“Please send us your money”: The BBC’s evolving relationship with charitable causes, fundraising and humanitarian appeals

Fundraising for charitable causes has had a key place in the BBC’s schedule since the earliest days of the corporation and the establishment of the weekly radio appeal. As new forms of fundraising through high-profile media events developed in the 1980s, raising unprecedentedly large sums for charity, the BBC had to adjust the way it negotiated with good causes and audiences. These changes coincided with professionalization and rapid growth of the NGO sector, which sought to elicit funds from a wider public using innovative techniques and new ways of reaching out through the media. This article uses internal BBC documents to examine how, against this rapidly changing background, the organization navigated the rules behind broadcasting of appeals. This includes the way that the BBC interacted with the Disasters Emergency Committee that had been established in the 1960s to provide an interface between broadcasters and charities to oversee exceptional fundraising for international causes. In some cases, the BBC faced difficulties in reconciling its duty to educate audiences about charitable causes with the fundraising imperative which relied on TV extravaganzas. In other cases, the BBC confronted the question of whether it was hosting a global fundraising event or simply covering an event organized by others. These kinds of emerging challenges which arose out of new innovations in fundraising via broadcasting produced interesting debates that are still evolving both within the charitable sector and in the way it relates to the media. The BBC’s role within this ecology provides some illuminating insights about the issues connected with raising funds for humanitarian causes

Vision applications in agriculture

From early beginnings in work on the visual guidance of tractors, the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture has built up a portfolio of projects in which machine vision plays a prominent part. This presentation traces the history of this research, including some highly unusual topics

Automated soil hardness testing machine

This paper describes the design and performance of a mechatronic system for controlling a standard drop-hammer mechanism that is commonly used in performing outdoor soil or ground hardness tests. A low-cost microcontroller is used to control a hydraulic actuator to repeatedly lift and drop a standard free-falling weight that strikes a pipe (sampler) which is pushed deeper into the ground with each impact. The depth of the sampler pipe and position of the hydraulic cylinder are constantly monitored and the number of drops, soil penetration data and other variables are recorded in a database for future analysis. This device, known as the “EVH Trip Hammer”, allows the full automation and faster completion of what is typically a very labour-intensive and slow testing process that can involve human error and the risk of human injuries

The use of machine vision for assessment of fodder quality

At present fodder is assessed subjectively. The evaluation depends greatly on a personal opinion and there can be large variations in assessments. The project has investigated the use of machine vision in several ways, to provide measures of fodder quality that will be ojective and independent of the assessor. Growers will be able to quote a quality measure that buyers can trust. The research includes the possibility of discerning colour differences that are beyond the capability of the human eye, while still using equipment that is of relatively modest cost

Bovine intelligence for training horses

A rail-mounted model of a small cow is to be used in the training of horses for camp-drafting contests. The paper concerns the addition of sensors and a strategy to enable the machine to respond to the proximity of the horse in a manner that will represent the behaviour of a live calf

Plasma sprayed titanium coatings with/without a shroud

Abstract: Titanium coatings were deposited by plasma spraying with and without a shroud. The titanium coatings were then assessed by scanning electron microscopy. A comparison in microstructure between titanium coatings with and without the shroud was carried out. The results showed that the shroud played an important role in protecting the titanium particles from oxidation. The presence of the shroud led to a reduction in coating porosity. The reduction in air entrainment with t he shroud resulted in better heating of the particles, and an enhanced microstructure with lower porosity in the shrouded titanium coatings were observed compared to the air plasma sprayed counterpart