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Spotlight on: Roehampton Online Broadcasts (ROB)

ROB is Roehampton’s very own free TV and radio streaming service for staff and students, from Planet eStream. Cee Hazell from AV Resources, who provide this service, tells you all you need to know about ROB in our latest Spotlight post.

All you need to use ROB is a Roehampton University login, via  rob.roehampton.ac.uk/.

You can request upcoming programmes, films and complete television series from the most common UK Freeview channels. Go to  Create  at the top and select Record TV to see the current TV and radio schedules, then click on what you want to record. You will be prompted to allocate a category from a list of academic subjects, and you can add keywords if you wish. When your content is available to view, usually within two working days, you will receive an email alert.

Academic staff can also request uploads of their own personal recorded content; contact avr@roehampton.ac.uk for help with this.

Recorded content can be viewed by category:

You can store your recordings in your own media section:

There is an inbuilt, easy-to-use editor that you can use to edit the recorded content, make clips, create slideshows and quizzes:

As well as current and upcoming broadcasts, ROB provides access to a whole archive of older content from the Connect TV & Radio archive, a resource which allows us to acquire recorded Freeview content from other Planet e-stream users. This is a great way to get free streamed access to feature films, as almost any film that has been broadcast on Freeview TV can be obtained for educational use this way. 

To request archive broadcasts, go to Create at the top of the screen, select TV & Radio Archive, and search for the programme you want. For a single programme, click on Import to ROB; you will be prompted to allocate a category from a list (e.g. Dance), and you can add keywords if you wish. To request  a series, click on Show Collection and request each episode separately. The Keyword option is useful here, as individual episode titles do not always pull through, so you can add them yourself to make it easy to find them on ROB later. 

Top tips

More in-depth guides on using ROB can be accessed via AVR's Moodle page, and Planet eStream provide a series of helpful video tutorials on how to make the most of the whole ROB system: 

Staff can also find more information on the Staff portal - and don't forget, ROB content can be bookmarked onto resource lists, or embedded on Moodle, quite easily. 

For more information on ROB and all your audio-visual needs, please contact AV Resources: avr@roehampton.ac.uk.

Why not explore ROB over the summer break - you never know what you might find!