Be Excellent To Each Other

After a long time of not doing podcasts, I am now doing a podcast again.

It is here:
http://savygamer.co.uk/2010/04/19/the-s ... pisode-11/

We were a little rusty, but it should be getting better. Gonna have some developer interviews too.

Woo, glad your back.

But 180 meg? Thats a totally unnecessary level of bandwidth for voice. Especially when Will needs a better mike.

Why does that matter?

Various reasons. Space at the users end, space at your end, people streaming over 3G, etc.

Listening now. Are you opinions any more definitive than those on Iconochromatic (Which offers some of the least definitive ones around)?

Indeed. I gather up a lot of podcasts at once on my phone and, at 180 meg you won't get a place on there, space being a premium.

For comparison from my iTunes:
Mainly talking:
1hr of Collings & Herrin 61MB
41mins of Adam & Joe 38MB
60mins of Dave Gorman 28MB (and just as good quality as the others)
Full radio show:
1hr 10m of As it occurs to me 80Mb
Full Video
30min TED talks Natalie Merchant (singing so quality important) 96MB

So yeah, the file is 4 or 5 times larger than it need be, and will keep it from lots of peoples phones.

64 or 128kbps mono mp3 are typical podcast bitrates in my experience. So around 30-60 megabyte per hour.

That and the incorrect spelling.

Some people only have a limited amount of monthly bandwidth.

I accidentally went over my mobile limit and it's cost me £20 for 4 days.

Mr Willeth says sound quality and bitrate will be fixed for the next one.

You could also just re-encode this one as well.

I'm on a monthly limit, and a poor speed, and just cannot justify such a large download.

We've changed it to a lower bitrate one now. Roughly 50mb

Sweet. Didn't mean for my earlier post to sound like me being a big meany.

No problem. I couldn't really think of any situation where a 100+mb podcast would be an issue, but then I mostly listen to them sat at my computer.

Well a good rule of thumb for me is that it should take longer to listen to than to download.

One day I'll get a faster net connection.

I tried to listen... got 10 minutes in and it was a bit, well, frankly boring. It was just you and your mate talking over each other.

Just my opinion of course, so don't take it to heart - and I owe you for the Live points discount

Chinny's radio production tip of the day* - Do not talk over your co-host. Just don't. Even the half wits on Steve Wright manage not to.




* Having actually earned a living doing that stuff I feel qualified to comment.

Yeah, to be honest although we had talked about doing it again for a while, he kind of sprung it on me that he was ready. In future we're going to have a bit more of a plan for each episode, and have interviews with developers and things.

Decide how long your show is going to be. Lets say it's going to be 1 hour. Draw yourself a circle.

Now divide the circle into areas thus:



Ignore the fact that they have commercials, and stuff. You don't but the principles of this remain the same.

Now look at what features you have. You want people to listen all the way through don't you? Start off strong but also have something decent near the end of the show. Plug what you are going to do at the start of the show and keep on plugging ahead to what is coming up between segments.

Keep your features to the times you planned at the start. This stops them from rambling on and becoming dull and keeps the entire thing focussed. Also keep your planned running length. Again it's disipline and stops it from becoming a rambling mess. It's amazing how working against the clock keeps you focussed. In live radio time is everything and one of the reasons so many podcasts are such rambling shit is because they have lost all sense of time.

Isn't a rule of thumb "do your best thing last and your second-best thing first"?

Depends on how you want to hook people. You may want to start off with your big interview but keep something sexy and short for the end of the hour to promote ahead to. So you've got people and can then get them to listen all the way through to the end. Ending on your big main interview often means that if you are on a fixed timing it can get squeezed down.

You can also end on something quirky, exciting and succinct which wraps up the hour nicely. If you listen to Radio 5 during the day they often do this.

What do they do if I don't listen?

They don't broadcast then.