This Week in Tech

This Week in Tech (often called this WEEK in TECH, TWiT, or the TWiTcast, and formerly known as Revenge of the Screen Savers or ROTSS) is a weekly podcast (Internet radio show) hosted by several former hosts and cast members of the TechTV television program The Screen Savers (now Attack of the Show). Regular hosts include Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, John C. Dvorak, Kevin Rose, Roger Chang, David Prager, and Steve Gibson. Occasional hosts include Yoshi DeHerrera and Robert Heron, and special guests have included Jessica Corbin, Jenn Cutter, Dan Huard, Doug Kaye, Alex Lindsay, Amber MacArthur, Roger McGuinn, Sarah Norton, Chris Pirillo, Arlo Rose, Sal Soghoian, Jon van Tetzner, Andy Walker, Bob Young, and Mike Lazazzera.

Production

Audio version

The pilot episode was recorded when all of the hosts were together at the Macworld Expo 2005.

Related Topics:
Macworld Expo - 2005

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In episodes 1 through 20, Laporte talked to the other hosts through an Internet audio chat. They originally used Skype, but were limited by the number of users that could join a single conference call. Teamspeak was used in episode four to allow for more hosts to join, but there was a problem with latency (lagging). Skype has been used primarily since episode five, with Leo occasionally kicking one host out to allow for another one to join in for a short time. Gizmo was tried once, in episode 15.

Related Topics:
Internet - Skype - Conference call - Teamspeak - Latency - Gizmo

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Up to episode 6, Laporte was the only host whose voice was recorded with a professional radio microphone. The other hosts' voices were not recorded until they were sent over the Internet and output on Laporte's computer, and therefore were of noticeably lower quality.

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In episodes 7 and 9, the hosts talked over the Internet but also recorded their own voices individually. All of the recordings were sent to Laporte, who then edited them together to create the final version of the show. This increase in production value resulted in a two-day delay for episode 7, and a six-day delay for episode 9. Episode 8 was released using only the Skype track, to ensure that it would be available before Steve Jobs' WWDC speech on Monday, 2005-06-06.

Related Topics:
Steve Jobs - WWDC - 2005-06-06

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In episode 10, which was released using only the Skype track, Norton said that the emphasis would be placed on releasing the episodes on time, even if "digital-quality" sound is not achieved. The concept of recording all of the hosts' voices individually was dropped, and the Skype track was used until episode 20.

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Since episode 21, the hosts have gotten together at various venues to record the show in front of a live studio audience. In addition to creating a different feel for the show, this has resulted in better audio quality, since each host has their own pro-quality microphone. In episode 22, "something wasn't grounded properly", resulting in a buzzing noise throughout the entire show, but this has not been a frequent problem.

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Video version

Although video versions were discussed in early episodes, the idea was not taken seriously until episode 21.

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Episode 21 was filmed and distributed by Revision3 Studios. Episodes 23 and 24 were filmed by Pixel Corps and distributed by Revision3.

Related Topics:
Revision3 Studios - Pixel Corps

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