Print & Scan used for Data Collection and Analysis in Channel 4's Boys & Girls show

Following a successful pilot series, the new Saturday night game show on Channel 4 called Boys & Girls was launched on the 1st March and is now half way through the series. Due to the number of participants in the show (100 boys and 100 girls) and the fact that the audience were not always seated the producers of the show, UMTV, felt it was impractical to use any electronic devices, especially those with cables. They therefore required a system which would allow them to collect data from two types of form, (a contestant appearance and a survey form), which would allow almost instant processing and data analysis.

Trax UK were approached through a web enquiry from UMTV and following intensive discussions between Chris Macken and James Hollands of Trax and Chris Gillet of UMTV it was agreed that the company would undertake an on-site bureau service on a Saturday afternoon at the Wembley studio using Print & Scan V6.20 on a laptop computer plus printer with the main data collection process carried out on an NCS Opscan 4U/1800. As the data is time critical (the show goes out live) there can be no time margin allowed for breakdowns etc. To overcome this aspect a complete set of backup systems is also taken by Trax staff to the Wembley studio including a standby data collection system. To date this has not had to be used as the main system has proved both robust and reliable.

Printing of both the survey and contestant appearance forms is undertaken by Trax on the Friday prior to the show and due to the flexibility of the Print & Scan system it means that the survey form can be changed each week to suit particular groups of participants. Discussions are also under way with Celador due to interest in the show in other countries such as Australia and the USA.

For any potential clients looking at this type of data capture then we are able to offer our standard bureau services where forms are processed at our premises or on site in a similar fashion to that outlined above. Alternatively we can also undertake data capture on forms that cannot be machine read, in their current format, whereby data is transferred by either keyboard entry or by simple transposition onto machine readable forms. Finally, we can tailor our services to suit individual user requirements and for more details we suggest you call Chris Macken on 01634-724724