March 2009 Archives
2009-03-31 16:52:05
Good News
It is my pleasure to announce that the LISNews
Netcast Network is finally offering pieces for licensing via Public
Radio Exchange. This is a very unique opportunity for the crew.
Public Radio Exchange ("PRX") is the main means by which we can
offer content to National Public Radio affiliates for licensing.
Others, such as a couple Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programs
and Audible, are also set up to license through that system.
What does this mean to the average LISNews user? Probably not a
whole lot. You can go about your merry way and not worry about
this, if you so choose.
If you want to get LIS-related content out on NPR affiliates and
others, this opens up a new avenue for you. If you want early paid
access to some of the content we record, this opens up a new avenue
for you. If you think that the Great Western Dragon/Faceless
Historian should really be on the radio instead of restricted to
just podcasts, this opens up a new avenue for you.
Most content through the PRX is not available for free. This
heavily relates to insuring that rights holders for music are in
fact compensated for their toils as there is a deal worked out to
bypass much of the bureaucratic nastiness found in music use
outside PRX. In part it also ensures that content creators get fair
compensation within the confines of the present copyright regime in
the United States. This is the sort of deal that helps generate a
revenue stream to allow parts of the network to cover equipment and
telecommunications costs, for example.
What can you do to make this happen? On the network's end, we've
been increasing our visibility as of late. While that is a good
thing itself, it is not a complete action. If you want us on the
radio airwaves, you have to contact your local NPR stations
to tell them. The program directors at the stations are the folks
you want to talk to. Unless they feel there is any demand for
programming in this area, all the efforts at raising visibility
frankly are worth nothing.
Most stations using PRX are found in the United States. Stations
outside the United States can license content but have to set up as
an outside licensor. That matter is for PRX to resolve, not
us.
You can find the LISNews Netcast Network profile online at:
http://www.prx.org/group/lisnewsnetcasts.
Good News by Stephen Michael Kellat is licensed under a
Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States
License.
Based on a work at lisnews.org.
2009-03-23 13:14:21
Talking Audio
In light of a glitch that happened late Sunday
with TWiT 187, it is perhaps
appropriate to talk about digital audio structuring.
There are three main sampling rates used with digital audio. Those
rates are:
- 11.025 kHz -- Wireline Telephone Quality
- 22.050 kHz -- AM Radio Quality
- 44.100 kHz -- Compact Disc Audio Quality
A typical sample rate that programs from Erie Looking Productions stick with is 44.1 kHz if file size caps permit. For the longest time such was not possible as the Drupal implementation LISNews ran on had a ten megabyte cap. At this point, the current Drupal implementation lets us get away with files up to twenty megabytes in size. Our sample rate and bit rate change every week as we try to optimize content to sound good within the cap we have to work with.
Something we try to avoid is using the 11.025 kHz sample. In most respects such sounds awful. It can be useful, though, if you have a sizable audience operating with lower than average bandwidth. Last night the folks at the TWiT Cottage mistakenly released in the main MP3 feed their low-resolution file encoded at the 11.025 kHz sample rate with a bit rate of only sixteen kilobits per second. Such works great if you have to be in the American Pacific on a slow link and still want content and have a high tolerance for distortion and digital artifacts.
At this point, there is no plan to release programs from Erie Looking Productions in such a low-bandwidth version. It does not seem that such will serve the audience well. If there is demand, such as getting a version of the program available under the ten megabyte cap iPhones cope with for over-the-air podcast downloads, then reconsideration may be possible.
Talking Audio by Stephen Michael Kellat is licensed
under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United
States License.
2009-03-18 19:20:04
Administrative Nightmares and Growth Opportunities
The work I do is strange enough. There are many
facets in play. Sometimes it is necessary to blog about some of
them.
The LISNews Netcast Network is underway. A variety of content is
being presented beyond what I was producing in just LISTen. One of
my biggest fears at the moment is that a very fractured, divided
audience would only be more fractured through having three shows
instead of one. So far, it seems that such is the case. Although
much of the network's programming is geared towards librarians, the
non-librarian presenter is the most popular! This is a strange
thing.
Right now a goal is the diversification of content. While Blake
issued a call for more
bloggers for LISNews, it takes a bit larger of a skill set to
be a program producer. While there are some supremely confident
librarians in the land, I am more looking for good radio than doing
more with less yet thinking it is premium fare. Folks interested in
adding programs to the network can do so by
pitching me via secure communications. I make no guarantees
that all comers will be accepted but I will treat things in the
best manner possible.
The network is now established on
the Public Radio Exchange. This allows us to make content available
for licensing by radio stations. This is a possible revenue
generating activity as any interest in content produced by the
network would result in fee payments. Some freebie
example pieces are online already. With luck we should be able
to get Hyperlinked History posted in a way it could be picked up by
radio stations for airing. Getting segments from LISTen out into
the broader world can serve a public good by making the knowledge
ecology more accessible to the masses.
An opportunity that is also a possible danger is that Public Radio
Exchange allows an outlet for releasing programming beyond what the
network produces for LISNews. Right now I would like to put
together a short feature in light of the series finale to
Battlestar Galactica. Such would definitely not be library-related
but would be usable on Public Radio Exchange in general.
Ten contact packets were mailed off this week. More than half were
going to National Public Radio affiliates who can get material
through Public Radio Exchange. One of the bad things about
producing materials is that if nobody knows it exists, does it
really matter? From experience so far, the answer to that is no.
This is why it was essential to fire off the packets. Demo discs,
headshots with bios of the air staff, and more were sent as things
through which we could introduce ourselves to program directors out
in the wide world. Larger markets were selected to start with
although the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands and the
US Virgin Islands saw their National Public Radio affiliates
pinged.
A big problem at the moment is the number of library-related
podcasts that have gone defunct in the past six months. The
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the
United Kingdom selects
what they feel are representative programs for release. There isn't
much out there anymore. Not even all of the network's programs are
picked up by CILIP. Have podcasts been just a fad for librarians?
What is the foundation librarians seek? At this point I can only
answer: "I dunno!"
This is a topsy-turvy world. Which way is truly up? That is the
important thing to keep in mind with rounds-ups like this of
current operating activities.