The FaceTime of Remote Podcast Recording
If you record remote podcasts where you have guessed that are not physically in your presence and by the way, that’s probably how most of you are recording your podcasts, especially in this time of covid. You’re going to want to check out Riverside.FM.
Typically, when you record people on a podcast (let’s say you use Zoom) the audio that you hear and the video you see is compressed down to save bandwidth. Even when you record your meetings, unless you’ve ponied up for a business license you are still getting sub par, low resolution recordings.
Introducing Riverside.FM
Ever searching for the perfect solution for my podcast recording workflow, I turned to Google and came upon Riverside.FM which advertises high-quality 48khz audio and up to 4K video recording for podcasts. Per guest!
So I signed up and checked it out (they have a free trial so you can try this out yourself, up to 60 minutes of recording).
Here is what I found:
The quality of the audio and video recording was awesome. As advertised, this is a higher caliber of recording solution than Zoom.
Another thing I really appreciate about Riverside.FM is that it’s extremely easy to use from the guest perspective. Invite a guest to your podcast and they only have to click on one link. It does require Google Chrome for the local recording aspect of it, but most recording solutions like Riverside.FM do as well (Cast, ZenCastr).
Riverside.FM has a number of roles you can assign when in its studio mode. A producer can manage the technical settings of getting everyone sounding great, the host can run the show, guests can provide their subject matter expertise and you can even invite live-call in guests or have attendees watching (and listening) along.
If your podcast has a Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube page associated with it you can also live-stream the show to them as well, although the video quality for this is capped at 1280×720 (720p). Hopefully this is something that can be upgraded in the future.
Also notable is the fact that Riverside.FM will create a composed video feed of your show that you can upload directly to your choice of video services. This is a time saver for sure that will save on post-production for your podcast, but is also capped currently at 720p which limits is usefulness.
I’ve reached out to the company on this, and it is a limitation put in place to save bandwidth. Again, I hope this is something which changes as time goes on and with more feedback from podcasters so stay tuned!
All in all, Riverside.FM is an impressive option for high quality recording of your remote podcast guests, and should definitely be considered as an alternative to using Zoom. It truly feels like the FaceTime of remote podcast recording, and that is a great thing!
