Demo - Apple Podcast Producer

Posted by Zak Mensah on Thursday 28 May 2009 at 8:30am
Tags: e-learning | podcasts | software | sound recordings | video | workflow |

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With the continued rise in interest in podcasting, and this year's increase in educational usage of the Apple iPod Touch and iPhone, we wanted to find out how well the software worked.

Podcast Producer - free with the Apple Xserve server, or available to run on many other Intel Macs - sits on an Apple OSX 10.5 server, which manages the encoding, storage and delivery of the content. Every end user (that's you) has software on their computer to allow recording and submission of content.

The Podcast Capture recording software supplied with Podcast Producer works only on Apple Macs, but luckily Apple also provide a web interface which Windows and offsite users can access via their browser to upload content produced on any other OS with tools such as Audacity or Camtasia. We had a quick play with both the Podcast Producer and Capture applications on an laptop, and they were quick, easy and intuitive to use.

As the community - including many of us - primarily use Windows computers, we used the web browser version of the software for much of the demo. Rich also showed us some of the options available within Apple Workgroup Manager to integrate with you institution's LDAP directory, and manage access rights and permissions. Just ahead of the demo we asked our Twitter followers if they had any questions regarding this product and they came back with four. Now can you see the value of twitter? ;)

Q1 - Does the web version of the software have comparable functionality to the desktop software?

A - No, it only allows uploading of content already produced, and some limited video capture facilities

Q2 - Using Podcast Capture, and a single account, are multiple podcasts possible?

A - Yes, you can record/upload as many as you like, and the Podcast Capture software can be put on as many Apple computers as you like (OSX 10.5+ required)

Q3 - Does Podcast Capture work across the internet or only on an internal network? If not then how do you use remotely?

A - As long as your network permits access to the podcast server, then you can use the web based version anywhere on the internet. As before, simple video capture and file upload only are available through the web portal.

Q4 - Why is it when uploading podcasts via the web (blog) interface, do they not appear in iTunes (ie not in RSS feed)

A - They did in our test. I suggest that you contact Rich if you are having an issue.

Verdict

If you produce a lot of podcast content, want it stored separately to other media, and want to allow RSS/iTunes subscription then this could be the solution for your institution. Podcast Producer is easy to use for end users and the management of all your podcasts using one tool is attractive.

The varying workflows that it supports produce streamlined productivity for users, and the software is free to those who purchase the server.

The recording software integrated into it is currently Apple only; Windows users must use other software for the recording. That said, most institutions already use suitable Windows recording software, so will not see this as an issue.

The server end may take some setting up but this should be balanced against the benefits to the end users, and relatively low cost.

If anybody is already using this software, please add a comment about how you and your institution are fairing with it.

Full Apple details, including screencasts 

Thanks to Richard Belson of Western Computer, Bristol for his in-depth demonstration.

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