The equipment used in the Big Bother house consists of mainly donated and borrowed equipment that is put together just before the event. For Big Bother 2005 we do have some new facilities to enable us to have greater control on publishing and censorship.

The 3 main ways of transmitting information about the contestants to the public is via the webcam, audio and reports.

Hardware & Software involved

We have the following computers used in order to deliver all of the features of Big Bother.
 

4 Windows 2003 server computers. (ranging from Pentium 2 to Pentium 3's) These are used to deliver the audio stream.

4 Windows 98SE Pentium 2's. Used to host the 4 webcams in the house.

5 Windows 98se Pentium 3's. Used to manage the webcams and work on reports and tasks.

2 Windows XP Pentium 2. Used to encode all of the audio feeds.

2 Windows XP Pentium 4's. Used for video editing.

Webcams

We have 4 main webcams in the Big Bother house that are placed in the kitchen, diary room, lounge and the control room. We have a new piece of software written especially for Big Bother 2005 which gives us the facility to monitor and view photos before they are uploaded. We can stop images from being uploaded or switch on and off cameras from one centralised server. The webcams work by taking a photo every 30 minutes and this is uploaded to the control room server. We can then view all photos for up to 2 mins before they appear on the website. Any photos that are not suitable for publishing on the internet can be removed.

The organising team have access to all of the photos taken for use in reports on the website.

Audio.

The audio is collected from 5 microphones in the house. We can select microphones individually for use on the live audio stream. The audio then goes through a 15 second delay so that we have the option to remove any bits of the audio feed. The audio then goes through to an encoder that sends the audio to the 4 servers on the internet.

Reports

These are written by the Organising team and are submitted entered using a special page on the website. The report can be typed up and photos can be used from the webcam stock or from any of the digital cameras used at the event. After the report has been made it is submitted and is then approved by a leader before appearing on the website. This is all done using a php based part to the website.

Reports can be categorised and they automatically appear on the correct pages of the website.