Initial Project Proposal

I will create an introduction to an episode of a program on Channel Four Radio called "Braille Trail", which will be broadcast every Wednesday evening at 7:30 for thirty minutes.  The program discusses issues of particular interest to blind and partially sighted people, paying particular attention to new products and services and recent and upcoming events.

Channel Four Radio does not broadcast a great deal of music programming.  As such, the station ID should focus on the speech and sound effects rather than music; indeed, it may not be necessary to incorporate music at all, although doing so may add flavour.  The ID should exude an atmosphere of calmness: that is to say, it should be read clearly at a moderate pace.  I propose recording the sound of someone Brailling on a Perkins Brailler and someone walking, then mixing them together, adding any necessary effects, to create the sound of someone literally following the Braille Trail.  This could be accomplished by slowly moving the sound of the Brailler from right to left across the stereo spectrum, then doing the same to the footsteps, then mixing the two together, ensuring that the footsteps begin a few seconds after the Brailler.  The recording of the Brailler should end with the bell signifying that the carriage has reached the end of the line, at which point a voice could announce "The Braille Trail with Matthew Horspool on Channel Four Radio".  A short burst of music could also be mixed in at this point to add flavour.

The programme should use distinct theme music so that it is easily recogniseable by the listeners.  It also gives the programme a definite start and end, making it easier to extract it for archiving.  The music should have a dramatic feel, similar to that used by television news broadcasters.  It could possibly be recorded at a tempo of 100 BPM using a time signature of 2/4, but this is not essential.

Immediately after the ID, over the top of the theme music, the host could say: "Hello and welcome to The Braille Trail, 30 minutes of news and comment of rellevence to people with sight loss.  I'm Matthew Horspool.  This week:"

At this point, the archive clip could be introduced.  I propose a clip from one of Brian Hartgen's software reviews, perhaps of a new version of J-Say.

After this, the host could continue: "We hear an extensive interview with Brian Hartgen about significant developments to the J-Say software which enables Blind and Partially Sighted people to effectively control and dictate text to a computer via voice."

The Introduction Ends.