Josh Divney: 0:12

and I'm Josh Disney content lead a podcast Discovery marketing agency podcast here in the UK. And later on we'll be talking about the new virtual studio we've created to help remote podcasts look great.

James Cridland: 0:24

So what is podcast discovery? First of all?

Josh Divney: 0:27

Podcast Recovery is a UK marketing agency for podcasts, helping great podcast get discovered. At least it's easier if they're great and it was set up by Matt Deegan and Matt Hill, who had too much spare time on their hands. So they thought, let's provide a marketing solution for podcasts here in the UK.

James Cridland: 0:47

Yeah, and I think one of the things that we see an awful lot is an awful lot of podcast marketing companies from the US where you, you obviously need quite a lot, but the UK is a little bit different, I think. So which are some of the big shows that you have worked with in the past?

Josh Divney: 1:05

So we work with parts of the UK, which shares Nish Kumar and Coco Khan's Politics podcast, a spinoff of Pod Save America, which is a crooked media podcast

James Cridland: 1:16

Hmm,

Josh Divney: 1:16

and very big over there. we worked with Perdomo on their sort of UK installation and efforts, and we work with The Economist on some of their new releases and a whole array of podcasts, new and some ongoing always on podcasts.

James Cridland: 1:33

very cool. So this week you launched something called the podcast Discovery Virtual Studio. What is a virtual studio? Josh

Josh Divney: 1:43

What indeed? So this was an idea we had about a year ago, at podcast discovery we have something called podcast RECs, which has a website and different facets as content lead the bit. I look after are our social channels where we aggregate great podcast content video with a view of getting people to listen to that podcast. So similar to what politics Joe does for politics we do for podcasts and what became apparent really quickly in the podcast we were choosing to clip and publish is that regardless of the contents and the hosts and what's actually being said, the raw video quality matters massively. We saw that videos were twice as likely to go viral if they were filmed professionally rather than on a webcam. So I wanted to think of a solution that fixed remote webcam podcast recordings and made them look more professional to get over this hurdle. So the virtual studio is our idea to deal with that, and it sort of comes in two large parts. The first is to boost the video quality that is happening on the remote recording. So we have box kits that we send out to contributors. These can be regular contributors or remote sort of one offs. there's a very clear instruction manual that helps you set up a home record system and that can slot into any existing production process that you have, whatever it should be. We can work with you on that. And essentially it's a nice camera, some great lights, a good green screen. That means that if you put your arms beyond it, your arm doesn't disappear. We don't want disappearing limbs, so we like to make the video quality look as good as possible. And our aim is to do that in a box kit that simply goes out to the contributor. We log on with them remotely or can go as a personal install, get it set up for them, make it look great so that no other video production expertise is required. Then they have good looking video. The next problem was backgrounds can be messy. They can be different, they can be unreliable. Mostly they lack a sort of visual identity for the podcast, which when we build studios in the real world, we like to try and incorporate a visual identity that will at least take you back in some way to the podcast square. So

James Cridland: 4:07

Hmm.

Josh Divney: 4:07

if you see a social video on TikTok of you swiping through, we want people to be able to at least recognise the logo or the hosts on that podcast square as it is on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever. So we wanted to fix the backgrounds. So we do that with the green screen primarily, and then that's where the virtual studio becomes very virtual because we built for our friends, the retrospective is a 3D environment, so the joy of this is that we can put cameras at any angle in any location. We can modify it totally.

James Cridland: 4:45

yeah, and it looks absolutely fascinating and really, really smart. There's obviously a video on the Pod news website as well, so the two bits that you're doing, firstly, I'm just sort of curious about the studio in a box thing or the video studio in a box. One of the problems that you're trying to get over by sending out, you know, a decent camera and a decent green screen, is it is it lighting? Is the lighting bad? Is the is are the cameras that people use just the the webcams in their you in their laptops? What what's the issues that you're trying to get over there.

Josh Divney: 5:22

The biggest issue is always lighting an absolutely terrible camera can look quite good with a well-lit scene. So that's where about probably 80% of the efforts go is lighting things correctly. And often that would mean turning off the domestic lights in your room, which is something a lot of people don't realise. But it causes glare, it causes a nightmare lighting green screens. So we like the green screen correctly and we like the person correctly. We then do in our case recommend having quite a fancy camera as well. The sensors in webcams are quite poor, especially in low light conditions and in terms of

James Cridland: 6:01

Mm hmm.

Josh Divney: 6:02

like sort of dynamic range. And one of the joys about the camera we recommend is that we are able to log on remotely and control this camera's attributes. So if your contributor, for instance, has no idea about aperture priority or depth of field or focus, we can log on remotely and adjust that camera without being physically there. So we do recommend that as well as part of the kit.

James Cridland: 6:27

That's very cool. That's very smart. And will you help? You said that you would help set up these cameras and things as well. So I guess if somebody is doing a long term show from their house or whatever, then you would actually go and set that up for them.

Josh Divney: 6:42

Yeah, exactly. We're very happy to do that location dependent, of course, but yeah, it does help to physically be there and to show people what to do. But we do hope that our instructions for people who are self installing are very clear. And it's not a case of just getting an Amazon delivery delivered to that address.

James Cridland: 7:04

Mm

Josh Divney: 7:05

For instance,

James Cridland: 7:05

hmm.

Josh Divney: 7:06

we adapt light stands so that the heights are correct and there are markings on them and things like that. So we receive all the kit beforehand, put it together in a way that is easier to assemble for that contributor than just receiving a bundle of boxes the day before the record.

James Cridland: 7:21

Interesting stuff. And do you also send a microphone out as well?

Josh Divney: 7:25

So what we found with some of the clients that we're talking to is they're very specific about their own microphone. Sometimes we're talking to brand new clients who want to use the microphone that they manufacture. we have recommendations for microphones, particularly, we recommend podcast arms more than microphones, Elgato does a fantastic ARM, which is low profile, leaves the desk and keeps faces clear. So no specific recommendation for microphones.

James Cridland: 7:54

Yeah, that's that's interesting. One of the recommendations I've seen other people make is to use side address microphones rather than end address ones mainly so that your face is actually visible in the in the camera. Is that something that you would you would, try and ensure that you can actually see some of his face?

Josh Divney: 8:15

That's yeah, t totally the main thing. So it's the someone's face is we take a lot of other action from what gamers are doing, which

James Cridland: 8:24

Mm hmm.

Josh Divney: 8:24

I'm sure makes some people cringe and I apologize for that. My background is in YouTube, so I think there's a lot to be learnt from YouTube rather than vice versa. And they often have a very low profile microphone arm angled up at the mouth. So the face is entirely clear. To be honest. The slightly dressed microphone works great as well, but we just want the face to be visible. That is the main thing.

James Cridland: 8:46

the 3D studio, which you will help build, that's something that you need to, I guess, understand what the podcast is about and actually work with those people to, to get what you put behind you know, each individual guest I guess.

Josh Divney: 9:05

Yeah, absolutely. So that's something we worked with when we did our sort of proof of concept with the retrospectives. We thought about themes, the show branding they wanted to include and the joy is that it's very, very easy to adapt these sets. It's not a case of, for instance, when we helped design the Pod Save the UK studio adaptation,

James Cridland: 9:31

Hmm.

Josh Divney: 9:31

you have to get things printed off and maybe they're not as bright as they looked in your renders. And then you have to wait three weeks for the design to be made and delivered.

James Cridland: 9:42

Hmm.

Josh Divney: 9:42

It's the collaboration is much easier on these 3D studios because you can pop in a poster within a matter of minutes. You can see the effect, you can change your position very easily. So it's very easy to collaborate with clients and it's an important part of making sure they're happy with the space.

James Cridland: 9:57

Yeah. Yeah. And it looks very, very smart. I mean, the one that you have done where you are in front of of a large, expansive studio, you know, it looks it looks, you know, 100% as if it's there, which is a very smart thing. But I guess quite a lot of this is all about branding as well.

Josh Divney: 10:15

Exactly. Yeah. So we look at sort of two things, which is a general look and feel. So you're talking about lighting colours, the sort of atmosphere you want to create. Is this something that's filmed up in an attic? Is it something that wants to be looked like, an attic, look like a TV studio?

James Cridland: 10:34

Mm.

Josh Divney: 10:34

And branding is very interesting because a lot of people who build studios at the minute make a beautiful looking studio with fantastic branding and it looks great. As soon as you crop that vertically for Tik-tok, you lose almost all identity

James Cridland: 10:50

Uh,

Josh Divney: 10:50

in some instances.

James Cridland: 10:52

yes.

Josh Divney: 10:52

So it's something we spend quite a lot of time working on is okay, studio looks great. What does it look like when we put a vertical crop on the video? Have lost all the beautiful logos. Is there a little logo on display? What colours on display? So we think an awful lot about how it will look on social media once it's out there on Tik Tok and YouTube shorts and reels.

James Cridland: 11:12

Yeah, very cool. So if somebody wants to find out more about the podcast Discovery, Virtual Studio, whereabouts would they go?

Josh Divney: 11:19

So there's a wonderful explainer video on produce dot net as well as podcast discovery dot com forward slash services where you can find out more about how we build the 3D studio is and exactly what's involved.

James Cridland: 11:31

that's very cool. And you mentioned podcast Rex earlier. That's Rex as in Tyrannosaurus Rex, as in a small dinosaur or a large dinosaur, I guess,

Josh Divney: 11:40

Yes,

James Cridland: 11:41

which is a good website. If you want to learn more about some of the big shows coming out both in the UK and in the U.S. as well. And that's podcast Rex dot com.

Josh Divney: 11:52

i is indeed.

James Cridland: 11:53

Excellent. Well there we are. Josh It's been a great pleasure and good to get to talk again. Thanks so much.

Josh Divney: 11:58

brilliant. Thank you, James.