As you begin your career online or extend your outreach to a growing audience, you may be considering podcasting. This article discusses what podcasting is and explains some of the technology in terms that anyone can understand.

Several definitions for podcast are available by googling the term. The one I like best however, says the following. A podcast is a multimedia file able to be played on a computer, mobile device or media player. The file itself may consist of audio or video and is usually obtained by downloading it from a site (website) set up just for that purpose. Although the term podcast is sometimes associated with a popular vendor's device, the term podcast came before the device and has been in use according to Wikipedia since around 2005.

Other terms that are used when describing a podcast are terms such as "RSS", "podcast client", "aggregator", "blog", "syndication" and "digital audio files". Looking at the definition and use of these terms along with more descriptions of the use of podcast should help us to understand what the meaning of podcast is when it comes to using podcasts for broadcasting a message.

First, RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication, defined as a web feed technology that automatically detects when content on one site is updated and through subscriber feeds and aggregators, distributes it to another site or to a digital content player. A web feed allows feed readers to access a site automatically looking for new content and then post updates about that new content to another site. This provides a way for users to keep up with the latest and newest information posted on different sites. A feed reader is a software package that enables you to read the code in which RSS feeds are written. This can give you a central place to read updates from news feeds, blogs, email etc. Feed readers are increasingly being included in browser software, or as part of personalized homepages.

A podcast client is the software used to access and download podcasts. Podcast clients are also known as media aggregators, programs designed to automatically access an online file, or feed, and download the audio or video file associated with it. An aggregator (also known as a feed reader) is a website or software program that gathers and displays web content such as news headlines, blogs, and podcasts from multiple website sources to a single website (location). It uses RSS or other types of feeds to find the content, and allows subscribing to feeds, allowing new content to be automatically downloaded when it is available.

Blog is a shortened version of the word weblog, material published by the owner of a website containing posts of all sorts of content, including images, texts, video, audio and even links to other sites. Often a blog will allow participation from readers through comments or guest posts. Syndication is the pulling of content from an RSS news feed into a web site making information on a website available (usually in digest form) for a wide range of uses, like RSS feeds. Syndication also allows news updates, blog entries and podcasts to be made immediately available to a Web audience.

Finally, digital audio files for our purpose refers to a file containing digital audio which is defined as follows. Analog audio signals are converted into digital samples, with each sample being assigned a value in a range of 65,536 possible values (16 bits). This converted analog signal is saved in file format and is able to played by many digital audio players such as in a cd audio player or if converted to the right format an MP3 player, media players, etc.

Now, with these basics about the podcasting world, you have a foundation to start looking into how podcasting can become useful for your needs.

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Podcasting has become a popular way for companies, specialists, and educators to share their message and services with the world. Some podcasts are made by individuals making commentary on society, doing movie reviews, or sharing their personal views on politics. Whatever topic an individual or organization wants to share information about, audio/video podcasts can be a user friendly, popular, delivery system. Many products exist that make podcasting fairly inexpensive and approachable to the average user. However, a gap exists between owning the equipment, knowing how to use that equipment, and even how to produce a top quality production for your podcasts. Podcasts are essentially on demand radio, or TV broadcasting. Wether the podcast is for profit, or just for fun, aside from advertising and distributing your podcast, making sure the quality and content of the podcast is the most important consideration in making a podcast. For this reason, the individual or organization that wants to do a podcast may need a higher production quality than what a $100 USB microphone and Apple's Garage Band software can provide.

Not all professional recording studios understand the goals and needs of a podcast. Additionally, not many recording studios are considered affordable. Considering the idea that podcasts are generally delivered to the end user free of charge, low budget restrictions discourage individuals from considering a commercial option for podcasting. Just because podcasts are free to the user, doesn't mean they need to sound "free".

So what makes a recording studio a "Professional Podcasting" recording studio? Lets first analyze the 3 main production problems that are commonly found in many podcasts. Understand that a professional podcasting studio will directly solve these issues.

First, basic audio quality. Popular USB podcasting microphones are not meant to be of the highest quality, they are generally meant to be the most approachable price point. While this is understandable, this is the reality of the microphones that are advertised for podcast creation. Professional recording studios stock a variety of top quality microphones, top quality microphone preamplifiers and high quality analog to digital converters. All of this equipment is relevant in recreating a optimal, pleasant listening experience. You want people to listen to what you have to say, that means that you should eliminate all the factors that would keep them from listening. You audience will not want to hear a brittle vocal quality, harsh "S's" or sibilance, muddy or muffled sound quality, or any other vocal quality that is undesirable. A good studio with good equipment can fix, or rather eliminate, these production issues altogether.

Recording studios are also treated acoustically in such a way that room reverberations are controlled. The goal of your podcast, to some extent, is to brand yourself or your organization as an expert or relevant voice on the subject matter. Good acoustics can be the difference between a respectable presentation, and a recording that leaves an individual wondering if they are listening to some nut job sitting at their laptop in their bedroom or basement. For example, if your podcast is about how to achieve financial success, you need to sound like you are a proven individual experiencing enough financial success to afford a good recording, not a con man sitting in their mothers basement selling unproven material. People generally listen to podcasts on.mp3 players/iPhones/iPods which means they are most likely listening on headphones. Headphones expose many potential technical and acoustical flaws as the sound source is placed as close to their ears as possible. A professional podcasting studio understands the considerations and challenges that arise from this common delivery system for podcasts.

Second, audio bed/background music. I love Apple's Garage Band software and the standard audio loops and background tracks that come with the program. They work good to introduce and close pod casts, so good that everyone uses the same songs. I hear the same loops from that program on several other podcasts. If your podcast is part of how you wish to develop your product or service identity do you want to be the same as everyone else? Or are you different; are you unique? A professional podcasting recording studio understands this challenge and has a library of audio samples, or has the ability to compose and record an original intro/conclusion audio bed that is used to help define your podcast as unique.

Third, (applies to video podcasting only), Video quality. Webcams, those little cameras placed above computer displays are not bad, but they are not professional. If you want to join the army of nut jobs that record themselves rambling about this and that and post it on youtube, fine. But, if you are to position yourself as an expert in your chosen field, if you are to be taken seriously, your video podcast requires something more, something professional. This doesn't mean that you need to have a full blown TV studio for this to happen. If you want that to be the case, more power to you, but for a majority of individuals looking to promote themselves through podcasting, their business or information does not require a full blown hollywood production. A professional podcast studio can not only accomplish outstanding audio quality, but also understands the needs of the video podcast as well. This means being able to edit video clips, power point or keynote slides at the appropriate times and lengths. Remember, with a video podcast, individual branding becomes even more important. It is difficult to instill confidence in those whom subscribe to your podcast that you are worth listening to if your video is grainy, pixilated, and if your dirty laundry is featured in the background of your bedroom webcam podcast.

With the technology for podcasting so widely available to the masses, the best way to stand out from the oceans of mediocre podcasts, seek to increase your quality and presentation by employing the services of a professional podcasting recording studio.

Nick Galieti is the owner/engineer/producer at Studio 5.1 a Utah recording studio