In the last week of the Proms there have been some particularly noteworthy concerts and celebrations. Kirsty Young talked to BBC news about the Desert Island Discs Prom, celebrating 70 years of the programme. If you missed the opportunity to take part in the Radio 4 live blog, which ran throughout the concert, you can still read the comments and watch excerpts including a performance of the Desert Island Discs theme and Kirsty Young on stage with Bryn Terfyl. (Please note these excerpts will expire on the 10 September).

In another exciting performance, composer John Adams, conducted his own work "Nixon in China" prompting lots of comment on Twitter including this from Radio 3 presenter, Petroc Trewlany. Visit the BBC Proms on Facebook to see a selection of images from the performance.

Don't miss the amazing line-up for the last night of the Proms on the 8th September plus Proms in the Park London. Around the country, join BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Stephen Bell at City Halls, Scotland, the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast and the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales.

Also, see a beautiful slideshow of paintings related to the BBC proms. Your Paintings aims to show the entire UK national collection of oil paintings and is a joint initiative between the BBC, the Public Catalogue Foundation (a registered charity) and participating collections and museums from across the UK. Thanks to Your Paintings for the heads-up on twitter.

2. BBC iPlayer

This week the BBC announced mobile downloads on BBC iPlayer, enabling you to download your favourite BBC TV programmes directly to your smartphone or tablet for free, and to enjoy them for up to 30 days. David Madden, Exec Producer for TV & iPlayer Mobile, blogged about the benefits of the downloads and answered further questions.

3. "And Now an Urgent SOS"

Hear Carole Bullock, telling Eddie Mair about the day an SOS message changed her family...for unexpected reasons.

4. BBC Connected

This project aims to connect those who wish to work with the BBC in creating innovative material for online audiences. Adrian Woolard provided detailed briefs around upcoming dates, including CBBC on September 20th in Salford and User Experience and Design on October 4th in London. Read the blog from Adrian on the plans through till next spring next year and put the dates in your diary now.

CBeebies Connected Studio in Q5, Quay House, MediaCityUK in Salford

5. A Newsround Special

At this time of year, when children are going back to school, what is it like for the child with additional needs? Up And Away: A Newsround Special investigates on the 7th September at 5pm on CBBC.

BBC Breakfast spoke to Rosie King, who presents 'Up and away' and Daniel Allen about how they became involved in the show.

6. The BBC Story

On the 3rd September, 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced on the Home Service that Britain was at war with Germany. The BBC reinvented itself during the WW2, expanding its services in the UK and abroad..

Watch experts including BBC historians talking about the impact of the War and how it transformed the BBC.

Explore audio, documents and image galleries in the BBC Archive WW2 collection on subjects ranging from the Berlin Wall to Dad's Army at 40. Visit BBC History online to find out more about this topic an many others.

The Rt. Hon. Neville Chamerlain in 1935, (BBC Archive image)

7. Gloomsbury: literary laughs on Radio 4

Coming up soon, a comedy about the Bloomsbury Group with a stellar cast including Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman, Nigel Planer, Morwenna Banks, Jonathan Coy and John Sessions. The six-part series written by Sue Limb is an affectionate send up of the infamous literary group whose arty and adulterous adventures dominated the cultural scene in the early 20th century. Read the full release and cast interviews on the Media Centre website.

8. The Thick of IT

9. Are you an aspiring writer?

Watch interviews and learn how to craft the perfect script with writers, including Jimmy McGovern, from the BBC Writers Room. Check out a collection of Radio and TV scripts including those from BBC Comedy and Sherlock and find out more about up-coming opportunities and events.

Emeli Sandé

10. Radio 2 live in Hyde Park

This one day festival on Sunday 9th September features artists such as Tom Jones, Jessie J and Status Quo. If you've missed out on tickets you can watch and listen on BBC Radio 2, online and via the Red Button.

Eloise McNaulty is the producer of the About the BBC Blog.

Follow @AboutTheBBC for all the latest updates.

This fantastic picture (courtesy of SES) shows satellite Astra 1N during testing. As you may recall, we moved many of our services on satellite over to Astra 1N earlier this year . I thought I'd share it with you as I have some news to tell you about a forthcoming change to the transponder on Astra 1N that carries BBC One HD and BBC HD.

During the summer last year we made a significant change to our HD transponder, upgrading the transmission mode of the BBC's signal from "DVB-S" to "DVB-S2".

This change meant that we were able to make more efficient use of the valuable satellite capacity available on our HD transponder. It gave us the ability to broadcast at 1920 resolution and conduct 3D trials on satellite for Wimbledon, Strictly Come Dancing, Street Dance, the London 2012 Olympic Games and, most recently, Planet Dinosaur.

Over the last year, we have worked closely with our colleagues at Sky, Freesat and SES to investigate how we can continue to make the most efficient use of our satellite capacity in light of improving technology. As a result, we are now able to make a further modification to the DVB-S2 operating parameters which enables us to access additional capacity. This will support the forthcoming launch of BBC One HD for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We will be making this change during the early hours of 27 September 2012 and will update our reception advice page which details all our satellite tuning details at that time.

The change will mean different things to different people:

• If you watch TV using Freeview or Virgin Media, or can't currently view HD channels you will not be affected.
• If you have Sky, you should not notice the change and shouldn't have to do anything on or after 27 September. If you do have an issue receiving the BBC HD channels from this date you can try unplugging your Sky set top box, waiting 30s and plugging it back in again. If that doesn't resolve your problem it's best to contact Sky on 08442 411 653.
• If you have Freesat you may need to put your HD box or TV into standby for 30 seconds and then switch it back on again to continue to receive the two BBC HD channels; if the channels are still unavailable then carry out a 'Freesat channel retune'. During last year's changes we found that a small number of devices didn't store the information after a Freesat retune so if that happens try a 'first time installation' or 'full factory reset'. Full instructions can be found in the manual for your digital TV or box. Further help with retuning can be found at www.freesat.co.uk or by calling their customer support team on 08450 990 990.
• If you have any other kind of satellite receiver that can currently receive the BBC HD channels then you should use the new parameters below to tune manually into the services. The current and new parameters for Astra 1N tp.50 are:

We have also contacted satellite and aerial installer trade associations - the CAI and the RDI - providing them with information with which to brief their members in case anyone experiencing a problem contacts an installer rather than their platform operator. We will also be putting information about this change on the satellite BBC Red Button page 998 a bit nearer the time because we know not everyone has access to the internet.

If you watch our HD services on satellite, I hope this change won't cause you any worry.

Alix Pryde is Director, BBC Distribution

Follow @AbouttheBBC on twitter for all the latest updates.

BBC broadcasts in Africa have undergone some significant changes over the summer. Our radio services began in 1938 in both English and Arabic and now include services in Swahili, Somali, Hausa, French and Kinyarwanda.

Komla Dumor, one of the presenters on Focus On Africa

A little earlier this summer we launched the BBC's first daily African TV news bulletin in English. Focus on Africa runs on BBC World News every weekday at 1730GMT, presented by Komla Dumor and Sophie Ikenye. It also runs in prime-time on free to air terrestrial TV in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Namibia. That means a whole new set of audiences can now access BBC News for the first time on TV.

This week BBC Swahili launched its own daily TV bulletin for the first time. 'Dira Ya Dunia' (it means Compass of the World) is a 30 minute bulletin of the biggest international news stories for our Kiswahili speaking audience in East and Central Africa as well as the main stories from that region. Presented by Salim Kikeke, it builds on the strong brand of the existing Swahili radio programme of the same name, and is on air in Tanzania and Kenya.

We now have local correspondents from the BBC's African Services able to report and go live in Accra, Juba, Dar-es-Salaam, Addis Ababa, Kampala and Lusaka, as well as from the BBC's existing hub bureaux in Nairobi and Johannesburg. In all the BBC has a correspondent in 48 African countries - that's significantly more than any other international broadcaster.

For the first time over the summer, some of World Service radio's flagship morning English programming also comes live from Africa. The new Newsday programme has a particular remit to serve our English audiences in Africa who in the morning hours make up around 70% of the total audience. And the programme is co-presented by Lawrence Pollard in London and Lerato Mbele in Johannesburg every day, which puts us closer to covering Africa's biggest stories. Read more information about the new programme.

Lerato Mbele and Lawrence Pollard

So why have we made these changes? Audiences in Africa are telling the BBC that they appreciate our impartial and comprehensive coverage, and that our radio platforms are strong and stable. But younger audiences are much more likely to seek out news on TV than Radio, so it's important that we are able to offer a selection of TV services that are accessible to mass audiences on terrestrial TV as well as satellite. And for younger radio listeners, the English World Service needs to evolve and present a more accessible sound, while losing none of our highly-valued authority and accuracy. So these changing needs are reflected in the different sound of Newsday.

African audiences are also concerned about the image of Africa presented to the rest of the world by international broadcasters. And they're not alone in that. Our audiences think the BBC has a particular responsibility to reflect the African agenda fairly, and they understand our strength in influencing other international audiences. That doesn't mean ignoring strong African stories if they happen to involve civil war or food shortages. But it does mean putting them in a wider context, reflecting economic growth, creativity, and African states' growing sense of control over their own resources.

These new services in Africa bring benefit to UK audiences too. Understanding Africa's role in some of the biggest international stories we cover is more and more important. Sub-Saharan Africa has 6 of the world's ten fastest-growing economies; cultural links between African countries and the UK diaspora are significant. UK audiences also want to know whether African states are successful in combating terrorism and piracy, and keeping communities of different faiths living harmoniously side by side, in places where rapid population growth is leading to great competition for natural resources.

Most of the extra video content from Africa is available to UK audiences on the BBC News Africa site, and of course Newsday on World Service can be heard in the UK on DAB, and overnight on Radio 4.

Jamie Angus is senior commissioner for BBC Global News

Follow @AbouttheBBC on Twitter for all the latest updates. ]]> Eloise McNaulty https://bbcstreaming.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2012/08/bbc-africa.shtml https://bbcstreaming.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2012/08/bbc-africa.shtml BBC World Service Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:03:56 +0000 Welcome to our regular series of posts rounding-up news, blogs and videos from about the BBC over the past week. We look back on past events and highlight forthcoming output.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson won 11 gold Paralympic medals between 1992-2004. Photo: BBC

1. Paralympics

Kevin Bakhurst, controller of BBC News Channel and deputy head, BBC Newsroom, provided details around the BBC's Paralympic coverage. He explained that the rights for the television coverage had been awarded to Channel 4 but that there would be live commentary and reporting from the Games on BBC Radio 5 live and Radio 5 live sports extra.

Dave Gordon, the BBC Sport's head of major events, also provided more details around coverage as did Johnathan Wall, deputy controller of 5 live.

Meanwhile BBC Ouch!, the internet programme which reflects disablity life, explored various paralympic themes. On the Ouch! blog BBC journalist, Damon Rose asked "Are we ready to embrace disabled sport?" and paralympic sprinter, Libby Clegg, answered 13 "medalling questions". You can follow Libby and daily Paralympic coverage online at the BBC's Disability Sport website.

2. New series of Treasures of Ancient Rome on BBC Four

"Forget about Greece it's all about Rome". Treasures of Ancient Rome returns for a new three-part series on the 3 September on BBC Four at 9.00pm. Presenter Alistair Sooke charts the Roman Empire through its art, including a visit to one of the best preserved Roman cities in Libya.

Watch an exclusive video on the BBC Press website.

3. BBC Academy: Women in Engineering event

Free tickets are now available for Women in Engineering: building the next generation of broadcast facilities . Taking place on the 24 September at BBC Broadcasting House in London, speakers will include BBC News Group director Helen Boaden and Wendy Mars, senior director, data center and virtualisation, at Cisco. How to book tickets.

4. Good Cop on BBC One

Good Cop is a drama series about a beat cop whose his life changes forever when his best friend and colleague is attacked. Scriptwriter Stephen Butchard, explains that he wanted to look at the individual police offcer rather than the rules, "Sav's mind set was also important. He HAD to be a good man, he IS a good man, a Good Cop". The series continues on Thursdays, at 9:00pm on BBC One and BBC One HD.

Watch Warren Brown talk about his experience of going out with the police force and playing PC Rocksavage.

5. BBC Africa Debate on BBC World Service

South Africa is one of the most diverse countries in the world, racially as well as ethnically. In the year of the 18th Anniversary of Africa's multiracial elections BBC Africa Debate asks whether "black and white" still matters in South Africa.

The programme will be broadcast by BBC World Service at 20:05pm and repeated on Sunday 2 September at 14:05pm. The debate will also be online at bbcafrica.com, on Twitter #bbcafricadebate, #bbcafrica, on Facebook and Google+ on the BBCAfrica page. More details on the BBC Press website.

In addition, Jamie Angus, senior commissioner for BBC Global News, blogged this week on the expansion of BBC broadcasts in Africa.

6. Designing BBC iPlayer for Xbox 360

With this week's release of Radio support in BBC iPlayer, Rae Spencer, acting Senior UX experience designer at the BBC, blogs about the design challenges and the project to create a consistent usable design. Rae and her colleague Katherine Aherne, are keen to have your feedback so please add your comments to her blog post.

7. BBC Radio 4 Today: design-a-radio competition

On twitter, @BBCr4today reminded us about the winner of their design-a-radio competition. Earlier in the year they decided to do something a bit different for Children in Need

The challenge was to design a 'skin' or outer cover for a DAB Radio made by Tivoli Audio and it was open to design students across the UK, as well as amateur designers and Today listeners. Read more about the winner and how you can get a copy of the radio which is now in production.

8. Creative & Digital Media Apprenticeships

BBC apprentice David Matchett was on BBC Radio Scotland on Wednesday 29 August to hear stories from young people undertaking apprenticeships across Scotland. Back in July, David blogged for the About the BBC Blog on his experience of the Creative & Digital Media scheme and Sharon Mair, Editor of Olympics & Commonwealth at BBC Scotland explained how it provided invaluable industry experience.

Read about the BBC Academy 'Apprenticeships and the Media Conference' held on 20 June at BBC New Broadcasting House

9. Mock the Week

Dara O Briain and regulars Chris Addison, Hugh Dennis and Andy Parsons will return at 10:00pm on Thursday 6 September, for Mock the Week's new Autumn run of six episodes and a Christmas Special. "The infrastructure is in place: we've got the right national flags, we've refused George Michael's request to replace the theme tune with his new single's B side - and the likes of Micky Flanagan, Greg Davies, Milton Jones, Ed Byrne, Stewart Francis and Andi Osho are all due to appear alongside the established awesome foursome." Read more on the BBC Press Office website.

10. Dr Who

Dr Who returns on the 1 September on BBC One with Asylum of the Daleks. Watch Stephen Moffat explain why he's making those Daleks even scarier.

This week's treat for all those die hard Dr Who fans has been Pond Life which has been available to watch online.

Eloise McNaulty is the producer of the About the BBC Blog.

Follow @AboutTheBBC for all the latest updates.

Looking back on 2012, we've celebrated BBC Four's tenth birthday in March with a disco night; we've taken a Scrapheap Orchestra to the Proms and left a model house to rot in Edinburgh Zoo to study decay in After Life; explored the rich cultural heritage of 20th century America with programmes including Rich Hall's Deep South and Art of America; shined a spotlight on women in history in She-Wolves, England's Early Queens, presented by Dr Helen Castor and Harlots, Housewives and Heroines: a 17th Century History for Girls, presented by Dr Lucy Worsley; and paid tribute to an eclectic range of music - from Bowie and Punk Britannia to Symphony and The Story of Musicals; all united by the channel's trademark wit, intelligence and spirit.

Looking ahead, there's much more to come and the announcements I'm making today show the confidence and ambition of the channel.

I talked about a number of new commissions in my session including a major partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects to a celebration of the golden age of the album from Danny Baker and seasons exploring the curious world of insects and Britain's foodie history.

Richard Klein is Controller of BBC Four

I've now been the Controller of BBC Three for just over a year and my plans are taking a firm shape. It's been an amazing year in which we won two BAFTAs (for factual and drama series) and have just co-hosted the London Olympics out of which we are launching our biggest ever Autumn season. In a session earlier today I was interviewed about the year so far and my vision for the channel.

For me, BBC Three should have a creative or social purpose in everything that we do. Creatively we are a channel that should take risks, our mantra at BBC Three is that we are never afraid to try new things. Myself and the team are working hard to ensure we try to fulfil that promise in our programming, our online and social media offerings, as well as in our marketing and promotions. It is a mantra that informs everything we do on the channel.

Joining our outstanding comedy and entertainment shows is a raft of gripping, relevant factual programming like Tourettes: Let Me Entertain You and Unsafe Sex In The City. We have confirmed our on-going commitment to important factual seasons with The Body Beautiful coming up before the end of the year.

In addition to our current Autumn launch which is airing right now, I have today announced a host of new shows for the channel. Key among these is a brand new drama for next year on BBC Three called In The Flesh from Dominic Mitchell and BBC Drama North. It goes where no Zombie drama has gone before - the re-integration of Zombies into society.

In comedy we have announced that we are giving real life sketch show Boom Town a series run along with re-commissions for hot new sit-com Bad Education and our new comedy talent vehicle, Live At The Electric.

I have also confirmed a major factual season on Birthing Britain for early next year with two new series - Dads In the Delivery Room (w/t) and New Kids On The Block (w/t) joining four brand new one-off documentaries. Following on from the award-winning documentary Poor Kids, BBC Three has commissioned a new two-part documentary focusing on Poor Teens which will air later this Autumn. We have also ordered a one-off personal investigation into Multiple Sclerosis by Jack Osbourne who has recently been diagnosed with this destructive condition.

We have also started to achieve one of my key aims which is to form a family of talent that people recognise as being from BBC Three, with emerging stars like Stacey Dooley, Cherry Healey, Russell Kane and Greg James joining more established names like Reggie Yates and Russell Howard on the channel. But I also want BBC Three to be always working with new talent, writers and directors. We have initiatives in Comedy and Factual to facilitate this.

In Comedy, under the Feed My Funny banner, we invest in short and long-form pieces across the year, helping new comedians hone their skills and start to get serious exposure. In factual we run a scheme called Fresh which gives new directors a chance to make their first full TV films for BBC Three which will then air in prime-time on the channel. New talent is the lifeblood of BBC Three and these initiatives ensure we have a healthy supply line for the future.

It's been a busy year running a channel which is the most-watched digital channel for the hours it's on, as well as being the most popular for young audiences in the UK. It's a huge responsibility looking after any channel, particularly a BBC one, and I hope it will also continue to be a fun experience and our viewers will continue to value our high-quality programming.

Zai Bennett is Controller of BBC Three

It's presented an opportunity to look back at 2012 on BBC Two. The amazing resurgence in drama has continued with the success of The Hollow Crown which received some of the most wonderful reviews I've ever seen. And then we had Line Of Duty - the channel's best performing drama series since 2002.

Actress Julie Walters being made-up during shooting for BBC Two's The Hollow Crown.

Comedy is also on a high with the success of Twenty Twelve, The Sarah Millican Show and Rev; documentaries have gained incredible access and tackled tough subjects in a sensitive way, from Protecting Our Children to Britain In A Day; and we've filmed live from the edge of a volcano, seen the last interview with Lucian Freud and learnt how to bake the perfect Victoria sponge.

More recently, I've been pleased to see the channel's strong performance against the Olympics. Offering viewers a genuine alternative is what public service broadcasting is all about and I'm delighted that BBC Two did it so well.

Of course, the drive to make the channel more distinctive and the impact of DQF cuts are challenging but I'm pleased that the channel continues to outperform its competitors at peak and that audience appreciation is as high as ever.

Looking ahead, I want the same sense of confidence and scale to continue. Today I announced a number of exciting new commissions that demonstrate the bold approach the channel continues to take.

Throughout 2013 BBC Two will celebrate British inventiveness and ingenuity with programmes from history, science, documentaries and arts. The Genius Of Invention will include programmes from Michael Moseley, Brian Cox, Liz Bonnin and the Hairy Bikers exploring all aspects of Britain's scientific and engineering history.

I'm a huge fan of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and the more recent Bring Out The Bodies and I am delighted that we are turning her prize-winning novels into a drama series. We also have a new series from the brilliant Hugo Blick.

We've got more great comedy with new series featuring some of our brightest and funniest comedians - Sue Perkins, Mitchell and Webb and Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson.

And finally, Amanda Vickery is back with an exploration of women in art.

You can see a sneak preview of the exciting drama that is coming up on the channel below and there's more information about more of BBC Two's new commissions in this press release.

Janice Hadlow is controller of BBC Two.

Nigel Paterson is series producer for Planet Dinosaur. Here he blogs about what was involved in making the 3D version of BBC One's award-winning Planet Dinosaur.

It was very early on in the production of Planet Dinosaur that the embryonic thought of a 3D version was seeded. It was when we realised that we were creating absolutely everything in the virtual world of a computer (where we had absolute control and could do anything we liked) rather than the real world (where things tend to be untidy and un predictable) that it seemed that this was a project almost tailor made for 3D. We made a very short 'proof of principle' clip as much for ourselves as for anyone else. Now, the gulf between an idea and its execution can often appear unbridgeable, many end up dashed on the rocks of the reality chasm, but we were lucky and were blessed with a commissioner who saw the potential and gathered support to take a punt and give us the materials to make our metaphorical bridge.

We had a team of 60 animators, compositors, modellers and background artists working on the project. Animation is extraordinarily labour intensive; it's one of the commonly held myths that, because it's made in a computer, the computer does all the work. Another aspect of 3D is that the detail required is considerably greater than that which can pass off in 2D; so the details of the animals and the backgrounds need that much more work. Every facet of the digital world had to be created in forensic detail; from the largest dinosaur to the smallest fern, all have to stand up to the scrutiny of this new form of television broadcast. Trees, plants and rocks had to be researched, analysed and modelled by the animators to give each environment the character and validity needed to produce a properly visceral experience.

The learning curve for what works and doesn't work in 3D was also a steep one, for instance the dynamic, documentary style of camerawork, and the quick cutting, so essential for the immersive impact of the original series, came with its own technical challenges. Fortunately, because we were making it in a computer, we could test, control and tweak the images, and to this end a specialist team of stereographers hand crafted individual frames and sequences to ensure that the 3D experience has maximum impact while leaving the audience fully immersed, without feeling queasy. The big difference for us, was having the 2D series which we had already made for BBC1 to work from. Thinking about 2D and 3D together is a pragmatic way of sweating your assets. It's something Hollywood has been doing for a while, and whilst TV is a different beast of course, the principle means you can do quite ambitious things in a much more cost effective way.

Ultimately what we have produced is, I believe, a thrilling journey into a lost world, an opportunity to properly experience these incredible animals in all their magnificent wonder. Have a look this Sunday 19th August at 17:35 on the BBC HD Channel or on Monday 27th August (Bank Holiday) at 15.40, when it is on again. It will also be available for catch-up in 3D via BBC iPlayer More information about how you can watch BBC's 3D programmes can be found on the BBC's FAQ website.

I'm really excited about this, and hope you enjoy it too. I would love to hear your thoughts below.

Nigel Paterson is series producer for Planet Dinosaur

Planet Dinosaur 3D - Ultimate Killers will be broadcast on the BBC HD channel on Bank Holiday Monday 27th August at 3.40pm.

I wanted to correct some news reports this week that wrongly stated that the BBC is one of several public bodies refusing to disclose whether they use the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), the legislation which regulates the use of surveillance.

The story originated from a report published by Big Brother Watch, which sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to public bodies asking a number of questions, including how many times these powers have been used and for which offences. The report noted that a number of public authorities, including the BBC, "refuse to disclose how often, for what purpose and what type of surveillance they have undertaken".

In our response to Big Brother Watch we were entirely open about the fact that the BBC does use these powers through its TV Licensing team to detect evasion, a criminal offence. This happens only as a last resort when other less intrusive enforcement methods have been exhausted. This information has been confirmed by the BBC on many occasions in the past and is documented on the TV Licensing website under the fourth heading 'Detection'.

However, we do not release details of exactly how and when detection is used. This is in order to ensure that people without a TV licence do not use this information to their advantage when attempting to evade the licence fee.

As these reports correctly state, the use of RIPA is perfectly legal. It is also worth noting that the BBC is inspected every two years by the Office of Surveillance Commissioners, the independent body which monitors legal compliance of RIPA. Their two most recent reports praised the responsible and professional way in which the BBC conducts RIPA investigations.

The BBC's sole use of RIPA is to detect TV Licence evasion on behalf of the vast majority of the population (95%) who pay their licence. Used responsibly, transparently and when there is no other option, we value the legislation as a useful way of helping to reduce evasion levels still further and enforce the law.

Sian Healey is Head of Communications and Policy for TV Licensing

Eight cameras will give audiences a unique view on the world-famous event including a remote camera that rotates to 180 degrees and can pan and tilt.

Cinemas relaying the live 3D experience can be found in:

Bath
Belfast
Birmingham
Braehead Glasgow
Brighton
Cardiff
Colchester
Covent Garden
Dunfermline
Greenwich
Kingston
Lincoln
Liverpool One
Maidenhead
Manchester Printworks
Norwich
Sheffield
Silverlinks Newcastle
Southampton
Swiss Cottage
Trafford Centre Manchester
Wimbledon

To purchase tickets visit BBC Proms homepage and follow the link under the highlights panel.

The second series of BBC Three's documentary Our War starts on Monday 20 August at 9.00pm.

In the audio interview above About the BBC blog producer Eloise McNaulty speaks to executive producer Colin Barr about the making of the programme, how contributors for the documentary series were selected and the steps involved in using the footage obtained from the field.

Jon Jacob is Editor of the About the BBC Blog

Our War begins on BBC Three on Monday 20 August at 9pm.

Former RAF pilot Jonathan Singh who features in Our War, has written a post on the BBC TV blog describing his experiences whilst serving in Afghanistan.

1. Olympics Wrap-Up

At the beginning of the week, the Media Centre website released viewing figures from across the BBC's Olympics coverage, confirming the Games as the biggest national TV event ever. Read more here.

The BBC Internet Blog ran a series of wrap-up posts post-Olympics output. Head of Product for BBC Sport and London 2012 Cait O' Riordan includes statistics for online and red button streams. Senior Technical Architect Matthew Clark wrote about the technical strategy he and his team adopted to produce the wealth of digital Olympics products the BBC offered, and Head of Core Services Marina Kalkanis revealed how audio and video streams were maintained during the sixteen days of the Games.

Over on the BBC Sport Editors' blog, Ben Gallop explains how post-Olympics, what the next steps are for BBC Sport online.

2. New series of Our War on BBC Three

Our War returns for a second series on BBC Three on Monday 20 August at 9.00pm. Executive Producer Colin Barr explained how the programme was made in a special interview for the About the BBC Blog.

3. BBC Radio 3 broadcasts 4'33" of 'silence'

Special measures (pictured above) were put in place to stop the Radio 3's emergency automatic playback for a late night performance of John Cage's 4'33" silence, part of the 2012 BBC Proms season. Listen to the entire concert via the BBC Proms website. The season runs until Saturday 8 September.

4. Radio 1 Xtra's 10th Birthday

Radio 1Xtra started ten years ago this week. The BBC Radio blog shared a series of birthday messages. The station celebrated with a special playlist. Jem Stone from Audio and Music Interactive, pulled together tweets, pictures and video from the day in a special Storify.

5. Doctor Who Asylum of the Daleks premiere at the BFI

The new series of Doctor Who starts soon on BBC One and BBC HD. Executive Producer Caro Skinner took over the Doctor Who Twitter account on the day of the premiere of the first story Asylum of the Daleks, and she kept a tight grip on the tape. Watch a behind-the-scenes video from the premiere below.

Earlier in the week BBC Radio 5 Live's Richard Bacon questioned executive producer Steven Moffat about the possibility of multiple Doctors appearing in the 50th anniversary drama written by Mark Gatiss planned for next year.

6. Grab your pinny

Sue, Mel, Mary and the Silver Fox returned to our screens with the third series of Great British Bake Off.

Cookery writer Mary Berry's recent appearance on Desert Island Discs is available via the programme's online archive.

7. Comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe Live

Edinburgh Fringe and BBC Three are hosting a mammoth night of live comedy via Red Button on Friday 17 August featuring more than 40 Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Festival acts. More information on the BBC Media Centre website.

8. A change for Radio 1 Breakfast Show jingles

Ahead of Nick Grimshaw's new breakfast show starting on 24 September, information emerged about Radio 1's new direction for breakfast show jingles. Former Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn talked to Today's Sarah Montague about it, reminding listeners about Radio 2's new package of jingles.

9. The Best Of Men

The inspiring story of how Dr Guttmann's work rehabilitating World War II soldiers that led to the creation of the Paralympics. Cast member David Proud shares his experience of acting in the drama on the BBC TV blog. Scriptwriter Lucy Gannon throws light on the writing process on the BBC Writersroom blog.

10. Time-lapse video from the Olympic Park

Finally, take two and a half minutes to watch Duncan McLean's beautiful time-lapse video shot during the Olympics featuring behind the scenes shots of the BBC's Olympic studio in Stratford. Thanks to BBC 2012 producer Imelda Flattery for the heads up.

Jon Jacob is Editor of the About the BBC Blog.

Follow @AboutTheBBC for all the latest updates.

The BBC's promise was to deliver coverage of every sport from every venue, and we certainly achieved this with our digital coverage: from the blue ribbon events like the 100m final all the way to the first taekwondo heats, the multi-faceted entirety of the Olympics was available to watch throughout the day across online and Red Button.

The BBC Media Centre published details on viewing figures from across the 2012 Olympics earlier this afternoon.

Every moment of the London 2012 Olympics is available on the BBC Sport website until 13 January 2013 (UK only).

As the Chair of the Pension Trustees says in the report, this has been a difficult year for all pension schemes including the BBC's. In 2011, for example, Barclays, BT and the Universities Superannuation Scheme revealed funding deficits of £6.4bn, £4.1bn and £2.9bn respectively, and many other companies face similar challenges with increased deficits. With regard to the BBC scheme, market conditions, and in particular falling bond yields, have pushed up the value of scheme liabilities. As a result, in spite of the value of the scheme's assets rising, the overall funding deficit of the BBC scheme has increased to £2.6bn.

Firstly it is important to note that this is an interim funding check, not a full funding valuation. The next full valuation is due in 2013 and at that point the Pension Trustees and the BBC will, if necessary, agree a new schedule of contributions to address any deficit.

The Pension Trustees rightly recognise that the BBC's support for the scheme remains strong. We are fully committed to the deficit recovery plan agreed with the Pension Trustees following the 2010 valuation and have paid the first two years' extra contributions. Moreover the benefit reforms introduced in 2010 were done specifically to help ensure the long term sustainability of the scheme. Had those reforms not been implemented, we estimate that the deficit would now be around £750m higher. It is important to add that the BBC has no plans for any further reforms at this time.

The report also explains how the Pension Trustees have reduced the scheme's investment risk over the past year, with the ultimate aim of becoming less financially dependent on the BBC. The BBC supports this approach since it will help safeguard the scheme's long term future.

We will of course continue to keep the scheme's position under review and will engage fully with the Pension Trustees following the full funding valuation next year.

Zarin Patel is the Chief Financial Officer at the BBC

As a once-in-a-lifetime broadcasting moment draws to a close, I want to pay tribute to every single person in the BBC who has helped to bring London 2012 to our audiences.

I am very proud of all our staff, from our on-air presenters, reporters and commentators, to all those who have worked tirelessly behind the camera and the mic. It's needed total commitment and great stamina through very long hours, but everywhere I've been over the past fortnight I've seen amazing team-work, passion and utter professionalism. The result has been the best coverage of any event by a broadcaster that I have ever had the privilege to witness.

For most people in this country, their experience of the Games has been through the BBC. Over 50 million viewers have watched our programming. The astonishing opening ceremony (which included several films made by the BBC including that unforgettable 'Good evening, Mr Bond' moment) drew a peak audience of 26.9m (27.1m including red button) and still had over 20m people watching after midnight. That all makes it one of the most watched programmes in the history of BBC Television. But that was only the start. Over the days since then, there have so many individual moments of triumph and drama - some playing to tens of millions of people, some to a few hundred thousand on one of our special Olympic channels, though none the worse for that. And all of them on the BBC.

Work began many years ago with a decision not only that we would commit to broadcast every moment of the games and carry every sport live, but that we would also attempt to reflect all aspects of the games' impact on the UK. In order to deliver this undertaking the BBC 2012 team, led by Roger Mosey, began the job of coordinating with teams across the BBC to ensure we had the resources and the programming to cover the biggest broadcasting event in our 90 year history.

In the years and months leading up to the games we told the journalistic stories behind the huge preparations, good and bad, in our news, current affairs and factual programming. Once the Olympic flame arrived in the United Kingdom on 18th May, BBC teams from across the country made sure every step of its journey was covered. As well as rolling online coverage, our local and regional news teams did a fantastic job of reporting the experience of the torchbearers and the huge crowds that turned out to greet them. This set the scene for the start of the games themselves.

As the sport got under way, an enormous effort swung into place to make sure we offered the most complete coverage of an Olympic games ever. Alongside programming on our main channels, we carried 24 HD streams from around the different venues so fans of every sport, from archery to wrestling, could follow the games live. Dave Gordon, who is working on his tenth summer Olympics for the BBC, has overseen a Herculean effort by Barbara Slater's BBC Sport teams in London and Salford, and at Eton Dorney, Weymouth and all the other locations around the UK, and I'd like to say thank you to all of them.

It's fair to say the coverage has been generally very positively received by the critics. But more importantly than that, it has set a new benchmark for audiences about how we cover big events in the future. In particular, this was the first truly digital Olympics and it gave them more choice and more control than they have ever experienced before.

Our Future Media teams designed and created ground breaking online services. So far we've had over 50 million requests for the BBC Sport's live video interactive streams, there have been 1.9m downloads of the BBC Olympics App, and perhaps most impressively the first week of the games was the most popular ever for BBC Sport Online with a total of 34.7m browsers.

Meanwhile, teams from radio and television have supported the sports coverage, with factual, drama and music programming providing a flavour of the games impact on the whole country.

None of this could have happened without a great deal of work behind the scenes to make sure everything ran smoothly and get the extra channels (both television and radio) on air without a hitch - although sometimes it's taken nerves of steel! Everyone who has worked in the BBC's Operations Group, which ensures the technology, distribution of content, and support services for all our programmes, has played a vital role.

While today sees the end of our Olympic coverage, the Paralympics will be beginning on August 29th and Radio 5 Live will be bringing audiences full coverage of the games, building on their terrific work at the Olympics, that has delivered the station's best ever audience appreciation figures. Our News and Global News teams will continue to bring the stories of the games to our national and international audiences, with the same authority, objectivity and an entirely justified touch of pride that they have shown throughout the Olympics.

So I'd like to conclude by saying thank you to all of you for your hard work, but also to our audiences for being there and sharing this unique experience with us. The London games are ending but the story of the BBC and the Olympics goes on. We've secured the rights to cover the winter and summer games to 2020. That means that we'll be in Rio in four years time and our ambition there will be the same as it's been in London. To use our creativity and experience, the latest technology and the oldest story-telling skills to once again offer our audiences the very best seats in the house. Thank you.

Mark Thompson is Director General of the BBC

UPDATE (Monday 13 August 2012): Today, the BBC released up-to-date information on TV and online statistics. Further information and links available here.