Add Audio to PowerPoint for Web Streaming

Adding audio narration to your slide presentation creates a tremendous impact. Audio narration is far more effective than a text summary or description. The effort and expense that should go into your audio recording is really up to you. Factors to consider should include

1. Your target audience and their expectations
2. The purpose of your communication, and
3. The value of immediate communication.

Often, the ability to get your message out immediately to hundreds of people is far more important than taking the time to develop and produce a higher quality professional audio track. For example, when marketing gets wind of a new advertising campaign and a related promotion from a competitor, it is far more important that they respond with an example of the advertisement, including audio for radio and TV promotions, a critique of the competitor's positioning and a competitive response. Since all of these tools support recording audio directly on your PC, you now have the capability to respond quickly and easily where the value and timeliness of your content is most important.

But there are times when you need the highest quality, clearest audio recording possible but are not lucky enough to have an in-house recording studio!

Audio conferencing is widely used today for both web seminars and financial calls, and for many provides both a convenient and acceptable recording medium. However, when seminars are being archived for later replay over the Internet, overcoming the 3000HZ sound limitation of the telephone network should be a consideration. Unfortunately, the quality of each call can vary widely so there is some benefit to investing in the proper recording equipment (Digital Telephone Hybrid interconnect, compressor and expander, aural exciter) that will help overcome quality variances and the sound limitations of our telephone networks. Note that many service providers do not understand how to create professional quality conference call recordings digitally -- their recording expertise is limited to tape and primarily used for transcription, not streaming over the Internet.

When quality and professionalism of the final product is paramount, the best option is to use voice talent recorded in a studio, or pre-record your speakers and professionally edit and enhance the recording. A good handheld digital recorder will even give you a richer recording than a conference call. These recordings are done at 8000 HZ amplitude which adds both highs and lows to your recording.

Whichever method you use, audio will make your communications more clear and impactful.

Based on your needs, Coreography can help recommend all the tools you will need to create professional recordings, or provide turnkey presentation recording services.

This article available for reprint or customization. Contact bhopps@coreography.com.