Page

Submissions

As an Ubuntu Linux-related podcast, we want all material to be family friendly and abide by the code of conduct http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct

General guidelines

  • Do a test recording to check levels, play it back to yourself to make sure you’re not too quiet/loud/garbled
  • Don’t read out commands or lengthy URLS. Use a link shortener if necessary.

  • Speak slower than you normally would by about 15%.
  • Leave edit points (brief pauses).

For interviews

  • Prepare the guest, let them know what kinds of topics you want to talk about (and ask what interesting things _they_ want to tell us about).
  • Show your guest the recording equipment you will be using and explain how you will be operating it during the interview.
  • Make sure they are happy with the subject matter – we don’t want guests to feel uncomfortable
  • Standard practice is to get the interviewee to say their name and job title at the beginning of the recording before the interview starts. This can be used to set the levels as well as ensure you have their name correct!
  • Make sure you introduce the interviewee properly at the start of the interview.
  • Avoid “uhuh”, “yeah” etc after every thing the interviewee says
  • Ask leading questions (avoid questions that have yes/no answers)
    • Tell me about,.,

For group discussion

  • Try not to ramble on
  • Try not to talk over each other
  • Stay on topic

For single person submission

  • Be concise
  • Don’t go into massive detail

 

License

You must be happy for your submission to be released under the same license as the rest of the podcast episode in which it is included.

 

Audio guidelines

These guidelines are intended to apply to submitted segments rather than short messages sent via voicemail. Anything longer than 1 minute duration should stick to these guidelines.

  • Content should be submitted in 44.1KHz stereo WAV PCM format. (If the recording is of a single speaker then mono is acceptable.) Files over 10MB should not be sent via e-mail, but contact podcast@ubuntu-uk.org to arrange transfer of the audio.

  • Content should be recorded in a small room which does not have a significant echo, unless the echo of a location contributes to the atmosphere of the recording (e.g. a church).
  • Content should be recorded in a quiet location, except where background noise contributes to the atmosphere of the event (e.g. conferences). Where background noise is present it should be of a low level. It is probably best to carry out and review a test recording.
  • Recordings should not peak above 0db and should not clip.
  • Ensure close microphone placement to the speaker (10-30cm depending on model), but avoid “popping” on plosives and hissing sibilants. Ensure there is no significant difference in levels between contributors.
  • Use a microphone stand where possible, or avoid moving your hand on the microphone to eliminate mechanical noise.
  • You do not have to process your audio for EQ, normalisation or compression. This can be done by the, erm, sound bloke.
  • People really do notice audio quality.

This article is also a useful reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia/Recording_guidelines