Audio Reports / Podcasting

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SailBlogs has the ability to handle audio reports in addition to text, images and video. The ability to integrate audio reporting into a blog is a custom feature and not available to general SailBlogs members at this time. Contact SailBlogs for information about integrating audio into a blog. This is very useful in situations where typing a report is too difficult or not possible.

MP3 Files

For simple solutions, SailBlogs provides the ability to include an MP3 file with a blog post instead of an image or video. When doing this, the file will be embedded into the blog post with the QuickTime Player allowing the visitor to listen.

Podcasting via Sat Phone

A Podcast is a series of audio reports that a user can subscribe to, usually using iTunes but with other programs as well, and be notified of new recordings when they are posted to the blog. Many podcasts are professionally recorded in studios. However, the remote nature of sailing and expeditions often makes pre-recording and uploading audio files impossible.

SailBlogs instead has integrated the ability for audio files to be recorded via telephone and arrive via email and be incorporated into a podcast. It is a typical feature of many modern phone services, Vonage being a typical example that SailBlogs is configured to use, to forward voicemail messages to a particular email address.

For a project needing to do audio reports via sat phone, a voicemail box is then created for the project at one of the services and configured to forward messages to SailBlogs via email. The field team then calls the voicemail box with their satellite phone and records their audio report to the voicemail system. The voicemail message is forwarded to the SailBlogs system where the audio is processed into an MP3 file and posted to the site. SailBlogs creates the necessary podcast file as well so that subscribers can be alerted to download the new recording.