I’m nearly fed up with Podango Show Builder Lite
Michael Geoghegan’s GigaVox Media developed their own audio podcast assembly system several years ago and called it the GigaVox Audio Lite Show Assembly and Content Management System. It would accept several WAV or AIFF audio files comprising a podcast episodes ID, introduction, body and closing along with any advertisements, normalize them so that the levels would remain consistent across the entire episode, then assembly them into a single MP3 file for publishing. Furthermore, it could handle changes to advertising campaigns then reassemble and republish all podcast episodes with the changes.
For example, say Cogswell Cogs has been the official sponsor of your podcast for its first 52 (weekly for one year) episodes, but they’ve decided they won’t renew the contract or you’ve found another advertiser, Spacely Space Sprockets, who’s willing to pay your new, higher rate. In the beginning days of podcasting, you’d have mixed Cogswell Cogs’ ads into the first 52 episodes and have no way, short of remixing all 52 episodes, to remove their ads and replace them with the new advertiser.
GigaVox Audio Lite changed all that. You could log into your account, disable the old advertiser, enable the new advertiser, and almost like magic all 52 previously published episodes would announce, “This episode of Jupiter Condominium Living is brought to you by Spacely Space Sprockets.”
You could also change your opening and closing music, credits, or totally rearrange everything using their script editor.
GigaVox sold GigaVox Audio Lite to Podango immediately prior to last year’s Podcast and New Media Expo, and it was subsequently renamed Podango Show Builder Lite. I spoke at the Podango stage during the expo where I first met Lee Gibbons, the founder and CEO of Podango. He and I have since chatted several times via Skype and other means, and I’ve found him to be an extremely smart and pleasant man, dedicated to the new media culture and work ethic. The guy works constantly!
I began using PSBL several months ago and although mindful that the service is still consider in Beta and consequently hopeful for its potential, almost immediately I began experiencing problems with the technology and their support system.
First, I forgot what password I gave when I first enrolled. So sue me, I’m human! Getting my password changed ended up taking a chat with Lee that led to a series of e-mails with Larry Raab that finally culminated in having a username and password that worked several days (weeks?) later. To this day, there is no, “Forgot Password?” function on the PSBL login page.
Then, there’s the encoding errors! Each segment of the podcast is uploaded to the service using a client program you install on your local computer. You select a WAV or AIFF file to upload, tell PSBL what episode it’s for and what piece it is (ID, body, ad, etc.) and after clicking “OK” you cross your fingers and pray as the client program normalizes the audio, encodes it to a MPEG-2 format and, if all goes well, uploads it to the service to be assembled later. It’s the encoding process that causes most of my frustration. Oh, if the file is under 10 minutes long it’ll sail through without any problem, but nearly every time I’ve uploaded anything longer than that, it’ll chug along, encoding half to three quarters of the file before my entire monitor is filled, top to bottom, with cryptic file names and line numbers. I’m forced to quit the program, restart it, log in and try again. After 10 or 20 minutes of this, I get fed up, start cursing under my breath, worrying if I’ll make my self-imposed deadline or get to bed at a decent hour for once, and usually vow to find another similar or better assembly system in the morning.
Then, more times then I want to say, the morning comes, I give it one last try and it works perfectly!
Other times, I send a screenshot of the error to the support e-mail address and a reply comes back asking me (for the umpteenth time) if the file I’m attempting to upload is a mono, 16-bit, 44100K WAV file. Nothing ever changes, nothing ever gets resolved.
Then, there’s questions I have about using the ad campaign manager that still haven’t been answered. I’d like to have two sponsors: one whose ad appears at the beginning of the episode, another who appears in the middle between segments. How do I do that?! I don’t know, because each time I’ve asked they’ve said they’ll check into it and get back to me. They haven’t. It’s been weeks.
Lee and everyone I’ve dealt with at Podango has been extremely nice… I like these people, but if they don’t start improving Podango Show Builder Lite soon and start improving their technical support and customer service, I’ll be compelled to begin looking in earnest for an alternative. (Maybe Kipronic?)
Tags: GigaVox, Kipronic, Lee Gibbons, Michael Geoghegan, Podango, podcasting
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Charles, you are a true friend, willing to call us to greatness in public. We have been very fortunate to have acquired GigaVox Audio Lite and love the work that Doug Kaye did on it. Still, it was not a perfect product and included all the flaws you have highlighted here. No doubt, as new stewards over that work, we have work to do to continue to improve it, which we are committed to do.
Generally speaking, the timing of a given acquisition may not always align ideally with other investments and work streams of the acquiring company. This is certainly our situation at Podango as regards this acquisition.
I am confident that in the coming months, as you see the plans for Podango Show Builder LIte merge with our roadmap and become integrated into our new product efforts, you will become more trusting of our abilities and responsiveness.
By the way, while I hate that you are frustrated, I absolutely love the picture at the top of the post. (A picture is worth ten thousand words, and I am hearing you!)