Rob’s twice-monthly, 30 minute podcast is described as ‘an insight into the eclectic world of Rob da Bank, the Radio 1 DJ and Sunday Best supremo’. Catch up on the Bestival with live tracks from XX Teens, Candie Payne and the beatboxing guru Beardyman, enter the quest to find the secrets of the Women’s Institutes Victoria sponge or simply relax to the latest ‘Post-Bestival Chill’ podcast.

Talking Voices has been working with Rob da Bank and his Sunday Best Podcast since April 2007.

London, UK; Melbourne, Australia.
September 28th 2007

John Cleese to release new video series in conjunction with The Podcast Network.

British actor, writer and comedian John Cleese is to release Headcast, a series of online videos, which he describes as “some humorous, some more thoughtful, giving me a chance to sound off in my old age.”

A free version will be made available over the next few months on The Podcast Network, which John says is “rather good, run by Australians, and none the worse for that.”

A premium version of the Headcast will also be made available.

John’s free podcast, produced by UK new media company Funk, has achieved close to 500,000 downloads in 2007.

Dean Whitbread from Funk said:

“John is really forward-looking when it comes to technology. He got into video early and he reaped the benefits. He’s been investing in online media for some years now, and when we started to produce podcasts for him in 2005, we saw a huge take up from the online audience.

John’s podcast has been free since we started, and we’re going to maintain that, but its success to date means we can now explore other options, including more video, and adding premium content.

The Headcast is another example of John embracing new technologies to further his creativity - and although he’s well known for being very funny, this gives him the option to do whatever he wants to do and take it wherever he wants to go.”

Cameron Reilly from The Podcast Network said:

“Having a living legend like John Cleese joining The Podcast Network’s growing roster of talent is a coup for the business and a personal thrill.

“Having grown up watching and listening to John, I am extremely pleased that he will be contributing his new material to our site. I have been a fan of his podcasts over the last year and am excited about bringing the Headcast to a wider international audience. Having someone of John’s caliber producing podcasts is another sign of the increasing legitimacy of the medium.”

The Podcast Network is an privately owned media company in Australia with over 80 audio and video podcasts in production and a monthly international audience of over half a million people.

Funk is a creative new media company based in London and Brighton, UK, comprised of producers Mark Crook and Dean Whitbread. Funk is a part of social media business Talking Voices.

There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don’t. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don’t know where to start.

All tracks are no-DRM and are full length. Read more.

BECTU is the Broadcasting, Entertainment and Cinematograph and Theatre Union.

Speeches covered various topics including video content for mobile phones, digital distribution of films and of course podcasting.

Listen to Dean’s speech:

Whether it’s used for entertainment, business or as a social media tool new uses for podcasting seem to emerge constantly - it’s in a constant state of flux.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to explore the development of podcasting: from the geeks broadcasting to the world from their bedrooms, to the incredible international community of podcasters which has sprung up, through to the broadcasting industries who took the concept and promoted podcasting to the outside world and on to businesses which now realise the opportunities of using it to connect with staff internally and clients externally.

Our Talking Voices podcast will shortly be focussing on this too - subscribe and listen in!

Over the 2 day event discussions we all focussed on all aspects of podcasting and how it could be used in business. Case studies were presented from some huge companies such as First Direct and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Some fascinating data were also presented into the take up, expansion and listenership of podcasts including those from Edison Media Group which highlighted the increase in awareness of podcasting in the last year.

Dean spoke about User Generated Content with a finely judged mixture of audio, video and demonstrations.

“Cinema du Lyon are not from Lyon … they are from your head, the way films and TV effect our lives all the time. Playback from scenes witnessed on the screen. The dialogue leeches into our living narratives, taking it over at times. The found scraps of speech resemble toast crumbs upon an audio duvet, the harshness and the irritability, the sweetness and the sadism.”

Cinema Du Lyon
Podcast Feed

Brian’s a truly creative, innovative and highly skilled podcaster producing podcasts on both a personal and professional level. He has already built a portfolio of clients in Ireland so we’ll no doubt be seeing and hearing more from him on this blog from now on. Here’s a speech he made recently at IT@CORK.

Great to have you on board, Brian!

In it Dean examines the truth in J.G. Ballard’s prediction that, “In the future, everyone will be living in their own TV studio.” Podcasting has made it easier than ever before to close the gap between content publishers and their audience. What effect does that have on creativity?

We’re pleased to see that John approves of our accents - so tally ho and toodle pip from us here in Old Blighty!