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The Future Of Podcasting

May 02, 2006

Today I've been setting up our computer system in the auditorium to prepare for the future podcasting of our Sunday morning services. We have some experience in doing this already since the Cranium Leakage team has started a podcast. Unfortunately we've not been able to do a podcast lately and I attribute that mostly to our limited time and space. We have only one place to do a podcast, and I think if we could do it portably instead of being stuck with a fixed location that we would be able to do it more often. That being said, while I was looking for a small sound mixer to use with our computer for Sunday mornings I came across a couple of portable options that would help our Cranium Leakage podcast, if only we had the money... a man can dream I suppose.

The first little techno honey that I came across is one in a lineup of many new portable recorders that actually record on flash memory. These handheld devices allow you to go portable with quality sound. The Sony PCM-D1 is ideal for our podcasting needs. It is equipped with built-in condenser microphones and designed with circuits that process stereo sound and it has a pure titanium body which makes it remarkably rugged. It uses 4MB of flash memory which will allow for about 13 hours of recording time although the rechargeable batteries will only hold out for 4 hours. The only downfall, it is extremely expensive: $1,639

The cheaper option for a flash recorder would be the Tiny 24/96 M-Audio MicroTrack. Click the link to see the picture of it. This is a 2-channel digital recorder that has a 64mb flash card and comes complete with phantom power, and high fidelity microphone pre-amps. This little recorder is only $399, which is also out of the price range of our little blogging community.

An even more intriguing option is the new HHB FlashMic which is a portable microphone with a built-in flash card. You can record everything on the built in 1GB flash chip using just the Sennheiser microphone, but this little device costs $1,299. For the exact same price I could get the Total traveler Laptop Recording Package which has a traveler digital interface, professional Sony MDR 7506 headphones, and two AKG c2000 microphones with wires and boom stands.

The only thing that even comes close to a price range that we could afford is the brand new iKey. This device is the one step solution to convert live audio straight to our iPod's. It is actually designed to record directly to any external USB storage device and it can record audio from any audio device. It records directly to an MP3 or WAV format in real time. This little piece of work is only $99. The only problem is that you still have to have other equipment in order to run you microphones into this little guy, so it doesn't really solve our problems. It's a neat concept though.

I even found that many of the companies that sell music equipment are offering podcasting packages. One of the companies that we have bought equipment from, BSW, has several packages available starting at $169 up to $1700. These packages include microphones, headphones, USB interfaces, software, and the more expensive packages include mixers and effects processors. They even offer Audio interfaces that let you connect to your personal phone line in order answer callers live. Personal and professional Podcasting is the "big thang" right now and if I had any money at all I would have my hands in some of these tasty electro-treats. Too bad for me.

It looks like for now our personal podcast will remain limited. I am buying a separate board and other equipment to enhance our church podcast though.

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