Web Development: How to Record a Video Podcast With Remote Guests Using Squadcast

How to Record a Video Podcast With Remote Guests Using Squadcast

Don't get me wrong, there were already a bunch of great resources for communicating with coworkers and friends: Skype and Zoom are prime examples. But what about podcasting with guest in remote locations? How do you manage files easily? Will there be massive audio drift? What if someone isn't recording the audio on their end and, most importantly, how do you streamline editing so that you can focus on the conversations. In this tutorial we'll be going over Squadcast, a browser based interface, designed to solve these problems.

Male podcaster in bright, window-lit room

Let's Get Started: Pricing and Plans

Squadcast uses a monthly subscriptions at a variety of prices based on what you use, with discounts for educators, medical, government, and other non-profits.

Starting A Squadcast: General Overview

One of the main concerns when podcasting with a guest is that the guest's location is usualyy somewhat of an unknown. It is in a remote location, anywhere other then your studio, so how do you get the guest set up? You can't really expect every guest to be tech savvy, nor can you expect them want to learn a new skill in order to have a conversation with you. Squadcast makes it simple, all you have to do is send your upcoming guest a link. There's absolutely no hoops or road blocks that get in the way. (your guest will have to allow browser permissions to use the microphone and camera).

Tips Before Joining: Both Host and Guest

Check your connection
Find a quiet environment: It's best to record in a quiet place.
Prioritize your connection to SquadCast by closing other tabs and apps. On the off chance your network disconnects, there's no need to worry. Click the gold Reconnect button to continue recording.
You're ready to join: SquadCast uses audio powered by Dolby, that helps treat your recordings so they sound like they're all coming sonically from the same room.

After this step you'll meet in the Green Room.

The Green Room

This is a great prerecording space that allows you and your guest to go over a few things. Here are some recommendations to review and prepare:

Personal Info: If you choose, you can enter your pronouns here
Echo Cancellation: If any of your guests aren't using headphones a nasty feedback loop can occur. Select the echo cancellation button in the green room to help manage that.
Double check equipment: Use the Check Equipment & Connection button to record seven seconds of test audio and video. This is just a test and doesn't save anywhere.

Creating Remote Content: Creating Sessions, Management, Downloading files.

Squadcast is streamlined and easy to use thanks to quality design and integration with other apps such as Google/ Apple Calender and Dropbox.

Recording Sessions

Your main page in Squadcast is your Recording Sessions Overview. Here you'll be able to access all your up upcoming and past recordings as well as create new sessions. Doing this is simple, click on the link, fill out all the required fields, and when the times right, head back to your overview and select Start Session.

While Recording

While recording you'll have all the regular bells and whistles of other conference call style apps but what makes Sqaudcast so helpful is that once you hit record you're data will be continually saved and backed up to the cloud. So, if there's any dropouts on the network, you should have a backup available on the cloud. Furthermore, all that data is recorded to separate tracks for easy editing. Once you're finished with a session, all you need to do is hit Stop and your guests are free to leave. There's no need for any awkward waiting around for files to render.

Downloading Your Files

After you've finished, head back over to the Recording Sessions page, where you'll be able to view your recording and download your individual files using Dropbox. You can download in a a variety of formats and you'll always be able to access your back ups on the cloud. From you here you can bring them in to your editor to finish off job.

Wrapping Up

Squadcast is an easy-to-use service that makes possible what otherwise would be a little hard to accomplish. That being said, there are a few things you can do to make it the best experience. Number one, even though you don't need to, it really does make a difference using a well placed external microphone and a headset. There are a lot of ways to approach this depending on your budget with the lower end just being a simple set of EarPods with a built in microphone. This set up is very common as produces workable audio. The other thing is to take your time, listen to podcasts and figure out what kind of conversational style you want to have.

Thanks for following along and checking out this tutorial!