Allow me, just for a moment, to geek out about the Spark podcast. Each 27-minute podcast episode of Spark is about 13 megabytes. The files (like most other CBC podcasts) are 64kbps constant-bit-rate MP3s.
On my broadband connection to the internet, downloading a 13 megabyte file takes a couple of seconds, and it’s a drop in the bucket towards my 60 gigabyte/month internet plan.
But if you’re on dial-up, or if you have bandwidth cap on your internet connection, 13 megabytes per episode may be a lot. According to Jackie, bandwidth in northern Canada can be very expensive:
Because of this, the WAY we use the internet is very different. Limited bandwidth (and its costs: $60 for 2 gigabytes, $120 for 5 gigabytes, $400 for 20 gigabytes) rules your usage. Once you hit your monthly limit, you get knocked down to dial-up speeds (though the max speed on the lowest plan up here is 256 kbps).
So with that in mind, we’re planning to launch a more compressed version of Spark for the bandwidth-conscious. I ran a few tests today, and I think I can make a reasonable-sounding 32kbps MP3s that’s half the size of a regular Spark episode.
Perhaps down the line, someone will develop an online MP3 transcoding service with this in mind. Enter a podcast feed, and it would spit out a new feed with links to more highly compressed MP3s. I’d gladly use such a service 
Do you know someone who doesn’t listen to podcasts because they’re on dial-up? Would low-bandwidth podcasts help? Also, to the podcasters and MP3 geeks out there: suggested encoding settings?
[Original image by stshank]
Ha,
Welcome to rural reality. Some months ago, I started spending a lot of time in rural Newfoundland. Having enjoyed high speed internet for many years, I faced a return to dialup, something that I haven’t had to deal with in a long time.
In theory, we get about 26kbps, but it can be much lower if one is not close to the phone company source. In my case, I get more like 2-3kbps.
I manage by not downloading images unless I really want them for a particular site, and selecting low speed for radio broadcasts. The latter works for the CBC a.m. (but not FM), WNYC (the New York NPR affiliate) and the BBC.
I don’t download a lot of podcasts in the first place, but yes, the option of a “light” file would make it more attractive.
Cheers
I have been struggling with that same question myself! There are many communities just outside the boundaries of Kingston, ON that only have dial-up. My home community up north has something like highspeed but pales in comparison. Should I provide a lower kbps version of my podcast so that others in rural or northern communities can listen more freely? But then I ask myself would those audiences actually listen to my show if given the option? Are those audiences interested in podcasts? Are they willing to take some time out of their day to download and play an episode? I honestly don’t know. Maybe it’s time for a poll
Look forward to hearing the debate! Love the progrum!
My sister, who lives in the back of the boonies south of Québec city, only has dial-up, and a slow dail-up at that. None of the telephone, cable or satellite companies in her area are willing to extand their services on the country road she lives in. Currently cable ends 200 metres from her farm and it will stop there forever if the cable company has their way. It would cost her 5000$ installation for them to grant her the priviledge of their services, or so they claim, repeatedly.
So my sister has dial-up, or as she calls it “no-speed internet”. She does not listen to podcasts, or anything streaming, no youtube or anything of the sort. And she won’t unless and until the situation changes. No matter how light the podcasts are, if they are even one Mb, they are still bigger than she can reliably download.
A few weeks back, you did a piece on why Quebec internet usage was lower than anywhere else in Canada. Ask my sister about it. She can tell you why this is so.
Rural Canada has lots of people on Dial up. I know many people that are in Black spots, and unable to get Internet via Satellite,EDVO etc. The introduction of EVDO is good, and an option which many don’t know about. A light version would be good if available for me too.
I have an 8 Gigabite/month cable plan. I find that I can usually use it up rather quickly. Luckly on my plan we have an ‘off peak’ period between 12am and 12pm which the downloads are on a different meter, – almost free. So I tend to do high bandwidth activities (like watching youtube and downloading podcasts) in the mornings.
It works for me.
well, i dont think to compress the mp3 will help alot with this problem.
see, the people who dont want download 13MB podcasts wont take the 7MB’s one as well.
for example, it used cost u 20 minutes to donwload the episode, and u dont want do it. now it’s 10 minutes, will u do it?
if u want listen the episode, u will download it no matter if it takes u 10 or 20 minutes to download it.
well, if we can find a way to make it to be 1MB per episode, that will make lots of differents.haha
I mentioned a possible solution to this on my Twitter account in response to @sparkcbc but thought that publishing it here may help as well too. If you have a plan that offers “off-hours” rates, consider using Podcatching software to automatically download the show during those off hours.
I suggested using Juice (http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/) since it is free, works cross platform, cross program, and is what I use for my podcasts. Basically you download the program, tell it what shows you want to download, tell it what software you use to listen to those shows, then set a download schedule. The program will run in the background and download the shows you want at the time you told it to look for them. Then it will place the audio file into your audio program of choice so it should just appear in your library after download.
Also, some people don’t know you can also do this in iTunes. Subscribe to Podcasts like you normally do but under settings you can go to the Podcasts tab and set a custom time to check for new podcasts.
Hopefully this helps and feel free to contact me if you need a hand in getting this set up.
When I want to make multiple versions of a file available, and ensure it is there for a long time, I send things to Archive.org. They accept the file (I send the highest quality I can) and they automatically convert it (audio and video) to a number of different formats for greatest accessibility.
Something worth looking into. The issue for CBC will be licensing. The CBC may be making the AudioBlogs (Netcasts — hate the word PodCast) $freely available, but that may not extend to Creative Commons or similar public licensing for off-site redistribution.
One thing Spark already does that helps those with low-bandwidth connections is have the podcast available as an ordinary link to a file. This means that listeners can right-click and choose (something like) ‘Save target as…’ and download the podcast where they have bandwidth and listen to it where they have time, even if those are two different places. Because we’re not forced to stream it, we can even download over a slow connection. Making the podcast available via bittorrent would be helpful for people on unreliable connections and would also reduce a little the load on CBC servers. I’m told that Ogg/Vorbis requires a lower bitrate for a given audio quality than MP3. I’m not at home, so I can’t check. Are the podcasts mono or stereo?
One of the things I’ve been thinking about lately is how not having access to high speed affects access to info and social participation, particularly as so much information is now distributed and shared using social media. We just have to look at something like the Obama campaign to see how much of public life and access to information is shifting online, and increasingly, to social media.
Nora:
Funny, I was just about to send you an email about the same issue, and propose that you do a show on it.
I don’t get much opportunity to watch TV. The one exception is Doctor Who.
And when I miss an episode, CBC has the last four episodes online. And I can watch them there.
Except I don’t live in an area that allows high speed connection. It is faster than dialup, but not much.
So in order to watch me some Who, I have to click play. Soon as it starts to play, I have to pause it. Then I have to wait five minutes while the stream buffers. Then I have to press play again, and I can watch two minutes before I run out of buffer and the video starts to break up.
So I have to pause it again. But here’s the catch. In order to prevent piracy, the cache flushes after about five minutes. So if I wait too long, the buffer is dumped, and I have to start again. It took me eight hours yesterday to watch a single episode.
This is a topic near and dear to me, and would love to see an episode on the topic: Dial-up living in a high speed world.
Besides Spark, I listen to LUGRadio podcasts in Ogg Vorbis format. Ogg Vorbis files are generally smaller than MP3 format, and do not cost anything to implement. This is because the format and the software to create these files are Free as in freedom, not just cost.
Of course, lower quality MP3s take up less space on the disk, but the podcasts I download from LUGRadio are low-quality Ogg Vorbis files, and the sound quality has not been compromised.
@Trent,
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at that. You must be some fan!
@Patrick,
Thanks for that; interesting observation. I didn’t know that.