Luxury is a difficult subject to tackle on the Internet.

During 2007, we built a back-end platform for a new social network site called SQUA.RE – operating at http://squa.re. SQUA.RE is a site that is built for lovers of luxury in all its forms, including fashion, nightlife and high-end products. The site is very much video based, with both professional and user generated content being played on the site. Strict editorial quality control is exerted over material coming in from users – a team of editors monitors each submission, accepting or rejecting content based on the ethos of the site, and assigning content into one of a number of “channels”.  This allows the owners of the site, Square Media, the ability to build out an exclusive user community and content portfolio attuned to, and of more value to the luxury brand advertising partners that they have.

The site is based on Flash video technology, with the Mediasmiths own developed platform providing functionality for ingest, content management, user management, content personalisation and advertising. SQUA.RE launched in early 2008, and we have provided technical support and incremental development for the site since that time.

In developing and implementing SQUA.RE, we carried out the following key tasks.

The site owners decided to adopt a development model where the site front-end was developed by a specialist design company, whilst we designed the back-end, in order to meet an eventual requirement for large numbers of branded “micro sites” driven from the same core back-end. We developed an architecture providing a service-oriented platform based on our own SynergyXM asset in order to meet this requirement.

We carried out an exercise to capture the overall requirements for the site functionality from the Square Media design time, and prepared a detailed functional and technical specification. This document was then used as the master reference for both the front-end and back-end development teams.

We carried out exercises with the Square Media team to select an appropriate video delivery mechanism and codec configuration in order to deliver a high-quality video experience to the users of SQUA.RE. We also assisted them in selecting an off-the-shelf Flash player that could be customised to the extent necessary to fit into the site security and SOA model.

We developed specific customisations to the Synergy core in order to meet the specific requirements for the SQUA.RE site, including a customised video ingest workflow; specific user management and security features; and customised algorithms to select an agreed mix of site content for display on the main channel (the playlist viewed when the site is first opened). We also carried out the integration of the front-end and back-end software prior to release.

We helped the Square Media team to define detailed test scripts for the SQUA.RE sites in order for them to carry out detailed feature and quality assurance for each software release in the development cycle.

We currently provide ongoing support and expert consultation to the Square Media team for all aspect of the SQUA.RE back-end, and have done so since the site went live. This includes the periodic development of new functionality in order to support the Square Media business.