Yesterday we launched embedded media (see an example here) across the BBC News and Sport sites.

We are starting with just a few stories, but over the next few weeks, we will be converting most of our video and audio to be embedded.

We're using an embedded media player which, within the BBC, is known by the secret code name of the Embedded Media Player - or EMP. This is a new site-wide media player built by the Journalism and iPlayer teams. More about this further down.



"So what does this change on the site?", you may ask.

Currently, our audio and video appears in popup windows using Real or Windows Media formats, which you get to by clicking on the Watch / Video or Listen / Audio links that you see in stories. You can see some examples in this story underneath the main picture.



This approach has served us well, but it was apparent from trials we ran in the middle of last year [for example, here] , that in general, people find embedded media easier to engage with. No surprise there, as the unstoppable march of sites such as YouTube has proven. However, Pete Clifton also talked about how this may change the way we make video and provide added value to the stories it is associated with.



It has taken some time to put all the pieces in place to make this change, but there are a lot of moving parts to adapt without breaking anything that is being used on the live site.