Comments on: Over Catering for Your Listeners http://www.mattdeegan.com/2007/09/30/over-catering-for-your-listeners/ Posts about radio, digital, media and the future Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:59:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: William T http://www.mattdeegan.com/2007/09/30/over-catering-for-your-listeners/comment-page-1/#comment-14128 William T Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:09:51 +0000 http://www.mattdeegan.com/2007/09/30/over-catering-for-your-listeners/#comment-14128 @Sam: Wikipedia says (yes I know) that these PPM things can last for several months. Given this, my theory is that it must just sample short bursts of audio every 15 minutes (ie the standard Rajar interval.) It does nothing with these other than store them, and then they're all downloaded into a computer for analysis. If there's no audio at the time it doesn't record anything. I believe (based on occasion conversations on TWiT podcasts) that American stations often adhere to a standard clock format for their commercials to discourage listeners from changing channels, so it may be pre-programmed with the minutes past the hour most likely to get an ident. Of course, every single bit of background noise is going to be picked up this way - plus I still don't thinks its granular enough - I will often listen to two or more stations within a 15 minute period. On the subject of webcasts - the stuff the BBC is doing is interesting (not just R1 - whose multicast page seems to hint this might be something they're considering permanently - but also Five Live). I'm also a bit concerned at what's had to be cut to free up staff to vision mix, the cost of the equipment to generate the astons, and so on - imho I'd rather all the resources went into the content of the show - the 5-minute refresh rate of the many existing BBC webcams could be reduced at zero cost (we must be getting on for a decade of that policy now?) And I've seen these video trials several times before (live stream of the Today programme, anyone?) and they always seem to be abandoned after a short time - though admittedly we all have a lot more bandwidth than we used to. The point is, though as a radio anorak I'd personally jump at the chance to watch a live video stream of the studio, want the ability to listen to all the outside sources on demand and monitor the running order and ENPS, I don't think the "core audience" really care much for this sort of thing. They may watch once or twice but will quickly get bored of it. My pet hate at the moment is branding - I've just about got used to every BBC station having to run trails twice an hour, whilst gritting my teeth through those *dreadful* BBC One promos which Marketing & Trails insist on bookending with a BBC1 ident and a "BBC One - the one to watch tonight" voiceover, but they've now stepped up branding on podcasts as well, so literally every link in a typical Radio 2 podcast has to have a jingle - it seems they're limited to 10 seconds but 5 is enough to me. If people have gone to the trouble of downloading something they've already been exposed to multiple layers of branding, they don't need more. Wish Ipods were open source so you could press a key combination to skip through them. Oh - and as an aside - has anyone else noticed the posh woman who has read out the menu system for Orange mobile phones since time immemorial has been junked for someone with a slightly, er, different, voice? (Rant over - apologies if I've offended anyone.) @Sam: Wikipedia says (yes I know) that these PPM things can last for several months. Given this, my theory is that it must just sample short bursts of audio every 15 minutes (ie the standard Rajar interval.) It does nothing with these other than store them, and then they’re all downloaded into a computer for analysis. If there’s no audio at the time it doesn’t record anything. I believe (based on occasion conversations on TWiT podcasts) that American stations often adhere to a standard clock format for their commercials to discourage listeners from changing channels, so it may be pre-programmed with the minutes past the hour most likely to get an ident. Of course, every single bit of background noise is going to be picked up this way – plus I still don’t thinks its granular enough – I will often listen to two or more stations within a 15 minute period.

On the subject of webcasts – the stuff the BBC is doing is interesting (not just R1 – whose multicast page seems to hint this might be something they’re considering permanently – but also Five Live). I’m also a bit concerned at what’s had to be cut to free up staff to vision mix, the cost of the equipment to generate the astons, and so on – imho I’d rather all the resources went into the content of the show – the 5-minute refresh rate of the many existing BBC webcams could be reduced at zero cost (we must be getting on for a decade of that policy now?) And I’ve seen these video trials several times before (live stream of the Today programme, anyone?) and they always seem to be abandoned after a short time – though admittedly we all have a lot more bandwidth than we used to.

The point is, though as a radio anorak I’d personally jump at the chance to watch a live video stream of the studio, want the ability to listen to all the outside sources on demand and monitor the running order and ENPS, I don’t think the “core audience” really care much for this sort of thing. They may watch once or twice but will quickly get bored of it.

My pet hate at the moment is branding – I’ve just about got used to every BBC station having to run trails twice an hour, whilst gritting my teeth through those *dreadful* BBC One promos which Marketing & Trails insist on bookending with a BBC1 ident and a “BBC One – the one to watch tonight” voiceover, but they’ve now stepped up branding on podcasts as well, so literally every link in a typical Radio 2 podcast has to have a jingle – it seems they’re limited to 10 seconds but 5 is enough to me. If people have gone to the trouble of downloading something they’ve already been exposed to multiple layers of branding, they don’t need more. Wish Ipods were open source so you could press a key combination to skip through them.

Oh – and as an aside – has anyone else noticed the posh woman who has read out the menu system for Orange mobile phones since time immemorial has been junked for someone with a slightly, er, different, voice?

(Rant over – apologies if I’ve offended anyone.)

]]> By: Sam http://www.mattdeegan.com/2007/09/30/over-catering-for-your-listeners/comment-page-1/#comment-14064 Sam Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:26:44 +0000 http://www.mattdeegan.com/2007/09/30/over-catering-for-your-listeners/#comment-14064 I completely agree, it was absurdly compelling. I was involved in testing the setup during Mills' show on Thursday afternoon. I had mates outside the BBC looking at it as well to check it was getting outside the firewall. Of course, I had to go into the studio to, er, y know, just check everything was ok, and perhaps, wave at the camera once or twice. A question about PPM - does it use special silent codes or something to detect what you're listening to? Or does it just recognise sound patterns or something? Because if it's the latter, that means listening online, via tv, or via video streams like this would count as well. And what about listening again online or to podcasts? Could it recognise you're listening to something that was previously live, and add that to your stats? I completely agree, it was absurdly compelling. I was involved in testing the setup during Mills’ show on Thursday afternoon. I had mates outside the BBC looking at it as well to check it was getting outside the firewall. Of course, I had to go into the studio to, er, y know, just check everything was ok, and perhaps, wave at the camera once or twice.

A question about PPM – does it use special silent codes or something to detect what you’re listening to? Or does it just recognise sound patterns or something? Because if it’s the latter, that means listening online, via tv, or via video streams like this would count as well. And what about listening again online or to podcasts? Could it recognise you’re listening to something that was previously live, and add that to your stats?

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