'NEW' Podium community portal, complete with podcast player
The new community portal is for Podium users who choose to host their podcasts with us.
It supports both audio and video podcasts or podcasts that make use of still images. Hosting is the online space needed to store your podcasts so that anyone with an Internet connection can download and listen to them.
There are two main things to bear in mind when it comes to hosting; storage and bandwidth. Our hosting service provides you with storage for your podcasts online. This is a big consideration as the length, quality and quantity of your podcasts can all add up to a lot of storage space. Our hosting service currently provides you with unlimited storage and bandwith* to take the hassle of sourcing online space to store your podcasts.
Not only does the portal provide you with hosting space, it also makes it really easy for you to:
Manage your podcasts
The portal allows you to view all of your podcasts like a directory. You can determine whether podcasts are made public or private within the community and therefore how they can be shared, you can easily promote to others, or should they need it, podcasts can also be easily deleted. Once a podcast is published from within the Podium software, it will automatically appear on 'Your Podcasts' page within the portal.
Share podcasts with others
Podcasts can be shared more easily with others. For example a web link could be promoted to a page of podcasts that are 'public' meaning that your target audience can pick up the feed for more than one podcasts, and should they choose to do so, subscribe to the podcast(s) there and then.
This facility means that it will be easier for schools to promote their podcasts to parents or the wider school community (i.e. not just send round the quite technical looking RSS feed), and having got them there the portal now makes it easier for your target audience to listen to your podcasts too.
Listen to podcasts
The new portal provides a player that supports both audio and video podcasts. This means that your target audience can play podcasts from the portal page you direct them to, without having to even subscribe to the podcast. They could even just play one episode from the podcast if they wished.
Embed the podcast player onto your website
The podcast player can also be easily embedded into your own website or blog, enabling visitors to readily listen to your podcast on these pages too. This removes the need for your target audience to listen to your podcast through a separate podcast player such as iTunes. It also means your podcast, or episodes from it, can be listened to on this page without the need to subscribe to the podcast if desired.
Accessing your page within the portal
To access your podcasts log on using the username and password you use to publish podcasts. If you cannot find a record of your account details please contact the support team on 01332 258386 or email support@podiumpodcasting.com.
Logging in to your portal account will give you access to all of the podcasts created by your school, whether they are public or private. You can also change the status of a podcast from public to private and vice versa, to control which podcasts can be seen by visitors to your portal page. The login details should not be shared by anyone outside of your school.
You can share all your schools public podcasts by clicking on the 'SHARE' button at the top of the page when you are logged in. This will provide you with a web address for example:
http://www.podiumpodcasting.com/portal/index.aspx?user=lightbox
that you can send to parents or other members of the wider school community.
Annual Subscription
If you are an existing hosting customer you will be able to try out the new Community Portal on a FREE 3 month trial period. If you have not already done so, you will receive a letter notifying you about this. The annual hosting charges are as follows. *At present the hosting capacity available to you is unlimited but we reserve the right to change this at any time.
Up to 199 pupils - £99
200 - 399 pupils - £149
400 - 599 pupils - £199
600 - 99 pupils - £249
1000+ pupils - £299