Posted March 31st, 2008, in: New Media| Semantic Web| Technology
Semantic Web Gang: Introductory Episode
Some suggestions:
1. During the conference call, use some sort of mixing program so the moderator can see who is talking at every moment during the recording via an audio level meter and make adjustments as needed.
2. Whenever some body new starts talking, quickly talk over them stating their name (it only obscures what they’re saying for one or two syllables so it’s easy for the listener to understand what they’re saying while taking in the metadata too)
3. Have a rotating or otherwise changing schedule of guests like TWiT does. The occasional random apperence by a CEO or two, or other dignitaries of the Web might help to keep the discussion interesting.
4. Don’t be afraid to spend a few hundred pounds on a decent microphone and maybe a mixer or or whatever is needed to improve the quality of the audio. The audio of Talking With Talis has been piss poor since the beginning. It would really serve you guys to improve on that.
I think part of your mission is evangelism, so I hate to think you’re losing audience because of the poor audio quality.
Looking forward to more!
-A
2 Responses to “Talis’ Podcast Goes the TWiT Route: The Semantic Web Gang”
Paul Miller wrote on March 31st, 2008 3:05 am :
Andrew, thanks for listening, and for taking the time to comment.
I’m always looking for ways to improve audio quality on our podcasts, whilst not making it too difficult for guests to participate. In the case of these Gang podcasts, for example, everyone is dialling into a standard conferencing service by telephone. As ‘just’ another participant in the call, I’m only receiving a single audio stream. There may well be a better way! As with our 1-1 podcasts, we’re reliant upon the network and upon the equipment and environment wherever our participants are. As such, the raw material that we edit can be of quite varied quality. Some of the podcasts deliver excellent audio, others (far) less so.
If anyone has experience/recommendations, I’d love to hear…
Participants did recognise the need to identify themselves when they spoke, although some were better at remembering than others… It’s something we’ll be keeping an eye on.
We *are* intending to have guests, as you suggest. I’m also slightly expanding the pool of regulars, so that you can expect to hear from 4-5 people from a pool of 10-12 each month.
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Thanks Andrew, I’m sure we’ll take this into consideration.
The first episode was recorded on a conference call, so people were using phones (and I was using Skype)…. so we all need to get some better microphones (especially me… I bought one on the day of recording, but it didn’t work with my Mac)