Kristopher Smith
http://linkedin.com/in/ksmith
Naperville, IL 60565
(630) 445-1719 ● kris[at]palegroove.com

Career Objective

A leadership position with a company interested in benefiting from the opportunities presented by leading edge new media technologies where a commitment to innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit is recognized and rewarded.

Qualifications Summary:

• Accomplished entrepreneur and industry leader with a demonstrated history of success integrating new media technologies into existing platforms and campaigns for Fortune 500 companies.
• Combined expertise in RSS and podcast development with an extended network of relationships with independent, corporate and mainstream media.
• Developed and licensed Castlock, a robust new media management and RSS metrics platform that enables users to manage large libraries of content and maintain statistics privately.

Professional Experience

Room 214, Boulder, Colorado ● 1/2007-11/2007

Vice President, New Media

Leadership force for product development within an organization that integrates new media, public relations efforts, web marketing methodologies and technologies under cohesive systems that drive measurable calls to action via the Internet. Company services were solicited from some of the most recognized PR firms and creative agencies to positively impact corporate sales, brand awareness and communications.

Major Contributions:

• Developed moderated media RSS feeds (mmRSS) for episodic and archived content delivery via RSS
• Orchestrated product development and integration of emerging technologies such as Twitter and other social media API’s into Castlock, a robust new media management and RSS metrics platform
• Created and delivered new products from the Castlock code base, RSSignite and Episodr
• Spearheaded integration of new media including podcasting and RSS into new client product offerings and marketing campaigns
• Invigorated existing client marketing campaigns with new media elements
• Directed digital media production from concept to final deliverable
• Initiated research and development for RSS strategies and effective RSS search engine optimization
• Served as company spokesperson at industry and new media events around the country


Career Note: Asa representative of Room 214 and respected authority in the new media field I delivered the following presentations:

• Podcast & New Media Expo (Sept. 2007) Ontario, CA.“Compression Killed the Video Star”
• PodCamp NYC (Apr. 2007) New York, New York. Panel “Podcast Open Metrics Initiative.”
• eLearning 2007 (Mar. 2007) Chicago, IL. “Using RSS Feeds, Podcasts to Deliver Distance Education”
• Podcast Academy 5 (Feb. 2007) Duke University. “Understanding Authenticated & Personalized RSS Feeds”

Joint Commission Resources/Joint Commission, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois ● 5/2005-12/2006

Associate Director, eLearning

Promoted to direct eLearning digital product development for Joint Commission Resources. Led innovations in delivery of information required to comply with the accreditation standards of the Joint Commission on Accredited Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). JCAHO accreditation and certification is the standard of excellence in health care organizations.

Major Contributions:

• Identified opportunities for new revenue streams utilizing innovative content delivery systems
• Evangelized blogging and podcast initiatives to integrate new media technologies within the enterprise
• Directed a division to develop digital products and manage legacy products focusing on increasing sales
• Engineered courseware implementation, software, coding and course development for field cadre and central office employees
• Disseminated educational training information to 400 global field staff via a custom RSS application

Palegroove Studios, Naperville, Illinois ● 2/2005-Present

Founder/CEO

Pioneered the start-up and development of the world’s first podcast production company. Advised Fortune 500 clients on utilizing this medium to extend their brands. Developed podcasts from conception to deliverables which includes consulting with client on: show content, format, script writing, transcripts and creation of royalty free musical intros,outros and sweepers. Developed and licensed Castlock, a robust new media management and RSS metrics platform. Produced over 700 podcasts since 2005.

Podcasts Produced:

• MasterCard, The Home Depot, Abbot Laboratories (2007)
• Nascar Alltel Racing Podcast (2006 & 2007) produced podcasts in conjunction with XM Satellite Radio
• NFL Alltel My Circle Podcast (2006 season) produced with nationally recognized radio talent from official team media outlets
• Nascar Coors Light Racing Podcast for Coors Light (2006)
• Fab 5 Summer ‘05 Podcasts produced for MTV Networks Affiliate Marketing (2005)
• Developed and independently produced Croncast (2004-Present) delivered 3 times a week since November of 2004 and recognized by a number of media outlets including: The New York Times, Detroit Free Press, FOX News, and NBC (Chicago)

Career Note:
As a successful entrepreneur and recognized expert in the podcast industry I delivered the following presentations:

• PodCamp West (Nov. 2006) San Francisco, CA. Keynote panel “The Future of New Media”
• Portable Media Expo (Sep. 2006) Ontario, CA. “Leveraging Your Knowledge as a Podcasting Consultant”
• Podcast Academy 4 (Sep. 2006) Ontario, CA. “Web Design for Corporate Podcasting”

Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove, Illinois ● 5/2000-5/2005

Distance Learning Technical Support Specialist

• Trained and supported university and college faculty throughout Illinois on the integration of technology into the classroom as part of ILLCO, a state funded initiative
• Designed and developed all graphics, wrote code, recorded, edited and encoded all audio for a Flash virtual tour of the college campus for use online, CD-ROM and hybrid DVD
• Recognized as innovator within organization promoted four times in five years

Languages

PHP, MySQL, RSS, XML, HTML

Audio/Video

Sound Forge, Acid Pro, WaveLab, Vegas, Waves, Fruity Loops

Blogware/Podcasting

Castlock and WordPress

Design/Interactive

Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator

Courseware

WebCT, aTutor, Scenario Studio, and HorizonLive

Education

BFA Visual Communication with an emphasis in Digital Design 2005

American InterContinental University, Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Associates of Arts Degree December 2000

Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove, Illinois

August 1993 – December 1994

Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois

That I have this blog. With the other sites, podcast and work I am rarely here anymore.

And when people look me up through search, well, here you are.

If you were seeking the Kris Smith that podcasts it is me. More information can be found at one of these places:

Work: Room 214, Palegroove
Blog and Podcast: Croncast
Work Blog: Capture The Conversation

Photo Credit: Daniel Alexander/FramesMedia.com

It’s been a while since I talked about the equipment that I use and no time seems better than now thanks to this question:

“Can you tell me what microphones and mixer you use to record Croncast? (I heard the “expensive” microphone show recently and I had to laugh–I’m more interested in two microphones that are in the $100-$125 price range [each]).

Thanks!,” Ron

Here’s what currently makes up my audio signal path, hardware and software for Croncast.

2 - Marshall MXL 2003 microphones (Ron, for an extra $25 you won’t be disappointed) [link]
2 - Universal Audio 6176 channel strips w/ preamp and compressor [link]
1 - PreSonus Firepod [link]
1 - Sony VGC-RB62G computer [link]
1 - Sony Sound Forge 8 audio editor [link]
1 - Waves L2 Ultramaximizer mastering compressor [link]
1 - Sony Vegas 6 multitrack for putting show together [link]
1 - Xing MP3 encoder (included in Vegas) encoded to Joint Stereo, 96 Kbps at 44.1 KHz
1 - MP3 Tag Tools to edit ID3 tags [link]
1 - iTunes to add more meta-data specific to iTunes (I can explain way below this)

This is what takes a Croncast from nothing to something.

Here’s the breakdown.

Marshall Electronics MXL 2003 [link] microphones . . . I recommend these mics to everyone that asks. And after recently cheating on them with a Neumann U87ai I like them even more. With a price tag of $149 at most dealers you can’t go wrong. We’ve used them now for two years and I own five of them. The sound is clear, they knock a lot of ambient noise down and their pick up pattern is second to none with a great low end and limited high end. The mic comes with a bass cut and a -10dB pad switch that can help when finding the right sound for your voice and recording space. These are phantom power microphones so I need a preamp.

Universal Audio 6176 [link] analog channel strip with 610 Tube Microphone preamp and 1176LN compressor. These two units are a new piece to the puzzle. They’ve replace the dbx 166XL that I was using for some limiting. The 6176’s bring a nice warm sound to the shows that the 166XL didn’t have. Most studios use them for recording bass tracks or heating up/distorting some vocals but I prefer them on a little lower setting to add a level bass and compression to our voices that would take me a couple of hours to create in post production through eq and other plug-ins.

PreSonus Firepod [link] is a 24-bit/96K FireWire recording interface with 8 preamplifiers (8 XLR/line inputs with phantom power). I originally bought this to replace an M-Audio MobilePre that was flaking out and causing intermittent popping in tracks. The reason that I chose the Firepod was primarily the 8 XLR inputs with phantom power to multitrack instead of force output to a single stereo track . . . a huge plus when recording more than 4 voices for a show. Also, if the UA 6176 wasn’t part of the signal chain anymore I could live with the sound, I did for five months.

Sony VGC-RB62G [link] Intel Dual Core 2.8GHz with 2GB RAM. I’ve done little modification of this box other than adding a new video card, an extra FireWire card, a gig of RAM and a second hard drive. Usually, I prefer to build my own computer but was in the middle of the Alltel Racing Podcast when the old one died and I needed something right away. I went to Fry’s and this box was best thing that they had in stock that met my requirements. It is or was sold as a Media PC and came with remote, surround speaker set up and more software than I could care to have (primarily the shit that just gums up the system). The only complaint that I have had so far with this computer is that every input in the back of it USB, FireWire or 1/8′ has a ton of electrical noise in it when used for recording. I am forced to use the front 4 pin FireWire input for what should normally be a transparent sound recording.

Sony Sound Forge 8 [link] audio editor. This is the software that I record the shows into. I have been using Sound Forge for the last 7 years. When I got my first computer in 1999 at age 25 I learned how to use it by working with Steinberg’s WaveLab (another great audio editor) but late in that year switched to Sound Forge. WaveLab had a lot of great features but they never compared the bundle of plug-ins that came with or for Sound Forge. WaveLab relied on the VST model and Sound Forge on Direct-X which meant that there were also more plug-ins to choose from. The killer plug-in was the Noise Reduction tool that prior to version 7 (maybe 6) wasn’t bundled with the license. It is the best noise reduction tool on the market. I’ve heard most of the rest first hand, even the ones used in million dollar studios and would still choose the one in Sound Forge. I don’t use Noise Reduction on our show but when doing post on audio recorded out of the studio I use it about 90% of the time.

Waves L2 Ultramaximizer [link] mastering compressor. Yep, I already ran the audio signal through an amazing compressor in the 6176 but the L2 puts the finishing touches on the wav file before I close out Sound Forge. This plug-in is the secret in my sauce. I have used it for about four years and find it’s sound brighter, more open and louder than any other including Ozone 2 or 3 (which is an attempt to recreate the sound at a lower cost).

Sony Vegas 6 [link] multitrack video editor. Video? Did Kris just say, video? I sure did. When this product was first developed by Sonic Foundry it started out as a multitrack audio mastering suite that was supposed to be an upgrade from their Acid line of software. That didn’t quite work out and they released a second version for video. With two competing versions on the market they made the wise decision to morph them together into Vegas Video, Sonic Foundry was bought by Sony and the rest is history. I use Vegas basically the same way that I use Dreamweaver for coding pages, as a template. All i have to do for Croncast is plug in each new recording on the timeline and poof there is a fully mastered show.

Xing MP3 encoder (included in Vegas) all shows are encoded to Joint Stereo, 96 Kbps at 44.1. This lowest quality that I will encode my own work to or for that of a client. This range is somewhat higher than many podcasters will recommend for a speech driven show but I find that anything less sound hollow and purely focuses on midrange sounds. Blah. At a bit rate lower than 96 Kbps most audio encoders, like this one, won’t allow for a sample rate of 44.1 KHz. I used to encode the shows to a lower value two years ago when we first started but then iTunes came to town and studios started cranking out CD quality audio files. Once that bar was raised I figured it was okay for me to join that party.

MP3 Tag Tools [link] to edit ID3 tags. It is open source and the best ID3 tag editor that I have found. It will allow you to make changes to version 1 and 2 tags that will cover most of the popular media players like WinAmp, Windows Media Player and iTunes. It’ll even let you add up to 18 images per file in the album art that can be displayed in iTunes.

iTunes for adding iTunes specific data to the ID3 tag. Didn’t you already do this? Sort of. iTunes uses on the variances of the ID3 V2 tag standard to display meta data that is included with the MP3.

That is it friends. Once all that crap has happened it is time to upload the show to the server, fire up Castlock, start adding show notes and then make the show available for download.

It is Sunday, the second day of PodCamp West and I am already back home thanks to a red eye flight at 11:30 out of San Francisco. I had a great time and the lack of sleep from coming out Saturday morning and then leaving that night was worth it. Unfortunately, I’m missing out on today’s conversations!

At any rate, yesterday was awesome seeing some familiar faces, talking with friends and meeting many of new people who are both interested in podcasting or have jumped in with both feet writing code and podcasting. I was fortunate enough to be on keynote panel discussing “The Future of New Media” and followed that with a “Getting Started” panel. There were a lot of good questions that lead to many more in the hall ways.

Steve Rhodes has some images up and, well, Steve hooked me up with a link (thanks for the plug Steve!) and it was to this blog, which you can see from the posts below doesn’t get as much play as it once used to.

You can check out my current work at Croncast.com and my production company Palegroove Studios.

(I look mean!)