Derivadow

We’re on a bit of a roll at the moment with our work on /programmes, so quick on the heals of the work to integrate iPlayer and programme credits onto our episode pages I’m chuffed to announce another batch of new features: QR-Codes, schedules and um calls to inaction.

QR-Codes, if you’ve not come across them before, are a bit like two-dimensional bar codes created by the Japanese company Denso-Wave. But unlike bar codes you can encode any string you fancy (up to 4,296 alphanumeric characters) into an image and this means you can convert a URL into a QR-Code.

You can then print QR-Codes on posters, t-shirts, scarfs, whatever. People can then decode them by taking a picture, using specific software installed on their mobile phone, to read and convert the code back to the URL – so they can easily visit the web site.

Anyway – every BBC programme now has a QR code. You can get it by adding …/qrcode to the end of the URL for any programme page. For example, this is the URL for Platoon:

	http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mcgw

And this is its QR-Code:

	http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007mcgw/qrcode

A more mainstream feature that’s also gone live today are schedule pages for some radio networks. For example:

	http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/programmes/schedules

And because of the way the technology works we also get a bunch of new pages for free:

	http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/programmes/genres/music

And finally we’re flagging when episodes are next due to be broadcast, when we don’t have any media and links to the iPlayer so you can download the video.