The Transition to Video - Part 1

Ok, before I begin this update, I’m going to step back a minute and bring you up to date. In case you haven’t been following this saga, the transition to video started several months ago. As many of you know, because you follow me on Twitter, Pownce, Tumblr or any number of other microblogs, or you are an avid listener to some of my shows, I had plenty of audio issues and other technical related issues while using Talkshoe.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still believe Talkshoe is a good place to start live, interactive programming and after using them for more than a year and a half, they served their purpose in helping me to evolve away from live audio podcasting.

Anyway, I digress. When the issues started getting in the way of me producing my shows and I started losing live listeners and possibly download listeners (gauging from my stats), I knew it was time to take a serious look at other platforms.

I had been producing audio podcasts before I went live and then continued producing the audio podcasts along with the live podcasts and when video started becoming a standard to podcasters, I jumped in with both feet and produced pre-recorded videos as well as simulcasted my video and audio podcasts live. This was working out well for me until the audio issues at Talkshoe became worse. Now I had to make a decision as to whether or not to continue the live audio podcasts or just go straight video.

So, I did what any other podcaster would do in this situation and I sent a plea out to my listeners and subscribers to get their opinions on this move. If you have been reading my blogs very long, you already know that I had a very displeasing amount of comments come in. Displeasing in the amount of ZERO comments on this subject. However, I made a few calls to trusted friends and collegues and finally made the jump to straight video.

Now, the best was yet to come! Three weeks ago, after this decision had been made, I attempted to simulcast my shows on Talkshoe and uStream at the same time. And, you guessed it, Talkshoe still had audio issues that prevented me from doing this, so I had my first video only show that night. Went fantastic and no audio issues.

The following week, after I had announced my decision was final, I was going to do just one more show on Talkshoe. Well, as though it had been planned in advance (and it wasn’t I assure you), Talkshoe listeners could not hear me (with the exception of one listener) and even though I could hear everyone else, still no go. The show started late that, but after logging into my own phone conference bridge and then my mic mute button stuck, I was finally on the air, video only again.

Last week, I ran, start to finish video only and was able to work out some minor audio issues on the phone bridge BEFORE the show started, I mean that’s what the pre-show is all about anyway, and I had a nearly three hour show, again, issue free.

So, in conclusion, the transition to video has been a little rough around the edges, but needless to say, I am video only and am still podcasting the audio, on my own servers and with my own RSS feeds, so starting with the Month of August, using the Blubrry Statistics Program and Feedburner, I am able to track my subscribers, downloads and listeners and I am looking forward to many more issue free shows in the future.

I will post a second part of this post soon outlining what I have put together so that if you are thinking about this type of transition, you can have a leg up on knowing what to do.

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