Podcasts

TWiT Live

By Leo Laporte

Ever since we started this thing three years ago listeners have been asking us when we'd do some video shows. The problem has always been that there's not much to see. I'm in Petaluma and the TWiTs are spread all over the world. We did a few live TWiTs on video but they were less than satisfactory. The audio was terrible, it was difficult to get everyone together, and it wasn't very compelling visually.

Fast forward to 2007. I started streaming video of my side of the radio show, and people seemed to like it. When the first floor of the TWiT Cottage became available in March I rented it and we've been equipping it as an Internet studio ever since. We had three Canon XL-2 cameras already from the previous attempt, I've added LED lights from Lite Panels and Newtek's Tricaster Studio for switching and voila, instant studio.

We're still getting up to speed technically (we're just using one camera until I get the Tricaster working) but you can watch now. I'll stream whatever's going on (usually podcast and radio show production with various intermezzos) from 11a-4p Pacific (2-7p Eastern, 7p-Midnight UTC) every day but Monday and Friday. Eventually we'll do specials on Friday, too. The point of doing this live is to add interactivity, too, and we'll be integrating Skype calls and chat questions as we get the technical kinks worked out. For the full chat interface visit the future home of TWiT Live (it's just a rough place holder for now - we're working on a more useful design) at twitlive.tv. Watch for updates on Twitter or join Stickam and you can get SMS text messages, email, or AIM announcements whenever I turn on the camera(s).

This is a work in progress - you're watching the tech rehearsals for something I hope will be fun and useful. Please let me know what you think!

Ever since we started this thing three years ago listeners have been asking us when we'd do some video shows. The problem has always been that there's not much to see. I'm in Petaluma and the TWiTs are spread all over the world. We did a few live TWiTs on video but they were less than satisfactory. The audio was terrible, it was difficult to get everyone together, and it wasn't very compelling visually.

Fast forward to 2007. I started streaming video of my side of the radio show, and people seemed to like it. When the first floor of the TWiT Cottage became available in March I rented it and we've been equipping it as an Internet studio ever since. We had three Canon XL-2 cameras already from the previous attempt, I've added LED lights from Lite Panels and Newtek's Tricaster Studio for switching and voila, instant studio.

We're still getting up to speed technically (we're just using one camera until I get the Tricaster working) but you can watch now. I'll stream whatever's going on (usually podcast and radio show production with various intermezzos) from 11a-4p Pacific (2-7p Eastern, 7p-Midnight UTC) every day but Monday and Friday. Eventually we'll do specials on Friday, too. The point of doing this live is to add interactivity, too, and we'll be integrating Skype calls and chat questions as we get the technical kinks worked out. For the full chat interface visit the future home of TWiT Live (it's just a rough place holder for now - we're working on a more useful design) at twitlive.tv. Watch for updates on Twitter or join Stickam and you can get SMS text messages, email, or AIM announcements whenever I turn on the camera(s).

This is a work in progress - you're watching the tech rehearsals for something I hope will be fun and useful. Please let me know what you think!

Full post as published by this WEEK in LAW on May 10, 2008 (boomark / email).