Podcasting has gone way beyond the Pod

The medium that most of us call podcasting has gone way beyond the Pod. When I say that, I am referring to both known etymologies of the term podcast: 1) The first, which refers specifically to Apple’s iPod devices. 2) The second, which states that the letters P—O—D in podcasting are actually an acronym for the words Portable On Demand. Of course, almost everyone knows that the programs which are popularly called podcasts can now be played on computers and multiple portable mobile devices, including iPads, iPods, iPhones, Blackberries and a handful of other portable audio players and other smart mobile telephones. But beyond that, some people are not yet aware that the market is now being flooded with many other devices that can receive and play these “podcast” programs directly, without any computer in the loop, including some HDTV sets, and even an in-dash car radio which connects to the Internet wirelessly. In this article, you’ll discover those, plus Internet table radios and inexpensive set top boxes which tune podcasts directly, without a computer. You’ll also get to reason with me about whether we should still be calling this medium podcasting, and keep calling the programs podcasts… and what this all means, both for content producers and for listeners/viewers.

JuicedLink launches benign method of defeating AGC in hybrid cameras

By introducing the DN101, any of the existing CX family of preamps from JuicedLink can now interface properly with the current audibly-challenged hybrid cameras and defeat their AGC (Automatic Gain Control) in a benign way. We know that the best way to record audio with these cameras is with a separate professional audio recorder. However, there are occasions when there isn’t time to sync separate audio in post (even when you have the help of a wonderful tool like PluralEyes). In those cases, we want the best possible audio available from the camera, even though it certainly won’t be as good as what an independent pro audio recording would be. JuicedLink has always shown a purist engineering attitude, and is known for their tutorial videos which successfully translate audio engineering terms and concepts for the layperson. In one of its latest videos called Tones are evil!, JuicedLink’s president and engineer explains why he believes that his method of defeating the AGC in cameras is superior to 20 KHz tone-based methods used by competitors like Beachtek. Learn more about this issue, the JuiceLink company, philosophy, and audio products in this article.

GoogleVoice improves its functionality on the iPhone

GoogleVoice has recently improved its functionality on the iPhone by upgrading its optimized iPhone website, both esthetically and operationally. In light of the misinformation published by some other tech journalists, I must clarify that GoogleVoice has been working fine on the iPhone for many months, at least with three of its features. I have been using GoogleVoice on my iPhone since July 2009 to place inexpensive outgoing international calls, which has been my main reason for using it. Since that date, GoogleVoice has also worked for incoming calls to the iPhone, although I don’t regularly use that feature for now. Even though I don’t regularly use the incoming call feature —or GoogleVoice’s other features so far— I do cover all of them in this article, in addition to explaining specifically how GoogleVoice has improved when placing outgoing international calls from the iPhone as a result of this recent update. I’ll also cover how I expect the GoogleVoice service to grow even further in the coming months.

Apple approves voice & video over iPhone’s 3G/Fring + iCall beat Skype

Apple recently approved voice over iPhone’s 3G data connection, and now Fring and iCall have beaten both Skype and Truphone in updating their respective iPhone applications to take advantage of the newly approved feature. The other two possible voice conduits —which already existed for the iPhone and some other smartphones— are GSM and WiFi. In this article, I’ll review what these two applications have done so far, and what they’ve added with this newly approved third option. I’ll also cover Fring’s new video calling over 3G option.

Connect your pro XLR microphone to your iPhone

Starting with software version 3.0 of the iPhone, Apple includes an audio recorder application called VoiceMemo. Many people who have used it have been quite impressed with the quality it offers. There have been other audio recording applications for the iPhone, but nothing is more tempting than using one that’s already there, especially one with an attractive icon and slick graphical interface. Given its simplicity and high-quality, Apple’s VoiceMemo covers almost any purpose. However, no matter how well it sounds with the iPhone’s internal microphone, for a professional journalist, image is also very important. That’s why I searched for a special cable that allows connecting a professional XLR microphone into an iPhone.

Beware the attack of the anachronisms!

Hospital central is an acclaimed Spanish series that is kind of like ER on steroids. Later in this article, you’ll see what Hospital central has to do with anachronisms.

During a recent translation/localization project for a major NLE manufacturer, my friend Rubén Abruña and I ran into a conundrum when debating with our client about how a few words should be translated. Among them was the word Slate, which Rubén and I (and everyone else we personally know in Spain and Latin America) had called Pizarra. We were quite shocked when our client told us that they wanted to use the word Claqueta, which actually corresponds with the word Clapstick. For us, the difference between a Slate and a Clapstick were clear: A Slate just shows information. While a Clapstick may show information, it always has a sound-producing “clapper” which was created to facilitate synchronizing audio and video in post. In fact, as far as we are concerned, both Clapstick and Claqueta are onomatopoeia, or words that were created to imitate the sound created by the device. For that reason, Rubén and I were quite clear about why we called a Slate as a Pizarra, and a Clapstick as a Claqueta. However, I began to discuss this with industry colleagues in Latin America/Spain, delve into the etymologies of each term, and discovered that —whether we like it or not, even Slate (Pizarra) is an anachronism.

Audio options for hybrid cameras: a study by P3Pictures

Jon Fairhurst of P3Pictures has done quite a study on audio options for hybrid cameras. Although P3Pictures uses a Canon 5D Mark II for its testing, at least some of their conclusions could apply to other hybrid cameras, including the Canon 7D, Panasonic Lumix GH1, and others yet to be released. P3Pictures’ goal with these scientific tests is to find the most professional quality sound, with mid-priced equipment. In all tests, P3Pictures uses the M-Audio Microtrack II, Zoom H4n, BeachTek DXA-5D, and the juicedLink CX 231. The first test is done with a closely placed shotgun mic. The second test uses a camera-mounted shotgun. The third test is with a wireless lavaliere microphone. Part 4 is foley recording, and Part 5 explores the noise floor of each option. Part 6 are P3Pictures’ conclusions. Here come the videos…

RED+FCP: 3-channel Audio NG in STP

Just a quick note: I took a short piece shot on RED and sent the FCP edit into Soundtrack Pro. I found to my dismay that I was unable to apply almost any processing to most of the clips: no noise reduction, no add-on processing (as shown in the image). A bit of investigation followed:

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