A potential vision for Spacevidcast
Cariann and I were at the Mall of America earlier today looking for birthday presents for my twin brothers. While there we noticed a huge dance presentation in the main rotunda. That reminded me a bit about an old business plan I had of bringing community access television to shopping malls. The plan was called ‘Focus Net’ and it would allow communities to have their own news program and shows local to them. Long and short of it is I was never able to make it go, but I have always thought that putting a TV studio in large shopping malls was a good idea.
I was thinking that maybe Spacevidcast should open a studio space in the Mall of America. Encased in glass and shifting the time of the show to a premium time that users would be in the mall, we could create a local and worldwide buzz by really, really engaging people in person. Allow for a live audience, or allow people to watch the control room, or whatever they want. When a shuttle mission (or Constellation, or whatever) is happening durning mall hours we could move to the main rotunda and do a live show from there with a huge HD projection behind us showing the live launch coverage. Big lights, loud noises, and people in-person, on-stage asking their questions.
There is a HUGE Lego ISS model hanging in one area of the mall (oddly enough over the Lego store) and it might be cool to have them make us another HUGE Lego ISS model that we can use as part of our set. When a new module is added to the ISS we could have a ceremony of sticking the new module on to the ISS Lego model. When we want to explain something we can walk around the Lego model, take that unit off and show it around. Thought that may be fun and interesting to look at.
The core idea here is that people like what they can get involved with. People also like bright shiny objects, loud noises, and cool effects. I think we can do all of that by taking over the old Planet Hollywood space on the 4th floor of the Mall of America. Why MOA? There are over 40 million visitors annually that visit the Mall of America. How many people is that? Well to put that in perspective the Mall of America attracts more visitors than Disney World, Graceland and the Grand Canyon combined, or 7x the population of the entire state of Minnesota. That is a LOT of people, and a lot of potential eyeballs that could get passionate about space again.
As always money is holding me back. I think a large vision like this may attract someone like a Boeing, Lockheed, NASA or other large space firm who really wants to get their name out that and stands to benefit from the upcoming boom of space travel. Imagine us broadcasting from the multi-million dollar Boeing Studios at the Mall of America. Great branding for them, great show potential for us and our ability to win over new space geeks helps everyone involved.
I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this one. Do you think is is a good idea, bad idea or needs some work? I can get some numbers on what it would cost to actually take over the Planet Hollywood space, or a different more highly trafficked space as well. This can’t be done on my day job budget, so I need a HUGE sponsor. Anyone have any ideas/contacts there? We can make a nifty video showing it off and give out the bigger vision to anyone interested.
I’m excited. I think this is a good foundation for an idea and could really take Spacevidcast places. Thoughts?
Wonderful idea. I would come next time i go to the mall of America. I’ve heard of other podcasts doing this,that is, recording in a crowded area. I’ve heard lots of musicians do that,play live at a coffee shop every certain day of the week and put it up on the web the next day. Great idea. I think it’ll bring new listeners and excite the ones already paying attention.
I would definately come check you out at MOA. You would have to have a bunch of awesome stuff to sell too to all the people that come by and are like “Space?”, “What is this Space thing?”. Or, just broadcasting from somewhere there might be neat and cheaper.