Tech Bitch

Cancer Research UK has launched its first ever science podcast competition today, giving teenagers across the UK the chance to air their views about a range of hot topics. The top three podcasts will be featured on the charity’s Web site, as well as winning their creators one of three fantastic prizes.

Launched ahead of the Easter holidays, the science podcast competition marks the start of National Science and Engineering Week (7 to 16 March). SciencePod challenges students aged 14 to 16 to explore controversial issues in health and science and create a short podcast about the impact they have on people’s lives.

Students can choose between four topics: ‘Should under 18s be allowed to use sunbeds?’; ‘Is the cervical cancer vaccine a good idea?’; ‘Should smoking be totally banned?’ and ‘Diet and cancer: does it matter what we eat?’

Entries will be judged by a panel of expert podcasters, including BBC Radio One drivetime presenter, DJ Scott Mills, The Guardian’s science journalist, Alok Jha, and Cancer Research UK’s Dr Kat Arney, who presents the charity’s monthly podcast.

The competition is open to GCSE students and links in with the Science, English, Media and Citizenship curricula. To find out how to take part, visit Sciencepod.org.uk. The closing date is 30 April, making the Easter holidays the perfect time for teens to research and record their podcasts.

The competition reflects the increase in the use of podcasting as a method of communicating science in schools, by scientific research organisations and the media. By encouraging students to develop the creative and technical skills necessary to take part, Cancer Research UK is helping to equip future scientists and journalists with new techniques to communicate their work.

Word has it that we all can’t be bothered to adopt Internet television, despite the apparent popularity of the BBC’s iPlayer download service.Media law firm Wiggin found that only one in five people legally streamed or downloaded TV programmes from broadcasters such as the BBC or Channel 4, or ISPs such as Tiscali or BT’s Vision service.

Virgin Media’s IPTV proved the most popular, with 20% of respondents using the service regularly or occasionally, with Channel 4’s 4oD service coming second with 15% and the BBC iPlayer taking third place with only 13%, despite totting up more than 17 million hits since Christmas.

A paltry 4% used Joost.com despite deals with Sony, CNN, Viacom and Warner Music Group. BT Vision and Tiscali TV also only got 4% each.

It seems we’re all too familiar with the idea of snuggling down in our living room at an appointed time to watch our favourite programme rather than sitting uncomfortably at our sticky computer desks all day and night.

There’s no doubt we will gradually move to the on demand mentality, especially when home entertainment systems improve such that you can connect the PC to the television and have the ‘TV over the Internet’ experience on a big screen, but it seems we’re a long way off.

More than 50 per cent of the respondents said that they would be more inclined to use IPTV services if more content was pooled together, as is being planned by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 for a joint venture known as ‘Project Kangaroo’.

However, users need to be aware that their download limits will be affected by the amount that that stream and download, and many of these programs will continue to run in the background unless fully exited. Make sure you keep track of your downloads to avoid being charged for exceeding your allowance or fair usage policy.

Last.fm has cozied up with German daily tabloid newspaper ‘Bild’ to offer free personalised Last.fm-powered Bild-Radio on its relaunched Web site.

Every visitor to Bild.de will now be able to launch their own personal Bild-Radio station from the site. Stations are based on musical genres like Rock, Dance and Classical, or you can type in an artist and listen to a radio stream of similar artists built on recommendations drawn from the music taste of Last.fm’s 21 million-strong army.

Last.fm is consolidating its position as the leading online radio partner for some of Europe’s biggest news websites. The Bild.de integration follows a successful partnership with Europe’s most popular weekly magazine Der Spiegel, which was launched in December last year, as well as an evolving relationship with the BBC which has seen the broadcasting service integrate Last.fm Web services into its digital radio and online properties.

The social music network is also working towards greater integration of its radio service on leading Web sites outside of Europe in the coming months. Bild-Radio is accessible as a test for the next six months in the Entertainment Channel of Bild.de.

Technology can be both good and bad. I’ll let you make your own mind up on this … The BBC is to test screen the Rugby Six Nations match between Scotland and England live and in 3D HD to a select audience. The event is a joint venture between BBC Sport and the3Dfirm. Stupid eyewear is mandatory.

The project has kept a few people in work all year, so it better be good. The 8 March event is claimed to be the first and probably last ever live test screening of an international sport in 3D HD, although more accurately it is likely to be the first event to be satellite-delivered and screened in 3D (in February 2007, the National Basketball Association teamed up with Vince Pace’s 3D outfit, PACE, to offer the first-ever live sports event in 3D HD with footage delivered to the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas via fibre cabling).

Technical details for the Riverside event have not been finalised but it is understood that three 3D rigs comprising dual Sony HDC950s will capture the action. One will be positioned up high for wide shots with two at pitch level. The dual HD streams will be transmitted multiplexed to down link at Riverside Studios, demultiplexed and combined on reception before projection onto a large screen for an audience wearing stereoscopic glasses.

The 3D feed will be standalone and not cut into BBC Sport’s live host broadcast and will be supplied with surround sound. Audio commentary will probably be provided via a mix of Radio 5Live, TV commentary and clean sound feed (each will be trialled and the audience reaction gauged).

3D is apparently taking off as a big screen event for recorded material. I’m yet to witness this revolution …