Sydney, Australia – October 2014….EFTM is a popular Australian online magazine covering a wide range of Lifestyle topics, from automotive news and reviews to technology, entertainment, fitness, and more. The site, run by tech devotees Trevor Long and Chris Bowen, and reaches more than 45,000 readers a month. Updated regularly, EFTM delivers news, features, and opinion pieces, backed by regular technology podcasts and video content.
The site’s two regular podcasts, “Your Tech Life” and “Two Blokes Talking Tech,” are among the most listened to in Australia, and featured regularly on the iTunes podcast charts. As Long explains, the shows are focused on technology for a not so tech savvy audience.
“it’s technology news and information but targeted at everyday people — moms, dads, grandparents – as opposed to the geeks and nerds who already know all this stuff,” he observes. “The focus is consumer-oriented, not deep technical. People have questions about what smartphone or computer to buy, why is their iPad not functioning the way it should, those kinds of issues. Or you have a mom or dad with questions about how they can engage in social media with their kids without stepping on their toes. And we review products like wearable fitness bands, or big screen TVs, or smartphones. It’s tech talk for the non-technical.”
The shows are recorded at Long’s newly-built in-house studio, equipped with Mackie’s DL806 digital mixer with iPad control. “We did the shows out of my garage for four or five years, and it’s grown immensely,” Long reports. “When we moved into our new house, I built a purpose-built studio for the podcasts. I had an older analog mixer and enough gear to run the studio, but I wanted to do it a bit differently. I saw a Facebook post about the new Mackie mixer, and I was fascinated. I had never seen anything like it. I read and researched it, and I knew I just had to have one.”
Not surprisingly, it was the iPad control that initially caught his eye. “Nobody, not even Steve Jobs, would have thought to turn the iPad into a thing like this. But it was clear immediately that it was more than just a toy. The ability to set up multiple control surfaces is something you just cannot do with a traditional desk. Stephen Fenech, my co-host on ‘Two Blokes Talking Tech,’ can be sitting across the desk from me at his microphone and he can have microphone control, headphone control, mixer control, without me having to install a control station for him. He can control it all via his iPhone.”
Long also cites the expandability factor that the DL806’s wireless control offers. “If we’ve got a guest in one week — even if we’ve got five guests one week — they can all have their own controls. I can just give their own fader, on their own phone. Done. And it’s portable enough that if we wanted to do a remote podcast, it’s really easy to set up.”
Long is the first to admit, he’s barely begun to scratch the surface of the DL806’s capabilities. “I’m not really an audio guy. I don’t play around much with EQs or compression during recording. I’m sure there’s lots of things I could be doing with it, and if I sat down and took the time I could probably learn 500 times more than what I know today. That said, I’m already light years ahead of where we were with our previous desk. It’s a really powerful little beast.”
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