Following on from epic.TWO, we made the commitment to improve the scheduling and communications at the events. After a number of staff discussions, and some inspiration from other events, we've decided to look at the big screen as a better communications method, as well as clearing up the sound from the speaker system.

Our current big screen used simple PowerPoint to display messages. While it did the job for static announcements, it made it difficult to include any dynamic content and was also a bit clunky to update.

So we've been working on a web application to drive the big screen which will look something like this (click for bigger image):

You'll see from the mock-up that the screen consists of a number of "widgets". Some of which will remain in place all of the time, others will change at various intervals. So for example the right hand column includes the current track playing in the playlist (which will also be available to view on the intranet, so you know what we have in the queue) as well as the timetable for that day in terms of big games, tournaments and other activities. One of the things you asked us for was plenty of notice to get games ready and installed to play, so here you go!

The main section of the page will then rotate through a number of "slides", like in normal PowerPoint, however as they are web-based they are easier for us to update and can also contain dynamic content. For example:

This screenshot shows how the same query tool that displays on the intranet can also be expanded up to the big screen, so you can see what games are currently being played on the LAN and then decide what you want to play!

One thing we're not 100% decided on is where and how many screens we will have on display at epic.THREE because of the venue layout, but again, because this is a web-based system, as well as on the main screen you will be able to load your own local versions of the screen on your PC/laptop.

The final trick we hope to put up our sleeves is to also run a second machine to power the big screens which will be connected to the system running the web application via a video mixer. This means we can line up video clips, live camera feeds, photo slideshows etc. alongside the big-screen and switch between the two seamlessly!

So now we have a way of displaying the timetable to you, we need to set the timetable, and for that we need your input. Nivek has posted a forum thread to ask you what you want to see as our headline tournament and in the big game programme. Head over to the forums and let him know what you want to see, then we hope to announce the timetable early in January.

All sound kind of funky? We think so! As always, hit the comments button and let us know what you think!