“When you place these headphones onto your head all the imagery is from you”, that’s what a multiple award winning Creative and Promotions Producer Bernard Achampong said when he visited our class at the University of Westminster.

It was such a delight to have him in our class a couple of weeks ago where he shared with us his journey from university right through to work when he joined the BBC in 2002 and worked with radio one extra which was a new digital radio station at that time, after this he moved around within the BBC eventually ending up in marketing.

Audio or Podcast! “Podcast is audio on demand which is initiated by the listener”, this is how Bernard defines podcasts. With podcasting and audio, we can achieve places we can’t achieve it with camera, they also allow us to create a clear image with lower budget and by simpler means.

During his visit he talked about different types of audios he has worked on. While discussing this with us he gave us advice and tips about how to come up with a great audio, by focusing on which audiences we are targeting and how the way of telling the story will change depending on their interests.

A 15 seconds audio clip was played by Bernard during the visit which caught my attention and influenced me in my following piece of work. Audible an amazon company wanted to know how a crime series would sounds as podcast and commissioned Bernard for this project, this made him create the audio clip of a 999 call. This clip gives a great example of how effective use of gaps or pauses in telling a story can be and how to play music to manage these pauses which makes the music not just a tool to make the sound light and delicious, it is an effective tool to manage your pace and that’s what made me apply this technique in the video I worked on after the visit.

When podcasting started in the beginning of 21st century it was in its infancy, after several years its role became more important and affective in storytelling. The development in applying podcasting in telling stories going so fast as it started in very basic way and now it is able to apply 360 experience on podcast which makes the listener experience the life with his/hers own imagination by only using his sense of hearing. What else will podcast apply in the near future?