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Podcasting in Lion Server

There have been a number of articles on using the Podcast Producer service in Snow Leopard and previous operating systems. The Podcast Producer service itself in Lion remains unchanged. It still needs shared storage (e.g. NFS, Xsan, etc), Xgrid, Kerberos (for Xgrid) and while seeming to sit atop a house of cards, is one of the coolest and most complex services in Mac OS X Server. But there have been a lot of environments where Podcast Producer seemed out of reach where it shouldn’t have. If you have a single server, why do you need shared storage, a truly scalable grid computing cluster and all that complex workflow goodness at your fingertips? In Lion Server, you don’t. In fact, it’s easier than ever to get up and running, access Podcasts from a web browser and even subscribe to Podcasts in iTunes.

Setting Up the Podcast Service

Podcasting can now become one of the easiest services to use in Lion Server, provided your needs are as simple as the new Podcast service is to use. As with most services in Lion Server, you’ll need a working Open Directory master. You can still use Active Directory accounts, and when you initially configure the Podcast service you can enable an Open Directory master on your server; however, you should configure Open Directory prior to setting it up (as I believe you should with all services). You should also populate the list of Open Directory users with all of the users you’d like to have access to create podcasts and administer them before setting up the Podcast service. Okay, okay, so Open Directory isn’t actually required. You can use local accounts. But don’t, it’s easy to setup Open Directory and it will be very helpful in the future if you need to migrate to Podcast Producer some day!

Once Open Directory has been configured, open up the Podcast service by clicking on Podcast in the Server application’s sidebar. From here, you’ll see a whopping two settings. The first controls who can access the Podcast service. The options are:

  • Anyone: Used for a public podcasting server. Anyone who can access the server can view podcasts.
  • Authenticated Users: Used for a private podcasting server. Anyone with an account can access any podcasts on the server, by default.
  • Podcast Owners: Used for a really private podcasting server. Users can view their own podcasts only.
Setting Up The Podcast Service
Setting Up The Podcast Service

The second option is who can administer the Podcast wiki. Here, use the plus sign to add each user who should be able to administer Podcasts. Once your admins are added, start the Wiki service as well, by clicking on Wiki in the Server sidebar and then clicking on the ON button, leaving the defaults untouched.

Enable the Wiki Service
Enable the Wiki Service

You should also have the Web service enabled, so click on it in the Server sidebar and click on the ON button as well (again, leaving the settings as default for now).

Enable the Web Server
Enable the Web Server

The Podcast service is now setup and you can move on to creating some podcasts and actual content.

Content Creation

Once you’ve enabled all three services, it’s time to create a Podcast and capture some content. To get started, open the Podcast Publisher application from /Applications/Utilities. From here, click on the Podcast Publisher menu and then click on Preferences. Here, you’ll be able to configure the connection to the server. Enter the address (IP address or hostname of the server), username (one of the administrative user names from earlier) and password that you want to use for podcasts.

Connecting to a Podcast Server
Connecting to a Podcast Server

Once you’ve supplied your credentials, close the Settings window. Then click on the New Podcast button to see the pin board, as I call it. Here, provide a name to your Podcast. Each podcast will have its own feed and be able to be subscribed to in iTunes. Each podcast is comprised of one or more episodes. The podcasts appear as pin boards, the episodes will appear as though they were photos on the pin board. Click on the Add a new episode… button. (you can also choose New Movie Episode or New Audio Episode from the list by clicking the down arrow towards the bottom of the screen.

Creating a Podcast
Creating a Podcast

At the Episode screen, you’ll see two buttons in the bottom left corner of the screen. Here, click on the film strip icon (the one on the left side) to record video from a camera or the screen recording icon (the one on the right side) to capture video from the video screen. Click on the button in the middle of the screen with a red dot to start recording.

Recording a Podcast Episode
Recording a Podcast Episode

After a 3 second countdown, the screen recording will begin. Don’t rush. Get ready and then start speaking into your microphone and record video as you so choose. Pay attention to the volume level, trying to keep an even level towards the middle of the indicator. Click on the red button again when you’re finished capturing the video (I usually like to minimize the Podcast Publisher screen and then open it to stop the recording.

Stopping Podcast Episode Recordings
Stopping Podcast Episode Recordings

At the next screen, you’ll be able to provide a title for your podcast. Enter the title and then use the yellow bar at the bottom to remove any video from the front and back of the video you actually want to use (as you drag the double lines you’ll scrub through video). Use the TRIM button to remove any of the video that you no longer need. You can also use the Play button to play the video and pause it to make sure you’re happy or trimming to the right location(s).

Trimming Podcasts for Upload
Trimming Podcasts for Upload

Or if you’d like to start over, click on the Record button, which will bring up the Overwrite screen that basically tells you it’s going to ditch the clip you just created and start over.

Start Recording Over
Start Recording Over

Assuming you would like to save the Podcast, you can now share it or just click done to keep a local copy. Let’s click Done just to see what happens. You’ll now see a photo of your clip thumb-tacked to the pin board. Here, double-click on the board to see a list of all of your local episodes for that podcast.

Contextual Menus in Podcasts
Contextual Menus in Podcasts

When the list of episodes fills the Podcast Publisher screen, you’ll be able to do a new GUI-level feature. Control-click (or right-click) on the podcast and you’ll be able to Get Info or Delete. You can now delete episodes from the GUI. Hooray as my daughter often says!

The Get Info screen also lets you change the title of an episode, add an author and provide a description. Click Show Advanced to see that you can also fake out the date you captured the episode, change the order that the episode will appear in iTunes (no more having to record in the exact opposite order you want episodes to appear in iTunes!) and even add an Advisory Label, which lets you indicate that your podcast is better geared for adults if that’s what you’re into.

Setting Podcast Metadata
Setting Podcast Metadata

At this point, the video is still local to your computer. Click back on the board and then double-click on the episode again and let’s send it to the server. Click on the Share button to bring up a menu of places you can send your video to. These include:

  • iTunes: Creates a QuickTime movie in your local iTunes library.
  • Mail: Creates a new email with a QuickTime movie as an attachment that uses the name of the episode followed by the .mov extension.
  • Desktop: Creates a QuickTime movie on the desktop (of the currently logged in user) with the name of the episode followed by the .mov extension.
  • Podcast Library: Send the video to a Podcast server (which is what we’ve been setting up in this example and so what you should click on here).
  • Remote Workflow: Send the video to a Podcast Producer server (keep in mind Podcast being different than the awesomeness that is Podcast Producer).
Exporting Podcast Episodes
Exporting Podcast Episodes

Once you click on Podcast Library, the video clip will be created, put in the right location and the entry in the Wiki created. You can use then use the All Podcasts navigation towards the top of the screen to go back to the list of podcasts.

The longer episodes are, the longer they take to upload. Once done, you’ll then get an indication that the episode has been published. If it fails, make sure the account you’re using has access to write to the server. Click OK or use the Announce button to send a link to view your vicious rant to your friends/coworkers/stalkers.

Announcing Podcasts
Announcing Podcasts

If you’d like to create another episode use the New Movie Episode or New Audio Episode buttons. Or to create a new Podcast, click the New Podcast button. At the All Podcasts screen, use the left and right arrow keys or click through to new podcast boards. As your library grows, you can also use the spotlight field(s) in the lower right corner of the screen to find recorded content (although I haven’t been able to get Spotlight to work on my library just as of yet). You can also use the View menu to bring up the Media Browser. Here, you can drag video or audio previously captured onto a pin board (podcast) to import the media into that podcasts library on your local computer and share the media if you so choose. You can also trim content from previously captured video, pretty cool if you’re gonna’ be bringing in video from an iOS based device!

Accessing Podcasts

Now that we’ve captured some content, let’s look at how users and administrators will access that content. From the server, you can access Podcasts by pointing your favorite web browser at the URL https://127.0.0.1/wiki/podcasts. From a client, just replace the 127.0.0.1 with the name or IP address of the server. Here, you’ll see a list of Podcasts available.

Viewing Podcasts In A Browser
Viewing Podcasts In A Browser

Keep in mind that back when we set up the service, you defined who should be able to access your podcasts. If podcasts are shared to everyone then you should see them listed. Click on each to see a list of their episodes and click on the Play button to view an episode in a web browser.

Watching Podcasts
Watching Podcasts

Click on the X in the upper left corner of the episode to close it. If you have to authenticate to see podcasts, you’ll need to authenticate now. You can also authenticate in order to delete podcasts or configure who can access each podcast. To authenticate, click on the lock icon in the grey toolbar that runs along the top of the screen.

When prompted, provide the appropriate user name and password. Once authenticated, if you are an administrative user, you can use the x beside any podcast or episode name to delete that podcast or episode. Clicking on a podcast also adds the Settings… button into the cog wheel menu.

Logging Into The Portal
Logging Into The Portal

The Settings screen enables you to configure who can access podcasts. Owners can create, edit and delete episodes whereas users with Read & Write access can create and edit podcasts and Read Only users can only view content. All logged in users includes anyone with an account on the server and All guests are anyone that can load the web page. Add users by typing their name in the provided field and clicking them when their name appears. Click on the Save button when you’ve configured who can access what.

Configuring Podcast Permissions
Configuring Podcast Permissions

One of the coolest aspects of Podcast Producer and the Podcast service are that both can quickly provide access to users in iTunes. To subscribe a client in iTunes, click on the cog wheel icon and then click on the Subscribe in iTunes button. The Podcast will then be added into iTunes automatically and the first episode will begin to synchronize. When it’s done, double-click to watch (assuming your DNS is cool, given that the links are DNS-based).

Watching Podcasts in iTunes
Watching Podcasts in iTunes

The link works by sending a past:// based URL to the client. For example, pcast://127.0.0.1/podcastlibrary/collection/uuid/ followed by the uuid of the podcast you are viewing in the browser.

That’s It!

The new Podcast Library is pretty awesome in how accessible it is to almost anyone with a functioning server. It’s not for anyone that’s going to need an Xgrid cluster to act as a render farm because they’re capturing so many podcasts. It’s also not for people needing custom workflows or the ability to capture podcasts of content from the web (e.g. Windows or Linux clients). But what it is, is easy. If you’re sitting at home and thinking that you’d like to build a podcast so your friends can look at your new hair color, your followers can see the Top 10 Screamo Videos of All Time you like to post, helping a classroom podcast as a way of teaching them various subjects, capturing corporate training videos or you’re showing your parents videos of your children, the new Podcast library is simple, fast and can be highly impactful.

If you need more, then look to Podcast Producer. It can write to a variety of systems, has a full suite of command line management functions and in general is the grown up version of Podcast. Not that Podcast isn’t pretty cool in and of itself in the right circumstances. It’s like having your own little YouTube!