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TPS 079: An Alternative to Skype

December 9, 2013 by Ray Ortega 4 Comments

Ever have an issue with Skype? Choppy connection, hiss in your audio, disconnected from your interviewee or co-host? These are just a few of the issues some podcasters are experiencing when using Skype. However, Skype, in many cases still remains one of the better ways to connect with remote interviewees and co-hosts. But what if there was a reliable substitute? Enter Google Plus Hangouts and Hangouts On-Air.

If Skype is working great for your recordings, keep doing what you’re doing. But if you’re having any number of issues that Skype often has, consider trying Google Plus Hangouts. [Read more…] about TPS 079: An Alternative to Skype

Soundation Adds Audio Recording and Editing to G+ Hangouts and Hangouts On-Air

November 22, 2013 by Ray Ortega Leave a Comment

UPDATE: Soundation is limited to a ten minute record time which essentially makes this unusable for podcasting. I’m talking with the devs to see if there is a solution moving forward for podcasters. Stay tuned.

Soundation is a new Add-on for Hangouts and Hangouts On-Air that lets you record audio inside a Hangout. Why is that so cool? Cause you can produce a high quality podcast with separate channels of audio for post production all inside the wonderful UI of Hangouts/HOA.

It’s essentially an easy system for doing double-ender recordings with anyone in a Hangout!

BOTTOM LINE: This workflow is not for the average podcaster but for those who are trying to get the top quality productions, G+ now gives you the ability to produce a high quality, fully featured podcast (720p video, .wav audio, all live-streamed) wow.

I might sound a little more excited than reasonable but that’s because this is something I’ve been wanting to see for awhile now; so much so that I almost had it created on my own. I’m excited someone built it and built it well.

Here’s my walkthrough video showing how I will use this for the production of one of my shows, Podcasters’ Roundtable.

[Read more…]

TPS 074: iTunes Feed Specs and HOA for Podcasters

June 7, 2013 by Ray Ortega 1 Comment

Hangouts On-Air (HOA) have been a great experiment for my newest podcast, Podcasters’ Roundtable. I’ve tried several different live-streaming options and HOA’s have been remarkably effective in getting people to actually show up and participate. The most interesting revelation about this is the live-streams tend to get scheduled only 24 hours in advance of going live and are rarely based on a regular schedule. Hardly a recipe for success in live-streaming yet for some reason it works. So what’s going on?

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of HOA’s is the ability to create an “Event” page via Google Plus and associate it with your up coming live-stream. This allows people to RSVP and most importantly it sends whoever signs up for the event a reminder before the actual live-stream. I think this reminder is a key element to getting people to show up.

When setting up a podcast, Apple actually gives you a playbook of how they would like your feed to be setup for success in iTunes. It’s right there in black and white, a step-by-step guide about how to succeed in the iTunes store with a podcast. [Read more…] about TPS 074: iTunes Feed Specs and HOA for Podcasters