showcase in California.

There was less than a month in which to prepare the site, as the New Media Programmers Group for PBS had decided to present two events for the Conference live from Second Life – the first was to be a broadcast from Virtual Harlem, built for the Conference by the Black Programmers Group, and the second was to be the NOW on PBS presentation from their virtual broadcast station on CNDG Estate.

With only 2 weeks in which to build, CNDG created a complete broadcast facility and video-taping base-station on a private island, outfitted with a preview screening room, videographers’ equipment, and computer stations simulated on a workbench to access both the NOW on PBS website and other sites.  Facing the audience was a video screen broadcasting a NOW on PBS promotion, and links to NOW on PBS websites and sites of interest.

On Tuesday May 13, 2008, an audience of 300 plus PBS programmer attendees sat in a conference center in Palm Desert, California, and watched, as Maria Hinojosa, PBS NOW’s principal reporter, addressed the conference live from within SL.  Projecting her avatar image from the center built by CNDG for them for the event, she spoke to the conference attendees, describing the possibilities for using the new Virtual Reality platform that Second Life offered to provide education, outreach, and global collaboration. 

Although the event is now over, CNDG has kept the NOW on PBS broadcast environmental station intact, and open to visitors, as an example of a client build-to-specification site on the CNDG Estate and as an exploration of the exciting possibilities that Second Life offers to media content creators, educators, and producers.