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This
Week in Science Podcast
The
weekly science and technology podcast
What
is a Podcast?
Podcasts
are a new syndication format for conveniently
and automatically distributing audio content across
the web. Podcasts are based on the same RSS technology
that allows for automated retrieval and aggregation
of Blog text information on services such as Bloglines
- the only difference being that instead of aggregating
text content, podcast aggregators collect audio
files.
How
to Hear the TWIS Podcast
Podcasts are an excellent way to keep up with
your favorite online science radio shows since
you only need to sign up for a feed once in order
to automatically receive new content as it is
released to the web. All you need to begin receiving
the This Week in Science Podcast is a free piece
of software called a podcast aggregator.
Podcast
aggregators are small software programs that
automatically check for new content from your
favorite online radio shows. When the aggregator
sees a new show available it automatically downloads
the show to your computer or portable media
device so you can listen to it at your convenience.
With a free aggregator program such as iPodder
oriPodderX
installed you to simply enter the URL of the
Podcast RSS feed that you’d like to subscribe
to into the aggregator ( the TWIS Podcast is
http://www.twis.org/audio/podcast.rss)
and set how often you’d like to check
for new content. (Addition 05/22/05 - it
was just announced that the new iTunes version
4.9 due for release in the next few months will
add support podcasts. Just type the URL of your
podcasts into iTunes and you're all set.)
How
we Record the Show
This Week in Science is recorded live every Tuesday
morning at 8:30 PST in our underground studio/nuclear
bunker at the KDVS radio station on the University
of California, Davis campus. We record the show
as an uncompressed WAV file via a line connection
to our super-handy Archos Gmini400 hard drive
based recording unit.
After
the show we take the file back to our post-production
facility where it is imported into Vegas Audio
for editing and compression/normalization. Once
editing is complete we convert the final WAV
into several different formats of MP3 - typically
40Kbs/Mono files for web and 256Kbs/Stereo files
for local archives and promotional usage. Web
MP3s are distributed as streaming audio through
the TWIS audio archives (http://www.twis.org/archive.html)
using an M3U wrapper as well as via an RSS Podcast
that is listed on most of the popular Podcast
directories on the web.
How
we Podcast the Files
Once the Web MP3s are loaded on the TWIS server
it is a simply matter to add these files to the
podcast. We open the podcast.rss file in a text
editor and add a new item listing to the top of
the file. This item listing includes the name
of the new audio file, a short description, the
date the file was added to the podcast, and the
location of the file on the server. This edited
RSS file is then uploaded to the server where
subscribed Podcast aggregators see the new item
listing and automatically download the new audio
file.
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