Bulbanews audio edition - staff recruitment

[Zhen Lin]

There are two main tasks:
1. Writing the script to be read out
2. Reading out the script & recording it

And two postproduction tasks:
1. Cleaning up the audio
2. Encoding it for distribution

Keep in mind that the person who is recording the audio will need to be able to upload that audio - although I would prefer lossless encoding at that stage, we may have to settle for a very high quality MP3 encode. Lossless encoding runs at about 2.6MB per minute, 160kbps MP3 comes to about 1.2MB per minute.

 

[evkl]

How often would this run?

 

[Zhen Lin]

Depends on the volume of news we get. Once a week is probably optimistic, and we probably won't be able to handle two a week even if there was enough volume.

 

[Archaic]

I'd be fine to do the reading.

 

[Argy]

Ah, but newscasters aren't supposed to have accents. Ever hear of "non-regional diction"?

If it's only once a week I could read it.

 

[Zhen Lin]

It would be nice if we could do a test run sometime before we announce this (February 27).

 

[Dogasu]

Dumb question: Why don't we just incorporate it into the regular Bulbacast? You know, just devote the first five minutes or so just reporting the news (without commentary or discussion) before the actual Bulbacast conversation begins?

 

[Zhen Lin]

Allows us to have separate & independent release schedules.

 

[Zhen Lin]

OK... since someone leaked the fact we're doing this on Bulbacast, we'd better do it.

I'm waiting to hear a sample recording. Or read a sample script.

If nothing is done by April, this project will be shelved.

 

[Archaic]

Well, we identified one person as a possible newsreader for the project...did anyone contact him and ask if he'd like to do it?

 

[Zhen Lin]

Actually, I was thinking of having a little postprocessing before encoding. (Also, you may prefer to use Audacity + LAME for that task.)

The sample is a little too soft (can be fixed in postprocessing - though it would also magnify the background noise (which can be filtered, but tends to alter the voice as well), so do try to speak more loudly). English pronunciation is generally good, though Japanese needs more work. The tempo is a little slow for news though.