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Private Peaceful: Drama in surround sound

Friday 3 February 2012, 13:39

Rupert Brun Rupert Brun

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Ed's note: This Saturday's Play on Radio 4 is Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful, dramatised by Simon Reade. Directed on location by Susan Roberts, there are several different audio versions of the drama in surround sound available to download. Here Audio and Music's head of technology outlines the different listening options and how to get them - PM.

Soldiers

Following our successful experiment offering A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in surround sound at Christmas, we are now giving you the chance to hear a drama in surround sound. This time it will be available to download.

There are two versions of Private Peaceful to try, one is designed for use with normal surround sound speakers and the other gives an impression of listening on surround sound speakers using normal headphones.

To find out more about Michael Morpurgo's play Private Peaceful, visit the programme page.

To listen in Surround Sound on speakers

You need to download the audio file of the play and player from the internet by following these instructions, then install the player on a Windows PC connected via a surround sound card or HDMI cable to a multimedia amp or "home cinema".

Once you have accepted the terms and conditions you will be able to install the player.

When you've downloaded the player or the audio file, connect the surround sound output from your computer to the amplifier input using separate leads or an HDMI lead, then just drag and drop the downloaded audio file onto the player and it should play.

The special player will only work for the two weeks we are running this experiment, after which it will stop working and you should uninstall it. After the experiment, you will still be able to play the audio in stereo using a variety of media players.

To listen in Binaural Sound on headphones

You will need to experiment to find out which one works best for you; it will depend on the shape of your head and ears and the type of headphones you are using.

Once you have downloaded the audio, you can play it on your computer or put it in a mobile mp3 player or smartphone to take with you and enjoy at any time. There is no time limit on the binaural version and it should play on most devices but if you switch to a different type of headphones you may find you need to use a different binaural version of the audio

Strange though it may seem, different versions may also be affected by the size of room you are listening in and this is one of the properties we are seeking to examine with this experiment.

We'd like your feedback

We welcome comments on this blog, but if you have a question please check the FAQs first. We would also like you to complete the short survey to help us understand how the experiment worked for you; it covers both the loudspeaker and headphone experiments.

Find out more about the feedback we had from the last surround sound experiment with Radio 3's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

Rupert Brun is head of technology, BBC Audio & Music

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Comments

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  • rate this
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    Comment number 1.

    Thanks very much for making this available - so far with the binaural version, using earspeakers, I have found version 4 to be the most immersive, version 1 the least.

  • rate this
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    Comment number 2.

    Anything by the author of War Horse has to be worth tuning into and we certainly enjoyed Private Peaceful which was faithful to the book and enhanced by the audio experience especially the singing. Thank you, more please...!

  • rate this
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    Comment number 3.

    It's not clear on the download page which versions are binaural and which ones are surround, any idea where that information is and maybe some more technical information about how the spacialisation was achieved?

  • rate this
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    Comment number 4.

    agree with Dr-Soundmind (3).
    Just what is what. Above you say 'two versions' and the podcast page has files for 4 audio versions

  • rate this
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    Comment number 5.

    What is all this about?!? All I want to do is download a podcast onto my MP3 player and listen to the podcast. I don't have time to prat around and I was not happy first to download what I thought was a play only to find it was a 'There's a new podcast going to be available in several days" or suchlike, and then to download what I thought was a play only to find it was in a non-standard format and so therefore inaudible on my player. I certainly won't be downloading extra bits of software - even if they will function on my MP3 player, which I doubt - just to listen to *words*, for heaven's sake!

    If the BBC really wants something to do, then please make the confounded website quicker and more streamlined.

 

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