Channel 4 series Bedtime Live has announced it has incorporated Google+ Hangouts into its multiplatform experience to offer full interactivity with the show, including the ability to video call live into the studio.
Google+ Hangouts allow the Twofour produced show to live link audio and video from a families’ home, with infra-red night time cameras connected to Google+ Hangout meaning that the studio will have full access to participating homes at all stages of their bedtime routines.
The use of Google+ Hangouts aims to refresh the traditional “phone in” method by enabling viewers to become part of the live show. Hosted by Professor Tanya Byron and soon to be first-time dad Jake Humphrey, Bedtime Live features live footage of shattered parents as the sleep specialists try to get the nation’s children to bed.
Adam Gee, Channel 4 multiplatform commissioner for features and factual entertainment, who commissioned the show, said: “To make a multiplatform TV experience with real impact and ambition, the television and the digital need to be fully integrated so that the TV without the interactivity is a lesser beast and vice-versa. Bedtime Live is designed in just that way, to make the viewing experience a satisfying, participative event.”
As well as using Google+ Hangouts Bedtime Live also utilises Facebook and Twitter to run live polls and online surveys to collate viewer statics to evaluate how big a problem bedtime really is in the UK as well as indicating what is normal around sleep for UK children, teens and parents.
Spencer Conway, head of online at Twofour, commented: “We’re delighted to be pulling together our expertise from both sides of the business: broadcast and digital to provide a true multi-platform experience.”
Client partner at Numiko, who built the show, Marie Kitney, added: “The online survey and live poll will help generate content for the TV show. Using Facebook and Twitter, viewers will be able to interact with the experts and other parents and carers; sharing their own personal experiences, good and bad.”