Podcasting
The podcast feature makes audio-only podcast files out of your existing video uploads and video collections and generates Apple iTunes compatible podcast feeds. You can manage multiple podcast feeds. A good practice is to create a podcast per “show”. For local meetings, you could have a podcast per meeting type, or you may choose to bundle all of the local meetings into one podcast. Once your podcast feed is set up and has at least one episode, you can submit the podcast feed URL to one or more podcast directories. TelVue Connect hosts the podcast feed and audio files. Note TelVue Connect does not currently accept uploading audio files directly, but will automatically create audio-only files from uploaded videos for your podcasts.
Managing Your Podcasts
- As an Admin user, hover over the Administration tab. From the drop down menu, you will find the Podcast Feeds option.
- From the Podcast Feeds page, select New Podcast Feed.
- The Podcast Feeds page also allows for the editing or deleting of pre-existing Podcasts.
- The Podcast Feeds page also allows for the editing or deleting of pre-existing Podcasts.
Selecting either New or Edit will bring up the Podcast form. This page allows editing the metadata for your Podcast and selecting programs to be included. Metadata is vital to your Podcast as this is how potential listeners will either search or browse through your Podcasts. The podcast metadata fields are as follows, you can always click the help tooltip for each for an explanation:
- Title: Make your title specific. A show titled “Our Community Bulletin” is too vague to attract many subscribers, no matter how compelling the content. Pay close attention to the title as Apple Podcasts uses this field for search.
- Description: Description is text containing one or more sentences describing your podcast to potential listeners. The maximum amount of text allowed for this field is 4000 characters.
- Language: The primary language spoken on the show. Because Apple Podcasts is available in territories around the world, it is critical to specify the language of a podcast.
- Owner Name: The podcast owner name. The information is for administrative communication about the podcast and isn’t displayed in Apple Podcasts.
- Author: The group responsible for creating the show. Show author most often refers to the parent company or network of a podcast, but it can also be used to identify the host(s) if none exists. Author information is especially useful if a company or organization publishes multiple podcasts. Providing this information will allow listeners to see all shows created by the same entity.
- Podcast Feed Link: The website associated with a podcast. Typically a home page for a podcast or a dedicated portion of a larger website. For example: https://www.mypodcast.com.
- Explicit: The podcast parental advisory information. If you check this on, indicating the presence of explicit content, Apple Podcasts displays an Explicit parental advisory graphic for your podcast. Podcasts containing explicit material aren’t available in some Apple Podcasts territories. If you check this off, indicating that your podcast doesn’t contain explicit language or adult content, Apple Podcasts displays a Clean parental advisory graphic for your podcast.
- Publish: If checked on, the podcast feed url will be publicly accessible so it can be submitted to Apple Podcasts and other podcast directories. If checked off, the podcast feed url will not be accessible and will not display for anyone.
- Channel Image: The artwork for the show. Depending on their device, subscribers see your podcast artwork in varying sizes. Therefore, make sure your design is effective at both its original size and at thumbnail size. You should include a show title, brand, or source name as part of your podcast artwork. Artwork should be a minimum size of 1400 x 1400 pixels and a maximum size of 3000 x 3000 pixels, in JPEG or PNG format, 72 dpi, with appropriate file extensions (.jpg, .png), and in the RGB colorspace.
- iTunes Categories: The show category information. Select the category that best reflects the content of your show. You can also select a subcategory. Although you can specify up to 3 categories, Apple Podcasts only recognizes the first category and subcategory.
Click Create Podcast Feed, or Update Podcast Feed to save the podcast metadata.
Managing Content on your Podcast
- You will need to create either a Series, Playlist, Category on your Connect account. You are able to select one or more of these to add content to a specific Podcast Feed. For creating Series, Playlists, and Categories, please see the following pages:
- From the Edit Podcast page you will see all available Series, Playlists, and Categories.
- Selecting one or multiple will then publish them and any content within them to your Podcast.
- To remove any items, un-selected any highlighted collections.
- Click Update Podcast Feed to save changes.
- When a collection is selected for your Podcast, any existing and new content in the collection will automatically be converted to an mp3 file and populate in your feed.
- Once the audio has been extracted, the audio file will also appear under the Assets tab located on the Edit Media page where it can always be downloaded directly.
- Once the audio has been extracted, the audio file will also appear under the Assets tab located on the Edit Media page where it can always be downloaded directly.
Testing Your Podcast
Once your Podcast has been created and populated with content, you can submit your feed URL to one or more Podcast directories. The feed generated by Connect is intended to be compatible with Apple iTunes and can be tested using a Podcast reader such as the Apple Podcasts app. You can test your feed by doing either of the following.
For iOS:
- Open the Podcasts app.
- Tap Library.
- Tap Edit in the upper right corner and select “Add a Show by URL”.
- Enter for feed URL.
- Select Subscribe.
For macOS:
- Open the Podcasts app.
- Select File and then “Add a Show by URL”.
- Enter your Feed URL.
- Select Subscribe.
