Reflections.

Over the past 3 months I have been working on a group project as part of my Broadcast Media course at Bath Spa University.

The main aim of the project, was to produce a radio show or Podcast, the theme of which was up to the group. Me and group partner Ved, decided to do a Live music session podcast, called "Wired4Sound".

We found a really good band to use for this production, 'The Apostates' - their music was great, and they did a really good interview (we ended up with almost an hour of material!).

I think me and Ved worked very well together, we held regular production meetings and where always organised and new exactly what we where doing.
I think we worked well together when it came to the editing. It can sometimes be awkward when you have more than one person sat in front of a computer screen - with one person 'assuming' the role of editor, rather than working as a group.
This wasn't the case though, me and Ved (I felt) communicated well with every aspect of the production.

For the portfolio write - up, which accompanied the podcast, me and Ved split the work in two. I felt that this worked well, with both of us fulfilling our quotas well. I am just as happy with the portfolio, as I am with the actual podcast itself.

Overall, I really enjoyed the project. It has given me much more enthusiasm regarding the upcoming projects that make up the rest of the course. I hope that any other group efforts will work out as well as they did with me and Veds Podcast production.

It is also my understanding that I am no longer required to use this blog as part of the course, but I have enjoyed this process (I am new to blogs), so I think I will continue it - maybe broadening the range of topics I post on.

Presentation time!

Hello dear reader!

Hope you have enjoyed my blogs so far..
The following is some presentations I have created in the past several months.

| View | Upload your own

| View | Upload your own

NEWSDESK & A HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Welcome to my first blog of 2008! Its a double whammy this week as I am also hosting the groups weekly Newsdesk, enjoy!

First up, the popular internet networking site myspace.com is once again in the media spotlight.


Last week, a new service was announced that will allow celebrities to interact with fans through their very own myspace page. Up until now, fans of certain celeb's where unable to be sure that they where actually leaving messages to the genuine article or one of the many impersonators that have infiltrated the site.


The initial take up of the service has been strong with famous names such as Britney Spears, Leonardo DiCaprio and Paris Hilton amongst others already signed up. For more information on this story please click THIS link where Lance explains further.



Another internet related story on this weeks newsdesk comes courtesy of Will .
BT Vision, is a UK based service provided by (as the name suggests) British Telecommunications that allows a freeview-like Digital television service that is delivered via a broadband connection. Until now, it has just been available to conventional PC/Mac users but last week BT announced that the service is being extended to allow Microsoft Xbox 360 users to take advantage of the service through their games machines.
However, as Will mentions in his BLOG - the service being provided to the Xbox is not as feature rich as the regular BT Vision mode of delivery.

While Talking about Microsoft, it is also worth mentioning that Bill Gates - Owner & CEO of Redmond co. (Microsoft) talked out about how new technology is soon going to change the way in which users interact with computer based media.
In an interview with Roy Cellan-Jones on behalf of the BBC news, Gates predicted that the traditional keyboard and mouse where a thing of the past. The sense of touch, vision and speech interfaces would become increasingly important, said Microsofts number one.

"This whole idea of what I call natural user interface is really redefining the experience"

"Were adding the ability to touch and manipulate, were adding vision so the computer can see what you are doing, were adding the pen, were adding the speech.."

It comes as no suprise to me that Mr Gates is speaking out about this technology now, as 2008 is the year in which Microsoft next big project - "The surface" is released - which is a table-like touch sensitive computer that can understand the human voice.


I think that although this technology is already here in the mainstream, in the form of the Nintendo Wii - it has yet to be utilised in a wider range of media. I think in regards to the new media, that these new (ish) technologys are really exiting and will offer us a lot of genuinally new experiences. I think it will be especially interesting to see how advertisers and online media streaming companies will respond and utilise this.


Taking place in Las Vegas all this week is the Consumer Electric Show. The aim of the show is too introduce the world to the hottest new equipment available to joe public.
Highlights of the show included in-car internet and 150ft HD television screens.
Much more information about the show can be found on Mikes Blog along with some personal comments.



"Britannia High " is the name of a new show in production under ITV, which combines a stage-school drama, behind-the scenes real-life documantry and a revue final.
It is known that Gary Barlow, of ex-boyband group 'Take That' and Strictly come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips are taking on the roles of presenters and tutors to the contestents.
Further details on the show can be found HERE.


Media company EMAP last week sold its business-to-business division to Guardian Media Group and Apex (which is a private equity firm) for 1bn dollars. It is believed that both companies will run their new aquisitition together.
Please check out VED's BLOG for more information, and personal thoughts on this story.