About this site
The initial goal of this site was to be able to make sermons from Horizon International Church available for download at no cost to the church.
This site is made entirely using free software and free services available on the Internet. For those wanting to do something similar, here's what is used and how it is done.
How did you make your website?
The web site itself is a weblog (or "blog") hosted at no cost by Blogger.com. Blogger was chosen as it requires very little technical knowledge - it is about as close to "push button publishing on the Internet" as it gets. If you can write and send and email, you can probably make a blog using Blogger. While this site uses Blogger, any one of numerous other free blogging sites could have been used.
Making the blog is all done within a web browser which is what you're reading this on right now; we avoid the need for expensive programs like Dreamweaver. It's very similar to using webmail such as Gmail, Yahoo! or Hotmail.
Where do you store your mp3 files?
The mp3 files, the sermons themselves, are hosted for free at SnapDrive.net Podomatic MediaFire. They offer generous storage space, allow large volumes of downloading and keep your files online indefinitely.
Many free file storage sites understandably have restrictions. The restrictions can usually be removed by joining and paying a small monthly fee. They offer a limited free service, that service involves overheads and they have to make money somehow. These restrictions include, limiting download speeds, limiting the number of simultaneous downloads and/or not allowing "direct" downloads. Other sites rely heavily on advertising.
Some sites delete files if they haven't been accessed after a set period of time eg. 45 days. Using such a service would mean that the links we made on Blogger would break if the files were not downloaded which is not ideal.
Again, all the uploading is done through a web browser; no special software is needed.
What software do you use?
To keep costs to a minimum, free and open source software is used. A Linux operating system used is Linux, specifically Ubuntu. Linux has a huge amount of Free and Open Source Software available and is as solid as a rock. The Open Source model of Linux also avoids any problems with licencing and copyright which means that we can legally put the software on as many machines as we like.
Any generic PC built within the last 10 years should be able to run some version of Linux and the software we use. Generally, the newer the machine, the faster it will be able to run the applications mentioned below.
It is possible to load some flavour of Linux on machines that are literally being thrown out of businesses. Chances are that someone will have a PC lying around somewhere that will be perfect for the job.
The steps involved in getting the CD turned into a mp3 are.....
1. Rip the track(s) onto the computer using Grip.
2. Edit the tracks using Audacity (if needed)
3. Change the track from wave to mp3 using LAME
and finally
4. Upload the mp3 and make a Blogger page linking to that file.
All the programs mentioned above are free and available to download from the internet. There are other programs that could be used however this is what we have found works well. It gets the job done, avoids licencing problems and is completely free.
How come the mp3s sound like a really bad long distance phone call? Can't they be made to sound better?
In order to keep the file size down, the final stage of the process is to reduce the quality of the track.
Based on tests and looking at what others are doing, 24 bits per second is an acceptable compromise. A one hour recording gives roughly a 10Mb mp3 file which is of reasonable quality.
A better quality mp3 would make for a larger file, longer download times and increased bandwidth.
Lastly....
Anyone with just a little knowledge can do what we have done here.
A deliberate choice was made to
- keep the costs to a minimum
- use free software
- require as little technical knowledge as possible
posted by Just Some Guy @ 11:45 pm
<< Home