If you follow the MoC blog or subscribe then this is nothing new. If not then check out last week’s interview with Seth Godin. I wanted to have a link to send around to a post with a flash player in it to make it as easy as possible.
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/marketingovercoffee/MoC147-sg3.mp3]I just realized that I haven’t mentioned the Beancast recently, it’s a great Marketing Podcast with a panel – basically TWiT for Marketing. Last week I was on with Saul Colt, the smartest man in the world, and that in itself is reason enough to listen. Not surprisingly, I get to be sarcastic
[audio:http://beancast.evanbooth.com/shows/088_The_BeanCast_Marketing_Podcast_Brands_Politics.mp3]For non-fanboys, Doctor Who is the story of a man who travels in a ship that is a police box (a blue phonebooth) on the outside but is larger on the inside. He travels through both space and time, leaving the writers all of the universe and history to draw stories from. Better yet, he has the ability to physically regenerate from fatal injury, giving the writers the ultimate flexibility of having a new actor take over the role every few years.
The show is nearing its 50th anniversary, it ran from 1963 to 1989, and known for great stories, but terrible special effects. It was revived in 2005 and has been done with top notch special effects and has been excellent viewing.
I have to give the BBC credit for finally running new episodes 1 day after they run in the UK. It’s kind of a running joke among US fans about getting the show off the torrents or other non-kosher means. The David Tennant finale aired this weekend (actor Matt Smith takes over in the spring) and I was able to watch it on my Tivo like any other TV show. But still, I’d be willing to pay for HD on Apple TV…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnPUF8an-XE[/youtube]
Even though I said I was taking November off, I’m back again. A friend asked me about recording a phone interview and I wrote so much that I thought it would be a shame not to get a post out of it too.
The Phone Tree Option in Order of Sound Quality:
Best – Skype to Skype
Still good – Skype to regular phone (Skype Out) A lot of people use this if your interview subject can’t handle skype (doesn’t have the bandwidth, or the technical skill).
Last Option – Phone to Phone
For skype to skype or skype to skype out, use one computer for skype and another, or a digital recorder to record, do not skype and record on the same machine (yes, I know, lots of people do skype and record on one machine, remember that you’ve only listened to their successes, you haven’t heard the files that were lost or ruined). Another benefit of this method is that you get full studio sound on your side.
Ways to do phone to phone: like most tech stuff, the trade offs are that cheap and/or easy are at the expense of sound quality.
One thing to test is cell vs. land line. Cell can be clearer, but if reception is an issue go to land line.
Another important factor – headsets are best, handset next, Polycom conference phone is rough, speakerphones are terrible.
Cheapest and easiest: Many conference call services, such as the good folks of TelSpan can record your conference call (I am a customer of theirs). Give your subject the number, tell the service in advance that you want this one recorded, and download an mp3 when you are done. This is as low a quality can go, but it does work.
Next, if you already have recording gear, put the subject on a polycom and record the room. You get studio sound on one side and this method is a good compromise on price / sound quality. The setup we use for Marketing Over Coffee (this link goes to a page with the full gear listing) is great for that, it’s about $600 but is NPR quality sound and durability. You can go cheaper, but the question is: “How screwed would you be if you lost an interview?” for some it’s no big deal, for others it may be once in a lifetime opportunity.
Most expensive – a device that operates as a phone but pulls the caller into your mixer and pushes your mic back down the line. I don’t know many people that go this route since skyping out is cheaper and better sound quality. But, it should be noted that JK Audio has a full assortment of devices that do this (as well as some other devices that are great if you want to do your own webinars – again, I am a customer and vouch for them).
It will also depend on if you are doing it once or if it’s an ongoing project, for one time call in some favors, rent gear, or pay a pro. If it’s a regular thing, get some decent gear.
Another big tip – when you are done, run it through the Levelator, it’s a free software tool that balances out the volume levels.
Have fun, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Traackr looks pretty interesting (via Mike Troiano)
Even more impossible, there was a new episode of The M Show this weekend:
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/themshow/TheMShow204.mp3]The time has come for the last chapter of The M Show. We’ll be doing one in the next week announcing that the one after that will be the last.
With the success of Marketing Over Coffee, and some of the other projects that I have been working on, I really don’t have the time to continue doing the show on a regular basis. It’s been a great trip, but unfortunately I really haven’t learned anything new in the past year from the show. As the frequency has dropped so have the number of listeners.
The thing is that the folks that have remained are the real fans of the show, many of them listening for many years. For everyone that has stuck with it I’d like to do a final send off rather than continuing to fade away.
What’s next? Unfortunately I find myself being dragging into more projects that are not in the public view, and some not involved with social media (GASP!). There’s still the MOC project, and showing up now and then over on The Beancast, and who knows – I’m not going to kill the feed, that way there will be a place for the less business minded stuff.
Seth Godin’s post on dashboards reminded me that I have yet to post on switching from Nike+ to the Garmin 305.
After about a year and a half of using the Nike+ system I’m now using a Garmin 305. The 305 always had a better feature set, but the difference now is that the price has fallen to around $150. I really like using a heart rate monitor (HRM) to train, some days it tells me that just because I feel like I’m giving 100%, I’m not. Other days I have to rein it in even though it feels like I can push harder.
Besides the HRM, the 305 uses global positioning satellites (GPS) to measure distance traveled, speed (and altitude). I was having a problem with the accuracy of the Nike+ foot sensor (measuring by pedometer), that came to a head when I was running a hilly 5k course that I was unfamiliar with and my iPod read that I was finished when I still had more of a tenth of a mile to go. That was the day I went back to see what the 305 price was at.
As far as music I’m using a 2nd Generation Shuffle, the generation with controls still on the player. The 3rd gen is tiny, but you have to use the earbuds that come with it b/c the controls are on the wire, not the unit. This doesn’t work b/c I don’t like to run with earbuds, I prefer neckband so that if they fall out I don’t lose them.
More reports as I put some more miles (and the Falmouth Road Race!) on it.
Some fanboy stuff for Friday – cutting edge video games, this does have some real world application too.
About 6 months ago I was wondering if anybody was ever going to come up with an answer to the Wii. Yes, it’s revolutionary, but it’s just a wireless controller, you’d think that in over a year somebody would catch up.
This week is E3, the big gaming trade show, and Microsoft showed off project Natal. Rather than read about it it’s much easier if you just watch this:
Now I saw that and thought it was the coolest thing yet, but my friend Steve wisely counseled that I should wait until there’s a working game before I got too excited. Then engadget reported on this – games can be retro-fitted to the system and they were showing off Burnout (argueably the best driving game ever). They had agreed not to show the game, but you can see people playing it so it does work.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poGW4lvyflk[/youtube]
Here’s my first shot with the HD Video Camera, a Canon Vixia HD30. It was a classic software project – I got the camera, but I had to update to iMovie ’09 so the file format would be recognized, and I had to update to Leopard to be able to upgrade iMovie. Two weeks later… here it is.
I’m surprised the demand HD puts on my machine, I have a Sony VAIO desktop and it has a hard time not dropping frames in full screen HD while watching on YouTube. The original off the camera is dead on, and if you watch in a smaller window no problem. I’d be interested in hearing how well it plays for you.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrieqLXntbw[/youtube]
Those are the best words on TV. Nothing else sets up such a sense of excitement and anticipation.
Here’s the live Marketing Over Coffee from the PRSA, it was cool to have a crowd bigger than the staff of Dunks for the show. If you are into marketing you may find it entertaining, for everyone else, I’d suggest Hot Rod over this for entertainment value.