ADVANCED INVITATION NOTICE: 

(If you plan to attend please let Ralph Kamuf kamuf.r@apple.com know that you are interested you will be sent advance notice registration details as soon as it is posted.)

History
Podcast producer was announced, by Apple Canada, in November of 2007. Jim kinney and I met at an Apple Introduction event and agreed it was relevant to his future teaching requirements.

A copy of OSX server was purchased and installed on a 3Ghz 8 core Mac Pro. This did not work as the purchased install disks were not new enough to run on the New Mac Pro. After several installs the issues became too problematic. I did get a sense of the issues at hand and changed my Rogers internet service provider to a more professional service allowing static IP addresses with DNS registration, personable client support and affordable DSL connectivity.

The next step important step was to attend Apples 2 Day workshop on PodsCast producer. The Apple engineers provided a concise process for installing PodCast producer and it provided answers to some of the technical challenges I was facing.

The combination of practicing installs, working with Leopard Server 10.5 and discovering key issues about the softwares needs, made the workshop much more informative. A working knowledge of OSX Leopard server is essential.

A relationship was formed with Apple to provide us with guidance in the installation of a new Gigabit network for our labs along with reviewing new proposed purchases that will work in our complex environment. Apple engineers, Steve Helyer, Rob Roy and Ralph Kamuf provided the necessary answers and recommended solutions.

George Brown College was invited to attend a C.O.N.C.E.R.T meeting.

GBC representatives, Alice Lee and myself attended. George Brown College met all the criteria for the competition of funds in the Higher Ed community. This included trained technical expertise, appropriate harware and network requirements along with an award winning cirriculum that suited the funding mandate.

Technology Overview (George Brown College Installation)

• Leopard Server
Xserve
8GB (4x2GB)
Xserve RAID Card
2–80GB Serial ATA ADM @ 7200-rpm
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card with PCI Express x8 riser
Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
Dual 750W Power Supplies
AppleCare Service Parts Kit for Xserve
Promise VTrak E-Class 16x SATA RAID Subsystem
AppleCare Premium Service & Support - Xserve

• Network
Cisco Gigabit switches with CAT 6 cable through out.
Wireless-801.1n

• Reverse Domain Name Service (DNS)
www.baandd.ca (Business Arts and Design)
Server provider is George Brown Colleges ITS department.

• 90 Macintosh OSX 10.5 installed client computers with iSight camera
65–24 inch iMacs
25–Faculty Laptops


• Apple Training (Apple provides all the documentation)
What you'll learn:
- What is Podcast Producer?
- Show what comes "in the box" in Mac OS X Server
- Understand the components of a Podcast Producer deployment
- How to plan, extend and scale a Podcast Producer infrastructure
- Managing Podcast Producer
- Managing access to cameras and workflows
- Camera setups
- Editing workflows
- Configuring automatic recordings
- Integration with existing services and infrastructure
- Distribution methods and strategies

The Server set up is very well documented. I found it necessary to take the Apple training. Highly recommended. The biggest challenge that will face an educational environment is its Information Technology Services (ITS). If your ITS is predominantly Windows then a lone Apple server might not have the expert staff required to manage it. If you plan to install the server yourself, a good working knowledge of Leopard Server and your IP network is essential. You will need to resolve issues dealing with firewalls and Reverse Domain Name Services. Proper Kerboros authentication must enabled on your server before Podcast Producer can be set up to work properly.

A single user group was created for the funded proposal named Mycelium. Note that only one Podcast group can be used on a server. Although multiple groups can be created, only one group can be given Podcast control privileges.

User Usage Report:
Podcast producer worked well out of the box with very few technical issues. Although there were issues, they were mainly caused by experimenting with different video input or other undetermined experimental practices. When saving files using the "Blog" setting, no issues were reported.

Many quality issues related to lighting and sound were predominant but not relative to technical processes. With a little understaning of lighting and a quality microphone you can easily and reliably use Podcast Producer.

PLEASE NOTE: Podcasting over the World Wide Web is not recommended. Use a Server on your local network.

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