One Option For Recording Phone Conversations

There was a question the other day on the New Media Expo Pathable Community mailing list about how to record phone conversations via POTS connections. 

I use a Telos-One-R (R = rack mountable) that I picked up on eBay and this is a diagram of my setup:

Telos_setup_v1c_2

The Telos One comes highly recommended from two very smart audio gurus at IT Conversations: Doug Kaye and Paul Figgiani

Paul has posted some great resources about the topic over at Podcast Rigs especially this post "Telos One, Talkshoe and Skype." There is also a great podcast with Doug Kaye (MP3) over at Podcast Academy that covers this topic.

Both Paul and Victor Cajiao at the Typical Mac User Podcast helped me setup the configuration of my unit - which is done manually with a small screw driver. I also borrowed Paul's unit diagram of a Telos One for my picture.  Thanks Paul!

I am pretty happy with how this is working now, but I would recommend doing some post production processing on the phone track (usually your guest) with something like SoundSoap.


Tri-Network Rumbles About To Start?!?

The recent This Week In Tech (TWIT) #126 podcast with Leo Laporte had an interesting snide comment at around 18 minutes in by Podshow's John C. Dvorak about Revision3's long list of new talent (including the recent Rodger Chang), and how quickly the are now going to run through their venture capital (VC) money. 

The same could be said about Podshow's spending rate, business plans, or financial status which little is known publicly.  One good thing is that they appear to still be hiring.  And they continue to have the annoying pre-roll advertisements on many podcasts on their network.

Given the apparent implosion at PodTech.net there is a lot of uncertainty in the technology new media arena as we close out 2007.

It will be interesting to watch how TWIT, Podshow, and Revision3 play out their relationships in 2008.


Musician Podcasts Can Be Really Good For Fans

Back in 2006, the Eurythmics posted four podcasts that highlighted the musicians perspective around many of the songs that they had produced and released in the past.

Elvis Costello recently did the same thing with a 10 segment podcast series.  If you are an Elvis Costello fan you'll definitely enjoy the history and reflections.

There is now news from antiMusic.com that Stevie Ray Vaughan has embarced on his on podcast series to promote his new  'SOLOS, SESSIONS & ENCORES'.

UPDATE (12/26/2007): Apparently New Order has done this also but is selling the reflections and thoughts bundled around an album posted to iTunes.


Two Examples Of Using New Media To Your Strengths

The first example is Minyannville Publishing & Multimedia which provides small animated clips of business and other headline news to major sites like Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, AOL Money, and Fox Business News.  The main reason is their ability to offer fresh content that brings something new and different to these big sites so that their readership remains loyal. Independent content providers have a growing amount of leverage and opportunity to let their creative talents shine in front of many with those that focus on niches becoming hot commodities. More information for those that get the WSJ via an article entitled "Portals Think Small For The Latest News: Niche Sites Offer Access To Content As Gateways Battle Traffic Slippage."

The second, is from another newspaper article, this time from the Union-Tribune with an article entitled "Background-music provider puts shoppers in the mood."  What I liked about this article was that PlayNetwork leveraged the basics of what they know with audio as a purchasing tool into a bigger business that also enables their customers to tie into new media outlets like web video, podcasts, and other multimedia services.


PNME 2007 - Getting Started With Audacity Slides

The Podcast & New Media Expo (PNME) 2007 slides from the "Getting Started With Audacity" session have been posted. 

Some notes:

  • These slides are a PDF output from Apple's Keynote. 
  • There is a QuickTime movie version of the presentation that will be posted soon but it will not have the audio recorded during the presentation sync'd in.  The movie version has all the screen casts used during the presentation.
  • The audio for the presentation is still under the control of PNME. If you were a conference attendee then you should get a link to the audio as part of your conference fee. Ultimately the audio for all the sessions will get posted over the next 8-9 months to Gigavox Media's Podcast Academy channel.
  • Sometime in the future, complete screen casts of each topic will be produced and posted.
  • More information on the PNME Forums and previous AztecMedia.net post.

Feedback, comments, suggestions, etc. appreciated: [email protected].


New Blog & Podcast Magazine Published

The latest digital online version of Blogger And Podcaster magazine has been released. There is a lot of good articles, opinion pieces, and reviews worth checking out.

They have an interesting ad on page 6 for USA Today's "Introducing Blogger & Podcaster Guide".  Getting listed will cost $295 per week in the print addition and $195 per week for the online addition.  If you order before 9/30/07 there is a combo deal of $195 per week.


USA Today - Focused Product Ads In Comedy Format Come To TV & Web

USA Today has an interesting article on how American Eagle Outfitters is planning on creating 'comedy' ads for their products in a 3 minute format for some TV shows, and then 'replay' them as content on the site in 5 minute formats.  A total of 12 episodes will be done.

The article also had some interesting stats on the current state of advertising, especially on the 12-25 year old demographic.


Some Search Market Stats - Google, Yahoo, Microsoft

An article in the business section of the San Diego Union-Tribune for Sat., May 5, 2007 had a pretty detailed summary of the recent news that Microsoft & Yahoo are reportedly in close negotiation to work together to combat Google's online advertising leadership.

The article sited the following from a research firm called eMarketer that I thought was interesting.  In 2006, for everly $100 spent in online advertising: Google got $25, Yahoo got $18, and Microsoft got around $7.  In addition, eMarketer is projecting that in 2007 Google is poised to raise their take of that $100 spent to $32.  Wow!


Recent New Media Business Deals

Over the last couple of weeks there have been some interesting new media related business news.

Two of the major video podcasts have announced ad revenue details: AskANinja = $300,000 and Rocketboom = $247,000. 

Related to this is that Techcrunch is reporting that the podcasting advertising network Kiptronic has recently "closed a $4 million round of financing ... [from] ... investors include Blueprint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks."

Additionally, eMediaWire has news that TNC New Media (producer of the Podcast and Portable Media Expo) has sold their EndurancePlanet.com podcast and library of content to USA Triathlon.

More coverage from Paul Colligan on Ask A Ninja and Rocketboom.


Podcast Advertiser Watch #05

This is my latest informal sampling of who is advertising on which podcasts based on what I have been listening to since the last post on this topic (#04) and today's date [1/11/07]:

If you know of others, or keep your own list; and would like to contribute to this kind of data analysis via transparent disclosure, then let me know at: [email protected] and I'll link you in.