Richard Farrar's Blog

Podcasts are now common place, with almost anybody being able to produce one themselves if they wish. However, with a little thought and a little extra effort, it’s possible to take this new medium to a whole new level and produce your own radio play.

Thanks to the advent of digital audio and the power of modern PCs, it’s now well within the capabilities of virtually anyone to produce and publish their own radio play using the same technologies as used in podcasting.

As a small kid I remember producing plays with my toys, an upturned stool for a theatre, a few torches and the tales of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter as a script. Since then my interests graduated to music production; I played in numerous bands and have always been keen on recording bands as a hobby.

However, my recent visit to an audio post production film editing suite at Pinewood Studios, re-sparked my interest in plays (I’ve always been a fan of the BBC’s radio series: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and got me to thinking about using the same equipment that I use for podcasting, but pushing it’s use a bit further.

All I needed was some creative inspiration, but in it’s absence, I did the next best thing and borrowed it from someone else…

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By now you’ve probably heard of the term “bit rate” used in connection with MP3 tracks and podcasts, you may even know that higher bit rates give better quality audio. However, like most things in life, nothing is simple and we can further complicate the whole bit rate discussion with variable and constant bit rates. So, what are the pros and cons of these constant and variable bit rates?

Choosing a bit rate for a podcast, or an MP3 track, is a bit of a balancing act at the best of times. On the one hand, higher bit rates (variable or constant) give improved audio quality, whilst on the other they lead to bigger file sizes.

Introducing yet another variable into the equation, that of constant or variable bit rates, only serves to confuse the situation even further. What then are the relative pros and cons that may affect your choice of type of bit rate to use?

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The Internet Monthly is a monthly podcast featuring 20 or so short Internet related articles, tips and tricks and a regular search engine of the month feature.

In this month’s podcast, you can find out about the next generation of Super Fast Broadband that’s due out soon, a whole set of new top level domain names, a revolutionary business search engine from the Financial Times and another from British physicist Stephen Wolfram.

There’s news about a free trial of a new PPC sponsored search advertising service, a copywriting quiz for anyone with a Web site that has something to sell, a free online collaborative whiteboard, how to get answers from politicians online and the latest on Internet TV in your living room.

This podcast is derived from a monthly newsletter published by Zen Internet and recorded and produced by Silicon Bay. The podcast is reproduced by kind permission of Zen Internet.

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