Strategize

Bringing out-of-date up to date: What happens when a product that is no longer being updated requires a much-needed makeover? Microsoft Studios asked us to build a tool that would mimic the functionality of Microsoft Producer 2003, a piece of legacy software that no longer functioned well on other platforms or browsers. Our new product needed to allow a user to import audio and video into a customized Silverlight template, then synchronize to a PowerPoint presentation. Along with our primary goal, our new product needed to increase Silverlight evangelism, promote internal interactive media away from Flash Development, and showcase an exciting new technology.

Conceptualize

What's My Line?: We realized that the true power of an interactive presentation is just that—its interactivity. A user should be able to navigate their way through the player seamlessly, with audio and video assets always remaining in sync. We worked to recreate the experience of a live presentation, where a speaker shows slides and the cue cards they hold are the chapter points to be discussed. Our player would work by syncing the speaker’s pre-recorded dialogue with their cue cards, and would expose their cue cards alongside the related PowerPoint slides. A list of chapter points, thumbnails, and supporting media would be available for the viewer also, to function as another form of navigation.

Execute

Seamless Sync: Our SSP player came together beautifully, and can be assembled and output directly from Expression Encoder. We also built a plug-in that enables a user to associate chapter point text and other media with audio or visual markers, then export to the Silverlight Presentation template. The presentation can then be hosted online or run locally via an EXE.

Going for the Gold: Everyone involved was pleased with the end result, but that’s not to say we didn’t experience some bumps in the road along the way. The project spanned three iterations of Silverlight, which continually required updates to code, along with adjustments to the designer / developer workflow. This resulted in some long nights for our developers, but the learning experience was worthwhile. We understand that’s all part of the game plan when working with new technology. If you’ve got the guts, you get the glory.