Last week we blogged about the surround sound and binaural versions of Private Peaceful that are available as part of an audio experiment by the R&D team. Several of you have asked for a download of the version that was broadcast. Anyway, I'm glad to say that Private Peaceful is today's Play of the Week podcast. You can download it until next Friday when a new drama will be available.

Here are some details about Private Peaceful:

Private Peaceful opens with a tick from a precious watch that Tommo's brother, Charlie, has given him in battle. Tommo holds it to his ear to listen through the night, as he awaits the dawn. Tommo relives his childhood in rural Devon. From his first days at school, through the death of his Father, his unrequited love for Molly, to the circumstances that lead him to volunteer to fight in the Trenches. His world immediately comes to fully-dramatised life, in a large-cast, action-packed adventure story.

Full details of the production can be found on the Private Peaceful programme page and you can download the podcast for free from the Play of the Week podcast page.

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio 4 blog

Following our successful experiment offering A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in surround sound at Christmas, we are now giving you the chance to hear a drama in surround sound. This time it will be available to download.

There are two versions of Private Peaceful to try, one is designed for use with normal surround sound speakers and the other gives an impression of listening on surround sound speakers using normal headphones.

To find out more about Michael Morpurgo's play Private Peaceful, visit the programme page.

To listen in Surround Sound on speakers

You need to download the audio file of the play and player from the internet by following these instructions, then install the player on a Windows PC connected via a surround sound card or HDMI cable to a multimedia amp or "home cinema".

• Download the audio file
• Download the player from the Fraunhofer web site

Once you have accepted the terms and conditions you will be able to install the player.

When you've downloaded the player or the audio file, connect the surround sound output from your computer to the amplifier input using separate leads or an HDMI lead, then just drag and drop the downloaded audio file onto the player and it should play.

The special player will only work for the two weeks we are running this experiment, after which it will stop working and you should uninstall it. After the experiment, you will still be able to play the audio in stereo using a variety of media players.

To listen in Binaural Sound on headphones

• Download one of the binaural versions of the programme.

You will need to experiment to find out which one works best for you; it will depend on the shape of your head and ears and the type of headphones you are using.

Once you have downloaded the audio, you can play it on your computer or put it in a mobile mp3 player or smartphone to take with you and enjoy at any time. There is no time limit on the binaural version and it should play on most devices but if you switch to a different type of headphones you may find you need to use a different binaural version of the audio

Strange though it may seem, different versions may also be affected by the size of room you are listening in and this is one of the properties we are seeking to examine with this experiment.

We'd like your feedback

We welcome comments on this blog, but if you have a question please check the FAQs first. We would also like you to complete the short survey to help us understand how the experiment worked for you; it covers both the loudspeaker and headphone experiments.

Find out more about the feedback we had from the last surround sound experiment with Radio 3's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

Rupert Brun is head of technology, BBC Audio & Music

• Read Anthony Churnside's blog post on the findings from the previous surround sound experiment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts

Editor's note: we've made a big improvement to Radio 4 podcasts - they're available to download for much longer - most for at least 30 days and two-thirds of them in perpetuity. Mark Friend, Controller of Audio & Music Interactive, explains the change and hints at further improvements in a blog post on the new Radio blog - SB

We know that the BBC's podcasts are hugely popular with people who know about them and understand how to get hold of them. A recent example is A history of the World in 100 Objects which has had over 12 million downloads so far, over the course of the series. I like this example, first because it's a big number but also because the content itself is stunning.

I also like this example because we've made every episode of the 100-part series available rather than the normal approach of withdrawing the podcasts 7 days after the original programme was broadcast. This means that if you only discovered the series half-way through its 9-month run, it's easy to download any or all of the previous episodes to listen to whenever it suits you...

Read the rest of this post - and leave a comment - on the Radio blog.