 | This Week in Tech: Encyclopedia II - This Week in Tech - Production
This Week in Tech - Production
This Week in Tech - Audio version
The pilot episode was recorded when all of the hosts were together at the Macworld Expo 2005.
In episodes 1 through 20, Laporte talked to the other hosts through an Internet audio chat. They originally used Skype, but were limited by the number of users that could join a single conference call. Teamspeak was used in episode four to allow for more hosts to join, but there was a problem with latency (lagging). Skype has been used primarily since episode five, with Leo occasionally kicking one host out to allow for another one to join in for a short time. Gizmo was tried once, in episode 15.
Up to episode 6, Laporte was the only host whose voice was recorded with a professional radio microphone. The other hosts' voices were not recorded until they were sent over the Internet and output on Laporte's computer, and therefore were of noticeably lower quality.
In episodes 7 and 9, the hosts talked over the Internet but also recorded their own voices individually. All of the recordings were sent to Laporte, who then edited them together to create the final version of the show. This increase in production value resulted in a two-day delay for episode 7, and a six-day delay for episode 9. Episode 8 was released using only the Skype track, to ensure that it would be available before Steve Jobs' WWDC speech on Monday, 2005-06-06.
In episode 10, which was released using only the Skype track, Norton said that the emphasis would be placed on releasing the episodes on time, even if "digital-quality" sound is not achieved. The concept of recording all of the hosts' voices individually was dropped, and the Skype track was used until episode 21.
Since episode 21, the hosts have gotten together at various venues to record the show in front of a live studio audience. In addition to creating a different feel for the show, this has resulted in better audio quality, since each host has their own pro-quality microphone. In episode 22, "something wasn't grounded properly", resulting in a buzzing noise throughout the entire show, but this has not been a frequent problem. In episode 31, The show went back to its roots by by recording a special edition called TWiT: Unplugged, using Skype as they did in earlier episodes to record. This edition was much shorter, only going for 22.07.
This Week in Tech - Video version
Although video versions were discussed in early episodes, the idea was not taken seriously until episode 21.
Episode 21 was filmed and distributed by Revision3 Studios. Episodes 23 and 24 were filmed by Pixel Corps and distributed by Revision3.
Other related archives06-06, 06-13, 2005, AAC, AOL, Alex Lindsay, Amber MacArthur, America Online, Andy Walker, Apple Macintosh, Apple Store, April 18, Attack of the Show, Bob Young, CDs, California, Chris Pirillo, Cory Doctorow, Creative Commons, Dan Huard, Diggnation, DigitalLife TV, From The Shadows, G4, Gizmo, Google Talk, InDigital, Inside the Net, Internet, Internet radio, Jessica Corbin, John C. Dvorak, July 4, June 6, Kevin Mitnick, Kevin Rose, Larkspur Landing, Lawrence Lessig, Leo Laporte, MP3, Macworld Expo, Mike Lazazzera, Ogg Vorbis, Patrick Norton, Paypal, Pixel Corps, Revision3, Revision3 Corporation, Revision3 Studios, Robert Heron, Roger Chang, Roger McGuinn, Sal Soghoian, San Francisco, Security Now!, Skype, Steve Gibson, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Systm, Teamspeak, TechTV, The Screen Savers, WWDC, Yoshi DeHerrera, autumn, bittorrent, cease and desist, commandN, computer security, conference call, digital, iChat, iTunes, kbit/s, latency, license, microphone, pilot, podcast, podcasts, server, share-alike, spin-offs, television program, thebroken, trademark, venues, videocast, weblog
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Production", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
