TVPres.UK

Apologies for the downtime at the moment, we're working on the fault and hope to resolve the issue as soon as humanly possible. When the fault is fixed, it may well be a small time longer whilst we perfect the evolution, if not even the slight revolution in TVPres.UK's new branding, which is yet to seen by the public eye. We can only apologize whilst we attempt to address the issue.

Anyway, I thought I'd give a brief update on what's happening at the moment.

The issue we've located is a rather major one, but one we hope to be able to rectify by the beginning of May. Work on the new design is underway, and it looks rather snazzy, if I do say so myself. There's more colour in the graphical elements, along with a new homepage, and tweaked menu pages. Also, there'll be plenty of new content online when TVPres.UK gets back online, including new content from the BBC Three, ITV News at 1:30, Channel Report, Channel 4 News, T4 and Al Jazeera, along with new content to BBC One, BBC Two, Channel 4 and Daybreak. The main focus on content at the moment is split between the BBC and Channel 4.

TVPres.UK is intended to be back online in the beginning of May, but we can't confirm a date just yet!

It's the end of July now, will TVPres.UK be coming back?

Funny you should mention that. It's my intention for it to return tonight!

Whilst originally we only expected to be down for less than a month, some issues came up that prevented the site from returning. In the downtime, we've tweaked the site design, which also meant manually moving about every image, and we've also got loads of new content!

So, the site is live again now , and at a new address...

TVpres.org.uk

So, yes, this is it. The past two months have been spent of updating the site design, adding loads of new content and having discussions with businessmen in sharp suits about the legality of a television presentation site. When we originally popped offline in April, we were expecting to be gone a few days whilst we tweaked the design. However, that didn't go to plan, as you can see by the fact it's the end of June, and we've only just returned. Before I talk about the new content and design change, I'd like to apologise for the downtime. If I'd planned things better, and hadn't gone out with a Gung-ho attitude, maybe the site wouldn't have fallen into this situation.

Design tweaks

So, whilst the site was slowly gathering dust, our graphics guru, James, came up with an update to the current site design. It involved using a wider design, and simplifying the main header. It also involved changing all of the image banners from the 'Arrow' design, to a new design where images would be incorporated. You can see this in action all around the site, and hopefully it should have brightened proceedings up dramatically, and make everything nicer to look at.

New features

Whilst the site was offline, a few features came in to make things a little bit easier. You'll notice a 'Back to the top' arrow present on all pages from now on, which will make navigating back to the top of a very long content page much easier. Also, you'll note that the homepage has a new 'Featured' carousel, which should be updated around once a week, to showcase the latest content on the site.

New content

Another addition to the site whilst it was offline was content. In the downtime, a shed-load of new content has came online, from updates to existing pages, to brand new content pages. Whilst the homepage will show the most recent updates, a comprehensive list of updates since the downtime began is listed here:

And finally...

Another thing you'll have noticed is that the site now resides at a new, proper, domain. This domain (tvpres.org.uk), will be our home online from now on, so please update your bookmarks if you have him. This is courtesy of Adders, who has also been very helpful during the downtime - a big thank you to him. The second credit goes to James, who has created a logo and various banner elements almost since the site launched. He's also now contributed a fair few bits of content, and provided bits of coding (like the Twitter widget on the homepage) to make the site look nicer.

So, apologies for the downtime, and hopefully this design should stay for the foreseeable future - and the site should stay online too!

I'm going to be honest here, and say I don't like the "buttons" on the pages. IE, the BBC One, BBC Two ones ect. And I think its because the image is too blured.

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt201/J10cool10/B1.jpg

I do however like the main headers on each page:

http://i612.photobucket.com/albums/tt201/J10cool10/B.jpg

Other than that I like the way the images are set out on the pages, and the little descriptions about each channel's ident package given by you.

This is just my opinion, and I'm sure others will disagree. Sorry for being picky. But thought you'd like to hear my opinion.

The site seems a lot cleaner, It is an improvement and worth the two months offline!

Thank you both for your comments!

In reference to your comments, JK08, do you think it would be better, in future, if it was less blurred, or it focused on something in the ident to make it more obvious. The new image link buttons are very simple in the fact that you use the image alone to navigate, with a generic 'BBC One' tag on top of, say 'Christmas 2008' presentation.

On the content pages, I should point out, they should slowly have their header banner to the newer style...

One bug I've just found, the Sky Sports Coverage link on the homepage doesn't seem to work

Ah, yes - you're quite right. That may be because I haven't yet put the content up, which is a slight mishap on my part. I'll try and get it online now.

Is this in reply to my comment? (my username isnt JK08 )

Yeah maybe, I think its a great idea to have the ident as the button image. But not too blurry.

Also, http://www.tvpres.org.uk/bbc-news.php has the old design buttons.

Indeed, it was. Apologies... Will fix the issues stated and put Sky Sports News stuff up tomorrow. Thanks for your comments.