Interactive Festival Timetable
This is something that I’ve been working on (and using at various festivals) that I’m making available – hopefully someone else finds it useful! The Interactive Festival Timetable (or IFT) is an application for your phone intended as a replacement for the traditional paper timetable. It has heaps of features including:
SEE WHAT BAND IS CURRENTLY PLAYING
The application uses the internal phone clock to highlight the bands currently playing. You can quickly change between stages to check out all the current bands performing.
SELECT YOUR FAVOURITES
You can highlight the bands you wish to see throughout the day much the same as using a highlighter on a traditional timetable. These bands are also added to “MY TIMETABLE” so you can quickly see a running order of your day. The application saves any selections you make so you can plan your day in advance.
SET REMINDERS
The phone will vibrate 5 minutes before any band added to “MY TIMETABLE” is about to hit the stage. This reminder means you’ll never miss a band again!
ONLINE FUNCTIONALITY:
Go online and select the timetable you need. If the festival doesn’t yet have a timetable – you can easily create your own timetable by modifying the xml file.
CONVENIENCE
Backlit mobile screen enables you to read the timetable when the sun goes down.
You’ll need Flash Lite 2.1 installed on your mobile device to use the application (You can check out supported devices here – most phones currently only have flash 1.1 installed – though you may be able to update the version here). I have only tested and used the IFT on a Nokia N80 – so there are no guarantees that it will work on anything else!
For more information check out the readme.txt file or just download the application and have a play.
Download IFT (ift.zip, 25KB)
The only current timetable I’ve included is for the Sydney Laneway festival this weekend – however I’ve included both the Soundwave and Good Vibrations timetables as extra examples if you want to build your own timetable (and email them to me to include in the online list ;)).
I’ve also quickly put together an flash 8 version of the IFT which you can check out below:
EXAMPLE IFT.
February 28th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
What a genius!
While also doing his bit for the environment … genuis AND tree-hugger rolled into such an attractive bundle
February 28th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I thought this was ingenious when i saw you with it at the BDO and i still think it is.
Unfortunately my phone (Sony Ercsson K800i) doesn’t support Flash, which is rather annoying since it seems to do just about everything else.
At festivals i’m forever forgetting what’s on when, those vibrating reminders would be very handy.
February 28th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Yeah unfortunately adobe’s strategy for flashlite is pretty strange. Basically I think they intend on selling the player to phone carriers rather than follow the free distibution model of the online flash player. They also haven’t made it easy to update the player – the thinking behind it is that people update their mobiles more regularly than computer hardware…
As a developer it’s frustrating as realistically it means that you can’t distribute flash content until people update their phones (ie a year or two from now). In any case I hope there is a change of direction because it is quite a nifty technology and much faster to prototype an applicationin comparison to something like Java.
February 28th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Great idea Matt!! I’m just downloading flashlite now for my Nokia 6280 to give it a go..
So how easy is it to create the timetables, we’ve got 3 different festival things coming up around Newcastle and this might be cool to get out to the kids..
February 28th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Nice one Matt,
Does the application request the content from a web server? Is it possible to have the information for new festivals sent as text messages in the same way that 3 sneds phone settings?
February 28th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Matt – I’m very interested to see how it runs on the 6280 – email me if you have any questions! As for creating your own timetables it’s really simple – just a matter of changing a text file. Of course the only problem is only a very small number of phones have the flash player and legally you aren’t able to distribute it – so basically at the moment I think this app is more a proof of concept thing. (and cool for nerds like me to show to my friends ;) )
Fergus – Yes the user does have the option to choose timetables from a webserver (it basically loads this file which I can update that contains the addresses to the timetables).
I guess the carrier could send the xml file for a festival to the phone – the user however would have to know where to save the file once they’ve received it. It would also be possible for a carrier to attach the flash content with the timetable embedded (rather than an external .xml file) to a text message – however unfortunately only few phones at the moment will correctly play flash from the sms so at this stage I don’t think it’s a feasible option.
February 28th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
The only Siemens phone FlashLite supports is the SX1 and that is generations old!
Didn’t get a chance to check out your app, dude.
February 28th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
hehe awesome.
Its a great app idea with a whole lotta potential… especially if there eventually can be live updating for times when festivals get their timetables totally out of whack for whatever reason, (ie the falls festival year before last: most acts were pushed an hour or 2 back, with the only way to inform of the changes by telling us via microphone and eventually displaying updates on the main screen, – pretty hopeless)
There would be so many other applications with this, the more I think about it, the possibilities are endless….. hope it makes you millions :)
That said, i also have the sony k800i, so once again i’ll just have to marvel at your latest nerdy venture from afar.
March 1st, 2007 at 12:23 am
[...] Mattbooy released Interactive Festival Timetable, a flash lite 2.1 application. [...]
April 2nd, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I go away for a whole month and you still haven’t found the time to update your blog! C’mon man – your public needs you.
April 19th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Haha.. Go Dan..
Time for an update Matt!
If you get bored, check out the little project I’ve done, I’m With The Band.. Let me know what you think, where we can approve and all that..
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Hey mate
Iwas looking the Oxygen Festival 2007 timetable for the bands, can you sort me out with one.
Cheers
November 21st, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Those people at the J’s must be keeping you flat chat..
I dig the new frontpage, gives of a load of info.. Just gotta get that blog portion rocking along.. ;)
April 24th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Here i am giving you props on other sites and linking over here – and it’s almost a year out of date! C’mon!