Hamilton Sound Talking Newspaper

Hamilton Sound is a free service. We are able to operate entirely thanks to the generosity of local businesses, clubs and other groups in and around the town and, of course, our large team of volunteers. Our tapes are delivered to our listeners and returned to us on a regular weekly basis by the ‘Articles for the Blind’ service provided free of charge by the Royal Mail.

If you would like to help us, by making a donation to our funds or by volunteering some of your time and skills, we would be delighted to hear from you.

OTHER NEWS

25th Birthday Celebrations

Here is a transcript of our press release covering this event. Some detailed reports of the event will appear here next week

PRESS RELEASE – April 2008

Hamilton Sound is 25

Hamilton Sound is a Talking Newspaper which provides free weekly audio versions of the Hamilton Advertiser to visually impaired people in and around Hamilton.

After its first 25 years of successful operation, Hamilton Sound is looking forward to the next 25 by developing additional and more up to date methods of distributing its weekly news programmes. In addition to the weekly cassette version which is distributed by post, listeners can also hear Hamilton Sound on the internet at hamiltonsound.co.uk and can even download the programme to their iPods for more convenient listening.

Hamilton Sound was recently awarded a grant by the National Lottery Awards For All Scheme to help fund the installation of latest ‘state of the art’ digital recording and editing equipment at their studio in Campbell Street, Hamilton where the production team meet every Thursday to produce the weekly programme.

In addition to their studio upgrade, Hamilton Sound will be developing suitable alternatives to the current cassette tape for physical distribution of the programme. As many will know, the continuing availability of cassette tapes and equipment is now in some doubt. Current favourite alternatives are CDs and USB Memory sticks. The plan is to introduce these alternative options to listeners who prefer to receive their programme by post by the end of 2008.

Hamilton Sound is a registered charity which is run entirely by volunteers and funded by contributions from various sources including local businesses, clubs and societies, churches and many generous individuals. They provide their service free of charge and visually impaired people can apply for this service very simply and by a variety of methods.

A visit to Hamilton Sound’s web site at hamiltonsound.co.uk or emailing join@hamiltonsound.co.uk is probably the simplest way of registering. However prospective listeners, or their friends or family, can alternatively telephone 01698 307733 or make a visit in person to the Forum on Disability, Campbell Street, Hamilton (opposite the Police Station) where they can obtain further advice and assistance.

Social workers for the blind in the area are also equipped to make their clients aware of the service and can directly refer listeners if requested to do so.

Many of Hamilton Sound’s listeners are elderly, live alone, are frequently housebound and, having lost their sight later in life, are often not best equipped nor have been able to develop the necessary skills to manage their impairment. So Hamilton Sound dropping through their letterbox every week not only provides access to the same local news as sighted people the event is also regarded as a ‘friend visiting’ for many.

To celebrate Hamilton Sound’s first 25 years, South Lanarkshire Council are hosting a Civic Reception for the organisation in the Council Offices, Almada Street, Hamilton on 22 April. As well as elected council officials, guests for the evening will include volunteers, listeners, individual benefactors and many organisations who have been vitally important to achieving this significant milestone.

We are very proud and pleased to have been able to provide this much needed and appreciated service in the district over the past 25 years and look forward to continuing for another 25 years with enthusiasm and relish.

Awards for All grant of £1,950

Hamilton Sound has been awarded a grant of £1,950 by the Awards for All organisation.

Awards for All is a consortium of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Scottish Arts Council, Sportscotland and Big Lottery Fund.

The grant will help pay for a digital recorder computer, a post production computer and USB flash disc playback devices. These are all vital pieces of equipment which will enable us to provide a 'Fully Digital' service to our listeners.

This has just been announced and over the coming weeks and months we'll be updating you on our plans and progress - so watch this space!

Our first task is to raise a further £750 to match this award in order to fund the total Project Costs. Based on our experience of the generosity of our supporters

Higher Audio Quality Trial

Without getting too technical, the mp3 audio files containing Hamilton Sound editions on this website are a compromise between audio quality and file size. This is because the audio quality obtained from an mp3 file decreases as the size of the file decreases. Of course we need to strive for a reasonably good audio quality in order to make listening to Hamilton Sound a pleasure but, if the file size is too big, this may present you with other difficulties if your internet connection is slow. For example you may experience interruptions during streaming or, if downloading the mp3 file, this may take an unacceptably long time.

After an extended trial, during which we offered a choice of 32 or 64 kbps versions, we have concluded that 64 kbps is the best of the two options.

So from now on, when you click on the Download button you will be presented with 64 kbps compressions of the most recent editions.

When you link to the Listen page the mp3 file played there will also be at 64 kbps.

Please let us know if you experience any difficulties.

Royal Mail Postal Service - how you can help

Unfortunately delivery times seem to much longer than they once used to be. We frequently hear of wallets not reaching you until Tuesday or Wednesday of the week following production - we post it on Friday mornings at the sorting office. To reduce the chances of your returned wallet not reaching us in good time we recommend the following:

As soon as you receive your weekly wallet, remove the new tape from it and return it with the previous week's tape inside.

Do this straightaway, don't delay.

If you don't have a tape to send, for example when you first start this process or you have mislaid it, then send the wallet empty.

Hamilton Sound is 'GOING DIGITAL'

As compact cassette tapes and cassette recorder/players are likely to be difficult to obtain in the not too distant future we have decided to begin the transition to production and distribution of Hamilton Sound on digital media such as CD so that we are ready in good time for that inevitable day. There are a number of technical hurdles to be cleared so the sooner we begin the process the better.

The first step is to record our MASTER TAPE digitally. Thanks to the generous bequests from the estates of the late Marie McKinnon and the late Ishbel Mulholland we have purchased a digital recorder for this purpose and trials are now underway. You can hear our initial results on on our Listen page so you can judge for yourself. Please let us know what you think.

Volunteers Section

You may notice a tiny logo like this in the lower left corner of the page banner above. This is a quick link to the access portal of a new Volunteer's Section of this website. The new section will provide the 25 or so volunteers currently active in producing your Hamilton Sound with a convenient reference point for information such as duty rosters, training material, personal contact information etc.

Because the contents of this section may contain personal or sensitive information we have controlled access to it. If you are a Hamilton Sound Volunteer or if you believe you have a legitimate need to access this section please email the webmaster at webmaster@hamiltonsound.co.uk for a user name and password.

About our Website

We aim to update our website at least once weekly. In particular the news panels on this page will be updated and, of course, the latest edition of Hamilton Sound will appear on the Listen and Download pages. Other pages will probably be updated less frequently but will still be reviewed weekly for accuracy.

If you have any comments about our site layout or content or any other matter please get in touch by phone, email or on line - just go to the Contact page and choose your method. We would like to hear from you.

Thanks,

Webmaster