Røde Unveils Microphone “Education” Website
Røde Microphones has unveiled Røde University, an infomercial online course designed to explain the basics of Røde microphone recording applications. Now the concept is quite solid, however, as we will learn, the delivery has come up wanting.
The design of the site is effective, devoid of Dancing Baloney and other forays into non-essential elements, and allows the user to get right into the action, although you’re required to register so that Røde can send you their marketing garbage. The training videos, despite being very poorly lit, are delivered in excellent resolution for streaming video. For users who are brand new to microphone placement techniques and patterns, the video may move a tad fast, but Røde University does allow you to replay and/or rewind to video.
Røde’s entire product line of microphones and accessories are covered in the University’s videos, but you must follow a course curriculum that requires you to learn about the mics in a specific order, a major minus. (see image above) Although Røde’s thinking is that the user should learn the foundation of a microphone’s features and attributes, the reality is that the “University” is really just a long advertisement for each mic, shoe-horned into an educational format. Røde probably thinks that they’re pulling the wool over their viewer’s eyes, but they’re not fooling anyone. Therefore, the “University” would probably be much more effective, if Røde would just open up the entire grid and let users pick the mic and application they are interested in.
If you are interested in actually learning something, just click on the TechTalk link on the bottom right of the grid. Despite the obvious pimping of Røde’s own technology by Host Peter Moses, there’s a couple of interesting nuggets of knowledge to digest.
The Future: Røde University is a good foundation for a site that could be much, much more if Røde ever decides to evolve it beyond infomercial status.
More information on Røde University.
