Viewing facility technology

Technology in viewing facilities

By Sheila Wilson

It’s an enigma. Even the viewing facilities that are bristling with the latest and most expensive multimedia gadgetry are still receiving requests from customers for VHS tapes. The industry does seem to have persuaded a large proportion of their clientele in the last few months to make the switch to DVD. However, to their credit, even before they have completely eradicated VHS, the words on their lips this year are ‘download’ and ‘secure web space.’

Having made the leap into digital storage media, many viewing facilities are aiming to push their clients to use newer technologies, including downloading audio files in MP3 format from secure websites. However, the industry appears to me meeting with some reluctance or maybe just inertia. As Sarah Jameson of Wyoming Studios explains: “This is a quantum leap for a lot of people. People like to leave the studio with something in their hands. It gives them reassurance.”

Like last year, Web streaming is still a very hot topic. When asked about the most exciting technologies of the moment, every single viewing facility we spoke to mentioned it immediately. This is where you watch what’s happening in the studio via streamed video on the Web, conveniently bringing that one-way mirror to your desktop or the conference room in your own, while saving a fortune in travelling expenses.

Gaby Williams, Studio Manager at Home Sweet Home, sounds a note of caution and a useful reminder about not getting too caught up in gadgetry: “The most important thing is that the microphone is picking up the sound properly. We’ve had to take crisp packets out of the studio before now because the noise they make is picked up by the microphones and you can’t hear what the respondents are saying. Air conditioning can cause the same problem too.”

So let’s take a look at this year’s must haves in the technical inventory of the viewing studio.

Downloadable audio files

MP3 files are probably associated in most people’s minds with downloading music for their iPODs or MP3 players. Since they are highly compressed files, they are very small in size compared with other older formats. They also have very good sound quality, so for these reasons are perfect for storing and playing long discussions from focus groups.

You can download and play MP3s on your PC or Mac with popular free software such as RealPlayer and iTunes. It is also easy to extract elements from the dialogue you need, and to take quotes and export the audio into a PowerPoint presentation.

Distributing MP3 files is so much faster, easier and cheaper than distributing disks. They can be available on a website within minutes of the group finishing – which is not possible if you have to burn a CD and put it in the post. What’s more some transcription agencies can now handle digital recordings, so files can be with the transcribers within minutes too.

Not only do MP3s offer time and money savings, but they have the further advantage that they cannot suffer from physical damage like a CD can, plus they are far less likely to go astray on some forgotten shelf in the boss’s office – so safely archiving these files is a much simpler matter.

But the sheer ease of distribution also makes it easier for these files to fall into the wrong hands. This is something that all the viewing facilities we spoke to are concerned to get right need. Secure transfer and storage can help, but it is also important to ensure there is good practice among your staff on the use of passwords, avoiding using pen drives, or worse still, personal iPods to move these files around.

DVDs and downloadable video files

Recording video of groups onto DVDs is one of the latest trends. As Sarah Jameson of Wyoming points out: “There’s no better way of showing a customer’s excitement than including a video clip of their face in a presentation.” However, it makes no sense to record and edit digitally, only to convert the file to tape, with the loss of quality and convenience in the end product. So desperate is the industry to move clients onto digital technologies that some providers, such as Wyoming, give away free DVDs when clients request a clunky old VHS tape.

Wyoming Studios even mentions providing video in MP4 format. This is a relatively new format that offers more features than some of the older formats, so potentially making it easier to edit and view the video. The files are also highly compressed, like MP3 files, so they are usually used to download and play feature films on your iPOD or computer – so they are also perfect for storing and playing back long recordings of group discussions.

Web streaming

Some viewing facilities are already offering a web streaming service and many more are considering doing so. This will surely be one of the fastest growing areas for this year. All of the viewing facilities we spoke to mentioned FocusVision, the technology company that leads the market in this field.

In addition to viewing the group as it happens, you can also watch a recording on the web at a later point. As one of the viewing facility professionals puts it: “Watching the group and learning directly from the insights it provides is no longer just the privilege of the one or two people in a company who have the budget to travel hundreds of miles and spent the night in a hotel. All the people within the organisation who can benefit from seeing it, simply have to log on.”

FocusVision offers a range of services, apart from the basic video streaming, for example tools to create video clips for use in presentations or the option to listen to an interpreter rather than the respondents’ voices.

Website usability testing

Website usability testing is perhaps one of the most high tech areas of the work of a viewing facility. This often just involves one respondent sitting in a room with a moderator. The respondent’s screen is connected to a screen in the client viewing area, and the clients can watch the respondent’s mouse movements. This is the simplest form of website usability testing.

The next step up is to place a camera on the top of the respondent’s screen so that it records the person’s facial expressions. This is then shown alongside the screen showing the mouse movements. As one of the studio managers we spoke to explains “If you can see the person’s face, it’s very clear if the respondent is frustrated, for example. It’s best to have a camera because the person is looking at the screen and so it’s hard to see their face any other way.”

Some studios are even able to track the respondent’s eye movements as they look at the Web page. This will show you if the respondent’s eyes are often drawn to a particular part of the screen, and if so, you might consider that to be a good place to position an advertisement. This is very high tech – though it does involve the respondents in wearing some apparatus on their heads. The output is in the form of a graph, which ideally should be overlaid on the stimulus material.

Wi-Fi, plasma screens, interactive whiteboards

Several studies offer a wide range of little technological luxuries for clients who do still come to view groups live on their premises.

Last year, there seemed to be quite a lot of excitement about plasma screens and their quality and clarity, but this feeling has ease as they have become a familiar sight not just at the viewing facility but in the corporate board rooms and reception area.

Open access Wi-Fi is an increasingly popular technology for studios, enabling their visitors to catch up with their email and maybe even make comments to the moderator – instead of the moderator popping out and interrupting the flow.

Interactive whiteboards are another newer piece of high-tech kit to look out for. These can be very useful for web usability sessions or other work on concepts, as images can be projected onto the whiteboard and then annotated by moderators or participants, and then all of this material can be kept for review later. Ideally, this should be in digital form too, not on scraps of paper that can go astray.

Article first published in research, March 2007. Copyright © 2007, MRS/meaning ltd.