Petersfieldcam.co.uk was, until late 2010, an enthusiastically run amateur site developed by several town residents who wanted to provide a basic web-cam service for themselves and the other residents of Petersfield. It had been running for several years before they approached Spherics, and had been added to consistently, ever-expanding its remit to provide all sorts of useful local information to residents and town vistors alike. The site had quickly come to the attention of local advertisers who spotted its community spirit, and its popularity grew exponentially in the first few years. Being Petersfield residents ourselves, Spherics staff were using the site long before they approached us with their plans for its future development.

But in mid 2010 approach us they did, and we were very excited to be any small part of such a useful web site. During initial meetings and consultations, it was thought that Spherics might only contribute by creating an interactive 3D map for the site, and another company would handle the main site framework itself, and related marketing for the client's proposed project overhaul. However, we were later offered the chance to do production design for and implement the entire project, which would involve a much larger range of skills, and utilise nearly every area of expertise we have at our disposal. We embraced such an opportunity with immense enthusiasm.

Planning Permission

Shortly after the first few planning meetings we were ready to submit our proposal to the client. We would build the web site using leading-edge Open Source platform Concrete 5, allowing any aspect of the site to be continuously updated by the client and their partners, we would create a brand new 3D interactive map, and provide a vastly improved camera control architecture that we could implement in the new site which would be better than any camera control system currently available, world-wide. We would also be responsible for taking reference and location photography, all design and coding, social network integration and various multimedia elements found throughout the site.

Laying The Foundations

The site is currently in full production with us, and we hope to be live later this year, at which point we will update this case study, and share what the clients and their viewers thought about our work...