Speaker 1: This is the complete guide to recording online remote interviews. We're gonna step through exactly how to shoot an interview online like a pro, whether you've got just one or multiple guests, as well as our latest video recorder and interview software recommendations, and a ton of online interview tips to help you get the best results. Hi, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video, where we help you grow an audience and scale your revenue with online video. If you're seeing value in this video, make sure you're giving it a thumbs up. It makes a huge difference, and all the links to everything I mention are in the description box below. Let's jump into it. So there's been a ton of updates since our last video on this topic. I'm pretty sure our last top pick was to use Skype at the time. So a lot has changed, and the options are now so much better. But as always, there's a few different options depending on your needs and how advanced you wanna get with some of the cool features that are available. But we're gonna start off with the simplest setup first and work our way up to what I think is the best option right now, with all the bells and whistles to make your interviews even more engaging. Now, while the first option might get the job done for you, I would strongly recommend that you stick around to check out all three options that we're covering off, because there's some surprising new features that the later options pack in that you might not want to miss out on, especially if you haven't played with them before. So onto my top options. Option number one is to use Zoom. Zoom is an amazing video conferencing tool. It's now the de facto when it comes to online calls or online video meetings. But it's also a really powerful tool for creating online interviews as well. As I said, it's really easy to use, not just for the person presenting and running the interview but also to have your guests come in as well. All you need to do is to start a call or schedule a call ahead of time, share out the link to whoever you'd like to join, and once you're all set, you just need to hit the record button. Now, you have the option in here to record locally to your computer, or if you're on one of their paid plans, you can also record to the cloud as well. Now, in terms of the recording options, right now you can record up to HD video quality, and you can also record separate audio tracks for each of the different people that you've got speaking on your call. So this is a great feature to have so that you can control things like volume levels on a speaker-by-speaker basis. So if you've got someone where their microphone was a bit quiet, then in your editing afterwards, you can boost up that person's microphone. In terms of the video side and what you get access to for the recording, if you're recording to the cloud, then you have the ability to download either the speaker view or the gallery view. So the speaker view is where it's going to switch between the active speaker, whoever is talking is going to be full screen, whereas the gallery view is more of a grid view or the Brady Bunch style view. If you've got a lot of people on, then everyone will be laid out in a grid format. If there's only two people on, then it will be a 50-50 screen split with, say, you on one side and them on the other. So outside of that, there's really not a lot of control. You can't customize things up, you can't move things around, you can't bring in titles or anything like that, and you also can't improve that video quality beyond HD. Now, another thing to be aware of if you're gonna be hosting an interview over Zoom or using a platform like this over the internet is that the internet could actually become an issue, meaning if the internet on your end isn't good or it slows down, well, likewise, the other person that you are interviewing has internet issues, is going to lower the quality of the video first and foremost but also likely the audio as well. So you really wanna make sure and ideally do some testing beforehand to make sure that both of you have decent internet so that there isn't going to be any issues or any quality issues with your recording. Now, in terms of pricing, there is a free version of Zoom available which will let you run interviews and record them but to be able to access things like cloud recording where you'll be able to switch the different camera views and things, then that's when you need to move up to their pro plan which starts at $14.99 per month. So Zoom's gonna be a good option for someone who is looking for simplicity, doesn't need all the extra bells and whistles, doesn't need to bring up titles and things, or doesn't need, say, the highest video quality recording either. Next up, option number two is to use live streaming software to run your online interviews. These are a great option because they've got a ton of extra features built in for live streaming but even if you're not going to be live streaming, you can use those features to produce a highly polished interview as well. So a lot of the top options out there now for live streaming will just let you record without actually needing to go live. Now, in terms of live streaming software, there's lots of options out there, things like OBS, Ecamm, Vmix, Wirecast, StreamYard, Be.Live. We've got dedicated videos breaking down our top recommendations on those. I will link them up in the cards and below in the description. But again, as with anything, it's gonna come down to your specific use case and what you're looking to do as to which one is going to be the best one for you. In terms of recording an online interview, things like Ecamm and Vmix and StreamYard all make that process really, really simple, again, with different levels of advanced controls in there. If you're looking for simplicity, StreamYard is a great option. It's got a really intuitive interface. It's easy to bring guests in. It's easy to bring up titles and things and share your computer screen while you're recording as well. And just like Zoom, it also offers separate audio track recording as well for the different guests that you're bringing in. Video recording wise is supported up to 1080p resolution. So you're gonna get more quality out of StreamYard than you would through Zoom, but you will need to be on their pro plan for that, which starts at $39 per month. Now, if you're someone who's after more flexibility and more control with your video recording, and that's why I really like Ecamm Live, it's still really easy to use, but it packs a punch when it comes to features. So building upon StreamYard, where you had the ability to switch between the different camera angles or the different views, you can actually customize these up to literally pick up a webcam and move it around to wherever you like in Ecamm. But you also have a lot more control over things like the audio volumes as well. And again, you get that separate audio track recording in Ecamm as well. Now, while every option so far has had that separate audio track recording, up until now, none of them have had a separate video track recording, meaning it's gonna record your camera or your webcam full screen and your guest's camera full screen as well. So this is actually a feature that's built into more professional live streaming software like vMix and Wirecast. In both of those, you have the ability to set up and enable ISO recording or isolated track recording, where you can say, all right, this webcam, we're gonna save that as that MP4. This camera, we're gonna save this as this own standalone file, so that after you're recording, you've got separate versions of whatever you'd like. Now, because vMix and Wirecast are much more professional programs, they're also a lot more complicated to get up to speed and using, and they're also more expensive as well. So in terms of pricing with Wirecast, you will need Wirecast Pro for this ISO recording capability, which currently sells for $799, and that'll work on both Mac and PC. And with vMix, you'll need to be on their 4K pricing option, which is currently $700 US as a one-time purchase or $50 per month if you go on their subscription plan. Now, with all of that said, the biggest downside or the biggest risk with using any live streaming software to run your interviews, just the same as with Zoom, is going to be your internet connection. If you've got bad internet or your guests have bad internet, it's going to give you a bad quality recording. And this is why I was so pumped when I heard about option number three. So option number three then, great segue, Justin, is Riverside.fm. So what Riverside is, is an amazing simple platform designed to help you record high quality podcasts and video interviews. There's nothing to download and install, it just runs through your web browser. So yes, you will still need an internet connection, but the actual recording on either end for yourself and your guests are done locally on their end, meaning that it's done in much higher quality. And if your internet speed slowed down halfway through the interview, it's not going to affect the quality of the recording. So as far as I'm concerned, this is really the Holy Grail when it comes to recording an online interview. So once you create an account, you've logged in, you can easily grab an invitation link that you can send out to your guests that you wanna have on. They can currently have up to eight people on a recording, so yourself plus seven guests. But when people join, what you're seeing is a low quality preview. It's already in there, it's checking your internet bandwidth, it's checking their internet bandwidth, and it's giving you kind of an optimized but lower quality preview, so it's not gonna waste your internet speed. And then once you hit record, it's actually going to start recording locally on your computer, high quality, and also on your guests end as well. It's gonna be recording to their computer. It's also gonna start uploading that high quality recording to the Riverside servers in the background. If your internet speed is good enough. So if you're interviewing someone, you've got awesome internet, yours is just gonna be uploading in almost real time. If you're interviewing a guest and their internet isn't so good, then it's going to upload at a slower rate so as not to affect the actual recording, but also not to affect the actual interview that's happening. Now, once you stop the recording, you'll get a little notification and it will tell you to wait and to not close the window until the upload has finished. And this is the exact same message that's shown for your guest as well. Tells them don't close the browser window until the upload has finished. But you'll also have the ability to download the high quality video file and audio file from yourself and your guests. Again, all as separate files. Now, even if say you're running an interview and your guest totally dropped their internet connection, it's still gonna be recording on their end if they don't close the browser window. Once their internet comes back up, it'll just pick back up and the files are automatically synchronized. Meaning that when you go to drop them in your editing software, you don't need to try and line everything up. The files are going to be perfect to layer them on top of each other and to edit down as a multi-camera edit. So this, as far as I'm concerned, is really the holy grail when it comes to running interviews online. I think having this ability where you can get a high quality local disc recording and have it upload if your internet is good enough, but if it's not, it'll wait till afterwards. This is just amazing. It is all managed in a seamless, super intuitive way. Well done. Now in terms of pricing, you've really got three options starting at $7.50 per month for the basic plan, which gives you two hours of recording per month. If you need to record longer, the standard plan for $15 a month will let you record up to five hours per month and the pro plan for $24 per month will let you record up to 15 hours. So those are my top options for creating amazing online interviews right now. So now that you know how to record your online interviews, if you also wanna level up your camera quality, then check out the two videos I've got linked on screen. One of them will show you how you can use your DSLR, your mirrorless camera as a professional webcam. The second one will show you how you can use your smartphone as an amazing looking webcam as well. See you in the next one.