Clean Ticket Podcasts have many advantages. Extra miscellaneous things relevant to the main show can appear on or beside it, and play when clicked. These extra content items, called "Pods", are easy to add, as time and circumstance allow.
Pods enhance the story. For example, a Podcast of a vacation can have maps, recordings, snapshots . . . all manner of useful and entertaining souvenirs and practical tips. Another example: As the speaker in an interview refers to a document, the document will appear in a square superimposed on or beside the video. Readers can pause to read the document, or download it with a click.
The podcast editor itself is "the Clean Machine". It can be obtained from a bureau's Home Page button, or a stand-alone version can be downloaded from ctpods.com.
The program opens to the PODCAST LIBRARY, which shows the past podcasts you have created. Each has a small picture, name and short description. The "Featured" button is on if the show is ready to be shown; leave it off for a work in progress.
The price is usually zero, but you can set a price if you want. Perhaps more likely than a sale, content creators can benefit when readers are inspired to make a gratuity payment. Using a Clean Ticket like a gift card, they can make small, one-time contributions as they choose. For someone who’d just like to leave a tip, this is much easier than committing to a long-term subscription.
Podcasts can be offered in a EXT type ticket window. EXT’s do not have provision for price tags or gratuities, but podcasts contain their own version of these capabilities. The same is true for Uprights; podcasts can be offered as Upright content also.
The Create Podcast panel is on the Podcast Library page. Upload the file that is the "MAIN SHOW"; the pods will appear on or beside it. Select a "pods" button to go to the podcast editor ("CMPE").
There are five basic parts to the CMPE. Using the CREATE MEDIA panel, upload content items from your device to the MEDIA LIBRARY section. Give each an image and / or a short text to identify it. Each of these items has a layer drop-down menu to move it to the LAYER MEDIA section. There are eight layers, named “a” through “h”, with layer “h” in front of layer “g” and etc. Each layer can have up to nine items, called “Pods”, which are named “1" through “9" Notice the pod numbers in the Layer Media section.
Above the Layer Media section is the “STAGE”, where you can see what the finished product looks like. Above the Stage are the TIMELINES, which set the start time and duration for each pod. These horizontal lines show when pods will appear, and for how long.
Use the FOCUS bar to select a layer and view its pods in the Layer Media section, the timelines, and on the Stage. (The “Show All” button shows all the timelines.) Notice there is a pair of buttons at the top of each Layer Media pod that can set the start or end of it to be a fade or a cut.
To move a content item from the Layer Media to a timeline, first set the desired start time of the pod using the “Vertical Timeline”. This line crosses all the colored timelines, and indicates which pods are being viewed. As the show plays, the Vertical Timeline remains fixed in place, and the colored timelines move beneath it. Use “FOCUS” to make a layer current, and then click a pod to make it current too.
Use the DURATION panel to place the pod in a timeline. It is more pleasant for the user to have a few fixed-length durations for the pods. Or click ‘INF” to have the pod remain active for the rest of the show.
The “Clear Pod” button removes a pod from a timeline. If there is no current pod, it reads, “Erase Layer”.
A pod’s location on the stage and approximate size is determined by a rectangle which has the same color as the timeline, and includes the layer’s name. These can be moved and resized. Use the “Preview” button to show or hide the rectangles.
You won't want to display all the layers at once, so click the letter name of a timeline you're not working on, and it will be moved to the "Shelf". Click the name again to show it with the others.
Three of the layers, "x", "y", and "z", are for subtitles. Our podcast editor enables you to prepare dialogue as subtitles in a foreign language. Your potential audience is thereby greatly expanded.
For complete instructions about this program, please see the documentation at ctpods.com. The Podcast Editor can work on its own, or as part of the bureau interface. Either way, it’s the same program.