Audio-Visual Guidelines
Basic Guidelines
All audio productions, including single audio files and serial podcasts, produced as communications of Cornell University--by its colleges, schools, divisions, departments, academic courses, organizations, and other units--must include the Cornell identity.
The guidelines presented here explain the requirements for how to treat the Cornell University identity in three parts of podcast production: tagging, artwork, and audio signatures.
Tagging
In producing a podcast, you will need to identify several primary features of the production’s content via metadata that is categorized by fields. Audio management tools provide several main fields for tagging:
- “podcast” or “album”
- “episode” or “song name”
- “artist”
There are requirements for use of the Cornell identity only in the “podcast” (or “album”) field. Please adhere to the following tagging conventions:
- You must include the words “Cornell University” as the first text in the “podcast” (or “album”) field.
- “Cornell University” also may be included as text in the other fields, at your discretion.
Additionally, it is suggested that you include the title of the audio program in the field named “episode” or “song name” (example: “Ivory-Bill Revisited”) and the name of the unit that is creating or publishing the podcast in the field named “artist” (example: “Lab of Ornithology”).
Artwork
Visual content can be embedded in the podcast by placing an image(s) in the artwork field; some players show the embedded image(s) in an artwork window (also called “cover art,” etc.).
All Cornell audio files/podcasts must include the Cornell insignia as embedded visual content to appear in the artwork window.
You can download the Cornell insignia for audio files/podcasts - it is the simplified “web” version of the insignia, presented as a red insignia on white; there are no exceptions.
Do NOT embed:
- the Cornell logo (insignia combined with logotype)
- the Cornell logotype
- the Cornell logo with a unit signature
- a graphic identifier, mark, or logo that is representative of a unit of the university (or of any other organization)
- logotype of the name of a unit of the university (or the name of any other organization)
Audio Signatures
In producing the podcast, you will need to identify the relationship of the content to Cornell University via spoken words.
You can download prerecorded Cornell audio signatures to include at the start (or “intro”) and end (or “outro”) of your podcast. There are several options of downloads available. Please consider making use of the variety of voices that are Cornell.
Note that each intro and outro is available both with and without background sound (or “bed”) - the Cornell chimes; the bed also is available as a discrete audio file. (Additional sounds will be recorded as beds and added to the download options in the future.)
If you choose not to use the downloadable versions of intros and outros, please adhere to the following conventions for audio signatures at the start and end of your podcast:
- Include mention of “Cornell University” in the introductory audio (“intro”) of the podcast (within the first 15 seconds of running time), so that the listener will identify the content with the university.
examples:
“Ithaca is gorges--as any visitor to Cornell University sees immediately.”
“Students in the green dorm at Cornell University live in a sustainable world.”
“Advanced Plasma Physics at Cornell University is an upper-level engineering course--here's why.”
“A program from the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University.”
- Include the following spoken statement (2 to 3 seconds in length) at the conclusion (“outro”) of the podcast: “Brought to you by Cornell University.” Alternatively, if you also wish to identify the unit of the university in the closing audio signature, include the following:
“Brought to you by (name of unit) at Cornell University.”
If you choose not to use the downloadable background sound (or “bed”) with the intro and outro, it is recommended that any other bed you select to record be an iconic Cornell sound.