Adaptive podcasting - the future of personalised podcast experiences Imagine if the stories you listen to could adapt to your surroundings. To the time of day you’re listening to them, whether it’s light or dark outside; or if they could stretch or contract in length to fit with how long you’ve got to listen. That’s exactly what podcast listeners can experience with adaptive podcasting, a new podcast format that enables producers to make parts of their audio flexible - personalised to each listener, using data from listeners’ devices. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/cccibathspa/t-gaaqmlr

1. Adaptive podcasting futures
Ian Forrester
Senior Firestarter, BBC R&D
@cubicgarden
@cubicgarden

2. Schedule for today
● Presentation - 1400-1440
● Question & Answers - 1440-1500
● Official finish, let’s talk - 1500-1600
@cubicgarden | https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickpiggott/5212959770

3. @cubicgarden |
Podcasting now
@cubicgarden

4. @cubicgarden | https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/rise-of-podcasts | https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/
The rise of podcasting

5. BBC Podcasts
@cubicgarden

6. The future of broadcasting
@cubicgarden | https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/whats-on/celebrating-100-years-bbc-manchester

7. Media has much more potential

8. Object based/Flexible media
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/object-based-media

9. Media + Metadata = Objects
The idea behind ‘object-based’ media is that you take all the assets
for a given TV or radio show – the video clips, the accompanying
audio, any music soundtrack, and extras like subtitles and sign
language translations…
…wrap it up in useful metadata and then use software to ‘remix’ it
as needed
@cubicgarden | https://thenextweb.com/media/2016/03/09/bbc-r-and-d-object-based-media/ | https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickpiggott/5212959770

10. Media
@cubicgarden | https://www.flickr.com/photos/adelinapeltea/9026208637/

11. Metadata
Red Tile 2 x 1
Yellow Brick 1 x 1
@cubicgarden | https://rebrickable.com/downloads/

12. The objects make the story
@cubicgarden

13. New medium, new rules
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15524004

14. Storytelling timeline
@cubicgarden

15. Oral storytelling
@cubicgarden | http://www.flickr.com/photos/smcgee/234278571

16. Narrative on Rails
@cubicgarden | http://www.flickr.com/photos/ag2r/4437697015

17. Interactivity is responsive & perceptive
@cubicgarden | https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjohnbeckett/16530229333/

18. Perceptive Radio
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/perceptive-radio

19. Computer in a box
@cubicgarden | http://thecreativeexchange.org/projects/perceptive-media

20. Reinventing podcasting
@cubicgarden

21. A first class audio experience for everyone
@cubicgarden

22. Smartphones
@cubicgarden

23. Perceptive/Adaptive podcasting in an app
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/perceptive-radio

24. Players, smart devices and apps
@cubicgarden | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_podcasting

25. Attempts to change podcasting
@cubicgarden | https://appleinsider.com/articles/08/02/21/apple_looks_towards_personalized_on_demand_podcasts

26. The podcast Namespace
@cubicgarden | https://podcastnamespace.org/
● podcast:alternateEnclosure - different bitrates, video versions, etc
● podcast:block - creator requests not to be included in a directory
● podcast:chapters - independently editable chapters
● podcast:episode - episode numbers and names
● podcast:funding - links to donate or fund a show
● podcast:guid - a unique, global identifier for a podcast
● podcast:images - multiple image resources for podcasts
● podcast:license - define the license applied to a podcast
● podcast:liveItem - deliver live shows to apps
● podcast:location - “where is this podcast about?”
● podcast:locked - require permission to import a feed
● podcast:medium - a description of the type of content in a feed
● podcast:person - credits for hosts and guests
● podcast:season - named seasons/series
● podcast:socialInteract - comments for podcast episodes
● podcast:soundbites - suggested clips
● podcast:trailer - specify a trailer (per season)
● podcast:transcript - captions and transcripts for podcasts
● podcast:value - a payment layer for podcasts
Since the first podcast in 2003, podcasting has been
evolving.
The open podcast ecosystem is powered by RSS feeds. RSS
can be extended with a “namespace”, a set of new tags that
enable new features. Apple added their own iTunes podcast
namespace in 2005, which allowed podcasters to specify
things like podcast artwork, categories and other elements.
Other namespaces have also been proposed; but in 2020, a
new, collaborative, podcast namespace was first worked on
by a wide number of interested people, aided and
encouraged by Adam Curry and Dave Jones from The
Podcast Index.

27. Computation, Data and Sensors
@cubicgarden
Device Owner Name
Number of Contacts
Battery Level
Battery Condition
Current Activity
Elevation
Number of Installed Apps
Device Make/Model
Time of Day
Weather
Sun Elevation
Location
Indoor/Outdoor
Mobile Network Operator Name
Available Wifi Networks
Altitude Pressure
Connected Bluetooth Devices
Proximity
External or Internal Audio Device
Device Orientation
Ambient Brightness
Local Noise Environment
Calendar
Music Tastes
Financial News
User Fitness Information
Current Heart-rate
Number of Listeners/Users
Can it hear itself
Is it in someone's pocket or
elsewhere?
What kind of apps
Knowledge of Home and Work

28. Perceptive interactivity
@cubicgarden | https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisjohnbeckett/16530229333/

29. Let’s talk podcasts

30. Reference specification & implementation
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/perceptive-radio

31. Potential examples
@cubicgarden

32. Live & Pre-recorded demos
@cubicgarden | https://www.dropbox.com/sh/97kuus3f3exmiu9/AACwtzghULXVHsyiJJEga5S2a?dl=0

33. Adaptive podcast app
@cubicgarden | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.bbc.perceptivepodcasts

34. Available on the beta Google play store now
@cubicgarden | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.bbc.perceptivepodcasts

35. Beyond podcasts examples

36. Perfect mix everytime
@cubicgarden

37. Companion media with media
@cubicgarden

38. Extended performance
@cubicgarden

39. Companion media with objects
@cubicgarden

40. The music album reimagined
@cubicgarden | By XL Recordings / Elektra - http://www.7digital.com/artists/the-prodigy/experience/, Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=274031
Moby credited Experience with changing his perception about dance
albums; previously he felt that "dance albums had always failed [...]
because they didn't work over the full length of the record. Mostly they
were singles collections which was exactly what I didn't want to do," and
noted that Experience "impressed me because they'd managed to create a
full listening experience which encompassed various styles. This was the
kind of vision I had for my debut album

41. I want to build one but can’t code…

42. Decentralised web editor
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/makerbox/tools/adaptive-podcasting-editor

43. Adaptive podcasting editor demo
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/makerbox/tools/adaptive-podcasting-editor

44. The code

45. @cubicgarden | https://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20051213/ | https://github.com/bbc/adaptivepodcasting.github.io/wiki
Adaptive podcast creation

46. Perceptive podcast specification
@cubicgarden | https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/connectedstudio-perceptivepod/demos/playbackTimingDemo.zip
Podcasts are zip files
With a XML SMIL file,
JSON descriptor,
Audio / Images folders

47. Manifest markdown
@cubicgarden | https://www.markdownguide.org/
Used to specify podcast metadata such as series number, episode
number and various credits. This file is saved inside the podcast
folder root and named "manifest.json".

48. SMIL Lite
@cubicgarden | https://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL3/
SMIL Lite is a simplified implementation of the W3C SMIL
(Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) specification. SMIL
is used to script media narratives and coordinate playback of
separate audio and TTS speech objects which can change depending
on arbitrary injected data.
This file is saved inside the podcast folder root and named
"smil.xml"

49. @cubicgarden | https://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-SMIL3-20061220/smil-timesheets.html | https://github.com/bbc/adaptivepodcasting.github.io/wiki/SMIL-timing-model
Why SMIL?

50. @cubicgarden | https://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20051213/
SMIL

51. @cubicgarden | https://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20051213/
SMIL example

52. @cubicgarden | https://github.com/bbc/adaptivepodcasting.github.io/wiki/
Want to know more?

53. Community of practice

54. New medium, New rules
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15524004

55. Learning from ambient literature
@cubicgarden | https://thewritingplatform.com/2017/08/world-ambient-literature/

56. @cubicgarden | http://storytellers.link | https://mwm-berlin.de/blog/workshop-podcast-produktion-ian-forrester
Community of practice

57. Some community efforts
@cubicgarden

58. Community of practice
@cubicgarden | https://innovatie.vrt.be/en/about/hubs | https://www.bbc.co.uk/makerbox/tools/adaptive-podcasting | https://storytellers.link/

59. Rabbit holes collective
@cubicgarden | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t0fhtneLAE | https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/creative-development-unit

60. Connected Studio Makerbox
@cubicgarden | https://www.bbc.co.uk/makerbox/tools/adaptive-podcasting

61. The code is the key to the kingdom

62. York’s SIF (Squish Importance Filter)
@cubicgarden

63. Commercial support?

64. Accordion innovation
@cubicgarden | https://www.accordion-innovation.com
● Accordion was invented by Andy Taylor, whose background in
audio (BBC Radio 1, Capital) and pivot toward founding his own
startup (Bwlb) and Research & Development (Clwstwr,
Stars4Media) led him to develop, deliver and market this
innovative piece of tech.

65. Open source in 2023 *
@cubicgarden | *Sept 2023 - https://github.com/bbc/adaptivepodcasting.github.io/

66. The future of adaptive podcasting

67. Next 18 months
@cubicgarden
● Beta play store release
● University of York & Nottingham research projects
● EBU codeshare for 12 months
● Adaptive podcasting editor on BBC Makerbox
● BBC R&D project development ends
● Public open source code base for editor and mobile app

68. @cubicgarden
Ian Forrester
@cubicgarden
Thank you for listening, questions?