Setting Up A Podcast Is Insanely Easy -- The RodeCaster Video S

0:00 Setting up a nicel looking podcast can feel a little bit intimidating.

0:03 So today we're going to build one from scratch and I'm

0:06 going to try to do it in like 5 minutes.

0:08 Fingers crossed cuz this is all pretty much live here.

0:11 I've got a list of things we're going

0:13 to talk about including how to set up multiple cameras,

0:16 switch between them super quickly.

0:18 How to set up a custom overlay, custom scene like this.

0:21 You can have multiple people on at once as well as a custom graphic background.

0:25 how to set up multiple microphones and have the cameras

0:28 automatically switch views based on who's talking at once.

0:33 That and a handful more things, including what I'm about to do right now,

0:36 which is play your custom animation at the beginning of your podcast, like this.

0:45 Let's start with the central device of this entire setup.

0:48 This is a brand new device that's come out today as of posting this video.

0:51 It's called the Roadcaster Video S.

0:53 And in my opinion, it's probably one of the simplest

0:56 ways and most professional ways to start a podcast.

0:59 It's important that you know that this device was

1:01 sent to me and I get to keep it.

1:03 But I'm not being paid for this video and Ro

1:05 doesn't get to see and approve it before I post it.

1:07 So, whatever level bias you want to call that, do what you will with it.

1:10 And I'm going to be talking more about this device

1:12 at the end of this whole setup segment here.

1:14 Now, the very first thing that I did in setting

1:16 this up was set up my cameras where I wanted them placed.

1:19 and I connected them into the back of this device where you

1:21 can see right around here we have inputs one, two, and three.

1:26 Those are all HDMI inputs.

1:27 So, I've got four different cameras that you can

1:29 see a little bit better from this camera angle.

1:31 One right there, [music] one above me, and one right here.

1:34 And on this device, we have four numbered buttons at the bottom.

1:38 1, two, and three are those inputs.

1:40 So, you can see here, I can switch back to this camera,

1:42 or if I hit one, it switches back to [music] this camera.

1:45 And then four is that fourth USB input you can

1:47 see right around here where you can actually connect another camera,

1:51 a capture card, a webcam, anything that you want through there.

1:54 These top buttons up here are all custom

1:57 buttons that allow you to set images like this one we were doing or even custom

2:01 scenes like this one we were looking at before.

2:04 So let's set up one of those.

2:08 You can see that in the top left corner here.

2:10 This is my Roadcaster Video S.

2:12 I didn't have to do anything to connect the two other than

2:14 connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network and it just shows up.

2:18 [music] And in here, we have something called a scene builder.

2:21 That's going to allow me to take my camera angles.

2:23 It's going to allow me to build a custom scene with multiple cameras.

2:26 And then I can even preview the entire podcast from inside the app wirelessly.

2:30 Let's go ahead and make a new scene in the Bspot right here.

2:36 We're going to hit custom, and the screen's going to go blank.

2:39 We're going to make this one a 50/50

2:41 split down the screen with two different camera angles.

2:44 So, let's go to the first source right here.

2:47 We're going to hit this button.

2:48 We're going to make it input one.

2:50 We're going to crop it and move it to the side.

3:00 Let's go ahead and center it and then finish filling out this crop here.

3:05 It gives you guides so you can see where the middle of the screen is.

3:08 And now let's add one more angle.

3:10 And this can be your other guest.

3:12 We'll make it camera three for another person angle here.

3:17 Let's go and crop this one halfway.

3:19 It snaps to the middle.

3:20 Drag it over.

3:23 And now we have a split screen view of these two camera angles.

3:25 And it'd be more interesting if there was a second person in here.

3:28 I should make more friends.

3:30 So now if I hit this button, hit the one button,

3:32 it's going to switch back to my one camera.

3:34 But if I'm going to hit this B button right here,

3:37 it's going to switch to that scene that I just made.

3:39 Now, if I wanted to make this a little bit more interesting,

3:41 have an animated background with borders, that's very easy to do.

3:44 Also, let's go ahead and crop these in a little bit.

3:52 Center it.

3:54 Let's just do it with this one.

3:56 You can see there's a rounded corner icon right there.

3:58 I'm just going to click and drag it to the right.

3:59 It's going to round these corners in.

4:01 We're going to add a border.

4:03 We're going to make it whatever color we want.

4:05 Let's go ahead and make it uh let's make this one green.

4:10 Let's make it a thicker border.

4:12 That border is going to apply to all of the sources in here.

4:15 And then we're going to add a background to go behind this camera on the left.

4:20 That's going to be media.

4:22 You can see I've got my media over here.

4:25 So, I'm going to call it senthi background.

4:28 And let's move this down to the bottom.

4:32 And there we go.

4:33 I wouldn't call this one looking great, but with a couple little tweaks.

4:37 Let's go and do the same thing to the right

4:39 side so it feels a little bit more even over here.

4:41 And here we go.

4:42 Here's our multiple guest scene that we've just made.

4:45 These top buttons up here also do other custom things.

4:48 And that's what these two buttons on the side of these buttons will control.

4:52 So if I hit this top one, this is for media.

4:55 And you can see it changes colors.

4:56 This is kind of a purplish color.

4:58 I don't know if that's showing through on camera.

4:59 And these buttons turn purple.

5:01 And you can see I've got two things here.

5:03 One is that intro background that I threw on there.

5:06 And then the other one is that intro that I showed in the beginning.

5:08 That's how I switch to my intro.

5:10 Let's talk about how to do that.

5:12 Over here in my software here, this is where the intro is stored.

5:15 And so if I click this little settings button,

5:17 it's going to allow me to adjust it

5:18 without switching to it on the podcast itself.

5:21 And I can either have it play once, I can have it play on an endless loop,

5:25 or I can have it play once and automatically switch to a scene afterwards.

5:30 I've got it set to switch to camera one.

5:32 Meaning, even if I'm on this scene here, if I play that intro,

5:38 which I'm going to do right now, it's going to switch to camera one.

5:41 I'll show you.

5:47 And it automatically goes back to camera one

5:49 instead of back to the one it was before.

5:50 That is incredibly useful for a smalltime podcast where you don't have

5:54 a dedicated person controlling the scenes and the person on camera is doing it.

5:58 The fewer buttons you have to press while you're also trying to be entertaining,

6:01 the easier it's going to be.

6:02 Let's jump to this other button down here.

6:04 Kind of like videos.

6:05 This is for pictures.

6:06 It's called overlays.

6:07 And this is where you can add images into it.

6:09 And in that same scene building software,

6:11 you can choose where they're going to display.

6:13 So over here, I actually have an image of the back of the Roadcaster video.

6:17 So I was able to show you that by hitting this button.

6:21 It turns it on and off.

6:23 But you can see on the back of this device,

6:24 we actually have two microphone inputs.

6:26 And I've got a second microphone right here that I'm going to plug

6:30 in and I'm going to show you how to get cameras to automatically switch.

6:33 Let's do that first.

6:34 Here in the software, we're going to go to auto switching.

6:37 And what we're going to do is we're going to take either

6:38 scenes or inputs and we're going to link them [music] to a microphone.

6:43 So, I'm going to take this camera angle, which is one,

6:46 and I'm going to link it to mic one.

6:49 It's called a combo jack.

6:50 That's why it's got the XLR and the quarterinch inputs.

6:53 So, combo one is this microphone right here.

6:56 Then we're going to go to input three, which is my camera over here.

7:00 And we're going to link that one to combo two,

7:03 which is this new road microphone that I plugged in here.

7:05 And we're going to hit the on button for both,

7:07 so they're both activated for auto switching.

7:10 Now, another thing I can do is I can make one a higher priority than the other.

7:14 That way, maybe this one is my guest, and I want them to be able to talk,

7:18 and I want to be able to say things like, "Uh-huh.

7:20 Oh, interesting." without it automatically cutting to me.

7:23 I would make my guest a high priority and I would make myself a low priority.

7:27 So it only switches to me if I start talking for a longer period of time.

7:33 For now, let's make them both medium so you can see how it works.

7:36 [music] And then on this device here, I'm going to hold the auto button.

7:41 The light turns blue and it automatically switches

7:43 to my camera angle because I'm talking into this microphone.

7:46 But if I move it further away, if I talk into this microphone,

7:51 it's going to switch to this camera angle

7:53 because this camera and this microphone are linked.

7:58 And then I go back to this microphone and it switches back to here.

8:01 But if I hit any of these buttons on here, manually switching scenes,

8:04 you can see the auto button turns back

8:06 to white and auto switching automatically turns off.

8:08 [music] I'm back to manual mode.

8:10 Now, if two microphones isn't enough for you, you can expand it.

8:13 If you were to take a Roadcaster Pro 2 or the Roadcaster Duo,

8:17 you can go out of the second USB port and go into uh again,

8:24 this one right here, the four right there.

8:26 That's your expansion port.

8:28 Or if three cameras isn't enough for you,

8:30 you can connect something like a Cam Link and plug in a fourth HDMI port,

8:36 a fourth camera into there, and you have four capture cards now,

8:39 making this thing super expandable and and versatile

8:42 for starting a podcast on easy [music] mode.

8:45 And that's it.

8:46 That is the entire podcast properly [music] edited on the fly.

8:50 That's the most important stuff.

8:51 I have a feeling we did not make it under 5 minutes and I formally apologize.

8:56 But let me go back to my office and let's talk about the Roadcaster

8:59 Video S and my thoughts on this after going through this entire process.

9:03 So, I really like this device.

9:04 This is the Roadcaster Video S.

9:06 It's the smaller version of the Roadcaster Video that came out last year.

9:10 These two are essentially the same thing except

9:13 the original one has an extra USB port, an extra HDMI out, an extra HDMI in.

9:19 Basically, it's it's bigger, more buttons, more ports,

9:22 but same exact video quality between the two.

9:25 Same exact capabilities, same features.

9:27 It's important to know what this is, though,

9:30 because it got criticized originally for being

9:33 compared to the Blackmagic A10 Pro, which is an HDMI switcher.

9:38 You plug in multiple cameras and you switch between which one is

9:41 being shown at the time with some other features like picturein picture, etc.

9:45 This is a bit more than that.

9:47 This is an HDMI switcher plus a professional mixer because it's

9:52 got all the hardware of the Roadcaster Pro, the audio mixer,

9:56 and it's got basically a PC built into it for some more

10:00 professional things like the scene building

10:02 that you saw for professional keying, uh, professional audio mixing.

10:06 So, it's kind of a a threein- one, a video, audio, and PC allin-one device.

10:11 The main complaint of the original Roadcaster Video was that it didn't do 4K.

10:16 you were limited to 1080p and this was $1,200.

10:20 That's not really an entry-level price.

10:22 The people who are willing to pay $1,200 for a piece

10:24 of gear are going to be the people that want 4K.

10:27 And I understand that complaint,

10:30 but I also understand that that was a machine that had four

10:34 capture cards built into it and two uh XLR inputs with full

10:38 audio mixing suite built into it and a full PC built

10:41 into it that could record every single input at the same time.

10:45 and [music] adding 4K to that processing power

10:48 would have made it much more expensive than $1,200.

10:52 So, it kind of landed in this weird middle ground

10:54 where it was not high enough spec at only 1080p.

10:58 It was it was kind of kneecapped for the pros, but at $1,200,

11:02 it was too expensive for the entry-level people,

11:04 and it was in this weird middle ground.

11:07 They had two options for releasing the next generation.

11:10 They can either beef up the specs, make it 4K and release a higherend version,

11:14 or they can lower the price, which they did, down to $500.

11:21 And all this is is one less HDMI in, one less HDMI out,

11:26 one less USB port, and fewer buttons.

11:30 The rest is exactly the same.

11:32 Okay, no SD card and also no speaker monitor outs,

11:36 but essentially the exact same device with the exact

11:39 same capabilities for less than half the price.

11:41 You're just missing some I/IO.

11:43 So, I am a big fan of this device.

11:45 Every time I look at it and sit down,

11:47 I think it's going to be way more complicated than it

11:48 is and then takes me 10 minutes to set everything up.

11:52 It's probably the best, simplest,

11:54 and most costefficient way of starting a podcast.

11:58 It's only $500 plus the cost of mics plus the cost of cameras.

12:03 But if we're being real here, it's probably a good thing that there's

12:07 still some financial barrier to starting a podcast.

12:11 We all know someone that would start a podcast

12:13 if it was free that probably shouldn't start a podcast.

12:17 So road, don't make your next one cheaper.

12:22 Just add 4K to the next one.

12:25 You're crushing it.

12:26 Happy streaming.