Scan-N-Land

Journalists prepare Web media with Soundslides

Soundslides 1.4 helps journalists and media enthusiasts create audio slide shows in a short period of time, as Chhayal Parikh demonstrated on November 11, 2006.

The application’s clean, simple interface lets users import their photos and audio files without having to work through multiple screens.

There are some popular applications that could be used to develop similar projects, such as DemoShield, Macromedia Flash or PowerPoint, but they are expensive and require some training.

This application will pay for itself the first time you use it. I tried it out last night, and it took only a few minutes to put together a short clip. Click here to watch and listen.

Many Internet sites stream video and audio, and I expect to see much more of it after Microsoft releases its next operating system, Windows Vista, which will ship with Media Center, Movie Maker, and Photo Gallery.

Although it will be a while before Soundslides is able to compete with Microsoft, it’s a product with legs and solid enough to stand on its own.

The biggest challenge that the makers will face is enriching the application without weighing it down with so much functionality that it becomes another complicated and difficult-to-use application.

But let’s not fuss over this now and instead enjoy what we have. It is perfect the way it is.

Soundslides runs on both OS X and Windows XP, and a licensed copy runs for $39.95.

-- Hugo

posted by Mark H. @ 11/21/2006 09:53:00 PM