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Council PodCast?

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 10:40 pm
by dl meckes
Stan:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI saw your post on a message thread about Ohio>NE Ohio Podcasters that I stumbled on recently.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHow about producing an MP3 of the Lakewood City Council meetings? Seems simple enough - just take a line feed from the P.A. system in the auditorium.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI think a recording would give a much clearer tone of what occurred at each meeting, compared to minutes, and would be a interesting archive.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nJust a thought.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBill Davis'

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:34 pm
by Bill Davis
Stan:



I saw your post on a message thread about Ohio>NE Ohio Podcasters that I stumbled on recently.



How about producing an MP3 of the Lakewood City Council meetings? Seems simple enough - just take a line feed from the P.A. system in the auditorium.



I think a recording would give a much clearer tone of what occurred at each meeting, compared to minutes, and would be a interesting archive.



Just a thought.



Bill Davis

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:01 pm
by observeradmin
Bill-

Sometimes the council meetings last over 3 hours.

Lots of "interesting" things go through the COW as well. (Committee of the Whole) They usually don't run on as long.

Council PodCast?

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:56 am
by Stan Austin
Bill--- Good idea. It might require some editing, though. Some of the councilpersons alone could take up all the web space available!

Stan

Council PodCast?

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:36 am
by Jim O'Bryan
Stan Austin wrote:Bill--- Good idea. It might require some editing, though. Some of the councilpersons alone could take up all the web space available!

Stan




What about the best of both worlds. Record council, and provide snippets of discussions, and the juicy stuff.





Jim O'Bryan

Council PodCast?

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:41 am
by Donald Farris
Hi,

if you cut down the quality to FM radio quailty say 96 kbps you can get it all without taking much space. Usually theres a slider bar to make moving around the piece easier. I think for the city's best interest I would have it all with the good parts maked as separate tracks. From our Issue 47 days, I used to get the recordings on tape and transfer them into mp3s and use sound editing software to mark out the good stuff in tracks. It was quite time consuming.



I would think it would be a great asset to the web site to offer audio on as much of city meetings as possible.



Is there an offical calendar of the day for the Mayor? It would be informative to be able to see what he has planned for the day/week.

Council PodCast?

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:58 am
by dl meckes
I'm wary of editing. It's one thing to break up the recording into parts, but any other editing would make me suspicious of whether the recording had been manipulated.



Usually council starts off with resolutions & feel good stuff and that could easily be put into one part of a multi-part podcast.



Thanks for the suggestion, Don - Stan & I are new to this. I think I'm leaving it up to Stan to work with the recordings, while I do the techie part.

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:08 am
by Stephen Calhoun
Stan, would you open up a Podcast Topic inside the door here and spell out the minimal technology.



Here's my question: what would it take to do a PodCast of a conversation at a moment's notice?



If an interesting meeting of the minds beckons, is it just a matter of putting a laptop with software and a good microphone on the table?



(This would be my understanding. I can't hustle my computer around but a microphone plugged into it instantly routs to a simple recording (Peak) interface via a 48khz A/D card.)



"Have conversation, will record it" is the ethic of brewedfreshdaily crowd.

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:10 am
by Stephen Calhoun
Ooops, I managed to unintentionally open up the topic, Stan. It's your baby, man.

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 8:33 am
by observeradmin
I'll temporarily answer on Stan's behalf.



Any recording can be used as a podcast as long as we can get it in a digital format.



Many podcasters use Skype, a free Voice Over Internet application to record "telephone" interviews.



If you Google "podcasting", you'll get a large number of hits to help you begin your journey. Stan & I went to a meet-up and met the fine folks from http://podcast411.com.



Once there is a digital recording, a special feed must be written so podders may "subscribe" to the podcasts. We then have to post the files so our readers may either download the podcast to their players or listen to them as a webcast.



We don't have an automated system for publishing podcasts, but files may be sent to the observeradmin.

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:42 am
by Stephen Calhoun
Podcasting is cool.

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:43 am
by Stephen Calhoun
I'm going to re-ask my question inside the door.



Thanks for the helpful info!

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:47 am
by Stephen Calhoun
What would it take to do a PodCast of a conversation at a moment's notice?



If an interesting meeting of the minds beckons, is it just a matter of putting a laptop with software and a good microphone on the table?



I'm wondering about the LO's capability to react quickly to the opportunity to record an interesting dialogue.



For example, what if I were scheduled to sit down and chew beets with Rumsfeld and J-Lo tomorrow at the Phoenix? How would you hook me up to the Pod?

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:20 pm
by Stan Austin
Steve--- At the moment I know of two methods you might use to record "in the field".



On your laptop if you download and install Audacity.com you can use that to record. It also has a step which DL or I can explain later to convert a WAV file into and mp3 file which is the format for a podcast.



If you have an iPod or MP3 player some of the higher end models can do dictation or be fitted with an aftermarket dictation device.



DL and I will look for and count on your support to requisition these devices at the next editorial meeting!



Stan

Council PodCast?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 2:07 pm
by Stephen Calhoun
Stan, thanks for answering my question. To summarize: as far as we know, nobody has an audio ready lap top to serve as a recording platform for impromptu sessions.



:(



I have a Mac laptop. It's 12 years old. It would work but it has a 20mb hard drive! LOL



Meanwhile at home I have full A/D remastering studio on the Mac desktop machine. ...not transportable. But if you want to track sound effects or make someone sound like tom waits...