Here’s some good news for folks in the academic world who are interested in podcasting events such as lectures but stop when they see the complexity of the capture and the costs of deployment to multilple locations. Chris Dawson and his company BoxPopuli have announced a suite of products – hardware and software and web hosting – to provide a simple, low cost, standards based system to capture, prepare and publish audio podcasts and video podcasts.
How simple is it for the users? Just plug a ‘standard USB thumb drive’ into the box and the software does the rest. When the lecture ends, just remove the USB thumb drive and the recording stops. The system then packages the recording and forwards it onto the host for publishing via RSS and iTunes. Amazingly simple and cost effective. You can watch a good live demo of this system here as published on google video.
Of course there are a number of other features and services related to this product – some free, some not – but it’s all good. If your school or church or organization are looking for a simple no-sweat method to capture and publish podcasts and at a low cost, PIAB (podcast in a box) is for you.
Dean Owen
BRASSmedia Canada 