This blog is about a Land of Iron interview for the BBC World Service Digital Planet radio programme.
The photographs in this blog were taken by Tom Mutton, Land of Iron Programme Manager.
Iron Kilns
Tom Mutton, the Land of Iron Programme Manager was contacted by BBC radio reporter Jack Meegan who was interested to do a story about the digital aspects of the Land of Iron project that Jack had read about. Jack asked if he could come to the Danby Moors Centre to hear about the Land of Iron and to interview some of those involved in digital aspects of the project. Tom asked me if I’d like to go along and Tom also asked Andi Liddell from the company Animmersion with whom the Land of Iron have been working. So, Tom, Andi and I arrived at the Danby Moors Centre bright and early. I’d brought along a couple of boxes of the bits and pieces I’d been working on for the Land of Iron, including my laptop. I set up my laptop and opened the browser with one tab for the Time-Slider blog on my web page and another tab for the Photogrammetry Trolley blog and another for the Photogrammetry turntable blog, and another for the Chimney Puzzle blog. I’d taken along the few sample pieces of the foam chimney puzzle, the photogrammetry turntable, the photogrammetry trolley, an Arduino microcontroller based metal detector I made and some samples of magnetic ironstone and set them all up on some tables. Andi set up his head-mounted virtual reality (VR) display and we got some tea on and played with the VR headset while waiting for Jack to arrive.
Bank Top Kilns
I had no idea what aspects of the Land of Iron project Jack would have particular interests in. There are many 3D models on the Land of Iron Sketchfab web page and the Land of Iron display in the Danby Moors Centre is well done with a video of the land of Iron and a short animated movie and 3D displays from Animmersion, so there was certainly lots of digital content to show Jack. When Jack arrived at the Danby Moors Centre and he entered the room, his eyes lit up at all the stuff on display and Tom, Andi and I spent about a half an hour talking through various aspects of the Land of Iron project. Jack then said he’d interview each of us for a few minutes. We went to a side room where he interviewed Tom and Andi while recording the audio on his mobile phone. After that, I went with Jack back to the room where I had set various things up for display and then Jack interviewed me for a few minutes, asking about the various things I had on display. Afterwards, Jack explained how his process worked and that he would compile segments from the interviews into a piece about 7 minutes long and then submit that to the BBC. After final editing, it would get scheduled for broadcast at some time in the future and Jack would notify us of when it had been scheduled. After that we all packed up and went our respective ways.
Inside Bank Top Kilns
Several weeks later, I received an email from a listener who had heard the morning broadcast of The Digital Planet and had a question for me, so that was the first I knew it had been broadcast. The episode aired on the BBC World Service Digital Planet several times over Jan. 7 & 8, 2020.
Here below is the segment of the Digital Planet episode on the Land of Iron.
Click on the play button to play the audio clip:
The photogrammetry turntable and the photogrammetry trolley mentioned in this piece and several other digital aspects of the Land of Iron project that I have been involved with are described in greater detail in my blogs.
Here’s a link to the full episode on the BBC Digital Planet web site. I enjoy the show and listened to it regularly. The Land of Iron segment appears in this episode starting at a time of about 16:30 into this broadcast.
Well done to Jack Meegan for the piece. I think he did a terrific job and I think the background soundscapes are wonderful. Most listeners won't know that the background music is a part of the soundtrack to a video of the Land of Iron that plays in the Danby Moors Centre Land of Iron exhibition.
Jack did get one detail wrong; he describes me as a trained radiologist. I'm actually a physiologist, but that minor detail does not detract from the piece.
