There are lots of different roles and people typically give a couple of hours once every 4 weeks on either Thursday afternoon/evening recording from home or Friday morning in the Yews Community Centre. Here are some examples of things you could do. If you’re interested in joining us, please contact us.
Team Leader
Team Leaders and readers will select news stories on Thursday morning from The Mid Sussex Times, our local newspaper for the recording. At other times, they will also look out for other interesting local stories or feature items for our magazine section.
Reader
Once the Editor has selected the stories the readers role is now to quite simply read the article. This may sound easy but variety is the spice of life, and different voices and accents make things interesting for the listeners. The quality of reading is one of our highest priorities – you will enjoy bringing the article to life. You will be given a voice test and trained how to join in our zoom recordings. Once readers become familiar with the requirements, they will also be expected to find feature articles and sometimes lead the recording.
Technician/Engineer
This role is responsible for the quality of the audio recording, editing out mistakes, ensuring no background noise, getting the sound levels correct. You’ll record each edition onto a master copy for duplication for the listeners. If you are not an sound or audio engineer, full training will be given. The senior engineer trains people how to use zoom for the recording sessions and will assess your suitability.
The recorded file is then uploaded to the British Wireless for the Blind web site from where listeners can listen to it directly if they have the Talking News App. If not, we mail out memory sticks in plastic pouches.
Copier
After the master recording has been completed, using state of the art digital copying equipment, you’ll copy the master memory stick onto duplicates to be sent out. Each stick will be checked after copying, put into an addressed pouch and put the finished product into the plastic wallets ready for posting. They are then taken to a post office / post box for mailing.
Administrator
The administrator will keep records of listeners and monitor recordings sent out and returned.