Recording video interviews is a lot harder than it sounds. The
ability to record good quality video during a one to one, at a distance
video conference call is essential in this day and age when people
can’t always be physically present at your location but it’s not simple.
Recording both video streams at each end, with in synch audio
and the ability to splice the two video recordings in to one has been a
tough goal for almost any company out there.
Over
a year ago I wrote in fact an article publicly invoking a video
interview recorder as the need for such a tool kept
increasing among online independent publishers, but no technology
provided an easy
way to record video conference calls with enough quality and
without significant technical troubles.
Until now.
A terrific feature for bloggers and online
interviews, the technology to online video interviews
while recording them is finally here for you to use.
Sightspeed Responded To The Need
Sightspeed,
the videoconferencing
company behind one of the best and most successful real-time
collaboration tools
out there, has finally listened and quietly released a new version of
its conferencing software which now integrates a fully-featured video
interview recorder and splicer.
This is more than just a dream come true.
The Sightspeed video recorder can capture any of your online video
interviews and record them in separate high-quality AVI
video streams.
All this while offering the ability to convert your
original recording into either FLV or MPEG video
file formats,
and a dedicated facility that automatically splices your separate
recorded video streams into one master video that can be easily
published online.
Here are the details:
If
you have not heard about this technology before,
what you should know is that Sightspeed ver. 6 is a cross-platform
video conferencing platform that allows you to have one-on-one or
multi-party
video conferencing calls (up to four people) for as little as
4.95 month.
Here are my
past reviews
of this excellent video conferencing technology.
SightSpeed
works across PC
and Mac operating systems via a downloadable application.
It’s key
standard features already include free one-on-one video conferencing,
free PC-to-PC (Macs included), calls to regular landlines and mobile
phones at low rates, text chat, personalized web page that your readers
can use to video-call you, contact list, video blog
message recording and more.
Not bad, considering that all of the above features are
accessible
to everyone at absolutely zero cost. Just sign-up, download the
software and you are ready to go.
New Features
But here the real news is for Sightspeed super cool new feature
which
allows you to record video conferencing calls. All of the issues about
audio recording at both sides and how to sync separate recordings have
all been taken care of by Sightspeed excellent engineering and product
development team.
As
if they had religiously read my original call for an online video
interview recorder,
the SightSpeed guys did it again in being the first in bringing to the
market something that is not only cool and cutting-edge but which is
also highly useful and immediately applicable to a number of
professional needs.
For however simple it may appear to you to have an additional
recording button on top of a video conferencing dashboard, the reality
is that PC Windows audio idiosyncrasies had made live
video conference recording prohibitive for almost everyone until today;
The need to record in the
highest possible quality both the local and the remote video, as well
as the one of then being able to splice these separate recording files
together again while preserving good sync between them got in the way.
Yes, there were tools and ways to get around the existing
limits (Flashmeeting
offered one, and Camtasia
could be used for recording any video conferencing screen), but setting
this up was a nightmare and, for what I have seen with my eyes, the
results were always quite unimpressive.
Until…. Sightspeed came to the rescue.
SightSpeed New Recording Feature
The new SightSpeed Call Recording feature records all types of
live
calls – one-to-one voice and video calls, multi-party conference calls,
as well as Phone Out and Phone In calls.
Usability-wise, recording a video conference call is a
no-brainer.
You just press the red record button and you are done. Recordings are
safely and automatically stored inside a dedicated SightSpeed
Recordings folder you will find inside your documents area.
All of the original recorded video conference calls are stored
on your computer as AVI
files to preserve the best quality possible.
The nice thing is that Sightspeed creates an AVI file for each
one
of the recorded audio-video streams. That’s right, after recording an
online video interview with SightSpeed you will find two separate AVI
files inside the SightSpeed recordings folder.
In this way Sightspeed
can preserve the highest audio and video quality possible for each
stream while preserving maximum flexibility for editing and working
with the raw recordings.
In summary:
* Choose what you want to record
– remote video and voice, local video and voice, or both.
* Record also PC-to-PC voice calls
(works with Macs too).
* Record and playback
one-to-one or Multi-Party video calls.
* Record separate AVI files for each
audio-video stream.
Keep in mind that this call recording is available only if you
sign-up for a PRO
Plan
account, which starts at $4.95 month. Since with this plan you get
unlimited video conference calls and recordings I deem the price an
absolute bargain for what you get in return.
Only one question remains open: how do you splice together the
separate video recording files Sightspeed has recorded for you?
Read on to find out.
The SightSpeed Call Recording Exporter
“But how do you then splice together the separate
video recording files while keeping them in sync?“
In its latest release SightSpeed has now integrated a
super-cool
facility (not so much in terms of interface design but in terms of
innovation and usefulness) which allows the following:
Automatic splicing and syncing
of your
original video recording files.
Encoding into FLV or MPEG video
file
formats.
Choice of video layout (side by
side,
picture in picture, etc).
Choice of what audio and video channels to
include.
Audio sync fine tuning
control.
Option to output only audio to
WAV or MP3
formats.
Controls on aspect ratio, video size and quality.
Video Interview Example Recording
Here an example of a short test interview
(we were just improvising) I recorded with SightSpeed a few hours ago
with BlaxWan, the home-made
build-your-own hi-tech device guru.
I assembled, spliced and synched this with the Sightspeed Call
Recording Exporter. The final FLV file that was created, was simply
uploaded to Blip.tv (below) “as is”.
Video Message Recorder
I also remind you that with free basic edition of SightSpeed,
you have a full
video message recorder
that you can use to record news or marketing messages at absolutely
zero cost.
The only limit is a 180-seconds maximum duration for these. If
you want more, you need to go Premium at 4.95/month.
Here above is a short video clip I have just recorded to show
you
how simple it is to record video messages and post them inside your own
blog. It literally takes the time to say what you need to say and the
additional time that a copy and paste operation may require.
Here below you can in fact see the snippet of code that you
are
given at the end of your recording and which you need to copy and paste
inside your select web page.
System Requirements
Pricing
Sightspeed is available to use for free for basic video calling and video recording, but for live online video interview recording you will need the SightSpeed Pro Plan which costs $4.95 a month.
Download
Learn More
How to create a Video Mail in SightSpeed
Two great 1-minute clips from the
Peter Zottolo,
the SightSpeed guy, giving you a perfect demonstration of how easy it
is to record a video message.
How to make a call in Sightspeed
SightSpeed Review Summary
If you have been looking for an online video interview
recorder
allowing you to videoconference with someone else at a distance while
recording a high-quality publishable clip, your search is over.
For USD 4.95 a month you can get a full video-conferencing
package
that includes this new powerful video interview recording feature. Even
without it, Sightspeed is worth every cent of its monthly fee thanks to
its high-quality multi-party video conferencing facility with
integrated text chat and free video blog message recording feature.
Sightspeed records separate AVI files for each stream in a
conference and then provides a unique splicing and synchronizing tool
that encodes your recordings into your preferred video or audio-only
format for online distribution.
For anyone interested in online video interviews this is
definitely
the first official technology solution that is both reliable, good
quality and affordable.
Originally written by Robin Good for Master New Media
and entitled: “The
Online Video Interview Recorder Is Here: SightSpeed 6 Review” on September 17th 2007. Some Rights Reserved.
Disclosure: Robin Good is not associated with
SightSpeed in any
way and does not receive commissions or other tangible returns for the
writing of this or any other review article. There were also no
contacts between Robin Good and SightSpeed during the writing of this
review and there was no request from SightSpeed to write or even
evaluate the features of its tool here reviewed.
