Podcasting User Guide

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DigitalMeeting Podcast allows you to: Record a meeting or announcement. Edit the recording. Set registrations and notifications for the recording. Publish the recording as a Podcast. Set up syndication to a series of Podcasts

Creating a DigitalMeeting Podcast.

The chairperson has the capability to record and podcast a meeting or announcement with full synchronization between audio and screen. You may also start an audio-only recording/podcast with Web-Meeting (if you are not showing slides or application sharing). Anytime you are showing PowerPoint slides, images or applications during a recording/podcast, they will automatically be synchronized with the audio.

Podcast Preparation Preparation is the same as for a non-recorded DigitalMeeting; log in, prepare and upload your PowerPoint slides and have your applications open and minimised at the bottom of the screen. For more information, see “Meeting Preparation” in the audio/web user guide.

If you intend to record/podcast a meeting with the involvement of other participants you can invite them by following the instructions in “Sending invitations from your DigitalMeeting management area” in the audio/web user guide. You must make all participants aware that you intend to record this particular session.

Record your Material To start the Web Meeting, click the “Start Web Conference” button and then check the box next to “Record” on the Audio Control Screen.

NB: Ensure that the box next to “Record” is checked to bring on line the recorder.

You will be asked to enter a name for the recording. This name will be used to identify the recording in the Archive Management system. When the recording starts, a message will play into the audio conference that notifies participants the meeting is being recorded. The recorder will show up in the Audio Control participant list. Fees apply and a new recorded file is created each time you select the Record button to initiate a recording. To avoid multiple recording fees and files for a single meeting, do not start and stop the recording multiple times during the conference.

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If a Web conference is active, the current view (in the slide window) will be synchronized with the audio recording. As you proceed through your series of slides or applications they will be synchronized with the audio. Any time you are not showing slides, or if you record a conference with no slide presentation, the screen will appear during playback.

To end the recording, un-check the ‘Record’ box on the Audio Control screen. You will be asked to confirm that you want to end the recording. Any time a recording ends a message is played into the conference informing all participants that the conference is no longer being recorded. If the chairperson exits the Web conference without ending the recording, the recording will continue until the audio conference ends. The chairperson can also end the recording by pressing *2 on the telephone keypad at anytime. You can also end the recording by clicking on “Stop Web Conference” and hanging up the phone.

Notes on Recording

• Use a handset whenever possible for best voice quality.

• If use of a handset is not possible, sit and speak as closely as possible to the speakerphone; headsets may cause static or poor audio quality.

• Mute participants that have a great deal of background noise (as it will be recorded).

Podcast recording: Hints and tips.

• If you are speaking directly to the recorder to record an announcement, you can make the editing easier by using these simple techniques.

• Take your time. It is better to record in small sections and keep repeating them until you are happy with a “take” than to attempt the recording in one go. Take note that you cannot edit the order of sections, but you can cut out spoilt sections from the timeline.

• The best results are obtained by scripting the podcast and having a dry run through before recording.

• Leave 3 seconds between changing slides and starting to speak. Keep narrating this slide until you are happy with what you have said. Leave another 3 seconds and click onto the next slide.

• If using slide annotation or application sharing, try to keep movement to a minimum as it is easier to “reset yourself” to redo a section.

• (After a spoilt section, it can be useful to say “Cut that one” and “Keep that one” when you are happy with a section. As long as you keep leaving 3 second pauses, this will help you keep track during the editing process.)

• If you make a mistake, pause for 3 seconds and redo the individual slide. Keep calm. Try to keep the same tone and inflection in your voice for every take. Pausing will make editing the recording easier and give a more professional end result.

Recording via the telephone To create an audio only podcast you may also initiate a recording by pressing on the telephone keypad. You will then be prompted to press to continue with the recording (or press to cancel and return to conference). A voice prompt will notify the Chairperson and participants that the conference is being recorded. To end the recording, press on the telephone keypad. You will be prompted to press to stop the recording (or press to cancel and return to conference). A voice prompt will notify that the conference is no longer being recorded. If a recording is in progress and the conference call is ended, the recording will automatically stop.

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Preview your Recording Recordings are available immediately after the conference ends. Recordings can be accessed via your Management area (see Manage my Recordings in the audio/web user guide) and replayed using either RealNetworks® audio or Microsoft® Windows Media® players. Recordings are stored in MP3 files for superior audio quality and easy playback with no waiting or interruptions. If web is presented during a recording, both the audio and screen are fully synchronized during playback. The audio controls for playback include: Start, Stop, Pause, Slider bar, Status on content (location and duration), and Volume control bar. The viewer may jump to a specific location in the recording by selecting the thumbnail in the recording playback screen. Both screen and audio will be played from that location. The viewer may also use the slider bar to go to a specific location in the recorded conference.

Editing your Recording Click on “Recording Management”. Place your mouse over the recording you would like to edit. A drop down box will appear. Select “Edit Recording.”

You will be taken to the ‘Recording Editor’.

The Timer

1. Watch the presentation through once. Get an idea of the sections you would like to cut. The second time you listen to the recording, write down the exact points that you want to edit out on a piece of paper, by using the timer on the right of the playback controls.

2. Type in the exact points you want to cut, in the ‘Create Cut Point’ timecode boxes. For example 00.12.37 to 00.12.42. Ensure that the section you want to cut is wholly within the cut points, or, if possible make the cut points slightly longer than the spoilt section. You may need to use the slider to listen to the section a few times to note down the exact cut points to use. NOTE- The recorder can delete whole seconds or multiples of seconds from the timeline and cannot re-order the sections. If you left plenty of pauses when recording the material, the editing process will be much easier and the end result seamless.

1. Click “Add Cut Point”. The timings to cut will be listed in the box below.

2. To make the cuts as listed, click ‘Make Cut’ 3. The recording will reload. Larger recordings

will take longer to process and refresh. 4. You can make one cut at a time by

repeating the above process or edit multiple cut points from the whole recording in one action.

5. Review the playback to check the cuts you have made. Use the slider to move to different sections of the recording.

6. Once you have finished all the cuts you want to make click Exit. The recording will be saved with the cuts you have made and you will return to the “Manage recordings” screen.

7. If you make a mistake with the cut points you have edited out, click on ‘View Past Cuts’.

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8. A “Past Cuts” window will appear with a list of the cuts you have made. Select “Revert to original” to undo all cuts applied to that recording.

9. The individual cuts are listed, by the date and time the cuts were processed on the left of this screen. A small box expands this information to include the time code within the recording of each cut made.

10. To undo an individual cut, click the “Undo” button next to the cut.

11. To close this window and go back to the Recording Editor Screen, click the “Close” button.

Publishing your Podcasts In the Manage Recordings screen, check the “Podcast” box for the recording you wish to publish. This will open up the Podcast options for that publication.

Also, clicking on “Edit” will open up the window in which you can set the podcast options for that individual podcast.

Podcast Options Title The main title of the podcast. Subtitle A secondary title for the podcast. Author The name of the person publishing

the podcast. Description A textbox for information about the

contents of the podcast. Keywords You can store up to eleven

keywords relating to the podcast. These keywords are visible to search engines and can drive people to the podcast.

Add Type in the keywords and click “Add”. They will move to the box below.

Remove You can remove old keyword and add new ones to improve the Search Engine Optimisation of the individual podcast.

Click “Save” to change the options and exit the window or Cancel to exit without saving. The podcast will then be published. The amount of time this takes depends on the size of the podcast. Refresh your “Manage Recordings” page.

Podcast Feed Settings Your universal Podcast feed settings can be accessed by clicking on the “Podcast feed Settings” button in the manage recordings page.

Ensure that “Publish Podcast” is checked. This will generate a link to your Podcast Page. As above you can input the settings for the podcasts. These settings will be for the complete podcast feed, not just individual podcasts.

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Notes

Make “Your Website” the same as the link at the top of the page. The keywords are visible to search engines and can be changed regularly. Click “Save” to change the options and exit the window or “Cancel” to exit without saving.

My Podcast Page The link next to “My Podcast Page” is what you must send to people you wish to invite to view or subscribe to your podcasts. Opening this link takes you to the subscription page for the podcasts you have published.

There are now two options of how to subscribe to the podcasts- iTunes and Online Audio and Visual Playback.

iTunes The person wishing to subscribe via iTunes must have the iTunes software installed on their own computer. This can be downloaded and installed from www.apple.com/itunes/download/. You can select to publish either an audio only or an audio/visual podcast. This is the procedure for and audio/visual podcast. Click on “Audio Visual Podcast Feed”

This will take to your iTunes page from where the podcast feed is distributed.

Click “GET” to download the Podcast. Click the Screen icon to watch the Podcast within iTunes.

Sync to iPod. The next time you sync your iPod, the new podcasts will transfer ready to be watched.

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Online Audio and Visual Playback To subscribe to podcasts via a browser, the person wishing to subscribe must have a personal page with that search provider. For this example we will subscribe through Google.

Click on “Add to Google”. In your “My Google” page ensure that you have “Google Reader” enabled. The list of the Podcasts you have subscribed to will show in this page.

To play an individual podcast, simply click onto the name of that episode. Now that you have subscribed to the Podcast Feed, whenever new episodes are published you will be notified by the “Feed” symbols in your browser’s favourite’s bar.

Click on the “Feed” symbol and then the individual file to play it.