Broadcasting
Sending a custom common message to a large audience simultaneously.
What is Zeppelin Broadcasting ?
An animated balloon (the Zeppelin) appears to float across the browser window, slows down slightly, displays a message and then flies away. Multiple people that are currently viewing the webpage see the zeppelin and get the message more or less simultaneously.
See [Video Demo/Preview]
Who broadcasts messages and who reads them ?
An admin page called “the control room” allows an admin user to set the message text and switch the broadcasting ON/OFF. When the admin switches the broadcasting to ON, all the client browser windows see the zeppelin fly across their screen and the message that it displays.
Play with it : Live Demo/Preview
Demo Note: Brace yourselves since multiple other "admins" may be twiddling the zeppelin controls like yourself! Have fun!
How easy is it to get started with Zeppelin Broadcasting ?
Embed the zeppelin in your PHP code like so:
<?php include "ZeppelinManager.php"; $zm = new ZeppelinManager; $zm->zeppelin(); ?>
Fire up this page in a browser and you will see the zeppelin flying message with the default parameters.
In a separate browser window open the zeppelin-control-room.php (see Live Preview) and customise the broadcasting !
Which Zeppelin properties can the admin control from the control room ?
- Swtich ON/OFF broadcasting states.
- Message text content.
- Period/delay between repeated zeppelin flying events.
- Font size
- Transparency of the zeppelin and the message callout.
How “instant” are the broadcasted zeppelin instant messages ?
The default refresh rate is 20s and so it may take upto 20s for the newly updated zeppelin messages/properties to take effect from the control room.
All this is implemented in an easy to use PHP class that encapsulates the HTML5 /Javascript based logic used to render this animation and manage the broadcasting process.
Happy Broadcasting ! 