1. Media Sandbox projects' progress

Our six Media Sandbox commissions have been striding forwards with their projects this month. The groups are researching the opportunities posed by multi-platform technologies and we are pleased to share their recent progress…

There’s exciting news from both Indie Mobile and HMC, Drake Music and bibic: After a month of head down planning, Indie Mobile have now appointed a technical partner, London agency Destar Limited. Destar are experienced mobile developers, and are excited to be working with Indie Mobile to tweak and trim 'The Generator' into an effective application; Things are also hurtling forwards for HMC, Drake Music and bibic. Legendary music producer Jools Holland will help launch a version of their 'Cyber-therapy' software called ‘Visual Voice Pro’. A high profile event will take place in early May at Rich Mix Studios, East London. It will be an excellent opportunity for the team to promote the project and give people the chance to try out the software first hand.

After weeks of research into game show formats, demographics, time-structures and interactivity, this week saw U-Soap Media begin the practical test phase for 'Viral Spiral'. Happily, they’ve gathered together a fantastic group of actors and directors, who have thrown themselves headlong into the project. With buzzers and prompt cards at the ready, the first session saw the play out of game scenarios and invaluable discussion around the findings. You can see pictures from this session in our Media Sandbox Flickr group.

Nomos Media have been on the road with Radio in Schools this month, promoting 'AudioEnable' to over 30,000 teachers and industry reps at the National Education Show in Birmingham. Despite a slightly shaky technical start, they attracted a non-stop flow of visitors and signed up an impressive number of schools. They also made valuable contact with a number of Brands, who were really excited about the potential of the project. Back at the office, the designs for ‘AudioEnable’ are almost complete, and they're really close to having the raw functionality up and running on a touch screen device.

Having an early beta release of 'Street Art Dealer' has helped a great deal in generating feedback and ideas for C6 and Steal from Work. They’ve identified a number of key issues to be addressed, and are now looking to raise awareness of both the project and the technology. This month will see them actively building a strong body of artists and artworks; planning a major project launch in Bristol; nurturing some high profile buyer case studies; and alongside all of this, ironing out the system’s technical and usability issues.

AntiVJ are immersed in the development phase of ‘Mapping Software 1.0’. Working with freelance developer George Crabtree, they’ve made huge leaps forward. The software engine is almost complete and they hope to post footage of the first experiments on their blog very soon. They’ve also met some interesting people this month, including Media Sandbox Advisor Nicole Yershon from Ogilvy. As well as receiving an inspirational tour of Ogilvy’s Digital Innovations Lab, Nicole offered valuable insight into the possibilities for ‘Mapping Software 1.0’ in the field of contemporary advertising.

An industrious month all round has led to significant progress in concepts, designs and development. The teams have moved forward at an incredible pace and we’re really excited by the tangible ideas that are beginning to manifest. To follow their progress, remember to check their Project Journals regulary.

2. Next events

7 May 2009 | Work in Progress Event | Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol | 4 - 6pm

Our six Media Sandbox commissions are reaching the exciting stage of testing their developments to date, so on Thursday 7th May, 4pm, we’re holding an open Work in Progress event at the Pervasive Media Studio, and would be pleased if you can join us.

The event will provide the opportunity to find out more about this year’s projects, test drive some of the software and take part in some interesting discussion around the technical challenges this years’ participants are facing.

Places are limited, so guarantee yours by signing up for a free ticket

29 June | Watershed | Final Showcase | 6pm

The Media Sandbox final showcase event, will be held on Monday 29th June - please mark your diaries and watch out for more information.

3. Recommended research

This month, Kassian Sheppard joined us on a professional placement from the Creative Sound and Music degree at Newport University. As part of his placement, we asked Kassian to research and test the AudioBoo blogging platform.

To find out more about Kassian’s research and listen to interviews with this years’ participants, check out the posts below.

4. Your input

As well as reading the journals online we would encourage you to add your suggestions and thoughts. This is not a closed research process and the projects will respond to your comments.

We have set up a tag for delicious so if you see a useful website, please include the tag 'mediasandbox'. There is also a flickr group to add pictures to. This will help build a body of knowledge from which everyone can benefit.

You can subscribe, unsubscribe etc. or introduce your friends to the mailing list here: http://lists.mediasandbox.co.uk/listinfo/discuss

The next newsletter will be in a month, bringing you updates from the next journal entries and more news about the events.

Best wishes,
Victoria

Media Sandbox is managed by iShed working with South West Screen with support from South West Regional Development Agency and Watershed.