Introduction
Nice to have you with us again for another episode of Digital 4 Productivity. And today it’s another “Behind the Scenes” episode. I’m often asked how I conduct my interviews with external parties. And this time I’m happy to give a few tips.
You normally have an audio podcast here and perhaps some of you will have noticed that I also do a video episode from time to time. Audio podcasts have the advantage that you can listen to them while driving or jogging. That’s a bit difficult with video formats. On the other hand, I do have the odd person who says, ‘I want to look at things on my PC and a video is always exciting.
The recording of video interviews
Yes, how do I do video interviews? The first impulse most of you might have is to do it via Zoom. And Zoom or Team are the usual suspects when it comes to video conferences and perhaps also video interviews, which can also be recorded.
The advantage is that this is naturally learned by everyone. The disadvantage is that this topic is not necessarily trimmed for optimal quality, but for the optimal fluidity of the conversation. This means that with Zoom and also with Teams, the focus is always such that if the line becomes weak, the image quality is reduced in order to ensure communication is as fluid as possible. You may want that, but not for interviews, where you want the highest possible quality. That’s why I recommend the Riverside service. And the idea of Riverside is that you both open the Chrome browser and you have an interview partner who opens the Chrome browser with an invitation link. I have a Riverside and then Riverside records both the sound and the video signal locally. This means that if you have a full HD or even 4K camera, for example, this will not usually be transmitted to you in a team or in a Zoom call. A maximum of 720p is transmitted. As we have a lot of live streams, we now have a broadcast license from Zoom and can also do 1080p. However, this is only possible if you have business accounts from ten accounts upwards. Otherwise you get HD quality even with Zoom. If you think, oh, I’ll tick HD in the settings, I’ll tick HD in the Zoom settings and then people think, well, now we have Full HD. You don’t have full HD, you have HD, which is 720p. And if you have ten Zoom accounts there with the on-board broadcast license, then you can also do full HD. If you don’t have that, then you get 720p at most. For teams, it’s usually even worse.
That’s why you get Full HD at Riverside. That’s the quality I currently recommend, because you don’t usually need 4K. And even if you have two Full HD videos, for example, you can mount them together on a 4K video. You would still have a great resolution. And Riverside is like that, it’s like a video call. And then you can see the picture and the sound. The nice thing is, as an invitee, I can even see which camera, which person, which microphone they have and the guest dials in, taps there, I have Eco, so I listen with or without loudspeakers, and the background noise support is switched on or off accordingly. The nice thing is that I can also set this as an interview host, because the problem you often have with video interviews is that if someone hears the sound very loudly over the loudspeaker, the sound comes back into the microphone and there are such unpleasant audio noises. Now many people will say, I’ve never had that before. Yes, but that’s because the noise suppression of Teams or Zoom works so hard that the sound quality is also extremely low. That’s why you should always listen to the sound via headphones anyway, ideally via wired headphones, then you won’t have any time lag. And especially if you now have the Apple airports, for example, you like to pair with the phone when a call comes in. That’s why, if you want it to be wireless, I can recommend the second-generation Teufel Airys, for example. I have my Airpod Pros, which I’ve paired with my iPad and my iPhone, and I’ve only paired the Teufel Airy 2 with my Mac. This means that if I don’t want to work with my wired Schure in-ears, I can just listen wirelessly. However, I always have a slight latency on them, so wireless makes wireless, as Michael Nirwald used to say, whom I like to quote here as my cameraman editor. If at all possible, I use a tethered cable and the version I still like is the Sennheiser PC 7 USB. It’s a USB headset that you can plug in and you don’t need any software at all and it sounds so good. I’ve got a Rode VideoMic Pro here that I’m talking into and if you do a bit of post-processing, I use Audio Hijack on my Mac, then a USB headset with Sennheiser PC 7 USB sounds even better than some other microphones.
Yes, back to Riverside. With Riverside, you receive the recording locally and then the whole thing is uploaded during the interview. And then you get the individual tracks, sound and image, and you can even organize an edited version with three or four predefined layouts. Your conversation partner also has the option of sharing the screen. So you can work wonderfully with the solutions. I always do it again in such a way that I then cut the result together again via Camtasia. But you don’t necessarily have to. I always do it again and what I can always recommend is that I optimize the sound with Auphonic after recording all my audio and video recordings. In other words, I upload the audio or video file to Auphonic, and Auphonic then optimizes the sound again. For example, Auphonic compensates for different volume levels, balances out extreme highs and lows and eliminates background noise. You can really hear this and of course you can do all this manually using Audacity, for example. But this way it’s wonderfully automated and then I upload it accordingly, via Libsyn or, of course, via Vimeo for videos.
Conclusion
Yes, that or so much about my workflow. If you have any questions, just send me an email at t.jekel@jekelteam.de, that’s my email address, or just tap on it in the show notes, because you know that I help people to use technology simply and always in the simplest possible way.
And it’s really easy with Riverside. And I also think the condition structure of the system is very sensible.
Yes, on that note, I’m delighted that you joined us again. I wish you a productive week and look forward to seeing you again next week.
Yours, Thorsten Jekel
Also available in: Deutsch