As messages flow through a greater number of channels into a greater number of receiving appliances, information and entertainment are more easily available than ever before and different audiences can be reached. What’s more, also marginal contents may now find their way to target groups conveniently both via the internet and the mobile.

You are browsing the Tool Box – the set of equipment you need to succeed in multichannel distribution. This Neo Arena project has been a collaboration of engineers and content producers working together through the byte jungle with the aim of clearing it up as a functional multichannel environment. The project has acquainted professionals of technical and cultural industries with each other’s views, and this has brought forth issues and aspects of a great variety, all of which have been just as necessary for the initiative’s completion. With the release, information professionals from many different backgrounds will be able to use a common terminology required to succeed in their tasks.

The site will especially come in handy for anyone interested in multichannel distribution: content producers, engineers, and educational institutions.

The Tool Box came into being when the results from work packages 1-3 of the initiative were put together with the data compiled from interviews with content producers and other affiliates. These people were asked what kind of information they required and what the common operation model should look like both in shape and content. Based on the interviews, a few guidelines were then sketched and subjected to testing conducted in the form of practical instances. With the help of the guidelines people from different backgrounds were able to use a common terminology necessary for any kind of mutual understanding and successful cooperation. In Neo Arena all parties – both artists and engineers – have discovered a new perspective to their work and have thus been able to take into consideration each other’s views in the development of the project’s contents, applications, and receiving appliances.

The Tool Box is a continually developing entity whose contents are regularly updated as new results arrive in connection with the release of the various Neo Arena work packages. In the first phase of the initiative the Tool Box helps audiovisual professionals familiarise themselves with multichannel technology, and also engineers may use the same Box to learn new things about content production. The Tool Box comprises the eurekas, content-related innovations, and technical definitions of the trade. The Box includes the recommended software and actual observations about using it.