A discussion about corporate and business podcasting with tips and guidelines

The Blip.tv'ers recently threw down the gauntlet and challenged podcasters to start videocasting. Of course this is a self-serving challenge because Blip.tv has recently signed a deal with Akimbo to bring Blip videocasts to a television near you, but anything that gets people into zones where they're not quite comfortable is a good thing.

I've read a few responses from people who have declined Blip's challenge such as Alec Saunders and Matthew Ingram and I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and throw in my two-cents worth why I don't videocast.

I've dabbled in videocasting on a few occasions and here's the problem with it folks: it's a lot of work. A videocast is to a podcast what a normal telephone is to a videophone.

In order to create an audio podcast you have to consider, at a minimum:

• content
• equipment
  
• scheduling
• hosting
• feeds
• directories

To create a videocast you have to take care of all of that plus, at a minimum:

• set/studio
• lighting
• personal appearance
• visuals

I once calculated that my audio podcast had something like a 3:1 ratio of production time to finished show. That's not a killer when you consider that our weekly show is 30-45 minutes. That means I spend about 1.5 - 2.25 hours each week prepping and producing the show. Add the 45 minutes of actual recording time and we're looking at somewhere around 3 hours to produce the show. Not bad.

Adding video onto that would be a killer.

I doubt many of us have a dedicated 'studio' so there's going to be time involved in set up and tear down each week. There's additional equipment in the form or lighting and microphones (can't do a videocast with a headset on) to consider. I can't just stumble out of the shower and do a videocast, I have to actually be looking somewhat decent and last, but not least: I need visuals.

What I mean by 'visuals' is that I have to have a reason to be videocasting. Just sitting there jabbering away like I would do on an audio podcast is going to get boring very quickly. In cases like that, there's no need for the video so I would have to create the need. I have no idea what that means in terms of time, but I can guarantee that there's a lot of time tied up in either making visuals or putting together demos or whatever the content of the show is comprised of.

I think it's fair to say that I would triple that 3:1 ratio to a 9:1 if I began videocasting. I'm mostly basing that number of my perception of the  amount of time post production would take. Thankfully, it's highly unlikely that I would be producing a 30-45 minutes videocast; more likely it would be a 10 minute show and I would therefore take 1.5 hours or so to produce.

Is it worth it? I might gain back 1.5 hours of production time per week, but I would only be able to cover 10 minutes of content.

All in all, that's not a place I want to be right now. I'm edging towards it, but I'm not there quite yet.

How about you. Have you considered moving to video?