Listen Live!

It’s a fun treat for some to hear us as we step all over each other, and make other humorous on-air mistakes that are later edited out, and it’s fun for us to get live commentary and feedback from the chatroom as they listen in.

It has also been very helpful, because even though Tim and Summer are B5 fans of the highest order, not even they can remember every tiny detail all the time.

Here are all the instructions on how to listen to the live feed, watch the live video stream, and join the chatroom:

Listening to the Live Feed

First, you need an application that can connect to a streaming feed. WinAmp seems to be the app of choice for Windows, and iTunes or Quicktime seems to work best on the Mac. One app of choice for Linux users is Amarok (with the xine engine).

To connect to the live feed, you can point your favorite audio stream catcher at one of the following server feeds:

http://stream.farpointmedia.net:8000/listen.m3u (USA)
http://w2k.myftp.org:8000/FPM.m3u (Europe)

This will let you listen in as we record, and catch the show at least a week before the fully produced version goes out on the podcast feed.

The live feeds are up and running on Wednesday evenings for Babylon Podcast recording, on Thursday evenings for Slice of SciFi recording, and you may eventually hear other FarPoint Media shows on other days of the week.

Some applications should start playing the stream as soon as content is being sent out, even if you connect before the content is available. I’m told that WinAmp and sometimes iTunes will do this, but be aware that if you connect too early, you might have to quit the application and reconnect after content is being streamed out.

Viewing the Live Feed Video Stream

Yes, there is an experimental live video feed of the live stream. No guarantees on audio quality for the time being, but feel free to be entranced by the unexpected sights to accompany all of the strange goings on you’ve been listening to all these years.

Tune into http://www.ustream.tv/channel/babylon-podcast, and be either amused or amazed.

Live feed content for The Babylon Podcast should begin streaming at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern, so join in on the fun!

Joining the Babylon Podcast IRC chatroom

We also have a Freenode IRC chatroom that can be used 24 / 7, but the most activity is on Wednesday nights when recording is active. Summer is usually monitoring the chatroom, but don’t expect too much interaction, since she is a little busy with being a courteous co-host, and that means paying attention to what the other hosts and guests are saying

Server: irc.freenode.net
Channel: #farpointmedia

All you need to do is point your favorite chat application (if it’s IRC compatible) to the server, and type in the command
/join #farpointmedia
after you’ve connected and chosen a nickname. If the system complains that you’ve chosen a nickname that’s already in use, choose a new one by typing in
/nick newnickname