Sound On – Ipswich and District Talking Newspaper – has been operating since 1977. It is a charity totally run by volunteers, and funded by donations and fund-raising events. Originally based around tape cassettes, we migrated a few years ago to digital distribution using USB memory sticks.
Currently we have around 60 volunteers, and we operate from a small office and studio in Ipswich, located at:
IP-City Centre
1 Bath Street
Ipswich
IP2 8SD
Our contact number is 07484 130819. This is not an attended phone, but leave us a message and we’ll get back to you.
Sound On Documents
You can read about who we are, what we do and how we do it in our documentation using the links below.
Sound On Rules and Constitution
Sound On Policy Documents
Sound On Procedures
Making the Talking Newspaper
Normal production happens on a Thursday with unpacking and sorting the returned memory sticks from the previous week’s edition, followed by recording, copying and sending out the new edition. The majority of our editions are recorded in our studio with one person recording and two alternating pairs of readers. But since Covid, we have added the capability to record online from home with a recorder and three readers.
A recording session in our studio (left), and a recorder’s view for online recordings (right).
Weekly 90-minute newspaper editions are sent post free in yellow pouches. Twice a year we also send out a magazine edition in green pouches. We will donate a USB memory stick player to new listeners if needed.
Players
We also provide a USB audio player to most of our new listeners. This is a major cost to us, but is vital part of the service. Where we can recover players, we do refurbish and test them for reuse. More information, and links to current suppliers available here.