Podcasting – What and Why?
This blog will try and provide as much information as you need to record and produce a quality audio podcast. The techniques and equipment choices are based on 30+ years of recording everything from live events, documentaries, feature film projects and recorded live television shows sometimes to the entire CBC network where mistakes cannot be taken back or fixed in post.
I would also like to hear from contributing bloggers to get another point of view. I’m going to build this blog a piece at a time so keep your shorts on and I’ll get to it. If you have a request or a question send it along and I’ll do my best to answer it.
A Little History
In the late 90’s CD-ROM’s were a big deal for getting the word out about your company. So a couple of friends and I put together about 30 or 40 of them for different companies like American Express New York. I knew some things about graphics and a long history with professional analogue and digital so I had some unique skill sets to offer.
Laptops were still pretty expensive so I carted around a small desktop to do the recording to either a flash drive or directly to the hard drive of the computer. Setting this up required a particular blend of abilities and software that wasn’t ready to do it. With lowering costs my primary concern, recording to the hard drive cut back on transfers to be able to edit so I could cut down on the time and final production costs.
Over the years I have recorded and edited well over a thousand hours of dialogue for CD-ROM, video and audio files. To date I have recorded and/or produced and/or edited in excess of 150 podcasts and over 200 hours of business conference audio.
What is a Podcast?
The term Podcast refers to a single or series of audio and/or video computer files downloaded or delivered to subscribers over the internet. Popular mp3 organising software such as iTunes, Feedburner or JPodder allow listeners to “subscribe” to a Podcast. Once a listener has subscribed, the program downloads a single track or all the episodes. Then every once in awhile it checks the feed to see if a new episode is waiting and automatically loads them to you’re computer, portable player or PDA/phone.
A common term for the portable player is an Mp3 player but not all Podcasts are an Mp3 file. Think of a Podcast as a song, a song you can listen to on CD, DVD, computer or on a portable player or phone. All these can use different playback file formats such as mp3, wmv, wav, swf, and more Even though Podcasting is closely associated with Apple you don’t need an iPod to listen to them.
What can I put into a Podcast?
What you put into a Podcast can be anything your interested in, anyone from a hobbyist to a professional can talk about what they know. Businesses already build sales presentations, product demonstrations, market revisions, financial reports, newsletters, training and introductory employee information. All of this is probably is stored on a computer or printed on paper and can be quickly and easily converted to a Podcast and effectively and effortlessly delivered via Podcast distribution networks to clients and subscribers.
Why Podcast?
Everyone knows that information is out there, so why not make it easy for people to get to and they can listen to it when they want to. It also points out that a business is willing to use new technologies and is prepared to make effective use of them for their clients. Today’s small and very portable media players and phones have really pushed this revolution because subscribers can listen to or watch a Podcast doing everyday tasks while travelling on a bus, train, plane or in a car. TV, newspapers and magazines have started to fold because it’s one way, they talk you listen or read but fall short of complete a conversation. With a Podcast you’re not limited to 30 seconds or a 3 inch by 3 inch print ad.
