Leonor gave a presentation at the club meeting on 1 October about PODCASTING. It is a simple process to create an audio podcast file, then upload the file to a website. Access to the podcast can be restricted to club members or made available to the public. Leonor argued that voice podcasts are the most efficient and effective way of communicating.
Leonor’s speech aroused much interest, particularly from David. David has recently expanded his photography interests with a new camcorder and is now inspired to create video podcasts.
Video podcasts will certainly require a large pre-publishing effort to edit the movie. I guess that synchronising sound and vision of an edited file adds further complications. Techniques to upload the resultant video to a website should be similar to a voice file. The ultimate end-user may be limited to just a few technologies to view the podcast. Would you seriously watch a podcast on a 2 inch mobile phone screen or on an iPod?
Audio podcasts are very simple to create. Any sound recording device with a file output facility can be used. The objective is produce a standard mp3 file. Leonor demonstrated the use of an iPod and mobile phone to record voice with a laptop computer for any required conversion to mp3 format. The end user can easily download the resultant podcast for replay on any mp3 device. Simple.
Video or voice podcasts – is one superior or is it horses for courses? What do you think?
Yes, Alan, I am very interested in the issues raised by Leonor’s presentation. I have been thinking about podcasting for some time, but now I see it’s necessary to make a move.
I hope to start experimenting with audio AND video podcasting in the next few days. Like everything else there will be an initial time intensive period while I become familiar with the techniques. Leonor will be a great help with this.
I see YouTube as a resource for us. I intend to post the podcasts on YouTube as well as our Toastmaster sites. I think we may generate traffic from there back to our Toastmaster sites.
David