Audemos have created bespoke sonic branding for the  ‘Future Now project’, a  Team within BBC Training and Development . Future Now are the BBC’s multiplatform training specialists and wanted branding for use across all their in house video and audio production.

Audemos were asked to create a sound that reflected the philosophy of Future Now. Creatively the brief was challenging, as it was necessary to work within the existing guidelines of the Training and development branding but the BBC team were encouraged to share ideas through the branding process, demanding something that was futuristic - but not technological, inclusive - but not patronising.

The finished results can be heard here: BBC Future Now Intro

We are delighted (really) to be creating audio guides to the South Downs. Audemos are producing six short audio guides to delight and enchant walkers, riders and visitors to the rolling hills of Southern England.

The series of short audio pieces is entitled ‘LANDSHAPERS’ and together they tell the story of how the Downs have evolved over 6000 years of human intervention to become one of Britain’s most celebrated landscapes. Richly textured with sound design, the audio guides feature renowned archaeologists, geologists, and ecologists as well as farmers, historians, shepherds and wood colliers (charcoal makers to you and me). The series will take listeners on a journey starting with the chalk formation on the sea beds of the cretaceous period, through the arrival of the first humans, the impact of the industrial ages and right up to date with modern agriculture.

The series of six programmes are currently in production and will be launched in the Summer of 2008. They will be available as downloads from www.visitsouthdowns.com, and distributed on MP3 players in Tourist information centres from Eastbourne to Winchester.

eMarketer says a number of factors are driving growth of the podcast user base:

• Greater ease of consumption for podcast content
• Growing awareness of podcasting
• Terrestrial radio’s use and promotion of podcasting
• Increased penetration of portable players
• The evolution of smart phones and proliferation of affordable mobile data plans

I wonder if podcasts will even be called podcasts in two years time.

Check the full report here.

More than 8 million people in the UK listen to web-based radio services every week and nearly 2 million download podcasts on a weekly basis, according to a survey that suggests internet radio has hit the mainstream.

These are interesting figures but:

“This survey is very much a toe in the water,” said the Rajar research director, Paul Kennedy.

More at the Guardian.

Just a heads up on a great new episode from Spiral Training. The first show examined the power and peril of using Powerpoint, and today’s show discusses networking in the Facebook era.

Audemos support Spiral Training in delivering their podcasts.

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We just got some download figures back from the Discovery Channel and they are pretty pleasing. It seems the podcast has been downloaded 30,000 times - although we know that doesn’t mean it’s been listened to that many times.

And I have to agree.  I’ve been banging on about content is king and delivery being transparent for a long time.  He says:

“I am not a podcaster. I’m a journalist, a pundit, an entertainer. I create audio and video shows and distribute them over the Internet. Maybe that’s YouTube, maybe it’s my own web site, maybe it’s via an RSS feed. The medium isn’t the message - the message is the message. It’s not a podcast, it’s a show, and I plan to call my shows by the right name from now on.”

It’s a great post, so go read it.

The guys behind Diggnation, The totally rad show and other tech/geek video podcasts have raised another $8 million, on top of the $1 million raised last year.

I love Diggnation, even though I wouldn’t class myself as a proper geek. It’s well produced, in fact it’s better than a lot of traditional content on TV. Here’s why they called the company Revision3:

The company calls itself Revision3 because they think that television is moving into its third stage:

• Revision 1: Cable, adding general interest channels, catering to “most common denominator.”
• Revision 2: PC-based Internet video, indy films, no business model, no loyalty, no audience
• Revision 3: TV and Internet converge. iPods, Tivo, mobile, broadband enable mass, loyal audience to shift to ondemand, niche content. Advertising follows them.

Via Podcasting News

“Long gone are the days when search engine optimization (SEO) was enough to drive a flood of traffic to your website. While most old school marketers are still trying to figure out the pesky nuances of the latest “Google dance”, younger and savvier webmasters understand that we’re now serving two masters: SEO has become the evil twin - and SMO (social media optimization), his shiny happy sibling.”

Found at copywriting.com

The Diffusion Group reports that, based on their latest research, 11% of adult broadband users (some 12 million US consumers) listen to podcasts at least once per month. They also predict that the podcast audience will more than double in the next five years, to 24% of broadband users (38.5 million Americans) by 2012.

The story goes on to say that the expansion is being held back by 2 key factors, perception of complexity and lack of awareness of the wealth of content available.

Here’s some other key findings:

• Among those that listen to podcasts at least once per month, 68% use a portable device while 49% listen to them on a PC (an interesting insight given that many define podcasting as only a portable medium);
• On average, users listen to 5.4 podcasts per month on a portable device and 4.7 on a PC;
• On average, those who subscribe to podcast services are signed up for 4.1 different feeds; and
• 70% of users rely on iTunes to access podcasts.

Get the rest of the story at podcastingnews.com