[Web4lib] Help -- Podcasting Conference Sessions

[Cary Gordon]

I have done live Webcasts as well as Podcasts of live events. In my
experience, you cannot pay too much attention to source audio quality. If
you intend to take a raw feed from a hotel PA system, odds are you will wind
up with a low quality program. The sound might be fine in the venue, but
your podcast listners won't have the live event to distract them from flaws
in the audio, and while distortion and noise might be fine for a five minute
bit, it gets very tiresome once the program gets to 45 minutes.

My suggestions:

1) Get the best microphones that you can afford.
2) If you have more than two sources, use a good quality mixing board.
3) Use a good hardware encoder - I use a Presonus Firebox.
4) Either split the microphone feeds (to the house sound) before they go to
the encoder or mixer, or, if using a mixer, you can feed channel outputs to
the house sound.
5) Use compression to reduce the noise level during pauses.
6) If possible, use parametric equalization to tune the sound to the room.

This approach does not mean that you need a dedicated engineer at every
moment. Once it is dialed in, it should work fine for the entire conference.

Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company and
I kid you not...
Former live sound mixer for Grand Funk Railroad <g>.

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Christine
Peterson/Amigos
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 1:27 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] Help -- Podcasting Conference Sessions 


I'm looking for information on how to podcast conference sessions.  I know
how to podcast myself, but am looking for the differences and "gotchas" in
doing it in a live environment.

If anyone can help or point me to resources, I'd appreciate it.  Thanks!

Christine Peterson
Continuing Education Librarian, Technology Amigos Library Services, Inc.
14400 Midway Road, Dallas, TX 75244-3509
1-800-843-8482 ext: 2891
512-671-1580 (direct)
512-671-1580 (fax)
www.amigos.org
peterson at amigos.org
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