Sam Sethi: 0:12

Hello and welcome back to Podnews Weekly. I'm joined today by Kendall Brightman. Kendall is the community manager for Riverside Riverside's the very cool recording tool that most people use for their podcast. Maybe they do it for audio now they do it for video. Kendall, Hello, how are you?

Kendall Brietman: 0:29

Hey, I'm great. Thanks so much for having me.

Sam Sethi: 0:31

Oh, it's a pleasure. Now, look, Kendall, exciting news. Riverside's launched a new version. Give me the highlights. What is the new version of Riverside?

Kendall Brietman: 0:41

So, yeah, we launched our conversation studio. So that includes two different pillars. That's live streaming capabilities and that's editing. And actually, I'm going to add a third because we're going to be adding mobile editing as well. So whether that's live streaming, we're going to be adding a bunch of new features, including streaming in full HD, branding your studio having omni chat so you can chat with everybody all at one time across platforms. And then as far as editing, we're going to be having multitrack editing, being able to create your own layouts, use AI to create the layouts for you. I'll still customizable, so that's just kind of a few of those features. We have royalty free music overlays, so we really draft a bunch of new features that are going to make Riverside much more of an end to end recording editing solution for our users.

Sam Sethi: 1:33

Cool. Let's start off with then. So in the area of editing, you've added multitrack. Tell me more.

Kendall Brietman: 1:38

Riverside has always had the ability and it's one of our very strong suits, is having those separate high quality tracks. But up until now, when you went to the editor, you were able to edit it as one track. What we're doing is we're making it possible for within the Riverside editor to go into each individual track and isolate different parts of the audio. For example, that could be cross talk. So you can go in and mute somebody individually. You can also we're going to be introducing a magic mute API. So, you know, when you're talking sometimes and then the other person is not speaking, but maybe they have a fan whirring in the background, maybe they types a little bit. What it'll be able to do is isolate the moments that they're not speaking and mute them so you're able to get the crisscross sound. As far as multitrack editing, also, you're able to volume control, but with multi-track editing with video, that means that you're able to control layout. So I'm able to show myself full screen, bring you on. I'm able to change the background and really customize and make the most engaging videos, because what we find is a lot of the time when you're doing a long form podcast, especially if it's a video podcast, having that side by side of you the entire time you want to create something more engaging. And so yeah.

Sam Sethi: 2:53

Two talking heads is never exciting.

Kendall Brietman: 2:55

Exactly. And so what we're doing is we're trying to give our users the tools to be able to create those more engaging videos because then they're able to bring in more people, bring in a higher audience and keep them there.

Sam Sethi: 3:08

You've also added live streaming, so what have you done there?

Kendall Brietman: 3:12

Yeah, so livestreaming, we've had the capability to do live streaming and I find that for some podcasters, video creators, live streaming feels like this kind of next step for them. Maybe if they're not doing it yet, that's something that they want to do in the future, but maybe might be a little bit afraid of because, you know, when you're live, it's live, right? So there's not really any way to edit anything out. But what we're trying to do is open that up for more people and give more of them that opportunity. So what we first of all did is we made livestreaming a lot easier. So just a few clicks and you're able to multi stream across different platforms. We're also speaking of different platforms adding omni chat. So you're able to see all of your chats in one place. And a little favorite of mine is that you can actually click on one of them on any of the chats and bring it up onscreen so you can really again create that kind of engaging live stream. But the big ones are that we're able to livestream in full HD and that you can fully brand your studio to really give your audience anyone tuning in this really custom kind of experience when they come to see your live stream. So those are the top lines. We're also adding lower thirds. We're also adding these customizable speaker names as part of studio branding. So really, again, trying to help you create more engaging content, whether that's in your recorded content or your live content.

Sam Sethi: 4:34

It's good timing because I've always used streaming art for that sort of functionality and they've been very good at creating that off stage. On stage to screen one screen bring up the ability to show slides and then have omni channel, but they've been bought by somebody and again, they've just disappeared off the planet. And I think CEO, from what I've understood, is left. So not a product that I think is going to see the light of day. So perfect timing. What end points do you allow live streaming to link ten an where else? Facebook? I guess

Kendall Brietman: 5:07

I believe that there's also Twitch. So we have LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube Twitch. I believe Tik Tok is on there. So yeah, you're going to be able to Instagram go across for pretty much any channel that you want to livestream too.

Sam Sethi: 5:24

Can I also add in custom as well? The use case would be, for example, I just want to get the URL of a live feed. So I just want that URL that I want to be able to hand out. So I don't want you to go into Instagram or Twitter or whatever.

Kendall Brietman: 5:41

So you can do that right through Riverside. So for example, when I do my webinars now I have a studio that I call Riverside webinars. So it's Riverside Data offers Riverside webinars. And what that is able to do is you can create one audience link and so you can automate that and I can use that any time that I'm doing a webinar. So that way people are able to join and they can go right into Riverside. And because of the studio branding, get that full customizable experience, I can effect change. Yeah, exactly what I want them to see.

Sam Sethi: 6:11

everyone's talking about it. I apelin intelligence, ally, whatever you want to call it, I call it assisted intelligence. And that to me puts AI into its perfect box. It's a tool to help me is not at all to replace me yet one day. But in that sense too, you've added some new AI tools to Riverside. What have you done?

Kendall Brietman: 6:33

Yeah. So I would say that I fully agree with you on that, but I think that what I really love about the AI features that we're implementing is that they are all there to guide you, but they also are for the most part, all customizable. So for example, you're now able to, as I mentioned, put out those layouts and create your own custom layouts. But we also offer a tool, smart scenes, that you're going to be able to set the parameters of what you'd like, and I will choose those layouts for you. So maybe at one point it'll show a grid, maybe at one point or so full screen. But the key here is that you're going to be able to go in and change those. So if I don't like something, I can go in and tweak it. So as you're talking about assisting, not replacing, we also are coming out with a really cool tool called Video Dub. You have transcript editing within Riverside. So what you're going to be able to do is correct your transcript and we're going to be able to have your lips and audio sync to that correction. So let's say that you gave a statistic and you want to update your episode. You can go in and change that number and you'll be able to see that reflected on my lips and my voice. But a really important thing that I want to mention here is that you're able to do it for the host and that no one else can go in and use your voice and your audio and your video. So for the protection, you're not able to do it for your guests. So it's really we're trying to make it so that you're not putting words quite literally in anyone else's mouth. So you're able to just really have that full control as a host, but no one else can access that. And so you're able to take full advantage of it while still feeling that protection.

Sam Sethi: 8:06

So all these tools are great, right? But they're quite complex. I mean, how do you make them simple enough for the non-technical? One of my favorite products is Canva, because I struggle for a billion years to get Photoshop. I just gave up, right? It was just never going to work for me. And along came Canva and for me. He just wants to create some social media posts, maybe a couple of posters, occasionally some graphic artwork. It's perfect, and the tools assist me with a combination of simple templates. Are they AI? Is that what Riverside's trying to do as well? Who do you think the audience is now for Riverside? Is it just the mainstream podcast or are you aiming for extremely high end production? Where are you in the cycle?

Kendall Brietman: 8:51

Well, as a community manager, I think that's what kind of is beautiful about this community, is that we really run that whole spectrum. So we have people that are huge audio nerds, like they really want those high quality tracks and that's why they're using Riverside. So we have those kind of Pro-level users that are using Riverside because they're able to get such high quality. But then we don't want to make high quality unapproachable. I mean, it's in Riverside's DNA that we want podcasting and content creation to be accessible. I like the idea of having a studio in your home, right? That's rooted in that accessibility. Anyone now can be able to create a podcast. They don't need that Pro-level But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be able to get pro-level content. So what I would say is that we're keeping it high level, but we are also making sure that all of it is approachable. So within our editor it's all really intuitive. People are able to go in and they're pretty surprised with the ease of dragging and dropping copy and pasting. So we try to make it as approachable and user friendly as possible and we're not sacrificing the high quality. And we also are creating, for example, our mobile editor. So we're going to be introducing a mobile editor. And so when we're doing that, we want to keep that high quality that you're getting with the browser, with the Mac app, but make it as easy as possible for people to do so. For example, you can edit the transcript just by tapping on each word and deleting, but what you're getting at the end is still this high quality product. So I would say that it really runs the spectrum between the people that are DIY kind of starting out and they're still able to use it. And then the people that are like, I need to be recording on Riverside because I'm getting these really high quality files that I need as a pro.

Sam Sethi: 10:35

tell me more about the clipping part.

Kendall Brietman: 10:36

so you're able to create clips with within your recordings, so you're able to go into the editor and create your own clips, but you're also able to use our magic clips, which is our AI tool that identifies the most engaging parts of your conversation and clips them for you. But the cool part also is that again, customizable. So let's say that I got a clip, but you want to start a little bit earlier. You want to put one of the lines actually in the beginning to grab of the audience's attention. You're able to really customize all of those clips. And then beyond that, when I'm talking clips, I mean that you can just press a button and change it from 16 by 9 to 9 by 16 to 1 by one super easily. You can add animated captions, customize those with your brand colors if you want to do that. So really, as far as promotion, we're trying to make it as easy as possible for people to be able to clip that up and put it out. So going from production to post-production to published promotion.

Sam Sethi: 11:32

is all of this now available? So if I want to do you know use any of these tools, is it all available or do I have to wait for some of it to still come out?

Kendall Brietman: 11:39

So we're going to have to wait for some of it, but we already have some of our live streaming capabilities already out. But you're going to see a lot of the tools I mentioned, like the multitrack editing video dub, our royalty free music library, mobile editing. I mean, the list goes on. So you will be able to see all that coming out pretty soon. We're going to be announcing it on our social media and an email. So just keep an eye out for everything that's coming because there is a lot and it is all super exciting for and creation for podcasters.

Sam Sethi: 12:10

If I wanted to go online to read more about it, where would I go?

Kendall Brietman: 12:13

You can go right on to riverside. fm. There's also riverside. fm/june-in June, dash in and you can watch the live event where we go through all of the features. And then if you just want to keep a lookout for all of the features that we're rolling out, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, anywhere where you like to get your podcasting news, because we're going to be announcing it all there as well.

Sam Sethi: 12:35

Amazing. Kendall, thank you so much.

Kendall Brietman: 12:37

Thank you.