Media Websites

The TV Room

(June 2017)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
LT
LTSC1980
http://thetvroom.com/index/

looks like The TV Room had returned, but some content is still missing (e.g. Irish News)....

Quote:
In April 2017, updates to The TV Room recommenced after a six year break. For the the time being, site updates will be sporadic and we will continue to utilise the page design/layouts introduced in 2011. This means that the site is not currently optimised for mobiles/tablets. There are longer-term plans to address this and to restructure the site's content and generally enhance the user experience.

The TV Room Plus site has been closed down. However, much of the content from that site has been transferred across to The TV Room and more will follow. In the meantime, please bear with us whilst we work on reinstating content and add new material.
:-(
A former member
Well that's a pleasant surprise!
RE
Rex
Hugely surprised by the fact that The TV Room has returned; it was one of the first sites dedicated to TV presentation that I visited (mainly to look at the current sets of ITV idents back in the day).

Even better, all of the TV Room Plus content has returned, including the listings for multichannels. I still get a kick from reading the previous listings from the likes of channels including ITV2/3, E4, Sky1 and Dave, and even more so with channels that have rebranded or closed in the mid-2000s.
ToasterMan, dbl and DE88 gave kudos
DB
dbl
Glad it's returned! The TV Listings from the past is a handy section
MM
MMcG198
Plans for the new version of the site are still evolving. A lot of work to be done between now and going live.

However, I can say at this stage that it's not going to be a case of picking up where the site left off. There are other sites out there which offer the same type of channel branding content. So, I'll be looking to do something a little different - though there'll still be a certain amount of overlap with content on other sites.

As anyone who has ever attempted to run a large site will understand, it consumes a huge amount of time. And it really has to be labour of love - because it's otherwise pretty much a thankless task. I don't have the time or energy to run something of TV Room's 2005 - 2011 scope. Some of the earliest sites such as TV Ark and TV Room started off in the late-1990s when internet technologies were in their infancy. There was no such thing as a CMS. Pages were built manually. As the years went on, more clever ways of maintaining sites were developed. Changing the look of a site was absolute agony. I went through that terrible pain a number of times. Hundreds of pages had to be revisited and many manual changes applied. in 2005, I moved The TV Room Plus on to a bespoke set of CMSs - that process wasn't too bad as that site was relatively small. Moving the main site to its new CMS in 2006 though proved a much bigger task than I had anticipated. Each page had to be rebuilt from scratch. I also used this an opportunity to re-capture all the images using better quality equipment. It turned into an absolutely massive job, which by 2011 was still not complete.

It turned into a constant uphill struggle, which never seemed to end. And it continues to annoy me that so many sections are incomplete. But sometimes, it's just better to admit defeat. I'm certainly satisfied that I gave it a bloody good try.

So, the new TV Room will be a smaller scale, more manageable venture.

It would be nice to try and keep some of the more unique sections of the original site going - such as Presenter/Announcers and Listings. However, I simply don't have the time to maintain them and do them justice. I could certainly take care of the technical set-up and help get the sections looking more modern and mobile friendly etc. If anyone out there would be interested in partnering on maintaining content in those sections, please get in touch.

To end on, there's nothing a pres enthusiast likes more than a bit of nostalgia. So, here's a quick dip into the archive:

2002:

http://thetvroom.com/tvf/tvr-005.png

http://thetvroom.com/tvf/tvr-006.png

2004

Note: the site's (by now horizontal) menu bar was normally just under the page banner but doesn't display in modern browsers.

http://thetvroom.com/tvf/tvr-001.png

http://thetvroom.com/tvf/tvr-002.png

http://thetvroom.com/tvf/tvr-003.png

http://thetvroom.com/tvf/tvr-004.png
Last edited by MMcG198 on 6 June 2017 10:40pm
:-(
A former member
Well there nothing wrong with a bit of competition, Wink Keeps us all on our toes. It will be very interesting to see how you deal and take the "ALL New" TV room in revised direction.

I think we all bring something to the table, TV room is dam well good on classic BBC, TV live more so on Classic ITV, Edmund covers many of the sky and international channels, while Andrew W covers most of bread and butter channels. of course ashley has manged to keep track of Channel 5, while we all overlap the current pres.

Your right online pres really is labour of love, sometimes were all wanted to scream is it worth it, and smash the PC up. In truth it is worth it. As seen your come back; once you get the bug it never goes away Wink

As Ive some many many times, I don't envy you nor rob or even Andrew when having to deal with back office functions, ( thankful I dont) I couldn't deal with manually doing stuff, especial to each single page.

I think most of us have forgotten that certain sites haven't flipped over yet to newer ways of internet technology. I bet if we go down 1 maybe 3 years there might be totally different way to operating website, its non stop.

I'm sure someone will help you maintain the Presenter/Announcers and Listings section, lots of egar beavers about.

But Just to say if you want some STV current stuff, just ask Wink
LT
LTSC1980
Here is something you missed after relaunch: Irish news...

http://thetvroom.com/news/
HA
Hazimworks
The TV Room was one of the sites I go to back when I started getting interested with British TV in 2005.
MM
MMcG198
Here is something you missed after relaunch: Irish news...

http://thetvroom.com/news/


There has been no relaunch of the site. The 2011 version of the main site has simply been reinstated - with some of the content from The TV Room Plus added in.

A new incarnation of The TV Room will launch in the autumn.
MM
MMcG198
Well there nothing wrong with a bit of competition, Wink Keeps us all on our toes. It will be very interesting to see how you deal and take the "ALL New" TV room in revised direction.

I think we all bring something to the table, TV room is dam well good on classic BBC, TV live more so on Classic ITV, Edmund covers many of the sky and international channels, while Andrew W covers most of bread and butter channels. of course ashley has manged to keep track of Channel 5, while we all overlap the current pres.

Your right online pres really is labour of love, sometimes were all wanted to scream is it worth it, and smash the PC up. In truth it is worth it. As seen your come back; once you get the bug it never goes away Wink


Bringing the existing site up to date would require a significant time investment. And with so many other sites now offering very similar content - and in a similar format - I don't believe this would be the best use of my time. It's incredibly difficult to abandon something I have already spent a lot of time building up. I also generally like to finish what I start and knowing that there are so many incomplete sections is something that continues to niggle me. But, operating more or less as a one-man-band limits how much I can achieve. So, although the new site will have a more limited scope, it will be more manageable.

One of the best outcomes for the end user would be for some of the pres sites to consolidate their efforts and come together to produce one well resourced site. However, this is easier said than done. I spent two years trying to reach a workable/palatable arrangement with TV Ark. Trying to get everyone to agree and sign up to a plan for a way forward is not easy. There's also the matter of getting everyone on board with a set of technical and editorial standards, to ensure consistency and a professional look across the site. Established sites, which have built up a lot of content, will always be reluctant to move in a different direction - especially if it necessitates a lot of rework.

As I said previously, plans for a new version of The TV Room are still evolving. When the editorial structure has been confirmed, I then need to design the new CMS and get it built. All being well, the new site will hopefully go live in the autumn.
LL
Larry the Loafer
Wasn't The TV Room supposed to be merging with TV Ark?
MM
MMcG198
Wasn't The TV Room supposed to be merging with TV Ark?


As alluded to above, I concluded the discussions with TV Ark after c. 2 years, as we could not reach an agreement which both sides were comfortable with. However, as far as I'm aware, they have taken on board a number of technical recommendations that I put forward some time back.

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