Apple touts tool aimed at helping papers post video

By Marcelo Duran
Associate Editor


A new capability in Apple Inc.’s recently introduced Leopard Server could help newspapers post content online.

The feature, called Podcast Producer, automates the workflows involved with producing audio and video segments, from capture through creation, said Fred Reitberger, Apple’s senior systems engineer, enterprise-named accounts.

With technology handling the time-consuming and tedious backend workflow management involved with posting video, newspapers can focus on other operations, Reitberger said.

“Podcast Producer is designed for something quick, very straightforward, like near-live videos produced by reporters in the field,” he said.

A reporter, he said, can record a two-minute video, hit a button and before he begins writing the story, a viewable video clip is already on the paper’s Web site.

The tool is also ideal for sports reporters who need to give brief updates during the day and for reporters and editors who want to promote their print editions, he said.

Podcast Producer caught the eyes of a number of attendees at last month’s America East Operations and Technology Conference in Hershey, Pa.

Several newspapers, Reitberger said, are evaluating how they might be able to use the server software’s features.

Podcast, but it’s not

Podcast Producer is based on a utility within the Leopard OS, dubbed Image Capture, which gives users the option to create audio, video or computer presentation podcasts.

“When people hear the word ‘podcast,’ they tend to jump and think only of the audio kind of podcast,” said Reitberger. “But in reality, podcasting is any rich media, and Podcast Producer is a delivery mechanism.”

Once the type of podcast is selected, users add a headline and description, record the podcast and select which workflow to publish it in. The workflow configures the video to be posted on blogs, Web sites or even multimedia-enabled cell phones. The workflow can also place preroll or postroll ads, create watermarks and notify staff through e-mail for approval.

Unexpected digital opportunity

Initially, Podcast Producer was crafted to help educators, but Reitberger said he saw it as a feature that newspapers could use to quickly post video clips that required little or no editing.

“In some cases newspapers have tons of content but don’t have the resources to edit and post breaking audio and video clips quickly,” he said.

“There will always be the high-quality signature pieces that you want to spend time on,” Reitberger said. “There’s a great bulk of video that you just want to get out, which means more eyes on the site, more interest, more hits and also more opportunities for the newspaper to sell ads.”