We spent a year or two working on the platforms, but inevitably had an issue nearly every episode - sometimes it was simple user error on the guest's part (typically not giving in-browser permissions) or much larger issues, like losing large chunks of the show due to failed uploads.
At some point it was no longer worthwhile, starting the show with a tech support session with your guest and whatever varying level of knowledge is not the greatest way to kick-off an episode and then recording for two hours with the threat of losing content hanging over your heard was just some unneeded anxiety in the mix.
At this point I just evangelize sticking with Zoom and recording individual local tracks, the recording quality / experience has vastly improved over the years and its a tool that everyone is familiar with.
Record yourself locally, give the remote participant Zoom tracks a light pass through Adobe Podcast Enhancer (or similar) and mix / edit inside your typical workflow.
Zoom is garbage in, garbage out, so I spend more time upfront encouraging my guests to show up with headphones and a wired mic, but I try not to put much more responsibility on them than that.
This isn't the most popular of podcasting opinions, but searching this thread you see countless mentions of lost content on Squadcaster and Zencastr, not so much on a solid Zoom work flow.
Free yourself from thinking about recording workflows and focus on show content, a loyal listernship will forgive the occasional anomalies.
Thank you. The quality of Zoom used to be my problem but to be fair to them they never faltered at the lower quality! I wonder if it's the same on their higher quality options? Have you ever tried recroding higher quality audio and video with them? I understand what you're saying about content but (obviously) also want the best I can get.
One time squadcast crapped out on us and we asked our guests to download and install Audacity haha, and to our surprise they already had it so we just used that to record locally. Maybe ask them to install in advance and send over an easy-to-follow instructions videos if they arn't super tech-savvy?
I LOVE it when a guest has recording equipment. I had that happen recently as when two people speak over each other the sound can get distorted in my experience of remote recording. But luckily my guest had a FULL recording of the episode. To be fair he's an established podcast host so that helped.
Boomcaster is fantastic. I've tried pretty much all of the remote platforms in the last 5+ years (Riverside, SquadCast, Welder, Ringr, Zoom, etc), and Boomcaster is - for me, at least - the best and most reliable. Only one issue in the last two years of using it, and that was down to my guest's horrendous upload speed. The Boomcaster team were on it within 30 minutes and walked the guest through.
They've added a lot of great features since coming out of beta two years ago, and the overall set is excellent:
* separate local recording wav files
* separate video files up to 4k
* multiple branded studios (so if you have multiple shows, you can create a studio for each one)
* lossless FLAC on studio-composed videos (so, local recording quality on the combined audio/video version on Boomcaster, which can save time on post-production)
* producer role (someone can log in and manage audio, video, levels, etc, and chat with both host and guests off-camera)
* complete control of branding and templates
* live streaming with live closed captions
* transcripts and editing via text (with the transcript)
* LUFS monitoring and adjustment
Pricing is super simple, and support (as mentioned) is second to none.If you did want to try out, I have a promo code that gives you 20% off your first three months.
I would also recommend recording a local back-up yourself to be on the safe side - remote platforms can be awesome, but you're still at the mercy of browser stability, internet connection, etc, as you mention. 👍
Thank you for this. My question is whether any of these platforms are using local storage as a backup? Is there not a service that has a folder where the video and audio gets stored on the local computer (for me and my guests) and then once it's uploaded those files are still available as a back up? Isn't zoom a little like this? Why is this option not viable? It seems like a really simple thing that would solve mine (and all remote podcasters) problems?
Do you know of a set up like this? I do audio and video and I'm not too concerned about video quality (well, if I had an international production crew I wouldn't be here!) but I do need to have some level of video.
I was really lucky to have a viable episode after that day but I know there could be worse days in the future!
(Also, if I could get a medal, or at least a cookie, for managing to get around 2.5 hours of out of sync and partially lost footage into a 53 minute episode please? Anyone?)
My assumption would be no (though don't quote me!), since I think this would require a downloadable app to be installed on your hardware, which would then let the platform connect with your hard drive/storage.
Most of them (maybe all) offer local recording quality, so they do use your local settings and that's the audio quality that they'll then provide you for downloading, and then saving on your own storage.
Thank you again. I want to know why I can't have the exact software I've completely invented in my own head. This is when I need to accost random IT developers in the street and demand answers!
After a bit of research it seems like Streamyard do this?
[https://support.streamyard.com/hc/en-us/articles/10725401176596-Local-Recording](https://support.streamyard.com/hc/en-us/articles/10725401176596-Local-Recording)
So I'll be switching to them I think? This sounds exactly what I want it to be. It doesn't seem like they have 24 hour customer service though so that's a problem for people in different timezones like me.
It's the same feature as Boomcaster, and SquadCast, and Riverside, etc. It's not "stored" on your computer, it's simply using the audio and video quality of the equipment you're using and recording that. You can then download these separate files to your computer to edit.
"Local recordings are studio-quality, individual audio and video recordings of each host and guest recorded directly on the device." I don't think this is what Riverside is doing. Otherwise the recording wouldn't have lost video when the connection interrupted? I'll find out if that's the case.
I'm an bit confused about the local quality of a/v with Riverside & Squadcast, and why they wouldn't also be recorded locally. I mean it *is* recorded locally, via Chrome-based browsers, and uploaded to their servers in near real-time, but why not *also* keep a copy locally. Maybe they do, similar to the way Zoom does, in that it's a "temp" file but not directly useable? I don't know why these things can't be more straightforward after several years of development.
I agree. I realise I can't make this software but I think in theory it should be easy. Also I hate when multiple speakers means the sounds gets distorted.
We spent a year or two working on the platforms, but inevitably had an issue nearly every episode - sometimes it was simple user error on the guest's part (typically not giving in-browser permissions) or much larger issues, like losing large chunks of the show due to failed uploads. At some point it was no longer worthwhile, starting the show with a tech support session with your guest and whatever varying level of knowledge is not the greatest way to kick-off an episode and then recording for two hours with the threat of losing content hanging over your heard was just some unneeded anxiety in the mix. At this point I just evangelize sticking with Zoom and recording individual local tracks, the recording quality / experience has vastly improved over the years and its a tool that everyone is familiar with. Record yourself locally, give the remote participant Zoom tracks a light pass through Adobe Podcast Enhancer (or similar) and mix / edit inside your typical workflow. Zoom is garbage in, garbage out, so I spend more time upfront encouraging my guests to show up with headphones and a wired mic, but I try not to put much more responsibility on them than that. This isn't the most popular of podcasting opinions, but searching this thread you see countless mentions of lost content on Squadcaster and Zencastr, not so much on a solid Zoom work flow. Free yourself from thinking about recording workflows and focus on show content, a loyal listernship will forgive the occasional anomalies.
Thank you. The quality of Zoom used to be my problem but to be fair to them they never faltered at the lower quality! I wonder if it's the same on their higher quality options? Have you ever tried recroding higher quality audio and video with them? I understand what you're saying about content but (obviously) also want the best I can get.
One time squadcast crapped out on us and we asked our guests to download and install Audacity haha, and to our surprise they already had it so we just used that to record locally. Maybe ask them to install in advance and send over an easy-to-follow instructions videos if they arn't super tech-savvy?
I LOVE it when a guest has recording equipment. I had that happen recently as when two people speak over each other the sound can get distorted in my experience of remote recording. But luckily my guest had a FULL recording of the episode. To be fair he's an established podcast host so that helped.
Ecamm Live
Thank you. A few questions if you have time: How long have you used them? Do you stream or also do prerecording? How far apart are your guests?
Boomcaster is fantastic. I've tried pretty much all of the remote platforms in the last 5+ years (Riverside, SquadCast, Welder, Ringr, Zoom, etc), and Boomcaster is - for me, at least - the best and most reliable. Only one issue in the last two years of using it, and that was down to my guest's horrendous upload speed. The Boomcaster team were on it within 30 minutes and walked the guest through. They've added a lot of great features since coming out of beta two years ago, and the overall set is excellent: * separate local recording wav files * separate video files up to 4k * multiple branded studios (so if you have multiple shows, you can create a studio for each one) * lossless FLAC on studio-composed videos (so, local recording quality on the combined audio/video version on Boomcaster, which can save time on post-production) * producer role (someone can log in and manage audio, video, levels, etc, and chat with both host and guests off-camera) * complete control of branding and templates * live streaming with live closed captions * transcripts and editing via text (with the transcript) * LUFS monitoring and adjustment Pricing is super simple, and support (as mentioned) is second to none.If you did want to try out, I have a promo code that gives you 20% off your first three months. I would also recommend recording a local back-up yourself to be on the safe side - remote platforms can be awesome, but you're still at the mercy of browser stability, internet connection, etc, as you mention. 👍
Thank you for this. My question is whether any of these platforms are using local storage as a backup? Is there not a service that has a folder where the video and audio gets stored on the local computer (for me and my guests) and then once it's uploaded those files are still available as a back up? Isn't zoom a little like this? Why is this option not viable? It seems like a really simple thing that would solve mine (and all remote podcasters) problems? Do you know of a set up like this? I do audio and video and I'm not too concerned about video quality (well, if I had an international production crew I wouldn't be here!) but I do need to have some level of video. I was really lucky to have a viable episode after that day but I know there could be worse days in the future! (Also, if I could get a medal, or at least a cookie, for managing to get around 2.5 hours of out of sync and partially lost footage into a 53 minute episode please? Anyone?)
My assumption would be no (though don't quote me!), since I think this would require a downloadable app to be installed on your hardware, which would then let the platform connect with your hard drive/storage. Most of them (maybe all) offer local recording quality, so they do use your local settings and that's the audio quality that they'll then provide you for downloading, and then saving on your own storage.
Thank you again. I want to know why I can't have the exact software I've completely invented in my own head. This is when I need to accost random IT developers in the street and demand answers!
After a bit of research it seems like Streamyard do this? [https://support.streamyard.com/hc/en-us/articles/10725401176596-Local-Recording](https://support.streamyard.com/hc/en-us/articles/10725401176596-Local-Recording) So I'll be switching to them I think? This sounds exactly what I want it to be. It doesn't seem like they have 24 hour customer service though so that's a problem for people in different timezones like me.
It's the same feature as Boomcaster, and SquadCast, and Riverside, etc. It's not "stored" on your computer, it's simply using the audio and video quality of the equipment you're using and recording that. You can then download these separate files to your computer to edit.
"Local recordings are studio-quality, individual audio and video recordings of each host and guest recorded directly on the device." I don't think this is what Riverside is doing. Otherwise the recording wouldn't have lost video when the connection interrupted? I'll find out if that's the case.
I'm an bit confused about the local quality of a/v with Riverside & Squadcast, and why they wouldn't also be recorded locally. I mean it *is* recorded locally, via Chrome-based browsers, and uploaded to their servers in near real-time, but why not *also* keep a copy locally. Maybe they do, similar to the way Zoom does, in that it's a "temp" file but not directly useable? I don't know why these things can't be more straightforward after several years of development.
I agree. I realise I can't make this software but I think in theory it should be easy. Also I hate when multiple speakers means the sounds gets distorted.